AT THE CHISHOLM FIRE 

 After It Was Too Late to Accomplish Anything, a Few of the Citizens Made an Effort to Fight the Fire with a 



Water'cart and a Two-inch Hose 



It will be noted that fire reports were 

 received on 150,000,000 acres in 1907 

 against 97,000,000 in 1906. The in- 

 crease is accounted for by the addition 

 of 53,000,000 acres to the total area of 

 national forests in the year 1906. The 

 1907 figures are further misleading in 

 that they show the burning over of 

 212,850 acres by "forest fires," whereas, 

 in this acreage are included three fires 

 on grass lands on the Dismal River For- 

 est in Nebraska, the Garden City Forest 

 in Kansas, and the Wichita Forest in 

 Oklahoma. After eliminating these 

 fires, which were confined altogether to 

 grass-covered areas of an aggregate of 

 103,440 acres, it will be seen that the 

 actual acreage of average forest land 

 burned over was only 109,410 acres. It 

 will be seen thus that the forest land 

 burned over in 1907 was over 400,000 

 acres less in area than in 1906, although, 

 meanwhile the national forest area had 

 been increased by 53,000,000 acres. 



By its system of fire patrol, the For- 

 est Service has reduced the burned-over 

 area on national forests from sixty-six 

 one-hundredths of one per cent, in 1904, 

 to sixteen one-hundredths of one per 

 cent, in 1905, then to twelve one-hun- 

 dreths of one per cent, in 1906, and to 

 628 



seven one-hundredths of one per cent, in 

 1907. Upon the basis of the Forest 

 Service's experience on national for- 

 ests 'on which the total administration 

 cost per acre, including fire patrol, 

 amounts to only i cent, the forest area 

 of the entire United States could be pa- 

 trolled and protected from fire at a 

 total cost of less than $3,000,000. This 

 would save an annual loss on timber 

 alone of close to $20,000,000 per year, 

 to say nothing of the prevention of loss 

 and damage of all other kinds caused 

 directly by forest fires. 



«< «? &' 



Fire Protection a Business Proposition 



NO TOWN, city or municipality in 

 the United States is without more 

 or less adequate fire protection. The 

 apparatus for urban fire protection may 

 be limited ; it may be more or less ob- 

 solete — frequently it is — but the protec- 

 tion exists, and in case of emergency it 

 is at hand for subduing or helping to 

 subdue fires that threaten our towns and 

 cities. The entire business district of a 

 city the size of Indianapolis could be 

 destroyed by fire without causing half 

 the loss that is annually caused by for- 



