192 



THE FORESTER. 



August, 



this country, betraying at this late date 

 such seeming ignorance of the nature of 

 forestry, of the objects for which seventy- 

 two thousand square miles have been set 

 aside as forest reserves, and of the real prob- 

 lems which complicate their management. 

 These problems are many and, whether 

 simple or difficult, are of pressing impor- 

 tance. The American Lumberman could 

 do more good by discussing them, and by 

 informing its readers about them, than by 

 spending its time in groping among the 

 old and well-settled foundations of the 

 whole reserve sstem. 



The Important 



Work of the 



Fire Warden. 



The report of Col- 

 onel Fox, the Super- 

 intendent of Forests of 

 New York State, for 1897 appears in time 

 to emphasize the importance of one of the 

 duties which devolves on the newly created 

 Chief Fire Warden that of bringing those 

 who start forest fires to justice. In New 

 York, as everywhere else, the great diffi- 

 culty has hitherto been that of making the 

 laws which were provided for the punish- 

 ment of these offenders effective. The local 

 warden who believes that the well-mean- 

 ing neighbor, or perhaps even friend, who 

 started the fire through criminal negli- 

 gence will be more careful in the future, 

 lias every temptation not to have a 

 warrant sworn out. So he does his 

 best to put out the fire and turns in a 

 report of it with no indication of the 

 cause. Of the 98 fires reported from 

 October, 1896 to the end of the year 1898, 

 the causes of only forty were given. And 

 though, as Colonel Fox says, " the war- 

 dens may have been unable to ascertain 

 the cause in some cases," yet more often 

 they knew the reason and though their 

 attention was repeatedly called to their 

 failure to make proper reports, " refrained 

 from stating it to avoid trouble with the 

 neighbors." Not only this, but no one 

 win. looks over the reports can fail to 

 notice that of the forty out of ninety-eight 

 lires ( ,f which the origin is set down, only 

 a tew were started in such a way that 

 nd- hi H MS ^ ould be held responsible" It is 

 largely sportsmen, locomotives, children, 

 . thai are 



Preventable Fires 



and their 

 Toleration. 



Indeed experience of fire laws in what- 

 ever part of the country they have been 

 passed, and of game laws also, has shown 

 that local wardens cannot be counted on to 

 have offenders prosecuted. Some one is 

 needed who, with no special interests in the 

 locality, can investigate the source of each 

 fire on the scene, and see that the law is 

 enforced. If this is not done the educa- 

 tional value of the law is lost ; but when a 

 competent person is appointed to give this 

 business full time and attention, the best 

 and much needed results can be hoped for. 



Jt 



At the New York 

 meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Forestry Associ- 

 ation in June, Colonel Wm. F. Fox 

 related some very interesting facts about 



J CJ 



the fires that occurred in New York State 

 during the year 1899, which are also 

 illustrative of the experience of Maine 

 and other States where similar conditions 

 exist. The drouth during the summer of 

 that year was greater than any that had 

 occurred for many seasons, and the forest 

 \vas so dry that a spark could start a fire 

 anywhere. In all 322 fires were recorded 

 ten times as many as have occurred in any 

 other of the fifteen years during which 

 the Forest Commission has been in exis- 

 tence. But though conditions were so 

 favorable and fires so common, Col. Fox 

 stated that in the two million acres, more or 

 less, of forest land owned by private indi- 

 viduals and clubs, there was only one fire. 

 The 321 others were all on the one mil- 

 lion owned by the State. The reason for 

 this was simply that private lands, espe- 

 cially those which belonged to the clubs 

 and over which guides were constantly 

 going and coming, were patroled thor- 

 oughly and efficiently. All burning was 

 not merely checked but prevented, and 

 this through no such thorough supervision 

 of the forest as would be possible on pri- 

 vate estates and in club preserves but out 

 of the question as an undertaking for the 

 State. For the lands which are held by 

 the pulp companies and managed solely 

 for the money that maybe got out of them 

 are among the private holdings referred to 

 above ; and the cost to the State of fighting 



