FOREST FIRES I^^ IS^OETH CAROLIXA. 23 



selves to cut the timber conservatively, and to pay annually one-half 

 cent for each acre of such proposed State forest into the county school 

 fund. In return for this the rangers employed by the landowner are to 

 be appointed State forest wardens, with power to arrest without warrant 

 violators of the State laws relating to the care of forests. The owners 

 of the land which is thus proclaimed a State forest must, of course, pay 

 the salary and expenses of their own wardens. This law, which requires 

 a man, in addition to bearing all the costs of fire protection, to pay out 

 half a cent an acre for all the land protected, none of which is used for 

 fire protection, is so manifestly one-sided that no advantage has yet been 

 taken of it, and probably none ever will be. In contrast with this, forest 

 fire protective associations are now being organized in several of the 

 Appalachian States whose maximum annual assessment is only half a 

 cent an acre. For this amount the lands are being successfully protected 

 against fire. 



There have been many other attempts, both before and since, to secure 

 more adequate State assistance in the prevention and extinguishment of 

 forest fires. As early as 1887, Hon. Francis D. Winston reminds us, he 

 himself introduced a bill for this purpose into the State Senate, but it 

 did not get out of the committee. At each regular session of the Legis- 

 lature for the past eight years the State Geological and Economic Sur- 

 vey has proposed and urged the passage of definite legislation to reduce 

 the enormous annual loss by forest fires, but with no definite result. The 

 public demand throughout the State has not been strong enough to over- 

 come the natural reluctance of such a conseiwative body as the General 

 Assembly to enact restrictive laws. 



But year by year, as the annual loss from fires has become better 

 known and appreciated, the demand for protection has become more in- 

 sistent, until the Legislature of 1915 responded by the enactment of an 

 excellent law, though without appropriation. 



A law to meet certain particular cases, where logging was being done 

 on land adjoining city watersheds, was passed two years ago.* Though 

 fairly effective in the cases to which it applies, this law, it is thought, has 

 not yet been invoked. It can probably be effectively enforced, however, 

 •in connection with the new forest fire law. 



In the following pages the forestry laws of the State are given, each 

 accompanied by comments explaining the objects and operations of the 

 law. 



