No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE FORESTER. 319 



fires in all towns with a valuation of less than $2,000,000. While this 

 means an additional appropriation by the State of from $7,000 to $10,000 

 each year, I feel that the results obtained would fully justify the expendi- 

 ture. 



It is needless to point out the value of the forests of a State to the 

 people of that State as a whole, as distinguished from the citizens of the 

 separate towns, for in many cases the products of these woodlands are 

 not consumed within the towns themselves wherein they grow, but are 

 used directly by the cities which have no forest area. This being the case, 

 the welfare of the forest should be the interest of every citizen in the 

 Commonwealth. In view of this, one of the chief defects of our present 

 method of protecting the forests has been that we have left it wholly in 

 the hands of the individual towns, without responsibility to any single head. 

 This defect, of course, has been partly remedied by the organization of 

 this branch of the department, and the benefits resulting therefrom are, 

 we believe, already apparent. In many ways, however, the hands of the 

 State Fire Warden, working through his deputies, are still tied, for while 

 it is possible for him to devise many ways wherein towns may co-operate 

 with each other and with his deputies, it is often impossible to properly 

 carry out these plans because of the inability of the State under the 

 present law to guarantee any substantial remuneration. Any business 

 man will realize the futility of expecting satisfactory service for nothing, 

 and the case of the State does not differ; in fact, we are constantly sur- 

 prised at the amount of time and labor that have been given gratis in the 

 past by our wardens. The zeal of a few wardens, however, cannot offset 

 the carelessness of many. Furthermore, unpaid labor is usually spas- 

 modic, and for these reasons the efficiency of the service as a whole de- 

 teriorates rather than increases under such a system. 



It will be necessary to mention only a few ways in which the control 

 established under a system of part payment of fire-fighting expenses by 

 the Commonwealth would increase the efficiency of the fire-fighting serv- 

 ice. A uniform rate of pay for all fire fighters could be put into effect, 

 thus doing away with the disadvantage of having a difference in wage 

 of from 10 to 20 cents an hour in adjoining towns, a condition which now 

 exists and which has produced much discontent and inefficiency. Again, 

 it would be possible to pay the local warden in each town an amount in 

 some degree commensurate with his services, a state of affairs which does 

 not now obtain in many cases. 



The number of towns covered by the plan outlined above would be 194, 

 as against the 172 covered under the present fire-equipment act, which 

 is limited to towns having a valuation of $1,500,000 or less; and it is to 

 be especially noted that the area occupied by these 194 towns comprises 

 80 per cent, of the woodland area of the State. That such a proposition 

 is not an experiment is borne out by the fact that nearly all the eastern 

 States are working under similar laws under which the State pays a fixed 

 proportion of the fire-fighting cost (in most cases one-half), and thereby 



