The Forest Service at the Fair 



THEY were all there the man and his wife who had 

 driven in their car that morning from their city home, 

 the farmer and his family who had driven fifty miles 

 through the dust and wind, the man who had made the long 

 journey on the steam cars, and those who came by the ple- 

 beian cars; so came they all on their yearly pilgrimage to 

 see the greatest of state fairs. Some came to learn and gar- 

 ner new ideas for thought through the long winter; some came 

 for a day of fun, forgetting the heavy toll of haying and har- 

 vest; some came because it was the custom, not knowing why 

 they came, but because it was the thing to do in their par- 

 ticular neighborhood. 



11 these types and many others passed as a continual army 

 ugh the exhibit of the Minnesota Forest Service, and it is 

 certain that an impression was made on each and every type. 

 "Safety first" was the popular keynote of the exhibits devoted 

 to protection against fire. In the extreme end, a tent was 

 pitched, with several Norway and white pine trees reaching 

 to the ceiling. The floor was covered with pine needles and 

 earth, making a very realistic camping scene. Two ways of 

 building the camp fire were shown, the right and the wrong. 

 The former emphasized the idea of scraping away all com- 

 bustible material from the fire and building a fireplace of 

 stones in such a manner as to guard against sparks being 

 blown into surrounding humus. 



The benefits of winter burning under the present law were 

 brought out in a miniature forest showing the young growth 

 left among the stumps, also piles of ashes showing where the 

 slash had been burned, leaving the ground open and clear. 

 The next plot showed the same timber forty years later, a fine 

 crop ready to be harvested. In contrast to this, a third plot 

 was covered with slash as left by the logger; and the forty- 

 year-later plot contained nothing but barren hills bearing a 



25 



