V 



Forestry Notes. 149 



fires. The State ignores the fact, well understood in the West, 

 that it is far greater economy to employ a regular patrol to 

 watch for and extinguish fires in their early stage than to pay 

 large bills for fighting forest conflagrations. This is best illus- 

 trated by the destructive fires in the Adirondacks in 1903, and 

 a comparison with the forest-reserve fires in California in 1902, 

 the last season for which we have detailed statistics. In the 

 Eastern States a long drouth existed from April 20th to June 

 8th. During that time fires became frequent, and finally almost 

 uncontrollable in the northern and western parts of the Adiron- 

 dacks, although all but twelve per cent originated on private 

 lands. This carnival of fire was only ended by the heavy rains 

 which broke the drouth. In an area of about 7,000 square miles, 

 or 4,480,000 acres, 600,000 acres were burned over, involving a 

 cost to the State for fire-fighting alone of $175,000, a direct loss 

 of property of $3,500,000, and a very great but unknown indirect 

 loss in the way of young forest growth, of fish, young animals, 

 birds, etc.* In California, in an area of 8,853,129 acres (the 

 forest reserves), 7,895 acres were burned over in 1902 during 

 the dry season of from four to five months. The extra cost 

 for fighting these fires was $1,080; but add to this the entire 

 salary and expense list of the forest reserve service for that 

 year, — viz., $76,281, — and we have only $77,381. The California 

 drouth is nearly three times as long as that of 1903 in New 

 York, the area under consideration twice as great, but the real 

 cost for fighting fire was a small fraction of the $175,000 paid 

 out in New York. There are times, of course, when serious 

 and costly fires invade the reserves, but nearly always from 

 the outside, — as an instance, the destructive Mt. Wilson fire in 

 Southern California a few years since, started on Baldwin's 

 Santa Anita Ranch. As a rule, every year shows a decrease in 

 acreage and a decrease in number of the real forest fires in the 

 California reserves. This is due to the efficiency of the patrol, 

 the printed warnings of heavy fines, and the careful explana- 

 tions given campers concerning methods of treating their camp- 

 fires and the effects of destructive fires on the forest. There 

 is no doubt that Californians are better informed about these 

 matters and more careful than formerly; and this education is 

 due chiefly to the forest-reserve regulations, which are based 

 on expert advice from the Government foresters. 



♦"Forest Fires in the Adirondacks in 1903," by H. M. Suter, U. S. Bureau 

 of Forestry, 1904. 



