upon the character of the lumbering operation. It may vary from the few scattered branches left after cutting a few trees for fuel from a woodlot, to the large mass of limbs and tree tops left after a hardwood and softwood lumbering operation in the forest regions. SURFACE FIRES A surface fire is a fire which, when it burns over an area of forest, merely runs in the leaves and ground litter, and which does not run up into the tops of the trees to any appreciable extent, or does not burn down deep into the duff, humus or ground. The surface fire is the easiest of all fires to control, since its flames seldom rise to any great height from the ground, nor do they give out such intense heat, as do the more disastrous crown fires. In many parts of New York State, especially in the farming sections, forest fires seldom develop beyond surface fires. This class of fires is common in the forest regions of the Adirondacks and Catskills during the very early spring, late fall or the summer when conditions are not exceptionally dry, and the fire burns over an area, scorching only the leaves and ground litter. GROUND FIRES During periods of drought and when there is an abundance of humus or duff on the forest floor, surface fires often develop into what are called ground fires. In regions of dense forests, such as are found in the Adirondack region, the layer of humus upon the ground is often several feet in depth. Under the above conditions, ground fires burn into this humus and destroy all vegetable matter down to the mineral soil or bed rock. These fires are extremely hard to extinguish, for it is well nigh impossible to get at them, or if they are accessible, to carry sufficient water to extinguish them. Cases are on record in which fires of this class have smouldered for weeks, defying all efforts to extinguish them. CROWN FIRES As has been mentioned above, crown fires can result only in regions where there is a dense forest growth, and where the kind of timber, the amount of inflammable material upon the ground, the dryness of the atmosphere, and the severity of the wind, com bine to make possible an extensive conflagration. The crown fires owe their origin either to surface fires or ground fires. Ground or surface fires may be burning over an area of forest where the topography is varied and do but little damage until they come to the top of a ridge or knoll where the wind can reach them to better advantage, when the increased draft thus afforded them, causes them to run up the tree trunks and communicate fire to the crowns or tops of the trees. Forests of coniferous trees are especially prone to suffer from fires of this kind. The resinous character of the trees affords excellent fuel for fire, and when the fire has reached the crowns, the increased draft which it receives causes it to travel with extreme rapidity. All the disastrous forest fires of history have developed into crown fires before they have done the greater part of their damage. It is difficult to estimate the speed with which a crown fire travels, but there is no doubt that these fires have frequently attained a speed of several miles an hour. DAMAGE DONE BY FIRES The casual observer seldom realizes the entire extent of the damage which is done by a forest fire. Everyone will note the trees which have been blackened and killed outright, but few stop to realize the loss of young growth or reproduction, the injury to the soil, and the indirect damage to the larger trees. This brings up the question of the kinds of damage, which may be roughly classified as "Direct" and "Indirect." DIRECT DAMAGE Under the head of direct damage we consider the trees which have been entirely consumed, those which have been killed, but not destroyed, those which have been badly burned around the roots, etc. Crown fires are the only fires which actually consume large trees, but in the case of a severe crown fire, it is no unusual occurrence to have a large part of both the hard and softwood timber on an area completely destroyed. It is often exceedingly difficult to tell just which trees have been killed by fire. Some retain a spark of vitality for a year or two after the fire, and then die, as a direct result of being scorched. While it is true that large trees are seldom consumed by any except crown fires, great numbers of trees are killed by having their roots burned and the soil which supports them destroyed by severe ground fires. These fires so weaken the roots of the trees that they fail to give sufficient support and at the first sign of heavy wind, the tree topples over. In the dense forests of the Adirondack region and in certain other parts of the State, there is practically no mineral soil covering the bed rock. In these cases a severe ground fire burns away the accumulation of ground litter, humus, or so-called "muck," which constitutes the soil, until there is nothing left to sustain the tree. Ground fires are extremely destructive in killing young growth or reproduction, that is, the stand of saplings and seedlings which are to form the body of the future forest crop. The smaller trees are either entirely consumed, or at least killed, by a ground fire. Even a surface fire may so weaken their powers of resistance, that they will succumb within a short time. INDIRECT DAMAGE This brings us to a consideration of the question of injury which is indirectly due to forest fires. It is a well recognized fact that when trees have been weakened by any cause, they are more liable to suffer from the attacks of insects or of disease germs than when they are growing thriftily. Forest fires, in burning over an area, leave bad fire scars on the trunks of many trees which are not actually consumed. These scars permit the ingress of fungi and insects, which injure and frequently destroy the tree. Damage done to timber by fungi which have secured ingress through fire scars at the base of the tree is exceedingly hard to appraise, especially in hardwood timber. New growth may cover the scar completely, leaving little or no indication on the surface of the defects within. Tree species vary widely in their power of resistance to fire, and this variance must be studied if one would hope to understand the degree of damage suffered by the forest. Another form of indirect damage due to fire is the destruction. of the proper relationship between the number of trees and the area upon which they stand, namely, in the reduction of the density of the stand, which is consequent upon the elimination of the |