Il6 NINTH REPORT OF THE 



prevention. The best way to fight fires is to have no fires. Our present law 

 works well enough in ordinary years, but it does not accomplish its purpose in a 

 season of exceptional drought, and it fails to eliminate the danger from railroads. 

 Unless amended in these respects it will be only a question of time before there 

 will be a recurrence of a similar or worse disaster. 



The patrol system may be expensive some years, but it will cost less than 

 fighting fires that otherwise will surely occur, to say nothing of the loss of prop- 

 erty and injury to forest conditions. It cost $153,000 to fight fires this year, the 

 most of which could have been prevented by the expenditure of a small propor- 

 tion of this money in hiring patrols to guard the railroad lines and to watch the 

 dangerous parties who were strolling through the woods. I doubt, however, if 

 any law or force of patrols can prevent incendiary fires, for the men who commit 

 these crimes in most instances select places and opportunities that enable them 

 to avoid detection. 



The patrols are needed only during a part of April and May, and in many 

 years a rainy spring would render their services unnecessary. A summer drought 

 may occur some year (as in 1899) when the firewardens would have to order 

 them on duty to guard the forest. That portion of the expense incurred by 

 patrolling railroad lines should be borne in part by the railroad companies, 

 the proportion to be determined by the Legislature. But however this may 

 be arranged, the patrols should be under the sole authority and control of the 

 local firewardens. In other localities the expense should be borne by the town 

 and State, as provided under the present law for fighting fire. If the railway 

 managers would consent to the use of petroleum in April and May, and at such 

 other times as the forest conditions might require, the number of men needed 

 for this purpose would be greatly reduced. But petroleum is much more expensive 

 than coal, and so the companies may prefer to employ patrols rather than make 

 any change in their motive power. 



This is no new idea. The system has already been in force for several years 

 by the Canadian Government with good results. In 1902 there were 234 rangers 

 employed on the Crown lands at an expense of $34,200. This plan was put in 

 operation in 1885, at which time thirty-seven men were employed on this duty. 

 The result was so satisfactory that the number was increased from year to year, 

 until now there are 234 men employed on this work. The great Algonquin Park, 

 in the Province of Ontario, which has an area of 1,109,383 acres, is also watched 

 carefully by forest guards whose principal duty is the prevention of fires. The 

 Dominion Government has found that, in the administration of its own lands, 

 the method of prevention is the cheapest in the end. 



