236 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



whilst thickets and young pole-forests are most exposed to crown- 

 fires ; but as the timber crops increase in age, the latter danger 

 diminishes. Large, compact, natural reproductions and plantations 

 increase the danger of the spreading of fires that may break out, 

 and at the same time make their extinction a matter of increased 

 difficulty. 



So far as the season is concerned during which forest fires are 

 most frequent, experience has shown that in Central and Northern 

 Europe danger is greatest, not during the hot summer months, but 

 during the spring- time, 1 in the months of March, April, and May, 

 when the dead grass of the previous year has got dried up by 

 continuous east winds, and when, at the same time, there are 

 many more workmen employed in the woods than at other seasons, 

 engaged in the felling or removal of timber and fuel, the grub- 

 bing-up of stumps, and the cultural operations of sowing, planting, 

 thinning, &c. Indeed, from June till October the danger gradually 

 decreases towards zero near the end of the year. 



1 The previously-quoted Bavarian statistics relative to 509 forest fires showed that 

 they occurred as follows : 



January, . . 4 July, . . .43 



February, . . 4 August, . . .20 



March, . .118 September, . .12 



April, . . .114 October, ... 2 



May, . . .140 November, 



June, . . .51 December, . . 1 



The statistics for Hesse during 1881-1885 exhibit similar percentages. 

 Note. I may perhaps be allowed to add the following notes collected during April 

 1892 from one English daily newspaper alone : 



Hampshire, 3rd April 1892. An alarming fire broke out in the Woolmer Forest 

 about mid-day to-day. It commenced near the railway station, and covered 

 thousands of acres in extent, and plantations as well as furze wore 

 destroyed. 



Berlin, 9th April 1892. An enormous conflagration is raging in the forest district 

 between Hohenschwaugau and Tuessen. Already 500 acres of valuable timber 

 have been entirely destroyed, and the fire was burning fiercely when the 

 last news was despatched, although 1000 firemen, with many engines from 

 various towns, were hard at work. 



Berlin, 10th April 1892. Two more destructive fires have been raging to-day 



one in the Aldershof Forest, close to this city, and the other in the Fin mm- 



hop Forest, near Arnsberg, in Westphalia. The destruction of timber has 



been very serious. 



New York, IQth April 1892. A telegram from Waterford, New Jersey, states that 



forest fires have been raging in the Camden county for the past two days. 

 Though fortunately less frequent in number, the fires that occur in late summer 

 are probably, on the whole, by far the most serious in their ultimate results. 

 Trans. 



