More than 1,000,000 miles of roadway territory in compar- 

 atively sparsely settled sections of the country will be cov- 

 ered daily by a forest fire preventive force of 55,000 men, as 

 a result of an order issued by Postmaster General Hitchcock. 

 These men are the rural and star route mail carriers, who are 

 directed to co-operate with the forest rangers and state fire 

 wardens in every way possible. 



Last year forest fires destroyed approximately $50,000,000 

 worth of property. The agricultural department has been 

 anxious to increase the efficiency and strength of its forest 

 fire preventive service and Postmaster General Hitchcock 

 offered his department's assistance. 



There are 42,000 rural and 13,000 star route mail carriers. 

 Their daily routes take them for the most part through 

 sparsely inhabited parts of the country. 



By the terms of Mr. Hitchcock's order, the duty of the car- 

 riers on observing a fire or any indications of a fire, will be 

 to notify the nearest forest rangers or fire warden. Post- 

 masters in or near national forest reserves also are instructed 

 to immediately report forest fires. 



T. R. Angst, representative of a powder company, has just 

 completed an experiment at the Northwestern Experiment 

 Station at Crookston, Minn., under the joint supervision of 

 faculty members of the Crookston school of agriculture, 

 in which Superintendent C. G. Selvig of the farm and school 

 is much inte'rested. 



Two acres of land have been dynamited and will be seeded 

 to flax, side by side with a field of flax which will be seeded 

 after ordinary plowing. 



The theory is that the dynamiting will make available a 

 vast amount of plant food, and that the roots of grain, flax or 

 anything else planted, will draw from a depth heretofore im- 

 possible because of practically impervious strata. 



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