55 



and Forests (1896) for New York (page 07) is very explicit, and de- 

 clares that "ten years' experience in the matter has demonstrated 

 that the present law relating to the protection of our woodlands from 

 fire is a practical one. We have reason to believe that the wide- 

 spread and disastrous fires which threatened the existence of our for- 

 ests at one time will not recur. We expect that small burnings on 

 private lands will continue to occur, and so there remains the diffi- 

 cult task of regulating the use of fire by land owners on their own 

 property. In this work we are assisted by public sentiment in the 

 forest towns, due to the law which provides that each town must pay 

 half the expense of fighting and extinguishing woodland fires. There 

 has, accordingly, arisen in each town a sort of censorship on the part 

 of the citizens and taxpayers which acts as a deterrent in the care- 

 less use of fire by the thoughtless and ignorant members of the com- 

 munity." 



It may help to the comprehension of this State's actual loss by 

 fire if I were to add that the area burned over in 1896 was equal 

 to a strip of land one mile wide and 280 miles long, and that it would 

 require a wagon train of 112 miles in length to haul the bark so de- 

 stroyed. If the bark were ranked up four feet wide and four feet 

 high it would form a line almost 47 miles long. 



