Game Administration 247 



By and large, the fires affecting game in the north central region are under 

 partial control only in the northwoods type of the Lake States. Of these States, 

 Michigan easily leads in the effectiveness of her control machinery. 



The physical fire hazard (that is, the burnable material on the land) is un- 

 dergoing important changes in certain parts of the region. In the Forest Belt of 

 the Lake States repeated burning is converting large areas from timber to brush, 

 and from brush to grass. This transition to grass is accompanied by an extreme 

 increase in the length of the fire season, and in the rapidity of potential spread. 



On the other hand, in the Agricultural Belt, the grazing of woodlots is rapidly 

 decreasing the physical hazard. The grazing and cultivation of drained marshes 

 has a like effect, but to a lesser degree. 



Education aimed to decrease the human risk is now organized to some ex- 

 tent in each State, but the actual reduction of that risk by changing the public's 

 attitude toward fire can hardly be said to have fairly begun. 



One of the most significant educational moves so far tried is the so-called 

 Ellington experiment, organized by the State Forester in Reynolds County, Mis- 

 souri. He induced the local tie and timber companies to subscribe a fund, and 

 to offer each of the local school districts one dollar for each of certain designated 

 forties which remained unburned at the end of the spring season. Up to 20 

 forties were designated in each school district, so placed as to checkerboard the 

 district. The idea behind the offer was that such a cash bonus might create a 

 local incentive to discourage fires. These Ozark school districts are much in need 

 of cash, and every outside dollar reduces local taxes. 



The result of the offer was that only 16 per cent of the designated forties 

 burned over in 1927, as compared with 20 per cent of the county. The total 

 area of designated forties was 1,600 acres, but a total of 30,000 acres received 

 the benefit. Counting this larger area benefited by this protection, the cost per 

 acre per year was one cent. (A more detailed description of the plan was pub- 

 lished in the Proceedings of the Southern Forestry Congress for 1921.) 



To sum up: Uncontrolled fire destroys an important proportion of the 

 available winter cover and nesting cover each year, and this destruction is most 

 serious to game, not in the Forest Belts where the fires are larger, but in the 

 Agricultural Belt where cover is deficient. 



Erosion Control. The most important and least supported of all the 

 fields of conservation activity is that dealing with the control of soil erosion. 

 Deterioration or removal of the soil inevitably reduces the farm, forest, or game 

 crops which can be produced upon it. Deficient land crops can be improved 

 within relatively short periods, but deteriorated land may require centuries for 

 its rehabilitation. 



The north central States are just beginning to realize the fundamental inv 

 portance of protecting land against deterioration through abnormal erosion. Sev- 

 eral agricultural colleges and experiment stations have begun to study the sub- 



