FOREST FIRES. 



In accordance with the requirements of the State Forestry- 

 Law,* we submit herewith, as usual, our annual report on the 

 woodland fires which have occurred throughout the State during 

 the year 1894, together with the reports from the various fire- 

 wardens, the publication of which is also required by the law 

 referred to. These reports embrace not only the fires which 

 have occurred on the Forest Preserve in the Adirondack and 

 Catskill regions, but include also all woodland fires that have hap- 

 pened in other portions of the State throughout its entire extent. 



Owing to the extremely dry season, the records show no 

 decrease in the number of fires as compared with those of the 

 previous years. At the same time, in view of the widespread 

 and destructive fires which were so common previous to the 

 organization of the present system, we feel that there is abun- 

 dant reason for congratulation. The most of the fires during 

 1894 occurred in the woodlands and barrens which are scattered 

 throughout the farming districts, the fires in the Adirondack 

 and Catskill forests being few in number and doing but little 

 damage. 



There were only a few fires in the Adirondack Park, as will 

 be seen by examining the reports of the firewardens submitted 

 herewith. It should be remembered that the Adirondack Pre- 

 serve embraces lands that are not in the Adirondack Park, some 

 of these outside tracts being situated many miles from the park 

 boundary and consisting mostly of waste land. 



* " The firewarden of every town in which a forest fire of more than one acre in extent has 

 occurred within a year shall report to the Forest Commission the extent of area burned over, 

 to the best of his information, together with the probable amount of property destroyed 

 specifying the value of timber, as near as may be, and amount of cordwood, logs, bark or otfeer 

 forest product, and of fences, bridges and buildings that have been burned. He shall make 

 inquiries and report as to the cause of such fires, if ascertainable, and as to measures employed 

 and found most effectual in checking their progress. A consolidated snmmary of these 

 returns by counties and of the information as to the same matter otherwise gathered by the 

 Fore&t Commission shall be included in their annual report." [Laws of New York.] 



