REPORT OF THE FOREST COMMISSION. 7 



and we had as many in earlier years. Fires due to brush burn- 

 ing have been reduced to 7 per cent of the total, largely through 

 vigorous enforcement of the permit law. (There were 5,240 per- 

 mits issued.) This is the same ratio as obtained in 1912 and is 

 a distinct gain in view of this year's increased hazard. The Com- 

 mission shares the State Firewarden's belief that this very com- 

 mon source of forest fires is rapidly being reduced to a point 

 which presents little serious difficulty. Smokers, hunters and 

 similar careless people are known to be responsible for 18 per 

 cent of the fires for which any cause is assignable, and probably 

 for most of those of unknown origin. Little can be done to 

 lessen these except through expensive patrol and education. 

 Beyond all question, the railroads are our principal cause of for- 

 est fires. The offending is not wilful, and all roads are not 

 equally culpable, but in the face of the facts that railroads 

 caused 45 per cent of all fires this year, that property owners are 

 complaining bitterly, and that neither fire lines nor the efforts 

 at co-operation which have been made have produced any im- 

 provement at all comparable with * that shown in connection 

 with other hazards, it is clearly the duty of the Commission to 

 provide some relief. See pp. 12, 46. 



Railroad Fire-Line Law: The act of 1909, 2 Comp. Stat. p. 

 2339, which gave the railroads power to reduce the fire danger 

 along their lines by providing for the construction -of wide fire 

 breaks on private property adjacent to the right-of-way, and 

 which has been contested in the courts since April, 1910, was on 

 June 18, 1913, declared unconstitutional by the Court of Errors 

 upon the ground that it appropriated private property without 

 compensation. Thus this effort to bring about co-operation be- 

 tween the railroads and neighboring forest owners for the pre- 

 vention of forest fires finally fails, insofar as its compulsory ap- 

 plication is concerned. Indirectly it has succeeded in that up- 

 wards of three hundred miles of fire lines have been built, mostly 

 through the voluntary action of the railroads and with consent 

 of the owners concerned. These have proven beyond all doubt 

 the value of such lines as an aid to fire control. From several 

 railroads the Commission has assurances that fire lines will be 

 maintained and extended wherever owners will give consent. 



