336 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



Of this burned area only 669 acres, or about seven per cent., belonged to 

 the State. 



CAUSES OF FIRES. 



Clearing land, burning brush, etc., 



Railroad locomotives, 



Fishermen, 



Hunters, 



Incendiary or carelessness, 



Camp fires, 



Tobacco smoking, . 



Berry pickers, 



Steamboat sparks, . 



Railroad men, 



Unknown, 



Total, 



24 



16 



6 



4 



3 



36 



94 



It is also interesting and instructive to note the time of year in which these fires 

 occurred. Of the ninety-four cases reported, the distribution was as follows : 



March, 

 April, . 

 May, 

 June, . 



July, • 



August, 



September, 



October, 



November, 



Total, 



1 



45 

 11 

 1 

 27 

 3 

 2 

 1 

 3 



94 



It may be noticed that in many instances the estimate of damages is small in 

 comparison with the burned area as reported; and that in some of the reports as 

 tabulated, the figures for the estimated loss are merely nominal or omitted altogether. 

 In explanation of this it should be said that many of our fires in Northern New York 

 occur on lands that have been burned over repeatedly in previous years, with the 

 result that no timber of any value is left standing. On the outskirts of the Great 

 Forest there are many abandoned farms and old clearings that are overgrown with 

 brush, brier bushes and ferns — lands which might probably be classed as barrens. 

 Fires occur more frequently in these open places than in the woods ; and at some 

 places in the Catskill counties the farmers persist in setting fire on these barrens in 

 order to increase the crop of berries which is apt to be growing there. As we are 

 obliged to include within our annual statement all fires that occur in the sixteen 



