350 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



knowing that in the solitude of the wilderness the act can be committed with com- 

 parative safety from detection. 



Seventh: Carelessness. Under this head may be included the many and various 

 acts resulting from thoughtlessness or stupidity. For instance — the man who sets fire 

 to an old, abandoned lumber camp for the fun of seeing it burn; the man who starts 

 an insect smudge on the slightest provocation and leaves it burning without a thought 

 as to the result ; the bee hunter who smokes out the wild bees from their hive in the 

 hollow tree ; the summer youth who lights the curly bark on an old birch to see the 

 display of fireworks ; and the children who are always ready to play with matches and 

 kindle a fire outdoors. 



Eighth : Natural causes. Forest fires from this source are extremely rare, and 

 hardly worth mentioning. There are a few well attested cases of fires caused by 

 lightning, but as they are always accompanied by rain the loss from such cause is 

 merely nominal. There are theories of fires from spontaneous combustion, or ignition 

 of wood by friction of dry limbs, all of which make interesting reading, but are of 

 little value as a matter of fact. 



It has been remarked that if you want to preserve the forests you must keep the 

 white man out. It is a noticeable fact in the New England and Middle States that 

 burned areas are all, or nearly all, in the vicinity of roads, settlements, or farms. A 

 highway running through the forest on which there is much travel and carting, is 

 almost sure to be bordered with burned, denuded areas. The tracts of forest in 

 Northern New York where no fire has ever occurred are the ones without roads, except 

 those used by lumbermen in their logging operations. The lumbermen cause no fires, 

 despite the common impression to the contrary. During the winter, the time when 

 they are in camp, the snow prevents forest fires; and in the spring, the time when 

 the ground is covered with dry, dead leaves, the period when most of the fires occur 

 in our State, the lumber crews have finished their work, have left their camp, and are 

 away on the log drives. The farmer, hunter, fisherman and summer camper are the 

 men who burn our woods. Our forests will not be entirely free from fire until the 

 management has been so perfected that each person who enters the woods is placed 

 under strict surveillance as to the use of fire. 



All the fires in New York occur either in the spring, during the period extending 

 from the melting of the snow to the time when the trees and underbrush are in full 

 leaf, or in the fall, between the shedding of the leaves and the first snow. These 

 periods of danger vary with the season and locality — our first spring fires occurring in 

 April, as regards the Long Island and Catskill forests; and in May, in the Adirondacks. 

 The fall does not appear to be so dangerous a season in New York as the spring — the 

 autumn fires being less frequent and destructive. Occasionally, in a very dry season, 



