FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 349 



Fourth : Tobacco smokers. The fires that have been traced to this source are 

 more numerous and destructive than would appear at first thought. A pipe or cigar 

 in the woods seems a simple, harmless thing ; but they have caused the destruction of 

 timber worth many thousands of dollars, and devastated many thousands of acres. 

 The hot ashes from a pipe falling among dry leaves, or a lighted cigar stub thrown 

 from a wagon into the dry grasses by the side of a woodland road, have been known 

 repeatedly to start destructive fires that sprang up after the careless smoker had gone 

 on his way. Then, again, the man who smokes tobacco is frequently lighting matches 

 and throwing them away. Too often he neglects to extinguish the match, and, after 

 lighting his pipe or cigar, throws it aside while it is still burning, without taking any 

 heed whatever where it may fall. Many of our Adirondack fires that started at some 

 roadside in the woods were caused by just such carelessness, as was disclosed later by 

 the evidence gathered in the case. 



Fifth: Berry pickers. This cause is a local one, and is confined to certain States; 

 but it has been, and continues to be a source of damage in New York, especially in 

 the Catskill counties. At intervals of a few years the berry pickers set fire to the low 

 growth of ferns, grasses and bushes that cover the barrens, in order to increase the 

 yield of berries. These tracts have already been converted into barrens by former 

 fires, and hence, as a general thing, the damage is merely nominal, no timber 

 being destroyed. But these repeated burnings preclude all possibility of reforesting 

 these areas, either naturally or otherwise. At times the fires include in their 

 course some batches of inferior second-growth trees which, having escaped for 

 several years, had attained a moderate-sized growth ; and then, again, the flames are 

 occasionally blown into some timber lots where a positive loss occurs. It is exceed- 

 ingly difficult to repress these fires, because the persons who start them have no 

 difficulty in doing so unseen and undetected. Neither will the people who live in the 

 immediate vicinity make any effort to extinguish these fires, the practice having their 

 approval to a large extent. With this class may be included, also, the hunter who 

 burns over an old lumber slash to make a better feeding ground for deer. 



Sixth: Incendiaries. Several destructive fires have occurred in the Adirondack 

 forests from this source. The timber thieves who at one time committed extensive 

 depredations on State lands, often set fire to their slashings to conceal the evidence of 

 their crime or to render more difficult any attempt to obtain the evidence necessary to 

 convict them. Fires started for such reasons are now rare in New York; for the 

 activity of the State foresters has rendered timber stealing almost impossible, and so, 

 with the suppression of this evil, there is no longer any inducement to resort to this 

 practice. There are still occasional instances in which some man, inflamed with drink 

 or a desire for revenge, or natural inclination to mischief, will set fire to the woods, 



