SUGGESTED FORESTRY LEGISLATION - 63 



If any person shall set fire to any grassland, brushland, or woodland, except 

 it be his own property, or, in that case, without first giving notice to all 

 persons owning or in charge of lands adjoining to the land intended to be 

 fired, and also taking care to watch such fire while burning and taking 

 effectual care to extinguish such fire before it shall reach any lands near to or 

 adjoining the land so fired, he shall for every such offense be guilty of a mis- 

 demeanor and be fined or imprisoned in the discretion of the court. This 

 shall not prevent action for damages sustained by the owner of any property. 

 Sec. 2. That section three thousand three hundred and forty-seven of The 

 Revisal of one thousand nine hundred and five be amended to read as follows: 

 Any wagoner, hunter, camper or other person who shall leave a campfire 

 without fully extinguishing it, or who shall accidentally or negligently, by 

 the use of any torch, gun, match or other instrumentality, or in any manner 

 whatever, start any fire upon any grassland, brushland or woodland, without 

 fully extinguishing the same, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon 

 conviction shall be punishable by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars 

 nor more than fifty dollars or imprisoned not exceeding thirty days. 



Sec. 3. All persons, firms or corporations who shall burn any tar kiln or 

 pit of charcoal or set fire to or burn any brush, grass or other material where- 

 by any property may be endangered or destroyed, shall keep and maintain a 

 careful and competent watchman in charge of said kiln, pit, brush or other 

 material while burning. Any person, firm or corporation violating the pro- 

 ' visions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. 



Railroad Fires. — The railroads and lumber companies, though great offend- 

 ers, having caused probably one-third of the fires in the State in 1910, are 

 also great sufferers, being generally held responsible for injury and made to 

 pay damages. A' few of the replies to the question asking about prosecutions 

 are here quoted: "Railroad paid for several acres of timber"; "Railroad 

 compromised, nothing done about the rest"; "No; the railroad people always 

 pay damage"; "The railroad has paid about $1,000"; "No; railroad company 

 paid about $2,000"; "The railroad company goes over the ground and sees 

 how much it burns over, and pays about thirty-five cents per acre"; "Set by 

 traction engine, and damage paid"; "Lumber company sued for $5,000"; 

 "Lumber company forced to pay damages"; "Suit entered against one lumber 

 company." These prosecutions are, of course, as said before, brought under 

 the civil law, and do not invoke the present fire laws. They do, however, 

 show that it is as much to the interest of the railroads as to that of the 

 owners of woodland that fires should be prevented. Until there is some gen- 

 eral demand, however, that the railroads take necessary precautions, they 

 prefer to drift along in the old way, paying damages now and then — the 

 average cost of which they know — rather than advocate new laws, which, 

 though they might save them money, still would cost them an unknown 

 amount to carry out. When reasonable laws are once passed the railroads 

 will undoubtedly cooperate actively in their enforcement, trusting thereby to 

 cut down their large annual bill of damages. 



During the last session of the Legislature the following bill was drawn up, 

 after careful discussion and criticism of every point by the representatives of 

 the people and of the railroad and lumber companies. It was at first intro- 

 duced as part of the general forestry bill, but was later drawn up as a sep- 

 arate law. It is in this form that its passage by the next Legislature is 

 strongly urged. 



