a forest fire once started spreads very rapidly and finds 

 ready food, and with a wind behind it soon becomes 

 difficult to control, dangerous to life as well as prop- 

 erty, but with adequate preparation they can be fought 

 successfully saving both life and property. Responsi- 

 bility for the starting of forest fires up to the present 

 time, in my judgment is due to the neglect on the part 

 of nearly everybody in the big timbered portion of the 

 State, the chief offender being the settler himself, who 

 desiring to rid his land of the burden of timber in the 

 easiest way possible, sets fire in the driest period of the 

 year, having very little or no regard for where that fire 

 may go; as the number of settlers in the wooded area 

 increase this creates a terrible menace in a dry season, 

 when the wind comes up and fans all these separate 

 fires into a great forest fire. There are of course other 

 sources from which fires arise and they all point to the 

 necessity of some uniform method of control of just 

 this situation which is permanent and adequate. 



PREVENTION. 



The next question is can these fires be prevented? 

 There is no doubt but what these fires can be prevented 

 in Minnesota, because they are almost entirely prevent- 

 ed by the governments in France, Sweden, Norway, 

 Denmark and other foreign countries, where the govern- 

 ment forests are in charge of a forestry department 

 that is appreciated and given adequate financial sup- 

 port. Their system is to patrol their forests by state 

 employees or forest rangers, whose duty it is to keep 

 people from setting dangerous fires and to put out a 

 fire should one be discovered, and if the fire is more 



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