118 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 



Then again, it is the greatest injustice to allow one person to 

 burn the property of another, which right is practically claimed 

 by those who advocate the unrestricted use of fire. 



With a Desire in the Minds of People to keep out 

 forest fires, there are many precautions that could be taken that 

 would lessen the chances of their starting, and when started 

 would aid in controlling them. The first thing is a good fire 

 law, such as now stands in Minnesota, which recognizes the fact 

 that the state and county should protect forest property from 

 fire for the same reason that a town or city protects the property 

 of its citizens from fire. This law puts one-third the expense 

 of enforcing it on the state and the other two-thirds* on the 

 county. The chief reasons why a part of this burden should be 

 borne by the state and not by the counties alone are that fires 

 spread from one county to another, and the state must be organ- 

 ized to extinguish such fires when they have once started, since 

 it is the only competent authority that can do this. Then again, 

 the State of Minnesota owns, or will own, when surveys have 

 been completed, about 3,000,000 acres of land scattered through 

 the forested area, besides possibly nearly as great an area that 

 has been bid in by the state for delinquent taxes. A large part 

 of the land the state owns has a valuable growth of trees on ii. 

 much of which is liable to injury or destruction by fire at any 

 time, and the state can well afford to provide protection for it. 



Firebreaks, in the shape of clean earth roads, plowed strips, 

 etc., are effective against ordinary forest fires. Very often by 

 clearing up and widening the course of a brook a very efficient 

 firebreak may be made which will supplement other firebreaks. 

 It is stated on good authority that fairly satisfactory and very 

 cheap firebreaks may be made in rough stump land by fencing 

 off a strip about three rods wide and pasturing it with sheep 

 which will kill out all the brush in the course of a year or two. 

 The sheep do this most effectually if the land is rather over 

 stocked, and they receive a little grain to make up for their lack 

 of pasturage. Figure 31 shows a firebreak or lane on Le 

 Grande Dune in France. 



The Burning of Trash left on the ground at the time of 

 logging is recommended by some of our best woodmen as a 

 means of doing away with one of the sources of our worst forest 

 fires. This trash can be burned early in the spring, or at other 



