THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



491 



FOEEST FIEES. 



The extent of the loss which the country sustains every year from injury to woodlands by fire is enormous. 

 An attempt was made to obtain, by means of circulars of inquiry addressed to enumerators of the census and 

 other persons living in every town of the United States, some estimate of the actual destruction of forest material 

 in this way. More than 30,000 of these circulars were sent out. The information obtained, often vague and 

 unsatisfactory, after a most critical examination, in which all doubtful or contradictory returns were entirely 

 thrown out, is presented in the following table and accompanying map. It must be borne in mind that estimates 

 based upon information obtained in this manner are liable to very considerable error, and due allowance must 

 therefore be made for inaccurate or incomplete returns. Many towns, and even counties, in which forest fires are 

 known to have occurred during the year 1880, made no returns whatever, and the returns of other counties were 

 excluded. It is therefore fair, perhaps, to assume that the following table, inaccurate and unsatisfactory as it 

 no doubt is in many respects, at least does not exaggerate the annual loss inflicted upon the country by forest 

 fires: 



TABLE OF FOREST FIRES OCCURRING DURING THE CENSUS YEAR. 



