FIFTH NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 317 



for. The Farmers' Union and other similar organizations should be enlisted in 

 this work. The farmers, as a class, are more concerned both personally and finan- 

 cially than anyone else, and they should be the easiest class to reach. The women's 

 clubs have, in some States, Kentucky for example, taken up this question earnestly 

 and done heroic work; their active cooperation should be enlisted all over the 

 country. They can, perhaps, do more to bring this question to the attention of 

 the public school authorities than any other one force. 



2. Legislation: It is recognized that legislation is of little value unless 

 public opinion is behind it. This is shown by the present condition of legislation 

 in several of the States. However, the efforts to secure legislation, though they 

 may be feeble and ineffective, do tend to educate public opinion and call the 

 attention not only of legislators but also of the people in general to the question 

 of fire prevention. All efforts at securing legislation must have some good effect. 

 It is a general maxim in seeking legislation to "ask for what you want, but take 

 all that you can get." This, however, may be modified in some cases by refrain- 

 ing from asking for one necessary measure of fire protection if certain interests — 

 for instance, the railroads — will be antagonized. It might in certain cases be a 

 better policy to try for what it seems possible to get, and, by arousing no organized 

 opposition, succeed in securing it. Later laws can remedy early defects. 



Four general classes of legislation are needed throughout the South: (a) 

 Laws to control the individual ; (b) Laws to regulate railroads and other corpora- 

 tions; (c) Laws to secure the enforcement of the law; (d) Appropriations to 

 make them effective. 



(a) In North Carolina, which is, perhaps, fairly representative of the 

 region, 45 per cent of forest fires are caused by carelessness or indifference 

 of the individual, largely from farmers burning brush, rubbish, etc., and from 

 hunters. It does not seem possible as yet to make and enforce any stringent 

 laws requiring licenses for burning brush, though Maryland has such a law 

 which works well. Laws against carelessness, and forbidding the leaving of 

 any fire unextinguished, whether camp fire, brush, stumps, or what not, seem 

 necessary and advisable all through the South. 



Under this heading the Stock Law must again be referred to. Through- 

 out the South this is a most important forest protective measure, not only 

 because hogs are preventing the regeneration of most of our long-leaf pine 

 forests, but because so many fires are set in order to "improve the range." 

 As long as forest lands are looked upon by the resident and non-landowning 

 population as so much free pasture, the sentiment in favor of burning the 

 woods will not greatly diminish. Everyone interested in forest protection 

 should preach State-wide Stock Law. 



(b) Railroads, sawmills, and other engines cause, approximately, one- 

 third of the forest fires; the necessity, therefore, for laws to control the 

 operators of such engines is obvious. Railroad corporations throughout the 

 South, as in other parts of the country, are very powerful, so that unless 

 public interest is aroused it will be difficult to secure the passage of laws 

 which are obnoxious to them. On the other hand, it does not seem fair to 



