FORESTS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY 

 (3) A commoner type of pine forest, in bad condition through fire 



an open place more than 200 feet away 

 from the woodland, or in the more set- 

 tled sections of the state where there 

 are no wardens. This provision is 

 steadily reducing the proportion of for- 

 est fires due to reckless burning. Third, 

 as a means of controlling or prevent- 

 ing forest fires started from the rail- 

 roads, each railroad in the state is re- 

 quired to construct and maintain fire 

 lines not less than no feet wide, on 

 each side of the track, wherever the 

 road traverses a body of forest. The 

 value of this last requirement is yet 

 to be determined, for the first lines, 

 about 1 80 miles in all, are only Just 

 made and five years are allowed for the 

 construction of the total mileage. The 

 belief is practically unanimous, how- 

 ever, that few fires will escape from 

 them. 



There is nothing new or novel in 

 these protective lines ; they have been 

 employed in other countries for years, 

 and even in this country some similar 

 lines, though always much narrower, 



3 



have been made voluntarily by various 

 railroad companies. A law making such 

 fire lines a feature of the forest policy 

 of an American state is, however, an 

 innovation. These fire lines have two 

 features: (a) At a distance of 100 feet 

 from the nearest rail a strip ten feet 

 wide is completely cleared of all in- 

 flammable matter and the bare earth 

 exposed; (b) between that strip and 

 the track is a zone from which only 

 the undergrowth and the suppressed, or 

 interfering, trees need be removed. All 

 established trees as much as three 

 inches in diameter at the base are al- 

 lowed to stand, except where they are 

 less than six feet apart, but each must 

 be cleared of branches to a height of 

 six feet. Where the line is made in 

 unbroken forest this loo-foot zone is 

 virtually given an improvement thin- 

 ning. The better trees are freed from 

 competition and allowed to grow so 

 that their crowns will intercept and 

 chill sparks thrown from the locomo- 

 tive stack. In other situations, as where 



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