FOREST CONDITIONS IN WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA. 



97 



laws should be instituted by tbe State Warden. This would largely 

 prevent such prosecutions being attributed to personal motives. 



(b) Many forest fires are set by sparks from railroad locomotives 

 and by the careless burning of rubbish along the tracks by section 

 hands. Unfortunately, there has been little disposition on the part 

 of the railroads to take any steps to prevent these fires. This indiffer- 

 ence has in part been due to the indifference of the owners of forest 

 land along their lines. The railroads would probably be willing to 

 cooperate in the prevention of fire, if these owners showed more in- 

 terest in fire protection. A law requiring the railroads to keep a strip 

 100 feet wide on each side of their track clear of all combustible ma- 

 terial would tend to prevent a great many fires started by railroads. It 

 has been found from careful investigation that most of the sparks from 

 a locomotive engine fall between 50 to 100 feet from the road bed; 

 therefore, if such a strip were kept clear, fires resulting from sparks 

 would be far less frequent. But since the right of way owned by the 

 railroads does not always extend to this width, there might be diffi- 

 culties in the way of such a law. The railroads could, however, se- 

 cure the owner's consent to enter on adjoining lands in order to clear 

 off the combustible material to this width; and in case the owner re- 

 fused, the railroad could be relieved of responsibility for any fire 

 which it might start on his land. 



Many States have been forced to pass stringent laws requiring the 

 railroads to use spark arresters on all of their locomotives. One or 

 two logging operators in this region use spark arresters in their en- 

 gines with fairly satisfactory results. Wherever these have been used 

 there has been great objection to them on the ground that they cut off 

 too much draft. This defect will no doubt be overcome in the near 

 future and their use become general. The American Spark Arrester 

 Co., of Indianapolis, Ind., are now conducting what promise to be suc- 

 cessful experiments along this line. The present development of these 

 devices, however, warrants their use in emergencies; and a law might 

 be framed so that their use would be compulsory only in dry weather,, 

 when every precaution is made necessary. 



(c) Most of the serious forest fires in the mountain counties have 

 been set by men carelessly burning brush and rubbish in dry weather 

 in the spring. These men, many of whom are only renters and have^ 

 little or no property of their own, can not be controlled by the present 

 fire laws. Therefore, a new law prohibiting the burning of brush 

 during dry seasons unless very thorough precautions are taken to pre- 

 vent the spread of fire, is needed. Such a law, made effective by re- 



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