Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-02-08

Ln4BOS0S h q +. They
- sSreS eSrneG of over the 4siSGe stote
forests and 295.O00 acres of private
forest land. Over $4,000 was spent
in extinguishing them.
The causes are given as. follows:
Railroads. 274 fires. doing $1S5,OOO
damage; brush burning on dry or
windy days, 105 fires. doing $4,000
damage; incendiary, 102 fires, doing
sos, 900 damage; carelessness of hunt
ers. fishermen and campers, 1876 fires,
doing S10S,000 damage; lightning, 10
fires doing $4,000 damage; miscella-
neous, 81 fires. doing $4,000 damage;
unknown, 3S2 fires, doing S365,0OO
damage.
Department officials say that reason
able care would have prevented prac-
tically all the fires except those caused
| by lightning and a few which started
from burning buildings.
| The average fire covered 800 acres
did damage estimated at $775 and cost
| $50 to eXtinguish. Half the fires COW
| cred less than 100 acres each; one
third covered from 100 to 1000 acres
each, and II are reported as having
| burned over more than 1000 acres
each, or about 60 per cent. of the total
burned area. It is apparent that the
greater part of the damage is done by
| the comparatively few large fires,
hence the department will make a
special effort in 1916 to reduce the
number of thousand-acre fires.
| New York, which protects about the
| same forest area as Pennsylvania, ap-
propriates cent an acre each year for
| prevention and extinction, and the
average fire covers only 33 acres;
Pennsylvania appropriated only three
| tenthS of cent per acre and its aver
age fire is ten times as large.
The SS50,000 loss is the direct loss
from burned timber only. The in
direct loss cannot be computed accu-
rately, but it is estimated at from
100000 to $25, 100000. In this
estimate are included the loss to labor
caused by keeping unproductive
100000 acres of forest, every acre of
which is burned over once in ten years.
the loss in floods, water famines and
impure water supply, caused by the
burning of the humus and litter on
the forest floor. which is Natures
| filter; the loss in taxes, due to de-
| probation in value of the burned for
ests, which amounts to about 100000
a year; and the loss to agricultural
crops, which suffer from the reduced
humidity of the air where no forests
are present to give off moisture. There
| is also decided decrease in game and
birds. thousands of small animals and
birds being actually burned and thou
sands more driven from the burned
| forests.
The new bureau of forest protection,
created by an act passed at the last
session of the Legislature, has reor-
ganized the forest fire warden system
of the State on a nonpolitical basis,
making appointments only on merit.
The cooperation of the game and fish
warden, rural mail carriers, employees
of the State Highway Department and
the State police has been secured. In
Guiding the foresters and rangers in
the Pennsylvania Forest Service, the
total number of wardens is now about
1900
| The bureau has $4,000 available for
its work of prevention and extinction
of forest fires for two years. Since it
| cost S32, 900 for one year for eXtinc-
ton only, it is evident that few pre-
| ventive measures can be taken or
much relief expected until sufficient
! funds are appropriated.
PneumOnia's Heavy Toll. Pneu-
monia took q heavy toll during No
vember, 1915, according to a statement
| of the causes of death during that
month in Pennsylvania just issued by
the bureau of vital statistics of the
State Department of Health. This dis
ease. with SIG deaths, stands first in
the list of fatal diseases. Bright's dis
ease and nephritis resulted in the
death of 797; II Pennsylvanians COM
mitted suicide; 200 died from diph-
liberia; 66S from tuberculosis of the
lungs; 503 from cancer; 116 from
| typhoid. In all there were 1926
births and S,93S deaths, distributed as
follows: Typhoid fever, 116: scarlet
fever IS; diphtheria, 200; measles, 2S;
whooping cough, 4S; influenza, 43; ma
laria, l; tuberculosis of other organs,
10S; cancer, sos; diabetes 76; menin-
gifts, 33; acute poliomyelitis, 4; pneu-
monia, SIG; diarrhoea and enteritis,
over years, 797; early infancy, COS;
suicide, II; accidents in mines, II:
railway accidents, 103; other forms of
violence, sos; all other diseases, 3,642.
Blight Not Stamped Out.--The State
Department of Forestry since the
passing out of existence of the Chest
nut Blight Commission, has been keep
ing watchful eye on the situation in
Pennsylvania and to-day announce
ment was made that the blight is
spreading rapidly in twenty eight dis
tricts of the state: is apparently sta
ttonary in eight districts; is receding
in only one, and is absent in fourteen.
The infection, the announcement says,
was reported farthest west in North
western Clearfeld county; farther east
in Central Pike county; south near the
Maryland line in Franklin county, and
farthest north in Northwestern Tioga
! county
Confer On Road. An important
| ~ OF no