132 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The pine trees are generally the most threatened; in leafy woods the loss 

 is least as the trunks are always capable of throwing out suckers. 



The preventive means (in Germany) are laws and police surveillance, and 

 should also be practiced here; to these belongs the law: Preventing the 

 building of a house within a forest or within a certain distance; further, 

 the distance is fixed for lime and plaster ovens as well as brick- 

 kilns, and the law against the building of a Are in or near the woods with- 

 out necessary precautions for the means of prevention at the dangerous 

 times of the year. 



To these the following laws also belong: The selection of a place for 

 building of a fire on ground free from weeds and not near any ground 

 covered with them or young trees; surrounding the fires with stones and 

 completely putting it out before leaving it. 



In dry, windy weather fires are not to be built in the woods; the same 

 is to be noticed in building fires near the forests as, for instance, building 

 fire in the stubble. 



Along the railroads at certain distances (bare) strips are also to be 

 burned in order to prevent the sparks from the locomotives from origin- 

 ating fires. 



Those who smoke tobacco, especially those who use cigars, breed them- 

 selves to have especial care, and also the hunters, in regard to the use of 

 their weapons. 



In order to put out fires that have already started, it is of the greatest 

 importance to bind the inhabitants of the neighborhood by law to help 

 extinguish it. 



In large timbered districts it is absolutely necessary to have what are 

 called fire streets or snares, with which the forest is perforated at certain 

 distances from each other, according to the situation of the district, and 

 at both sides of these roads ditches are dug and Boswellia Senata are 

 planted to bar the progress of the fire. The middle of the way should be 

 kept clean and the broader the roads the better. 



It is further of great importance, in warding off the danger of fire, that 

 plantings should be kept clean early in the year, especially is it necessary 

 to remove broken limbs, bush heaps and the dead leaves as early as 

 possible; this is especially necessary near railroads and much frequented 

 highways where carelessness or malignancy can very easily do great 

 harm. 



It is best to extinguish an undergrowth fire by throwing earth on it. 

 Where the dimensions of the fires are not very great it can oft-times be 

 extinguished by the use of brooms, spades, green leafy branches, etc., if 

 the dimensions are great it is not possible to approach the fire in order to 

 use these means, in that case, according to the strength of the wind, a 

 a strip of land 10 or 12 feet wide running parallel with the fire and a 

 short distance from it, should carefully be cleaned of all combustibles 

 and watched by a sufficient number of people until the fire has reached 

 it, in case it should spring over. 



If the number helping are not sufficient in order to clear such a strip 

 early enough, it is recommended to effect this by starting a backfire; but 

 this is only possible in quiet still weather and eventually requires as 

 much help to watch the fire as it took to make the clearing. 



In places where much decayed wood and dried humus is present and 



