THE CHILDREN'S DEPARTMENT 



293 



keep this new crop of seeds from getting started. The 

 trees of the fire year by this time would have been some 

 half dozen years old, and able to survive this lack of 

 moisture; but the new crop, after getting a start, will dry 

 out and die. Then there will ensue another period 

 without seed and no new trees to form the new forest 

 for another half dozen years. 



IN the East it is generally considered that the spring 

 is the most dangerous fire season the time when 

 there is most likely to be damaging fires in the woods. 

 In the West, especially on the Pacific coast, the danger 

 season is in the fall after the long, dry summer. In any 

 case, fall and spring are the times when boys and girls 

 are most likely to go to the woods. Spring calls them to 

 the gathering of wild flowers and to watching the new 

 growths. In the fall, the gathering of nuts and taking 

 farewell of the woods until they shall be in leaf again takes 

 young folks out into the open. These two are the periods 

 when the weather is most delightful and the heat of the 

 sun is not oppressive. Boy Scouts and Campfire Girls, 

 in particular, are likely to "take to the woods" at these 

 times. 



Because of their pledges to do a good turn every day 

 and to think of others, because of their interest in wood- 

 craft, and because of their joy in outdoors, the Boy 

 Scout, and the Campfire Girl, and members of kindred 

 organizations have a special duty to see that forest fires 

 are not started by them, and to take pains to put out or 

 get aid in putting out any fire which comes to their 

 attention. 



UNCLE SAM through the Forest Service, and the 

 various States through their own organizations, 

 have built up well-planned, well-trained fire-fighting 

 forces, yet it is literally true that these have less effect on 

 the question of forest fires than do the common people, 

 and, in some measure, the boys and girls in our wooded 

 regions. For example, if all the boys and girls in the 

 country were impressed with the idea that no forest fire 

 should be started or if started that it should be immedi- 

 ately put out, there would be no forest fires left for those 

 organizations to cope with except those which might be 

 started in out-of-the-way places by lightning. It is true, 

 of course, that some boys are careless with fire in the 

 woods, and that they go away from camp and leave their 

 fire-places burning, or that they will start to make a fire 

 without clearing from around it light stalks, leaves, and 

 trash which would help carry the flames into the surround- 

 ing brush and trees. It is carelessness of this sort that 

 has led to the statement that a boy and a match in the 

 woods is a greater source of danger than a boy with a 

 stick of dynamite in a city alley. In the latter case, the 

 boy may demolish himself and a woodshed or two, but 

 in the former he may lay waste a whole province. 



BECAUSE it is the blessed spring time and because 

 you are going to the woods it is particularly neces- 

 sary that you keep in mind this question of forest 

 fire, and that you realize that only harm is done by them, 

 and that good never can result. Even if the fire did no 

 damage whatever to growing things it would destroy de- 

 caying vegetable matter which helps to make a fertile 

 soil and also which is able to hold many times its weight 

 of water as a part of the spongy mass, which on the forest 



THE PATH OF A FOREST FIRE 



From the burned logs in the foreground to the timber line on the 

 distant snow-capped Mt. Shasta, California, a forest fire swept, 

 leaving desolation and ruin in its path which covered several 

 thousand acres. 



floor has a large part in regulating stream flow and in 

 preventing floods on the one hand and low water on the 

 other. 



WHEN you build a fire in the woods, hem it in 

 with stones so that it cannot spread; or if there 

 are no stones available, scrape away the duff 

 so that your fire will be on an earth foundation and will 

 not be able to spread past the defensive trenches which 

 you put around it. And before you go into the woods at 

 all memorize this little verse written by State Conserva- 

 tion Commissioner George D. Pratt, of New York, who 

 does not want any more hunting of cowbells with matches 

 in his State. 



"Only a man in a forest green, 

 Only a match that was dropped unseen, 

 Only a flame some leaves and wood, 

 And only a waste where the forest stood." 



THE FOREST FIRE 



By Charles H. Winke 



On, on, dread Flood of Devastation ; sweep 

 All living things before thee ; wrap in flame 

 The crackling, crashing forest ; lay hot claim 



On cot and clearing; through the grasses creep 



Like angered reptile, hissing; wind-lashed, leap 

 From blazing hill to flame-swept waters ; frame 

 The very heavens in red, for naught may tame 



Thy fury till, too long unmoved, they weep. 



Though naught but desolation mark thy train, 

 Rage on, red King of Ruin! not for long 

 Shall thy dire victory remain complete ; 

 With dauntless courage man shall claim again 

 The ashen waste, and fruitfulness shall throng 

 Up from the soil in gardens green and sweet. 



