THE PROGRESS OF FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 401 



Outfits of fire-fighting tools, such as axes, pails, shovels, and 

 mattocks, have been purchased and distributed through the 

 district at convenient points. These tools are usually kept in 

 special tool boxes. 



The average annual expenditure, for the years 1909 and 1910, 

 for the Maine forestry district has been $57,838.70, of which 

 amount an average of $27,493.80 was spent for patrol. During 

 the year 191 1, the available funds were expended before the end 

 of the fire season, but disastrous results were fortunately pre- 

 vented by fall rains. 



Maine was the first state in the Union to make use of mountain 

 lookout stations in fire protection. The first station was estab- 

 lished and maintained cooperatively by the lumbermen and the 

 state on Squaw Mountain. Now the system has been adopted 

 in many parts of the country, and can be used to advantage in 

 all mountainous regions. 



Nowhere else in the country is there a system of fire protection 

 so completely and thoroughly covering a wooded region of equal 

 size as in northern Maine. The nearest approach to it is found 

 in some of the cooperative fire-protective associations in the 

 northwest, and in the organization of the forest service in pro- 

 tecting the national forests. 



Conditions in Maine have been especially favorable for the 

 development of such a system. The chief place among the 

 natural resources of the state, which the forests hold, give those 

 connected with the forest industries the controlling position in 

 state politics. The majority of the wild land owners have long 

 recognized the vital necessity of fire protection. Many of them 

 employed private patrols before the present law was passed. 

 The first private efforts at protection date back more than ten 

 years, and were the forerunners of the present complete state 

 system of control. The great advantage of placing the patrol 

 under state direction supported by a tax, levied on all property 

 in the Maine forestry district, is that all owners are compelled 

 to cooperate and pay their share. The cooperative associations 

 of lumbermen, as organized in New Hampshire and elsewhere, 



