638 AMERICAN FORESTRY 



This brief introduction enables us to understand better what is said in the 

 following pages, since the character of the forest, ruggedness of the country, 

 and climatic conditions determine the methods of fire protection. 



It is gratifying to mention at this point that this company is desirous, 

 for many reasons, of conserving its forest resources. In the summer of 1909 

 the writer made a report upon the forest conditions of the company's lands. 

 He found upon the cut-over lands that most species of trees, and particularly 

 the more valuable spruce returned very rapidly, and that spruce, even before 

 the present operation was completed, would undoubtedly be of suflScient size 

 and in large enough quantities to be of commercial value. 



The question then arose as to the best method of securing this second 

 cutting. There were minor considerations which go beyond the scope of this 

 article, but it was pointed out that the principal factor in securing any future 

 return of timber would be a thorough plan of fire protection. Unless the 

 young gro'i:h was to be protected, nothing could be produced at all. This 

 applied to the cut-over lands, but beyond these lands there was a certain 

 amount of damage created by surface or ground fires each year on the timber- 

 land not yet reached by the lumbermen. In the spring and fall fires were 

 frequent throughout the hills, running for days through the undergrowth and 

 around the bases of the timber trees until finally extinguished by rain. It 

 was easily seen that although no one fire of this kind would kill the larger 

 trees outright, the frequent burning charred and hollowed out the bases of 

 the trees, eventually resulting in a high percentage of damage to the butt logs 

 and also formed a good place of entrance for fungous diseases and for timber 

 damaging insects. Hunters, fishermen and others were usually responsible 

 for these fires, and they did further damage by peeling the bark from hemlock 

 and spruce for use in making rude roofs and siding for temporary camps. 



For these reasons a plan of fire protection to cover the uncut forest as 

 well as the cut-over territory was determined upon. The work of perfecting 

 this plan was gradual, one feature after another being put in operation until 

 in the fall of 1910 the system was undertaken as a unit. 



It is a difficult thing to place before a reader even though he be interested 

 in the subject, a readable statement of the machinery of a plan of this sort. 

 There are numerous details of equipment, of duties, and routes of patrol, that 

 must necessarily be changed for each district. We will in this paper, merci- 

 fully omit these details, following the general subject along its main lines of 

 procedure, in the hope that they may contain features of interest. Like the 

 darky preacher who stated to his congregation that his sermon was divided 

 into three parts, ''de world, de flesh and de debbil, but de subjec am so large, 

 bredderen, dat for de start off we will omit the world and de flesh an' go 

 straight to de debbil." 



Briefly stated then, the territory was divided into three divisions: 



(1) The cut-over areas and the timbered lands. 



(2) The railroads. 



(3) The areas where contractors are cutting timber. 



These three divisions wfere put in charge of a fire chief, who was respon- 

 sible for all fire damage in the entire region. The woods-foreman was selected 

 for the i)osition since he had charge of most matters pertaining to the wood- 

 land. When the methods to be used were explained to him, he expressed him- 

 self as heartily in favor of them, and has proven well fitted to the position. 

 The fire chief was provided with an assistant whose duty it is to keep the 

 chief informed constantly as to the efficiency of the men and equipment. He 

 delivers orders from the chief and supplements him in many ways. 



