FOREST FIRES IN NORTH CAROLINA. 9 



and from many of the southeastern coastal plain counties. The June 

 rainfall averaged 3.28 inches, being about 2 inches below the normal. 

 Though rain was general about the middle of the month, forest fires 

 raged around Beaufort up to about the 20th. They were, also, exceed- 

 ingly destructive on Mount Mitchell. July was also dry, and though 

 scattered showers fell in most places, destnictive fires still continued over 

 the greater part of the coastal plain region. 



The rainfall through August and September was still below normal, 

 but no fires were reported in the daily papers. 



The last three months of the year w^ere the only ones in which the 

 precipitation was above the average, the December rainfall being easily 

 the heaviest yet recorded. Early in N'ovember fierce fires were raging 

 around the Black Mountains and at other places in the State, but the 

 fall fires were less numerous than usual. 



ANNUAL STATEMENT OF FOREST FIRES IN 1914. 



The following tables were compiled from more than six hundred replies 

 from voluntary correspondents all over North Carolina. Though five 

 counties only are unrepresented, less than half the townships of the 

 State were reported for, and most of these by only one person. ITever- 

 theless, the figures here given, though undoubtedly much less than the 

 actual amount of fire damage, will convey to the reader some idea of 

 the destruction annually occurring in our State, largely as a result of 

 can 



