FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. IOI 



The number of fires, large, small, incipient, or otherwise, in each 

 month were: 



April 49 



May 51 



June 3 



July 



August 12 



September 13 



October 3 



November 11 



142 



The causes, as reported by the firewardens were: 



Railroad locomotives 20 



Tobacco smokers 14 



Fishermen 14 



Hunters 8 



Campers 6 



Supposed incendiaries 11 



Clearing land 9 



Children at play 4 



Berry pickers 2 



Bee hunters 1 



Imbecile 1 



Burning house 1 



Unknown 51 



142 



The fires caused by tobacco smokers were not due to cigar stubs or 

 ashes from a pipe so much as to the careless habit of these people in throw- 

 ing down lighted matches in the dead leaves on the ground. The great 

 decrease in the number caused by farmers who were burning brush — at 

 one time the most prolific source of forest fires — is due to the rigid enforce- 

 ment of the law prohibiting the burning of fallows during certain months 

 in the spring and fall. Still, there were 25 violations of this law, each of 

 which was prosecuted by the chief fire-warden and a conviction obtained. 



