FOREST FIRES A NATIONAL PROBLEM 



679 



route in the morning and returning in the afternoon. 

 Since the machines travel at high rates of speed and 

 cover great distances, the maximum time any part of a 

 forest is under observation is roughly one-half hour 

 during each flight, or a total of one hour per day. There- 

 fore, for the remainder of the day there is no detection 

 system in operation should a fire break out. The experi- 

 ments made to date by the Forest Service indicate that 

 aerial patrol will, probably, never supplant the ordinary 

 means of fire detection now in common use. To the 

 extent that it proves valuable it will serve as an adjunct, 

 and under special conditions. 



Let us now turn to a brief consideration of the forest 

 fire losses of the whole United States, concerning which 

 some interesting as well as startling statistics have re- 



largely to the catastrophe of 1918, where, in addition to 

 growing timber destroyed and towns and settlers' homes 

 burned, nearly a thousand persons lost their lives by 

 fire or suffocation. 



A study of the figures which shows the acreage burned 

 over by States reveals some interesting facts. Here we 

 find six states, which have been been more or less back- 

 ward in forestry legislation, leading the list. According 

 to the records, Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, 

 Arkansas, and Alabama, in the order named, had a total 

 of no less than 48,783 forest fires in five years; Georgia 

 alone had over 20,000 fires. These burned over some 

 38,743,000 acres, or 56 per cent of the total fire-swept 

 area of the United States. The damage wrought amount- 

 ed to over 17% million dollars. Of these several States 



A BARREN, UNPRODUCTIVE WASTE 



It is appalling to think that eighty-one million acres of our country an area as large as the combined states of Ohio, Indiana 



and Illinois are an unproductive waste such as this. 



cently been compiled. Even a cursory glance at the fol- 

 lowing figures will show how great is the need of ade- 

 quate provisions for the safeguarding and renewal of 

 our forests, and of what vital importance this problem 

 is to the welfare of the nation. 



During the past five years, or from 1916 to 1920, in- 

 clusive, the total loss from forest fires in 45 states, in- 

 cluding National Forests, was more than $85,000,000. A 

 stretch of country considerably greater than that cov- 

 ered by all the New England States, or the State of Utah 

 in the West, was devastated by fire. To be exact, 56,- 

 488,000 acres were burned over. The total number 

 of forest fires during the five-year period was 160,000. 

 Minnesota, with total damage figures of $30,895,868, 

 leads all States in monetary loss. This, however, was due 



Louisiana alone has taken official cognizance of the forest 

 fire evil and has provided for a fire protection organi- 

 zation. The work of this organization has thus far con- 

 sisted largely in finding out the real extent of forest fire 

 damage. This activity doubtless accounts for Louisiana 

 leading all those States in the extent of its losses reported. 

 There is food for much thought in these data, especially 

 for the legislators, lumbermen, and citizens of all these 

 southern States. 



It is almost unbelievable that of the 160,000 fcrest 

 fires that have occurred in this country since 191 5, 80 

 per cent were caused by man, and were, therefore, pre- 

 ventable. Among the human agencies that were respon- 

 sible for the greater number of these fires may be listed 

 campers, railroads, brush burners, lumbermen, and in- 



