fighting work, the most reliable and efficient man whose 

 services are immediately available should be directed by 

 wire, messenger or otherwise, to take charge. Then see to 

 it that the work is pushed with the utmost vigor and to best 

 advantage. This means that the forest officers must know 

 who, in each community, is the best man to take charge; 

 where the fire fighters can be gotten; how assembled; and 

 how they are to be fed and sheltered. Aside from these mat- 

 ters, there are the particular problems which each fire pre- 

 sents. Handling these details for any one fire would pre- 

 sent no extraordinary difficulties; but when a ranger may 

 one day be called upon to direct the work of fighting a hun- 

 dred fires, the need of a carefully prepared system is evident. 

 The ranger will find that his duties are those of general, 

 quartermaster, recruiting officer and fire fighter combined. 



During the present month, practically all of the organized 

 townships in the forest region of the State will vote on the 

 question of levying a tax to provide a fire fund. This is in 

 accordance with Section 24 of the 1911 Forest Law. The 

 townships which levy this tax (not to exceed five mills) will 

 thereby provide a fund to pay for a local forest patrolman, 

 and small local fires, beginning with the season of 1913. 

 Many townships have a sufficient current expense fund to 

 secure the necessary protection this year. 



Many excellent suggestions are contained in a paper pre- 

 pared by Asst. U. S. Forester W. B. Greeley, and published 

 in Vol. VI, No. 2, Proceedings of the Society of American 

 Foresters, 1911. The points of particular interest to the 

 people of this State, and especially its forest officers, are 

 embodied in the following extracts. The position of Super- 

 visor of a National Forest corresponds to a degree with that 

 of our District Rangers. With this in mind, the application 

 of Mr. Greeley's ideas to the Minn. Forest Service organiza- 

 tion is apparent. 



"A brief sketch of what to my mind constitutes an ideal 

 fire-fighting organization may be in place. Let us take first 

 the ranger district. Each district, with its force of patrolmen, 

 its own equipment of tool caches and staple food supplies, its 

 pack train if one is needed its reserve force to draw upon 



