LOSSES BY FIRES IN PENNSYLVANIA IN THE YEAR 

 1896, SO FAR AS HEARD FROM. 



By the burning of the Capitol building on February 2d, the mass 

 of material which we had collected, at no little expense and labor, 

 bearing upon forest fires, as well as upon the quantity and kinds of 

 timber cut during the year 1896, were destroyed. But a few hours 

 before the fire Mr. Conklin and I had completed our estimates upon 

 data at hand. These lay on my table and were rescued. I make the 

 following very brief statement: 



Number of acres burned over in 1896, 178,982 



Quantity of timber burned, feet board measure,.... 121,752,322 

 Quantity of manufactured lumber burned, feet board 



measure, 7,391,080 



Cords of bark burned, 30,764 



Cost of suppressing forest fires, $21,269 00 



Total money value of actual property burned, f 557,056 00 



I desire to add that these figures are clearly below the actual facts; 

 because: First There was on the part of those who answered our 

 inquiries a very remarkable absence of anything which looked like 

 exaggeration. Second Many of those furnishing information made 

 no estimate of the value of the time spent by themselves and their 

 neighbors in extinguishing fires. Third In many instances there was 

 no estimate of the money lost by burning of young timber. Fourth 

 Because from many regions in which it is known there were serious 

 fires we were unable to obtain any replies to our inquiries. This is 

 the more a matter of regret because the information sought was 

 wholly in the interest of the sufferers. 



In the above estimate we have not included the destruction of 

 leaf mould and actual soil. These, as a matter of fact, exceed in value 

 the timber destroyed, because its restoration is exceedingly slow, and 

 without it reproduction of valuable timber often becomes very slow 

 and in some instances impossible. 



The state forests of New York, under fire warden protection, had 

 burned over in 1895 (a much drier season than 1896) one acre out of 

 347|, whereas Pennsylvania in 1.896, without fire wardens, had in its 

 woodland areas one acre out of 51 burned over. 



The second annual report of the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game 



