STATE NEWS 



1495 



STATE NEWS 



NEW JERSEY 



pO-OPERATION along a new line be- 

 ^ tween the Forest Fire Service of the 

 New Jersey Department of Conservation 

 and Development and the State Highway 

 Commission has been entered into with a 

 view to decreasing the number of forest 

 fires originating from highway construction. 



The Forestry Department has provided a 

 leaflet entitled, "Forest Fire Prevention and 

 Highway Construction," which calls atten- 

 tion to the danger of using coal and wood 

 burning machinery under any conditions 

 and emphasizing the necessity for adequate 

 spark arrester equipment where these fuels 

 must be used. It urges a substitution of 

 oil fuel or gasoline power just as rapidly 

 and as universally as possible for all such 

 machinery. It emphasizes the need for in- 

 creased care in using fire for brush and 

 refuse disposal, points out the legal re- 

 quirements for such fires and makes sug- 

 gestions as to methods and times of the 

 work. It calls for greater emphasis by 

 those in charge on the necessity for 

 care by employes with smoking materials 

 in and near the woodland areas. The 

 pamphlet is illustrated with 10 cuts, featur- 

 ing the points particularly stressed in the 

 text. 



The State Highway Engineer will here- 

 after enclose one of the pamphlets when 

 sending specifications to all those bidding 

 on highway work for his Department. 

 Through the Highway Department the Fire 

 Service will also be enabled to reach a large 

 number of other contractors engaged in 

 this sort of work throughout the State. 



In addition, the State Highway Engineer 

 is supplying the State Firewarden with the 

 names of all those engaged in road con- 

 struction and through road inspectors in 

 the field is giving notice of the condition 

 of all steam machinery used on each job, 

 and particular notice of defective machin- 

 ery or carelessness on the part of the con- 

 tractor. This will permit the firewarden's 

 field force to personally interview the fore- 

 man in charge of each job where the work 

 is in or near the forested areas, and prompt- 

 ly deal with carelessness or indifference 

 where necessary. Both the publication and 

 subsequent personal interviews will point 

 out to the contractors that responsibility 

 rests with them for all forest fires result- 

 ing from any cause connected with their 

 work even though by accident, as is pro- 

 vided by the State fire law. They will also 

 be informed of the necessity for fire per- 

 mits for using open fires for any purpose 

 on the job and of where and how to obtain 

 these permits. 



Though the number of fires annually, 

 coming from these sources is not a large 



proportion of the total, and although they 

 are among the most preventable, yet where 

 carelessness or indifference on the part of 

 the contractor is found, they have been 

 among the most serious in several instances. 

 In his annual report, recently submitted 

 to the Governor, the State Firewarden of 

 New Jersey comments upon the fact that 

 of the 796 forest fires, large and small, 

 recorded during the calendar year 1918, re- 

 sponsibility for 432, or 54 per cent, was 

 fixed upon some individual, or agent. There 

 were also 59 cases involving technical vio- 

 lation of the fire permit law without en- 

 suing fires. The penalties collected during 

 the year, without reference to damage 

 claims, amounted to $2,956. Can any state 

 or section surpass this record of effective 

 fire law enforcement? 



NEW YORK 



(~)NE of the largest tracts of forest land 

 ever approved for purchase by the state 

 at a meeting of the Commissioners of the 

 Land Office was acted upon favorably re- 

 cently when the Conservation Commission's 

 recommendation to purchase the Santa 

 Clara Lumber Company's tract in Township 

 27, Franklin County, was approved. This 

 tract involves practically 18,000 acres of 

 wild forest land and comprises some of 

 the most scenically beautiful sections of the 

 whole Adirondack region, including the 

 whole of Mt. Seward and Mt. Seymour. As 

 soon as titles to the tract have been ap- 

 proved by the Attorney General's office this 

 valuable area will be added to the Forest 

 Preserve and be reserved for all time for 

 the benefit of the people. 



New York State will lead the nation in 

 intensive application of forestry to idle 

 lands, under plans now being formulated in 

 Otsego County. 



This county, whose hills and valleys, 

 lakes and streams formed the setting for 

 Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, is organ- 

 izing a system of county and township for- 

 ests, on the basis of a forest survey made 

 by the New York State College of Fores- 

 try at Syracuse. The plan is for each town- 

 ship to plant a forest of roughly 100 acres 

 as a starting point, the several forests to 

 be part of a county system, to be connected 

 up with highways to make them accessible 

 from all parts of the county, and all to be 

 in accordance with a general plan. The 

 township forest, however, will be the unit, 

 and it is hoped by the Otsego County Im- 

 provement Association to have plans so far 

 advanced that the first planting can be made 

 next spring. 



If this is done the New York State Col- 

 lege of Forestry at Syracuse will send for- 

 esters to direct the work, as preliminary 



surveys have already been made. The plan 

 is to plant at least four township forests 

 next spring, and increase the number by 

 planting others in the fall, until all the 

 twenty-four townships of the county will, 

 within a short time, be actually growing 

 trees for future generations. 



The townships will buy the land and 

 operate the forests but the organization 

 work is being done by the Otsego County 

 Improvement Association, which is just 

 completing a membership campaign to give 

 it $25,000 a year for the promotion of this 

 and three other general projects. 



This project is probably the first in 

 America for the planting and owning of a 

 communal forest for future economic re- 

 turns, and will be used by the New York 

 State College of Forestry at Syracuse as 

 a demonstration of the possibilities of for- 

 estry in New York State. 



"The future of the Adirondacks depends 

 upon the development of its hardwoods." 



This declaration by Prof. Edward F. Mc- 

 Carthy, of the New York State College of 

 Forestry at Syracuse, at the conclusion of 

 three months of work with a party of for- 

 esters in the western Adirondacks, is his 

 viewpoint upon the problem of forestry 

 in New York State, and his work has a 

 particular bearing upon the pulp and paper 

 industry. Prof. McCarthy was assisted by 

 Prof. H. C. Belyea, of the College of For- 

 estry, and with three assistants the two men 

 spent nearly three months in the Western 

 and Northern Adirondacks where they 

 maintained their camp. Considerable study 

 was made in other portions of the Adiron- 

 dacks, however, and important results were 

 attained in a study of the reproduction of 

 yellow birch. 



The study was devoted entirely to yellow 

 birch, which because of its present use to a 

 small extent in the paper industry, and be- 

 cause of its rapid growth offers a possible 

 solution for the threatening shortage of 

 pulp wood for New York's paper mill in- 

 vestments of many millions of dollars. The 

 study was to determine the value of yellow 

 birch in the future of the Adirondack for- 

 est, and the study extended to birch in all 

 types and conditions of forest growth. 



The importance of the study is shown by 

 the fact that the war census showed there 

 was only about 5,000,000 cords of soft wood 

 in private hands, the rest being in state 

 forests, not opened for cutting. This would 

 be a supply of only about five years for the 

 mills, if they were not importing in great 

 quantities from Canada to meet their needs. 



The importance of birch is not only for 

 its own use, if it can be so developed, but 

 particularly in its relation to other woods, 

 for it has always been a big factor, and 

 will continue to be, in reproduction of any 



