are the dangerous grounds; here is where most 

 fires start, where they run and spread. 



3. The forest tracts are still large; no large 

 area belongs to one owner; no owner can cor- 

 veniently patrol; there is no co-operation be- 

 tween owners or between owners and the 

 State, and these forests, therefore, have never 

 been really patrolled or protected during the 

 danger season. 



4. Roads have teen cut through these for- 

 ests and cut-over lands; the road is generally 

 a mere wagon trail, brush and herbage inflam- 

 mable during the dry season crowding this 

 trail on both sides. A match or a cigar stub 

 thrown out of the buggy at the right time is 

 liable to start a fire, and the man is gone be- 

 fore the fire is large enough to attract atten- 

 tion. 



5. The railways almost of necessity set 

 fires every year along their rights of way. But 

 it is a mistake to charge all the fires to this 

 source, nor is it true that the railways are in- 

 different, for they are the only people who 

 have made any effort to comply with the laws 

 by cleaning up, plowing and by burning clean 

 their right of way. 



6. The districts here under consideration 

 are generally thinly settled. There is not 

 enough population to create public opinion and 

 supervision, nor enough to discover and fight 

 these fires with sufficient promptness. 



7. Just as in cities, so in all thinly settled 

 districts there is chance for the irresponsible 

 and undesirable to be in hiding. The thinly 

 settled districts of Michigan are no exception, 

 and here these people defy the few good peo- 

 ple of the town and do as they wish. They 

 abuse their families, their live stock, and they 

 set fires as they please. 



8. There is naturally considerable prejudice 



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