90 



Report of tee Forest Commission. 



personal property in the burned section 



fixes it at $16,000, but this is trifling 



alongside the loss on timber. Telegraphic communication with some of the 

 villages is cut off, and news is hard to obtain. 



(From The Philadelphia Press, September 16, 1894.) 



Trenton, N. J. , September 15.- No State in the Union has suffered in a general 

 way so much from forest fires as New Jersey. They are of annual occurrence, and 

 the losses during the last 10 years go into the millions. No one has kept the 

 statistics, but the general facts have been sufficiently alarming to arouse much 

 interest and make the subject of forest fires and their protection one of con- 

 stant agitation. This summer over 100,000 acres of forest land were damaged, 

 farm buildings destroyed, and small communities made desolate. The predic- 

 tion is made that unless something is done, and that quickly, the wilderness of 

 New Jersey will become a desert of shifting sands and a menace to the agri- 

 cultural interests of the State. 



New Jersey appreciates its dilemma, and the problem is receiving the atten- 

 tion of scientific minds, encouraged by the State authorities. The recent agi- 

 tation has not been in vain, because laws have been enacted and organization 

 effected that will be beneficial to the owners of these vast tracts of woodland. 

 There is no doubt but that the matter will receive the attention of legislators 

 next year. Such legislation would be iu the line of the recommendations that 

 have several times been made to the Legislature by the Governor. The State 

 . Geologist, in his reports from time to time, has called attention to the ravages 

 of fire and even suggested several practicable plans for the prevention and 

 the successful fighting of forest fires. 



New Jersey has just reason to be alarmed about forest fires, for she has 

 1,300,000 acres of land remaining in forests in what is known as the pine coun- 

 try, which embraces Salem, Cumberland, Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic and 

 Burlington counties. 



State Geologist at Work. 



The State Geologist has assigned Johu Gifford, of May's Landing, to make a 



special study of the pine country, with a view of devising plans not only for 



the preservation of the forests, but for turning considerable of the area into 



tallage land and to devise a plan for the prevention of forest fires. One result 



v^tToTfo 1 IndTf "* 7*?^™ «^ -*- to the preser- 

 in such rait eT t ^ edU ° ati ° n ° f the residents of the P ine land 



Z G 7o A Ll T£ Un t0 thdr ° WQ Safety and Protection, 

 ha! had d ll Tt * Ule W00dmal1 ' 8 aVCh 6ne '^ iS the ^ «»»• He 



^ TZ'ltiTZZlT: T°T ity t0 study ■ himsplf - the 



the pine belt of W«t Tp i haTO 6Xtended ^11 around 



dohaL worth of Z^l^ ^ th ° USaDdS ^ taa » ds ° f 



raging yet were it not L the "" ^ &eS ™ lld ha ™ beea 

 go up into the hundred, of tho T* ***** ^ The daraa S e wiI1 

 land was ^troj^lTul^^T™' >" "* °* ™ d - 

 ny ot the small stoppmg points of three or four 



