FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. Ill 



house, the crew was ordered to remain there all night and sleep on the ground, 

 arrangements having been made at the same time to send in food and blankets 

 to them. This involved no hardship, as the men were used to camping out; 

 moreover, the nights, with one exception, were warm, and there was no rain. In 

 each case of this kind the firewarden was ordered to make a contract for food 

 supplies and some simple camp equipment at the nearest store, lumber camp, 

 hotel or boarding-house, and to detail one or more men with pack-baskets to 

 carry in this material. Under this plan many fires were checked and extinguished 

 which could not have been controlled by fighting them in the daytime only 

 and allowing the crew to leave their work at a critical time to go some distance 

 for meals and lodging. Expenses thus incurred, as well as the wages of the men, 

 were assumed by the towns. 



Some idea of the activity with which the work was carried on is attested by the 

 fact that 6,487 men were ordered out by the wardens, and that the total number 

 of days worked at the fires in the Adirondacks amounted to 77,290. Moreover, 

 there was only a sparse population to draw from. Hamilton County, one of the 

 largest in the State, has only 4,947 people all told — men, women and children. 



Had it not been for the active, efficient work of the wardens and their men 

 during this prolonged drought, the numerous fires would have coalesced — "run 

 together," as it is termed — and the Adirondack forest would have been destroyed, 

 leaving nothing but a bare and blackened ruin throughout its entire extent. 



A careful tabulation of the firewardens' reports of each and every fire enables 

 me to submit the following result: 



ADIRONDACK FOREST FIRES. 



1903. 



Acres of timber land burned 292,121 



Acres of brush land burned 172,068 



Value of standing timber destroyed . . . . . . . $666,207 



Value of logs, pulp-wood, etc., destroyed 145,457 



Value of buildings burned 34,418 



Total number of days' labor 77,290 



Acres of State timber land burned * 33,698 



Acres of State brush land burned f 24,420 



* Included in first item. f Included in second item. 



