FORESTRY COMMISSIONER 39 



The Hinckley forest fire, in which 418 persons perished, 

 occurred September ist, 1894. There was at that time 

 a law against setting forest fires, but there was no one 

 particularly required to have it enforced, If the present 

 law had been in force the Hinckley fire would not have 

 occurred. The law of 1895 made town supervisors fire 

 wardens. It provided for a chief, since changed to 

 Forestry Commissioner, whose duty was to instruct the 

 local wardens and keep them on the alert, provide them 

 with blanks on which to report fires and warning notices 

 to post against setting fires. He was also required to 

 investigate the forests, the means of regrowth and to make 

 an annual report containing information on forestry. Thus 

 he was and is more than a mere police officer. The State 

 pays the wardens for their actual services and collects 

 half from the counties in which the service was rendered. 

 The appropriation is extremely inadequate, being only 

 $5,000 for an ordinary season and $5,000 for a season of 

 unusual drought. Nevertheless, according to the reports 

 of wardens, the average damage done by forest fires the 

 past twelve years was only $30,000 a year. 



Many people think that a forest is a dense wilderness. 

 As a forest should only occupy third and fourth rate land 

 that is unsuited for cultivation, it naturally must be in 

 detached bodies. Take, for example, the so-called Black 

 Forest, lying partly in Baden and partly in Wurtemburg- 

 That forest extends over country 90 miles in length, with 

 an average breadth of 30 miles, yet within it are cultivated 

 farms, villages and even cities, and a population of 

 1,000,000, it abounds with fine roads and is practically a 

 fine park. 



A year or two ago I stood on a hill in my native town, 

 Hillsboro, N, H., from which I could see most of the sur- 



