The necessity of devising methods for preventing the spread of forest fires cannot, with the growing demands of a larger population upon our forests, be longer safely neglected. The forest question has become a question of dollars and cents; we cannot longer afford to allow our forests to burn.

The proportion of actually productive forest to population is in New England already too low, and we have long imported most of our forest supplies from Canada, from the Western pineries, and from the South. The center of lumber distribution has moved westward from New England to beyond the Hudson, and then to the shores of Lake Michigan.

The extent of the loss which the country experiences every year from the destruction of woodlands by fire is enormous, and could the actual amount of such losses be computed they would astonish even those most familiar with the condition of the American forests. The division of the tenth census which has been specially engaged during the past three years in studying the forests of the country, has endeavored to gather statistics of the extent and value of the forests burned during the year 1880. The results obtained from this investigation have not been published yet. The information is often vague and untrustworthy, and even after the most careful analysis is so liable to mislead that it will be safer, for the present at least, to use the results as a basis for general discussion, without drawing actual deductions so far as the whole country is concerned from statistical statements in which danger of error is of necessity considerable. Enough, however, will be shown to indicate, with all due allowance for defective returns, that the extent of forest fires throughout the country is infinitely greater than has ever been seriously supposed.

In Massachusetts, to be sure, the amount of property destroyed in this manner is shown to be comparatively small, and it is fair to assume in a community like this that estimates are more carefully made and more accurately returned than in the thinly settled forest regions of the far Western States and Territories. And yet in Massachusetts, in the year 1880, according to these returns, 13,899 acres of woods were burned over, the loss being given at over one hundred thousand dollars. In Pennsylvania, where the value of forest property is more appreciated than in Massachusetts, and the lumbering interests are only second to those of Michigan, 685,738 acres of forest are reported burned over during the year, with a loss of over three million dollars. It is not probable that these statements are exaggerated, and in the case of Pennsylvania they undoubtedly do not fully represent the actual loss from this cause. The returns show that 3,988 acres of the forest destroyed by fire during that year in Massachusetts were in Barnstable County; that Berkshire County lost 1,377 acres; that Hampshire lost 1,150; Essex, 1,780; while in Bristol, Dukes and Hampden the loss was in each case below 1,000 acres, and that Franklin only suffered a loss of one hundred acres.

During the present year a great tract of tree-covered land, probably nearly 7,000 acres in extent, not very valuable forest to be sure, still of very great prospective value at least, was burned over in Barnstable County, and the average annual losses by forest fires in Massachusetts may probably be safely put down at some 10,000 acres. The loss is considerable, but hardly enough to cause any serious anxiety if it was confined to the actual destruction of the wood growing upon the land. But forest fires destroy not only the growing wood but the fertility of the soil itself and its capacity to produce valuable trees again; they, destroy, moreover, the confidence of the community in the value and stability of forest property. The destruction by fire, then, of the wood standing upon a few thousand acres, more or less, does not by any means represent the entire or more than a small portion of the loss which forest fires entail upon the State.

Sufficient attention has not been paid to the effects of forest fires upon the soil and the subsequent growth of plants. We have been accustomed, in treating forest fires, too generally to consider the damage done to the growing wood alone, and have not considered the much greater loss the land itself suffers from being burned over. If only a portion of the trees growing on a tract of land are cut, a sufficient number being left to protect the soil and produce a supply of seed, - if these are guarded from fire and browsing animals which, next to fire, are the most active and destructive enemies of the forest, the same species will continue to grow almost indefinitely and a constant succession of young trees will regularly spring up to replace those which have been removed. This is a system of forest management very often adopted, especially with certain varieties of trees, where scientific forest management prevails; and it is on many accounts a very sensible and economical method, although, of course, susceptible of very considerable modifications to meet peculiar cases of forest growth or climatic conditions.

If, on the other hand, a forest is destroyed by fire which kills the trees and undergrowth of shrubs and herbs, the same species, except in the case of some of our least valuable trees, rarely spring up again. Let us take the case of a white pine forest, because the white pine is probably the most valuable forest tree to-day in New England and because we are all familiar with its habit of growth. If a forest of white pine is destroyed by fire this tree does not spring up again. The land which, if only a part of the trees had been cut, would have continued to produce pines indefinitely, is not covered again with any growth of trees for a considerable period. The fire-weed first makes its appearance. The light seed of this plant is often blown for a long distance, and falling upon bare ground germinates quickly, and finally covers the burned surface with vegetation. Birds drop the seeds of raspberries and blackberries, which find sufficient nourishment and light for germination. These, as they grow, cover the ground, and afford protection to the stones of the little mountain cherry, dropped by birds also, or the light seeds of the gray birch, or some of the willows or poplars, which are constantly blowing about, and which will germinate anywhere upon unshaded ground, however barren.

These are generally the first trees which succeed a white pine forest destroyed by fire; but years often elapse before the ground is covered even with such trees. Nature works slowly, and the wounds made by fire on the earth's covering of trees are only healed under the most favorable conditions through the gradual growth and decay of many generations of plants. The cherries and the birch and poplars are short lived, and unless burned up, when the same process of recovering the soil commences again, are succeeded by more valuable broad-leaved trees. Squirrels and other animals deposit acorns and nuts in the ground, and the wind brings the seeds of maples, ashes, and the valuable birches. Such seeds find protection among the poplars and willows which had sprung up on the burned land, and as these die, the more valuable trees get a chance to grow and gradually occupy the ground. This new forest of hard-wood trees, if protected from fire, will long occupy the ground, and the original pine forest will not appear again until the land, long enriched by an annual deposit of leaves, has been again stripped of its tree-covering, and mellowed by years of cultivation.

Such land nearly all over New England, if freed from the plough and the scythe, and guarded from fire and pasturage, grows up again with pine. The different processes, however, by which white pine land, on which the forest has been destroyed by fire, has been again brought into the condition to produce spontaneously another crop of pine, have occupied a long period of time, - so long, indeed, that it must extend through generations of human life. The forest fire, then, which destroyed the pine trees growing upon the land, destroyed, also, the capacity of the land to produce again a similar crop of trees during a period which may be set down at from fifty to one hundred years. The damage inflicted upon the land by forest fires is, of course, not irreparable in a climate like that of New England, where the annual rain-fall is sufficient to always ensure a growth of trees of some sort, if the ground is left entirely undisturbed, and sooner or later, in the ordinary workings of nature's laws, forests will succeed each other here.

But in some parts of the country where the rain-fall is so slight that there is a con-stant and severe struggle between the forest and the plain, and where trees under the most favorable conditions barely exist, a forest fire not only kills the forest but it makes any future growth of trees impossible.

We, in New England, are more fortunate, and it is entirely within our power to regulate the composition of our forests, and maintain a proper proportion between forest areas and farming land.

If, however, forests are subject to constant and unnecessary danger of destruction by fire, there can be no proper system of forest management introduced into the usual economy of the community. There is little inducement to plant a forest, or protect and encourage the growth of natural woodlands, so long as the condition of public sentiment is such that the authors of forest fires are not held responsible for their acts. A man cannot be expected to expend money or labor on his trees, or allow them to grow a year after he can find a market for them, if he has the danger of forest fires constantly before his eyes. There is no inducement, under these circumstances, to allow a forest to mature for timber; it is safer to cut it off for cord-wood at the earliest possible moment, and thus reduce the risk of probable loss by fire.

Under these circumstances it is useless to adopt any of the methods of thinning or pruning by which the value of young forest trees for timber may be vastly improved, or to guard the woods from roaming and destructive cattle; and it follows that a large portion of the profits which our forests could be made to yield, under a different policy are lost.

The forest fires, then, destroy the trees. They destroy the capacity of the land to produce again during long years similar trees; and, finally, they so shake the public confidence in the permanent value of forest property that, even in a State like Massachusetts from which the original forest has long disappeared, and where the value of all forest products is enormously high, capital will not engage in forest production, which, with the condition of our forests, could certainly be made enormously profitable, until the risks from fire are reduced to a minimum. This is a matter of special interest to New England to-day, because upon it largely depends the country's supply of white pine, and the greatly enhanced value in the early future of much New England land.

Not a small part of central and southern New England, no longer profitable for agriculture, is now growing up with white pine; and this white pine, if it can only be protected, will, in a few years, it is safe to predict, exceed in value the net profit all the New England farms can produce during the next fifty years. In some parts of New England this second growth of pine has been growing for a considerable time, and has already given rise to large and profitable industries. The value of logs cut in Massachusetts during the census year, reached nearly two million dollars; at least one-half were second-growth white pine. More than one hundred million feet of second-growth white pine were sawed during the same year in Vermont and New Hampshire, and nearly if not quite as much more in Maine. The manufacture of wooden ware, an important and growing Massachusetts industry depending upon this second-growth pine, has made Winchendon, Worcester county, the great center of this business in the United States, if not in the world. These young forests of pine are already, then, of great value to New England; at no very distant day they must become one of the most important factors in its prosperity.

The problem growing out of the actual condition of the country's supply of white pine, and the effects which any serious diminution of this supply must have upon our prosperity as a nation, need not be considered here at any great length.

The entire supply of white pine growing in the United States and ready for the axe does not today greatly, if at all, exceed eighty billion feet, and this estimate includes small and inferior trees, which a few years ago would not have been considered at all in making such an estimate.

The annual production of white pine lumber is not now far from ten billion feet, and the demand is constantly and rapidly increasing. The publication of these facts a few months ago has greatly increased, and in some cases more than doubled, the value of pine lands in parts of the country; and it does not require any particular powers of foresight to be able to predict that the price of white pine must advance to still higher figures. Enough is now known of our forests to permit the positive statement that no great unexplored body of this pine remains; and that, with the exception of the narrow redwood belt of the California coast, no North American forest can yield in quantity any substitute for white pine, the most generally valuable and most generally used of American lumber. Under these circumstances, the growing pine of New England will soon become an important element in the country's supply. In no other section is there so much young pine growing; and if we cannot compete with the West or the South in the production of cereals and wheat, we have at least in our favor soil and climate better suited to grow pine than any other part of the country. New England cannot allow this opportunity for increased prosperity to be lost.

The demand for white pine is rapidly increasing; the extent of the supply is at last known; no available substitute exists to any great extent; we possess already a considerable quantity of young pine, and greater natural advantages than other parts of the country for growing a much larger amount. A market is assured for all that can be produced, and we may look forward with certainty to obtaining prices for pine which promise, if we can judge the future by the past, to make the value of the land covered with thrifty growing pine much greater than that which can ever be obtained for the best agricultural land in the State.

The single danger which threatens property of this nature is the one, real or imaginary, of destruction by forest fires. If this danger, and the dread of it, could be removed, or at least greatly reduced, an investment in young pine growing in New England would promise to capital, in the long run, larger returns than could be derived from almost any other legitimate business enterprise; but so long as this dread of fire exists capital will natu-ally content itself with smaller and more certain returns. If under these circumstances it is desirable to foster and develop the growth of New England forests, better legislation than now exists for their protection must be secured; and then the public mind must be educated to the importance of forest protection, that the enforcement of such laws as may appear necessary for this purpose may be possible.

Legislation in advance of public sentiment cannot be expected to accomplish any very marked results; and unless we can learn to appreciate the rapidly increasing value of our woods in their commercial aspect, the passage of laws, however carefully prepared, will not avail a great deal. But to return to the immediate question of forest fires in Massachusetts. The census investigation showed that during the year 1880 fifty-two such fires were set by sparks from locomotives; that forty spread from carelessly burned brush heaps; that hunters caused thirty-seven; that nineteen careless smokers dropped their lighted cigars or burning ashes from their pipes and so caused disastrous conflagrations. In three instances the origin of forest fires is ascribed to the burning of charcoal, and in only eight cases to malice. It appears, then, that the railroads are responsible for the greatest number of these fires; and that the remainder may be generally traced to sheer carelessness. The railroads are already held responsible for the actual damage they inflict upon property in this way; but, as has been shown, the destruction of trees is only a small part of the real damage caused by forest fires.

Still the railroads cannot be held responsible under the law for the prospective damage represented by a partial or entire destruction of the plant-producing capacity of soil which they have burned; nor can they well be made to pay for the loss of confidence in forest property which such fires cause. Such damages can neither be estimated nor collected. Fires set by locomotives can, however, be largely prevented by the general adoption of some effectual spark-arrester.

It is true that such a contrivance has not yet been perfected to the entire satisfaction of railroad experts; but if the railroads were compelled to adopt some of the existing patents, American ingenuity and skill can be depended on to perfect them.

It is a case where supply will quickly follow the demand. As a first step, then, towards checking the spread of forest fires, the Legislature should compel all railroad corporations operating within the State to provide their locomotives with spark-consumers. Such appliances are in general use in Europe, and locomotives should not be longer operated without them in this State.

One of the principal dangers to the forest, and more especially to the coniferous forest, which we in Massachusetts, when we increase our lumbering operations, shall soon learn to dread more generally than at present, comes from the custom of leaving scattered about the ground the tops and branches of the trees cut down during the winter. This debris becomes, by the middle of the following summer, as dry as tinder, and furnishes the very best material to feed a fire started in the woods. Any enactment intended to prevent forest fires should contain a provision compelling, under penalty of fine, the collection and careful burning during the winter in which the trees are cut, of all parts of them not actually carried from the ground. The possibility of successfully dealing with persons carelessly setting fire to forests is more difficult and more remote. Such persons rarely confess their carelessness, and still find protection in public indifference.

But until public sentiment makes it possible to convict a person setting carelessly or wantonly a forest fire, and to hold him responsible under the law for the damage he inflicts, the solution of these questions will not be very near. The following was passed by the last Legislature:

An Act For The Protection Of Forests Against Fires

Whoever wantonly and recklessly sets fire to any material which causes the destruction or injury of any growing or standing wood of another, shall be punished by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months.

The passage of such a bill, defective as it is, indicates at least a feeling that at last the forests of Massachusetts should be protected. The law as it now stands upon the statute book should, however, be amended. It is not comprehensive enough and it is not severe enough. It would not be very difficult to draft a bill to cover the necessities of the case, if the feelings of the community in regard to the value of forest property were more advanced; but with the existing apathy in regard to the subject, and the impossibility of securing now, without a full discussion by the press and the people of the forest question, the enforcement of any proper law upon the subject, it seems better to present the subject thus generally for your discussion and consideration, without attempting to sketch even the form of such a bill as seems necessary to afford Massachusetts protection from forest fires. The better understanding of the forest question as it exists in New England to-day, which must follow any discussion of this subject, is the best guarantee that our forests will in time be protected, and that they will receive the care and attention which in their present economic aspect, if in no other, they deserve at our hands.

I commend the subject to the most careful consideration of the press and the farmers of New England.

In view of the great importance of this topic, we give this month, part of a paper by Prof. Sargent; originally communicated to the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture.