fund. This fund can be used to pay a forest patrolment for the 

 town, and there is every likelihood that the majority of the 

 organized towns will take the necessary steps to provide this 

 fund. People now understand more clearly that the state does 

 not make a business of paying a man every time he gets out 

 and puts in an hour or so fighting fire, whether on his own land 

 or not. In a number of cases during the past season owners 

 have allowed fires to burn unguarded on their own land. This 

 is a very dangerous practice, and our policy with regard to it 

 has been to require the owner to get out and extinguish the 

 fire, paying all expenses therefor. If he does not do this, he is 

 liable to fine and imprisonment under the law. 



One of the most interesting things accomplished by our 

 field force during the year has been the classification of the 

 various types of land. Nearly every ranger has in a portion of 

 his district, land which is not good farming land; and in many 

 cases this same land is fully stocked with growing young 

 pine, which in fifteen or twenty years will be of great value. 

 Since these lands are non-agricultural, we designate them as 

 forest land, which, for the whole northern part of the state, 

 will total twelve or fifteen million acres. This area of forest 

 land is separated into bodies of all sizes, ranging from a sec- 

 tion to several townships in extent; and it is the firm belief of 

 all conservationists that a forest is the only paying crop that 

 can be raised on such land. 



The Watch Tower 



THE most important factor in the efficiency of any sys- 

 tem of fire protection is the ability to discover the fires 

 in the early stages. If this can be done the extinction of 

 the fire is usually a very simple matter. A fire, even in the dry 

 season, does not run very rapidly at night, but owing to the 

 dew and the smouldering of the fire it produces a great deal of 

 smoke. The discovery of this smoke early in the morning 

 will usually enable the patrolmen to reach the fire and get it 



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