164 Third Annual Report of the 



coals should not be deposited upon the track in the immediate 

 vicinity of woodlands or forests; that railroad employees should 

 promptly report forest fires; and that the railroad companies 

 should employ additional trackmen during exceptionally dry 

 weather to extinguish forest fires near the railroad lines. 



The law also contained a section requiring the Forest Commis- 

 sion to post fire notices. A severe penalty was prescribed for the 

 setting of forest fires by incendiaries. 



An appropriation of $15,000 accompanied the law. This 

 amount covered all the expenses of the Commission, including 

 salaries and expenses of employees, etc. There was no provision 

 made for a fire patrol force, nor was there money enough to enable 

 the proper enforcement of the law. 



The report rendered by the Forest Commission in the year 1888 

 embodied recommendations for an amendment to the forest law 

 to authorize the payment of not to exceed one dollar a day to all 

 men employed by fire wardens to aid in preventing and extin- 

 guishing forest fires. Such an amendment was passed at the next 

 session of the Legislature. 



The Forest Commission was succeeded in 1895 by the Fisheries, 

 Game and Forest Commission. The new Coimmission, in its 

 first annual report, recommended two important changes in the 

 laws relating to forest fires. First, it recommended that the ex- 

 pense of fighting forest fires be borne one-half by the State and 

 one-half by the town in which the fire occurred ; the entire bill to 

 be first audited and paid by the town, after which the State should 

 refund to the town one-half the sum thus expended. In 1896 the 

 law was amended to provide for the payment by the State of 

 one-half the expense of fighting fires in "towns within the coun- 

 ties containing the Forest Preserve." The same law increased the 

 pay of fire wardens from $2 to $2.50 per day for the time actu- 

 ally employed. 



The new Commission in 1895 also recommended the insertion 

 in the law of a clause forbidding the lighting of fires for clearing 

 land or to burn brush, in certain designated towns within the 

 forest preserve, between April 1 and June 10, and between Sep- 

 tember 1 and November 10 ; and providing that from June 10 to 

 September 1 such fires should only be set at such times as the 



