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AMERICAN FORESTRY 



With private forests, which comprise about 80 per cent of the forests of the 

 country, protection presents a much more difficult problem. Individual owners 

 of large tracts are often able and willing to establish systems of fire protection, 

 and where most of the land is held in such large holdings it is often feasible to 

 secure organized protection by cooperation. Cooperative protection of this 

 kind is being successfully carried on in Montana, northern Idaho, Washington 

 and Oregon, and in certain parts of northern New England. 



But when there is a great area of wild land, a large part of which is in the 

 form of small private holdings whose owners are men of small means or are 

 non-residents, the difficulty of securing organized cooperative protection is 

 very great. Until now, efforts in this direction on private land in wild forest 

 regions have been confined to the larger owners. 



In the systematic protection of private forests by the states but little progress 

 has been made. To be sure, some states have a system of fire wardens whose 

 duty it is to collect a force of men and attack such fires as may be started within 

 their respective districts ; and a great deal of loss from fire has been prevented 

 by such systems. But it is a fundamental principle in all forest fire protection 

 that there must be an organization to prevent the starting of fires, and not 

 merely one designed to put fires out after they get a start. Private forests can- 

 not be fully protected until the individual states assume their responsibilities and 

 establish at public expense effective systems of forest patrol. The states need 

 not and should not assume the entire burden of protecting private lands, but 

 they should maintain a state patrol system, with one or more men for each 

 township whose duty it should be to patrol forest lands during the dry season. 

 Such patrolmen should have all necessary authority in matters pertaining to 

 protection. Private owners will supplement this system with such a force of 

 men as will make the forests safe. 



In New York the state preserves are patrolled, but the system does not 

 extend to the entire state, and private lands within the preserves are the only 

 private lands directly benefited. In Maine and in New Hampshire, lumbermen, 

 either independently or with the state, have done much to establish systems of 

 watch-towers. 



The main burden of protecting forests from fire must be borne by the public. 

 The purpose of forestry is to secure certain benefits to the community and to the 

 country as a whole. It is therefore entirely proper that the principal cost of pro- 

 tecting our forests should fall upon those who are benefited. 



