Il8 FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



clear through our great forest, and that many hundred thousand acres have 

 teen burned over by railroad fires. During the past two years this Com- 

 mission has maintained along such parts of the lines of the Mohawk and 

 Malone and Delaware and Hudson Railroads as run through forest sections, 

 an organized fire patrol during the periods of danger. This patrol was 

 organized by the State and maintained at State expense; but one-half of 

 the cost was later charged to the railroads and paid by them to the State. 

 The value of this service is beyond measure, although any patrol has its 

 limitations. Its efficiency depends upon the kind of men employed, the 

 distance each man has to travel, the nature of the vegetable growth along 

 the line, the dryness of the soil, and, finally, the amount of sparks and 

 coals scattered by locomotives. In order to prevent fires, the first step 

 is to remove the cause, if possible, rather than to adopt some makeshift 

 remedy. In the case of the railroads we find that hundreds of fires were 

 caused by live coals escaping from the ashpans, and by hot cinders flying 

 from the smokestacks. These cinders are usually hot enough to ignite the 

 inflammable material along the right of way of the railroads. A thorough 

 knowledge of the condition existing along the railroads has been fully ascer- 

 tained in an investigation conducted by the Public Service Commission 

 entitled : 



" In the matter of The N. Y. C. & H. R. R. Co., and Other Rail- 

 road Companies Whose Lines Run through Forest Lands in 

 Counties Containing Parts of the Forest Preserve, Ordered 

 to Show What Device and Precautions Are Now Used by 

 Them against Setting Fires upon Their Respective Lines in 

 Such Forest Lands, and Also to Show Cause Why They 

 and Each of Them Should Not Either Use Some Fuel upon 

 Their Locomotive Engines Which Will Not Give Out Sparks 

 and Set Fires, or Why Their Motive Power Should Not Be 

 Changed to Some Other Than Steam, Made upon Application 

 of the Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner." 



About two hundred witnesses were examined by the Public Service 

 Commission. The hearing was held at Tupper Lake November 5th and 6th; 

 Saranac Lake November 23d and 24th; Saranac Lake December 21st and 

 22d, and Malone December 23d; Albany January 21st and February 3d, 

 10th and 16th. These witnesses consisted of firewardens, landowners, 



