FOREST FIRES 141 



the expenditure of $200,000 in cooperation with the various 

 states in the prevention of forest fires. Under this law any state 

 which has an organized system for the prevention of forest fires, 

 and which has forests protecting the headwaters of navigable 

 rivers, may call upon the national government for some of this 

 money. The federal government is authorized to appropriate 

 to any state only so much as the state is expending in similar 

 work in the same fiscal year. All the New England states with 

 the exception of Rhode Island are eligible for this assistance, and 

 are receiving sums ranging in 191 1 from $1000 to $10,000. This 

 federal money can be spent solely for hiring men to be employed 

 either in patrol or lookout duty. The wages paid are fixed in an 

 agreement between the state and national forest service. Dur- 

 ing wet weather when there is no immediate danger of forest fires 

 these men may be employed in constructing trails and fire lines 

 or in any other way that will tend toward fire protection. 



Much can be accomplished toward preventing fires by improv- 

 ing the condition of the forest. As previously stated, most of 

 our worst fires occur or, at least, gain their headway in cut-over 

 coniferous forests where the ground is covered with dry, inflam- 

 mable tops. In New York State a law has been enacted compel- 

 ling lumbermen to lop the branches from these tops so that the 

 material will at once come in contact with the ground and be 

 rotted out by the snows of a few winters. Experience of lumber- 

 men in the Adirondacks has demonstrated that this operation 

 can be done for twelve to fifteen cents per cord of pulpwood cut. 

 It was also found that many tops after being lopped were worth 

 taking out; these would otherwise have been left in the woods, so 

 there was considerable saving to the operators. In our large 

 lumber operations, especially in spruce forests where the tops are 

 very branching, some such lopping measure will be the best and 

 most practical preventive. However, in smaller operations es- 

 pecially in the small pine wood lots of New England the more 

 efficient measure can be adopted of burning the branches, either 

 at the time of lumbering or soon afterwards. The cost of this 

 work has been found to vary from twenty-five to fifty cents per 



