380 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



[Pub. Doc. 



Precipitation in Inches for the Years 1911, 1912 and 1913, with 

 December of Previous Year. 



In addition to our town forest wardens we have 1,740 deputy wardens, 

 1,205 of whom have telephone connection with our observation towers. 

 We desire to have at least 6 deputies in each town located in different 

 places throughout the forest area. 



The permit law, which has been in operation for the past three years, 

 has given general satisfaction. There are still a few towns that have 

 not accepted the act which we hope will take advantage of it at their next 

 town meeting. Nearly 17,000 permits have been issued, with no serious 

 fires resulting from them. The comparative table on page 41 shows 

 acreage burned, cost to extinguish and damage caused. While this table 

 shows an increase in damage, it also shows that we have had 837 more 

 fires than last year and 156 more than in 1911, when our loss was $537,749. 



Early in the season 12,000 cloth and cardboard notices, calling at- 

 tention to the fire losses in previous years and quoting extracts from the 

 forest-fire law, were posted conspicuously in every town in the State. 

 In spite of this we have had 19 prosecutions, 14 of which resulted in 

 convictions for violations of the forest law. 



Exceptionally good results have been accomplished by our observa- 

 tion stations this year. With a drouth lasting nearly eight weeks through- 

 out eastern Massachusetts, including the dry and sandy Cape country, 

 and with a record of over 3,000 fires reported by the observers, our records 

 show only 6 serious fires which were allowed to burn some days with- 

 out extinguishment. A careful investigation of these 6 fires has revealed 

 in each case the presence of one or more of three common causes, namely, 

 inefficiency in the town forest fire organization, lack of proper forest fire 



