256 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



against 398 in 1909 (which was second to 1908 in dryness), 133 

 in 1907, and only 15 acres per fire in 1910. 



The number of fires annually reported is remarkably small, 

 but the numerous small fires just starting, which have been 

 extinguished by patrolmen are not included. 



As a matter of fact the spruce region is by nature better pro- 

 tected from forest fires than many others. The rainfall is ample 

 and normally so distributed that long, severe droughts are 

 exceptional. This rainfall and the cover of moss and duff keep 

 the forest floor in a moist condition unfavorable to the spread of 

 fire. It is only in times of drouth, or when the forest floor is 

 aided artificially in drying out, that severe fire danger threatens, 

 as when lumbering has opened up the forest and let in added 

 light and heat. Even in a season with abundant and well-dis- 

 tributed rainfall, land heavily cut over may be dried out suffi- 

 ciently to burn easily. Of course the slash left by the lumber- 

 man increases the amount of inflammable material on which a 

 fire may feed. 



In ordinary years the forest fires all arise on cut-over lands, 

 stands of uncut timber being practically immune, since they are 

 too moist to allow a fire to start. A crown fire, however, may 

 run through a virgin forest if it secures a good start on cut- 

 over land and there is a strong wind. The damage to mer- 

 chantable standing timber is ordinarily small, the chief injury 

 (beside damage to the soil) being to young growth. Cut-over 

 lands in the spruce region usually have at least a fair stocking 

 of young conifers from seedlings up to trees just under merchant- 

 able size. The fires destroy all these, and change the condition 

 of the forest floor so that it no longer offers a favorable germina- 

 tion bed for the seed of spruce and balsam, but is best for the 

 reproduction of bird cherry, mountain maple, and berry bushes 

 among worthless species, and the valuable aspen and birch. If 

 these latter could always be counted on to thoroughly seed up 

 burned lands without delay, the damage done by the fires would 

 be greatly reduced, but unfortunately they do not. 



The principal known causes of forest fires are in the order of 



