144 Third Annual Report of the 



Berry Pickers 

 In some regions of the State it has been customary in the past 

 to burn over land for the sake of improving the blueberry crop. 

 This has resulted in the destruction of large areas of forest. By 

 burning over the blueberry lands, the future crop of berries may 

 be improved, but at the same time all young trees and oftentimes 

 many mature trees are destroyed, so that this practice is indefen- 

 sible within forest regions. During the year 1911, three persons 

 were indicted for setting fires for this purpose, and the indictment 

 of these persons has served as a wholesome lesson. 



Miscellaneous Causes 



Space do not permit us to go into the large number of other agen- 

 cies which cause forest fires. Hunters sometimes bum over cer- 

 tain areas to improve the crop of briars and grasses which furnish 

 feed for the deer. Children playing with matches, or smoking 

 out small animals, have been responsible for several fires. The 

 sparks from logging engines and saw mills have also done their 

 share toward increasing the number. Every summer there are 

 people who go into the woods and locate so-called " bee trees," 

 whereupon they proceed to smoke out the bees in order to obtain 

 the honey. Only too often the fire, which was built to smoke out 

 the bees, is left to spread over a large area of forest and do untold 

 damage. Burning buildings, situated in the immediate vicinity of 

 forest land, frequently send out sparks which give rise to extensive 

 forest fires. 



While the utmost efforts have been made in this State since 1891 

 to ascertain the causes of all forest fires which have occurred within 

 the forest preserve, it has been impossible to determine the respon- 

 sibility for every fire. Each year a large number of fires are re- 

 ported, " cause unknown." 



The accompanying table shows the number of fires, classified ac- 

 cording to causes, which have occurred in the State Forest Preserve 

 in 23 years, during the period from 1891 to 1913 inclusive. 



