The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1906-03-17


acres in a single season. In 1885, 1885,
0G0 acres were burned over. These fig
ures are sufficient to indicate that if un-
checked the entire area would be burned
over in less than twenty-five years. "
.'Mr. Pinchot has given figures which
afford means for determining the money
return which would follow effective pro-
lection from fire. He shows that pine
forest 100 TO 200 years old, or say $50
years average age, yields an average Of
6631 board feet per acre, which, if Of
yellow pine, may be estimated to be.
worth, as standing timber, $40 per acre.
Second growth seedlings. eighty years
old, yield 1900 board feet, worth about
the same amount per acre the timber
being of smaller average size, and second
growth from forty to sixty years old
yields about twenty-three cords per acre.
The yearly increment Of value may there
fore be calculated at twenty-five cents
per acre when the forest is protected
from fire. When it is not protected at all,
the increment is so small that we may
nelgect it. If. as suggested by Mr.. Pin
chot's figures, merely efficient protection
from FIRE will give return Of twenty five
cents per acre annually for the half of
the pine forest which now suffers most
severely from fires, or 100000 acres, it
means an aggregate annual return of
$150,000 1t would, therefore, seem GER
tain that some well considered plan of
fire wardens would be worth while, if
we considered only the direct money re-
turn from the timber"
while the aggregate return is sufi-
GENTLY attractive and promising. how
ever, the standpoint of the owner. say.
of 100 acres of pine forest is necessarily
different. We can, at best, only a pos
sible annual increment of $25 to his
holdings. which can scarcely be eonverti-
BILE into cash by him. and may not be
realized by the next generation even,
while he is confronted with an absolutely
certain outlay of So or $4 for the cost of
protection, in addition to any other taxes
to which the property may be subject.
The apathy of the present owner of the
forest is therefore not unnatural, al
though we personally believe that if some
efficient system of psoteetion can be put
into operation the forests win soon profit
by an advance in value rgeater than that
due to the wood alone"
''There are other strong reasons for
protecting the pine forest, which, while
they may not appeal strongly to the in
dividual forest owner, certainly do an
peal to the people of the State at large.
If by successive fires the forest cover
should be destroyed this sandy district
will become terribly forbidding waste
of shifting sand, blown hither and thither
by the varying winds"
In summing up his argument for better
fire protection Professor Smock shows
the neral effect of fires on ropula ton,
saying, "it is obvious that where the for
est is constantly exposed to fire and
there is no adequate protection its value
must be greatly deprecated. 1he result
is that timber is often cut before its M
turity Land owners believe that with
proper protection against fire the value
of forest property viii be greatly in
creased.
The fires have been so abundant that
the people have come to look upon them
as inevitable and there is deplorable
lack of real interest among land owners
in regard to any attempt to introduce
State protection. Large tracts of land
are owned by nonresident capitalists,
and timber stealing is very common, es-
pecially after fires. When the timber is
killed many persons consider it better to
use the dead trees for cord wood than al
low them to rot on the ground, and they
cut such timber on tracts of land to
which they have no right. There is no
doubt that forest fires encourage spirit
of lawlessness and disregard of prop
erty rights"
In view of what has been here quoted
it would seem that the State cannot a-f
ford to delay longer in taking up the inn
portant matter of protecting our forests
from fire. Wherever the plan has been
tried in our neighboring States it has
been found to have effected a Great saw
ing and to have marked a step forward in
forestry. 1t is true that these results
have not been obtained without many dis
coura gements, and some rather expensive
experiments, but New Jersey is nov in
position to profit by the. experience Of
other States, and in the opinion Of this
Commission it should Immediately take
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