Destruction and Deterioration 113 



wealth. The lumbermen appreciate this serious- 

 ness, for they derive none of the incidental benefits 

 from the fires. But as a rule the settlers do not. 

 Nothing is more frequently heard than the expres- 

 sion that forest fires are really at the bottom a good 

 thing. Naturally, this state of mind makes it diffi- 

 cult to convince the voters of the desirability of 

 taking steps for the prevention and extinction 

 of fires, and especially of incurring the unavoidable 

 expense connected therewith. 



Another frequent view of the question on the part 

 of settlers is that there is but one way to get rid of 

 fires, and that is to get rid of the forest. Both this and 

 the preceding opinion are, of course, utterly selfish, 

 narrow, and short-sighted. But most people, from 

 ignorance and moral obliquity, see only those sides 

 of the question which immediately touch them in 

 their own personal affairs. Consequently, these 

 opinions among the people are hard to combat, and 

 they constitute one of the most serious obstacles to 

 the passage of proper fire-police laws. 



As far as the injury done by forest fires to farm 

 and village property is concerned, this subject is 

 really but indirectly connected with forestry. The 

 modifications undergone by the methods of lumber- 

 ing on account of the prevalence of fire, and the 

 measures calculated to guard against destruction 

 by fires, are treated in other chapters of this book. 

 Here is the place to speak of the injury done to the 

 value and condition of the growing forests. In this 

 connection it should be stated that a systematic 



