THE FIRE CALL OF THE NORTH WOODS 



709 



t.TTER DESTRUCTION GREAT, GAPING HOLES BURNED IX THE LANDSCAPE REPLACE WHAT WAS. A WEEK OR 



TWO BEFORE, A BEAUTIFUL GROWTH OF FOREST. THE URGENT CALL TO PREVENT THIS REPEATED SACRIFICE 



MUST AND WILL BE HEARD IN THE GREAT NORTH WOODS COUNTRY. 



number of swamps were drained which helped to make 

 available hay lands in territory where hay was not 

 overly abundant. Soon other ditch projects were pro- 

 moted, and then speculators and companies became in- 

 terested for they had large areas of cheap swamp 

 lands to sell. The presence of a ditch, whether of use 

 or not, near these lands would help to sell them. The 

 contractor who made money on one ditch was anxious 

 to get further contracts ; and other persons seeing 

 what looked like quick, easy money circulated petitions 

 for still more ditches until there developed what might 

 well be called a "drainage orgy." The craze has con- 

 tinued up to the present time, and many millions of 

 dollars have been sunk in the ground. As a result, 

 some counties have become almost bankrupt and heavy 

 taxes are making it hard for the bona fide settler. 



In some places drainage brought good results. In 

 others, the good was balanced by harm done, and in 

 still other large projects, apparently no good was ac- 

 complished while millions of dollars worth of pulp- 

 wood and other timber were destroyed and township 

 after township put in a most dangerous condition for 

 fires. 



The More People, the More Fires 



Incoming settlers are from the prairies, or from 

 hardwood districts, and do not know the peculiar 

 danger incident to the use of fire in pine or other pitch 

 Ijearing forests. The splendid new roads are bringing 

 thousands of tourists into the lake and forest country 



and these visitors, ever so welcome, are at the same 

 time an added danger to the woods for they drop 

 burning cigarettes along peat road grades, and some- 

 times leave camp fires unextinguished. Taking all 

 these factors into consideration it is probable that con- 

 ditions favor the starting of four or five times as 

 many lires as used to occur ten or fifteen years ago. 

 Moreover, since the drainage of so many swamps, the 

 distance a fire will travel if left alone to burn itself 

 out, has been increased several times. 



We are all familiar with the prompt response of the 

 fire engines to a fire call in the city. Trained men and 

 the best and most complete equipment, all maintained 

 in the highest degree of efficiency, are demanded in a 

 city fire department. Politics and inefficiency are not 

 tolerated. Firemen are retained through long years of 

 experience for human lives depend upon their work. 



The city of Minneapolis, with a few square miles of 

 territory, spends over a million dollars a year for fire 

 protection. The state of Minnesota, with 34,000 

 square miles of forest hazard, appropriates but $125,000 

 a year to protect hundreds of millions of dollars worth 

 of standing timber, to preserve the lives and interests of 

 its settlers, settlements, and the matchless scenic splendor 

 of its lakes the summer recreation ground of thousands 

 of tourists. 



As but few members of the legislature live in, or near, 

 the wooded area, it is not surprising that at legislative 

 sessions the needs of this district are not properly under- 

 stood and therefore not properly provided with the neces- 



