Report of the Forest Commission, 103 



prevention of these fires in the United States. The destruction of property 

 from these fires was formerly so great in France, especially in the southeastern 

 section, that a law was enacted in 1870, to be enforced for 20 years, and 

 to be regarded as an experiment to see what could be done. It was the result 

 of this legislation that led to the new law for the prevention of fires. Its first 

 provision is to prohibit during the months of June, July, August and Septem- 

 ber all fires in forests or shrubby waste lands, or within a distance of 200 

 metres from their boundaries. Among the fires prohibited during the close 

 season is the so-called petit feu, by which strips of undergrowth were carefully 

 burned every six or seven years in the cork forests. The ninth clause directs 

 landed proprietors who have adjoining lands with woody growths on them to 

 keep a strip of land, from 20 to 50 metres, between the two estates entirely 

 free from shrubs or conifers. Another clause enacts that similar bare strips 

 20 metres broad shall be kept up along all lines of railway through a wooded 

 area, and that these strips in adjoining property shall be kept clear at the 

 expense of the railway companies. All proprietors whose woods are cut down 

 in clearing these strips are to obtain indemnities. This is a new provision, and 

 is aimed in favor of the extension of railways. In the handling of fire, if a 

 counter fire is started to head it off, no indemnity arises for woods burned 

 under such circumstances. The fires heretofore in France have been fre- 

 quently caused by sportsmen or poachers during the dry season, and this has 

 led to the delay of the shooting season until the September rains set in. The 

 construction of a network of roads greatly facilitates fire protection by making 

 the forests accessible and by increasing their value, and the government offers 

 a bonus of $1,000 a mile for roads constructed in the forest districts 



Severe penalties are exacted where the forest law is transgressed, and if the 

 railway companies do not clear the fire lines on their roads the French forest 

 department clears them at their expense. This is the substance of this new 

 French law. It is much more detailed than the provision for firewardens 

 enacted by the New Hampshire Legislature last year, and its application to the 

 railway lines is so obvious that it ought to be considered by every State Legis- 

 lature in the country, and enforced by adequate penalties where it is not 

 observed. 



During the 20 years that a provisional law was in force in France, it was 

 found that the forest fires had diminished by one-half. That the French law 

 could be repeated in any American State is not to be expected; but that some 

 modification of this law is necessary is indicated by the large fires which yearly 

 destroy thousands of acres of valuable forest in every part of the country. 



(New York Herald, September 9, 1894.) 



Shall we arm ourselves against the comets? Are they, and notably that 

 supposedly lost one of Biela, most dangerous to the world's physical welfare? 

 Are their tails filled with destruction and is their path so near the earth that 

 it superheats the air and thereby induces combustions which result in the 

 great forest fires of the west, and such a holocaust of flame as the great Chi - 

 cago conflagration ? 



