62 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



biiming coals from the fire-box. The use of spark-arresters and of 

 other fire-protective appliances did not provide satisfactory protection 

 under the extreme conditions then prevailing. Thus, the issuance of 

 this order by the Public Service Commission practically eliminated 

 what was probably the most serious source of fire danger in the Adiron- 

 dack region. 



However, while the fire danger has decreased in these several 

 ways, and the impressions from the severe lessons of 1908 have grown 

 dim with the passage of time and with the cessation of public clamor 

 for effective action, the operators have constantly felt the added ex- 

 pense imposed upon them by the law. They have felt also the annoy- 

 ance caused by the readjustment to new methods of woods work im- 

 posed by the existence of state regulation of their business. The result 

 has been a gradually increasing protest against the law on the part of 

 many who accepted it without protest in 1909, for fear worse might 

 befall as a result of the then thoroughly aroused public sentiment. It 

 is qtiite possible also that the feeling against the law may be somewhat 

 intensified on the part of some timber owners by the fear that the 

 top-lopping law may prove but an entering wedge for the wider regula- 

 tion by the state of the lumbering industry. 



As a restdt of the objections to the law, and of the adverse repre- 

 sentations made as to its operation, three hearings were held during the 

 week of September 30, 1912, by the Superintendent of State Forests, 

 representing the State Conservation Commission. These hearings 

 were held at Watertown, Saranac Lake and Glens Falls, N.Y., and a 

 very complete discussion of aU phases of the situation took place. It 

 developed at these hearings that a wide diversity of opinion exists as to 

 the merits of the law and as to the soundness of the fundamental theory 

 upon which it is based. It was found also that while many operators 

 are whoUy opposed to the law, both in theory and in practice, others 

 defend it just as vigorously ; while a third class exists of those who 

 maintain that the law has not yet been in operation for a sufficient 

 length of time to demonstrate whether it should be continued, repealed 

 or amended,, and that a longer trial is necessary before any radical 

 action adverse to the law is justified. 



It was evident at the hearings that many of the arguments, both 

 for and against the law, were based more or less upon personal opinion, 

 without sufficient basis of careful observation of the actual results on 

 the groimd . Arrangements were therefore made for a field investigation 

 by the State Forester, F. A. Gaylord, accompanied by a n\miber of 

 prominent lumbermen or their representatives. Through the courtesy 

 of C. R. Pettis, Superintendent of State Forests, the writer was allowed 

 to accompany the party as a representative of the Commission of Con- 



