88 Second Annual Beport of the 



rural free delivery carriers to report any fires which came to their 

 notice to members of our field force. This has already been of 

 some assistance; but its full value is yet to be determined. 



RAILROADS. 



The first Forest Fire Law provided for the clearing of rights 

 of way and equipping locomotives with proper devices to prevent 

 the escape of fire. This law has been modified and improved in 

 subsequent legislation. It was not until 1904 that provision was 

 made for the employment of men to look after the enforcement 

 of this law, and then only in the Forest Preserve sections. The 

 Conservation Law enacted at. the last session of the Legislature 

 makes this provision State-wide and applies not only to railroads 

 operating as common carriers, but also to logging railways. 



The new law provided for a division of the State into two dis- 

 tricts and the appointment of a chief inspector for each district. 

 A line of division was established running across the State 

 approximately from Albany to Buffalo. The main line of the 

 Xew York Central system from Albany to Buffalo and all lines 

 north of it were designated as the Northern District, while all of 

 the roads south of that line, including Long Island, were assigned 

 to the Southern District. 



Section 103 of the Conservation Law provides that every rail- 

 road company and every person operating a railroad in any part 

 of the State shall properly clean its right of way and shall provide 

 each locomotive with practical and efficient spark-arresting devices, 

 and furthermore, that said devices shall be approved by the 

 Public Service Commission, and shall at all times be maintained 

 in good repair. In order that the work might be properly 

 handled, this Commission requested the Public Service Commis- 

 sion to inform us what requirements they would demand and 

 approve on the various lines operating in this State, and in com- 

 pliance with this request they notified us that enforcement of the 

 order which they had promulgated in 1909, relative to the use of 

 coal burning locomotives in the Adirondacks, would be required, 

 except that overflows need not be piped into ash pans except on 

 certain lines where forest property of much consequence was sub- 

 ject to fire. All the railroads operating in the State were promptly 



