126 RURAL IVEW YORK 



Campers, sportsmen and otliers are required to ob- 

 serve certain precautions in making fires and are sub- 

 ject to penalty of fine or imprisonment, or both, for 

 carelessness with cigars or others dangerous mate- 

 rials. Camp fires must have a cleared space ten 

 feet in radius beyond their limit and must be com- 

 pletely extinguished before being left. All these pre- 

 cautions and provisions have resulted in reducing the 

 number of fires started. Most of the provisions for 

 detecting and stopping forest fires are of recent pro- 

 mulgation. In 1918, there were 398 fires reported. 

 Of these 100 were started by smokers, 47 by fisher- 

 men, 111 by locomotives and 24 by campers. Ninety 

 per cent are classed as preventable. The efficiency 

 of the fire-fighting arrangements is indicated by the 

 figures showing the number of acres traversed by 

 fires as follows : 



1903 464,189 acres 



1908 368,072 acres 



1913 54,792 acres 



1918 7,354 acres 



Assuming that this land had the average stand and 

 that all the timber on the burned area was lost, the 

 timber lost by fire has * decreased in the ten-year 

 period equal to one and a half times the annual cut in 

 the last named year, and assuming a value on the 

 stump of five dollars a thousand, the saving would 

 be $5,000,000. The cost is less than $100,000. 



The exemption or reduction in tax on timber lands 



