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tree seeds aiso, which are in the soil reaay to sprout and renew the 
forest growth, are consumed. The very soil itself is often burned to 
such a depth that many years must elapse before it will regain the 
ability to support any uset'ul growth whatever. 
Thus it appears that the railroads are not only great consumers of the 
forests, in a legitimate way. tor their own construction and maintenance 
aud by the destruction of standing' timber occasioned by tires from their 
locomotives, bat they also take away, in many cases, the reproductive 
power of the woodland tracts over which these fires may run. 
The exposure of forests near railroad lines to destruction by lire occa- 
sioned by passing engines operates to discourage the holding or plant- 
ing of woodland in such situations. In some of our States fires 
caused by locomotives have become so frequent and destructive that 
growing timber is regarded as hazardous property. In New Jersey, 
which abounds in pine forests, the danger from locomotives is so great 
that timber land near railroads has only a nominal market value. In 
Cumberland County, in 1880, a tire was started by sparks from a loco- 
motive aud spread 10 miles in one direction, consuming from 40.0U0 to 
SO. 000 acres of forest, involving a loss of $320,000. A correspondent 
from that county estimates that three-fourths of all the fires in New 
Jersey originate from locomotives. Great destruction of the forests in 
Pennsylvania is attributed to the same cause, and the annual loss is 
estimated at millions of dollars. 
The fact that these losses are so great, and that they are not neces- 
sarily incidental to any important business ; that the destruction of the 
forests in this way does not. like cutting cord-wood to be burned in the 
factory, the furnace, or for domestic purposes, subserve important in- 
dustries or promote human comfort, but is a loss simple and total, ap- 
peals to all, to railroad managers as well as ethers, to employ every 
practicable means lor the suppression of these fires. 
LAVS IN KECtAEP TO FIEES OCCASIONED BY LOCOMOTIVES. 
The growth of railroads has given origin naturally and necessarily 
to a considerable body of law defining and protecting the rights and 
enforcing the obligations appertaining to railway corporations. This 
body of law, however, relating as it does to corporate organizations 
which have come into existence within the last fifty, and most of 
them within the last twenty or twenty-five years, is not as complete and 
definite as are the provisions of law which have been longer in the pro- 
cess of formation because relatiug to matters longer in existence and 
Deeding Legal regulation. In our own country the responsibility of rail- 
roads tor damages occasioned by fires kindled by sparks from their en- 
gines has been settled by statute in comparatively few cases. It is 
dependent mostly upon the application of the common law. and the 
adjudication of this differs in the various States. It is a maxim of that 
