FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 349 



Mr. Newcomb Mapes, town of Bethel, Sullivan county, N. Y., writes under date 

 of November 8, 1899: 



I have no forest fires to report in my town for the year 1899. I superintended the 

 burning of three fallows without accident and without employing any help at the expense 

 of the town, which report I most respectfully submit. 



Mr. Plymouth Davis, town of Rockland, Sullivan county, N. Y. : 

 May 5, 1899. About eight acres burned over, I should think, destroying $40 worth of 

 timber. This fire caught from an engine on the New York and Ontario Western railroad. 

 I extinguished it before much damage was done. I have put out twelve fires this spring 

 between April 24th and May 10th; but none of them did any damage to amount to much. 

 Many of the fires came from the farmers who were burning stumps and log heaps in clear- 

 ing their lands; but I kept these fires out of the woods. I keep a good lookout, and when 

 I see any smoke I start for the place and attend to it at once, so as to keep it out of the 

 woods. 



Such, in brief, is the story of the great fires of 1899, as told from my own obser- 

 vation and the condensed report of some of the firewardens. It is hoped that many 

 years will pass before the like is seen again. It may be reasonably expected, also, 

 that with the more thorough organization of the firewardens, now in progress, better 

 results will be obtained even if the same unfavorable weather conditions should again 

 occur. 



It will be noticed in examining the tabulated returns of forest fires that certain 

 counties only are included — the sixteen counties in which are located the lands 

 of the forest preserve. In all other counties throughout the State the supervisors 

 "&cX,,ex-officio, as town firewardens, the Commission having no power of appointment. 

 Hence, the work of the department has been confined to the thickly wooded dis- 

 tricts, nearly all of which are included in the sixteen counties named in the Forestry 

 Law. 



Still, there are tracts of forest land in some parts of the State that are not 

 included in the Adirondack or Catskill counties, and in which woodland fires of con- 

 siderable extent happened during the year. This was notably the case in some of 

 the Long Island towns; also in Dutchess, Steuben and Erie counties. 



The forest fires on Long Island, which have been so frequent and destructive for 

 many years, seem to be due to a lack of organized effort to prevent them. If the 

 Forestry Law could be amended so as to give the Commission some powers in the 

 matter, the yearly destruction of the woods in that p?rt of the State might be 

 lessened materially. 



The State Forestry Law, as originally enacted in 1885, provided that the Com- 

 mission should " have charge of the public interests of the State with regard to 



