which will make homes and serve indirectly in every form of industry. The house can be rebuilt in a few weeks, the forest in not less than a generation. If a house is on fire, we go at once and try to extinguish the flames. Why not do the same when a forest is on fire.

There has been enacted in this State considerable forest fire legislation. In the first place it has been attempted to do away with the material which causes the worst of forest fires, that is the slash left by the lumbermen. Slash is of two kinds, hardwood and softwood slash. The hardwood slash disappears much more quickly. than the softwood, and this has not been covered by legislation. The question has been with the softwood or evergreen tree tops. As the value of this law has been much debated, let us spend a little time on its consideration.

TOP LOPPING.

Under ordinary conditions the top left after the logs are cut is held up off the ground by the lower branches and during the fire season becomes dry as tinder and constitutes a serious fire danger for from fifteen to twenty years. Since 1909 loggers have been compelled by law to lop or cut off the limbs from all tops so that the refuse will all lie close to the ground. This was done in order to do away with the fire danger as soon as possible, as the top will disappear through decay much sooner if all branches are lying on the ground than if they are held up in the air. The reasons for this are that the fungus causing decay requires air and moisture for the proper carrying on of its work. The top when it is held up from the ground has plenty of air, but moisture at the proper time of year is lacking. On the other hand, wood completely submerged in water does not decay, as the air is lacking. The conditions most favorable for the growth of rot exists at the surface of the ground and if all branches lie as close to the ground as possible, they will disappear in the minimum time. The best proof that this is so lies in the fact that our fence posts, telegraph and telephone poles, etc., have by far the greatest amount of decay at the point where they enter the ground. The least observing person knows that this is true, and it is well brought out by the fact that if any single part of a pole is to be treated with preservative, it is this point, and many companies imbed their poles in concrete for a foot or so at the surface of the ground. There cannot be the slightest doubt then that the tops will decay more quickly lopped than unlopped.

In cases where tops have been lopped, the slash has disappeared, as a fire danger, in six to seven years. So far so good.

There is a question brought up by the lumbermen in regard to the intensity of the fires caused by lopped tops. It is claimed by them that fires which burn over territory where the tops are lopped burn much more fiercely than where the tops have not been lopped and that the soil suffers much more in consequence. This question is open to discussion, but let us consider for the moment that it is so. Will this be of weight enough to offset the good effects of the law. Does it more than compensate for the fact that with unlopped tops we can have a bad fire any year for twenty years and with lopped tops, after three or four years the danger is much decreased and in about seven years has passed. Again, where the tops are lopped, the wood material will not dry out nearly as quickly as where the tops have not been lopped. Thus the fire season is much shortened and the danger much reduced on this account.

Beyond these points, when it comes to the actual question of fighting fire, the fact that the tops are lopped will be of infinite value in clearing fire lines, as it can be done very easily with a shovel. With unlopped tops, we have great masses of interlocked limbs forming heaps of slash that are extremely hard to clear out.

Some lumbermen claim that the branches form too close a mat when the tops are lopped and hinder reproduction. This is best disapproved by a visit to the private preserves, where top lopping has been practiced in the past and where the reproduction is as good if not better than any to be found elsewhere in the Adirondack region.

The cost of lopping tops varies. Large operators state they are able to do work for four cents per market* while jobbers are usually paid five cents. This makes the price from twenty to twenty-five cents per thousand feet. This price is satisfactory to the jobber. The successful lumberman usually removes a portion of the top from which the branches have been lopped and in some cases the value of the wood pays the expense of the operation. The removal of this extra material also reduces the fire menace by reducing the quantity of combustible material. Operators also admit that lopping has reduced the expense formerly necessary in cutting skidding trails.

Considering the welfare of the forests for a period of years and the condition of the forest immediately after lumbering, the good coming from the top lopping law far outweighs the bad.

* The term "market" is used in the Adirondacks as a unit measure of logs. It is a log 13 feet long and 19 inches in diameter at the small end.

FURTHER LEGISLATION.

Aside from the top lopping law, the State posts thousands of fire warnings and the wooded districts are carefully patrolled. Fire observation stations, in telephone communication with the outside world, have been established on over forty prominent mountain peaks in the forest regions. A serious attempt is being made to secure proper legislation to carry out a sane conservation policy. The more important laws relating to forest fires are summarized as follows:

Brush cannot be burned at any time without permission from the district forest ranger or forest ranger; fine $50 to $300. (This law applies to certain towns known as the "Fire Towns" in the Adirondack and Catskill counties.)

It is made a felony to willfully set fire or negligently allow fire to extend to the property of another. Persons so doing are liable for all damages caused and an additional damage of $10 per tree when State timber is injured.

Persons setting fire from burning brush, torches, gun wads, cigar and cigarette butts, etc., are guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to a fine of $10 to $25 and imprisonment for ninety days.

Camp fires must be made on a cleared space at least ten feet in radius from fire and fully extinguished before leaving. Penalty of $10 to $25 and ninety days in jail.

Supervisors of towns which are not fire towns are er officio fire wardens with power to summon assistance to aid in extinguishing fire.

The courts have held that in case the supervisor negligently allows a fire to run wild, he is personally responsible for damage. Conditions are far from satisfactory, however, and we must do an immense amount of work before we can get the better of this trouble. Forest fires cause an annual drain on the forests surpassing that due to lumbering. Practically all forest fires are due to carelessness and we can accomplish infinitely more through prevention than through extinction.

LOSSES.

We usually think of a forest fire as doing an amount of damage equal to the timber destroyed. This is far from the real damage. The timber destroyed is worth from $4 to $5 per thousand board feet. When the timber comes on the lumber market it is worth about $20 for the same amount and the difference has largely

gone into wages of men employed in manufacturing the lumber and all of it has gone to increase the wealth of the country. Again, fires consume such a large quantity of merchantable material that they have a most important effect in shortening the timber supply of the country and consequently raising the price of lumber.

These losses are all financial. The greatest loss cannot be measured by money. This is the loss to the soil. We can grow a merchantable tree in from thirty to forty years on good soil; but when the soil is destroyed it may take a thousand years. There is no fire, no matter how small, which does not seriously damage the energy of the soil. If the fire is severe the forces which bound the soil together are destroyed and erosion sets in to complete the desolation of the country.

GROWTH AND YIELD.

If we are to manage our forests with any degree of intelligence, provided we desire a continued supply of timber, we must know how fast our timber is growing, how much in markets, board feet or cords is being added to our timber lands per acre per year and then we can determine definitely just how much we can cut each year and not draw on our capital. Growth studies also tell us what species are of the fastest growth; and by taking the market conditions into consideration, we can tell what species will pay best to favor in management or to plant. In short, growth studies are absolutely necessary if we are know how much we can cut and not over-cut; and on these studies depends our getting a maximum supply on one hand, and ruining our forests on the other.

Studies of this kind will also tell us that we can greatly increase growth by the proper methods of silviculture and at the same time better the quality of the product.

CUTTING PLANS.

Forests may be cut in many ways. Individual trees may be taken out, certain species may be taken out, all species may be cut to a certain diameter limit, the area may be clear cut of all growth or it may be clear cut in strips or groups. Where practically all progressive companies operating timber lands are falling down in their cutting plans, is through their considering only the timber on the ground and not making any allowance for reproducing the stand.

This subject can be more intelligently discussed by considering how the main types of our forests may be cut under different conditions.