496 SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



of .watching for fires. Another important duty of the 

 ranger is to look after the sale of timber and to mark the 

 trees that are to be cut. The ranger also supervises the use 

 of the forest for the grazing of cattle and sheep. The guards 

 are the assistants of the rangers and may be called upon to 

 do the same kind of work. 



The Forest Service has been an efficient agent in awaken- 

 ing the people of the country to the need of conserving our 

 forests. Since 1900, it has issued three hundred and seventy 

 publications with a total circulation of almost twelve million 

 copies. All together the Forest Service now numbers more 

 than three thousand members. 



Enemies of the forest. Fires. Fires are the most de- 

 structive enemy of the forests, the annual amount of damage 

 being about fifty million dollars. Each year twenty million 

 acres of forest land, an area nearly four times the size of 

 Massachusetts, is burned over. It is estimated that the 

 amount of timber destroyed by fire is equal to that cut and 

 used. Some fires have become historic on account of the 

 amount of damage done. The Hinckley fire in Minnesota 

 in 1894 destroyed nine towns, burned twenty-five million 

 dollars' worth of property, and killed six hundred people. 



The chief harm done by fires is in the destruction of stand- 

 ing timber. Indirectly, harm is also done to those trees 

 which are only partly destroyed by fire, for they are. easily 

 blown over by winds or fall easy victims to the attacks of 

 insects and wood-destroying fungi. Another great injury 

 is the destruction of seedlings and young trees on which 

 the future of the forests depends. Sometimes enough of 

 the humus is burned so as to interfere with the work of the 

 forest in controlling the run-off and preventing floods. 



Kinds of fires. Fires are frequently classified into sur- 

 face, crown, and ground fires according to the manner in 

 which they burn. Surface fires run along the ground, 

 consuming only the leaves and twigs found there. The 



