STATE FOREST FIRE PROTECTION 



409 



less frequent, but both are discouraging to combat, be- 

 cause in only a few instances can the real cause of a care- 

 less or malicious fire be definitely proved, and in prob- 

 ably half the cases, it is only suspected and not actually 

 known. It is on account of the human factor that these 

 fires are not and will never be absolutely preventable. 

 They will be, however, reducible to a considerable ex- 

 tent, and the two means to such an end are education 

 and the enforcement of law. In many of our states the 

 enforcement of the fire laws is probably the weakest 

 branch of the Forestry Department's activities. A few 

 of the more advanced states are making remarkable 

 progress in this matter. Education in fire protection has 

 been conducted with various degrees of success in differ- 

 ent states and forest regions by Forestry Departments 

 and timberland associations. In the northwest, the pub- 

 licity work of fire protection has been developed to a 

 high degree of efficiency. There is still considerable 

 work to be done in the studying of the different classes 

 of offenders and the preparation of special educational 

 work for each class. As educational work progresses, 

 public sentiment will make it easier to enforce the law. 

 It is in the matter of specialized education and publicity 

 work on forest fires, adapted to each region, that the 

 Forest Service, through the Weeks Act can render highly 

 valuable service to the states. 



There still remains the great contributing cause ; name- 

 ly, inflammable slash left after lumbering operations. 

 So long as there is any considerable fire danger from 

 mechanical and human causes, lumbering slash will con- 

 stitute a menace to growing timber in its immediate en- 

 virons ; and conversely, if the slash problem is solved, 

 the danger involved in the direct causes of fires will be 

 greatly reduced. Certain it is that real forestry cannot 

 be generally practiced in any forest region where conifer- 

 ous stands prevail until provision is made for slash dis- 

 posal. This is a problem which we cannot avoid. It is 

 the next great step in the development of fire protec- 

 tion and the foresters must face it and solve it. It 

 is quite impractical to recommend to any owner the ex- 

 penditure of money in planting, thinning, or improve- 

 ment cuttings when there is immediately adjacent to his 

 holdings a dry slashing ready for the match, or even 

 if there is likely to be. 



The question of general slash disposal is a regional 

 question and should be studied as such. Where enacted 

 such laws constitute the farthest step in police powers 

 that forest officials have yet been trusted with, and 

 such legislation should be passed only after careful 



judgment and the consideration of eventualities. Such 

 a law, if enacted, without careful study of economic con- 

 ditions, and if enforced inadvisably might easily prove 

 the pry for overturning a whole State Forestry Depart- 

 ment. 



The question should also be studied carefully for each 

 region in order to determine the silviculture and fire 

 protection necessities of the different forest types with- 

 in the region, the methods of disposal that will contribute 

 best to these ends, and the legal requirements for putting 

 these into effect. It is easily conceivable that in one 

 state the lumbering operations in two or more timber 

 regions may require slash disposal by entirely different 

 methods. Thus, in the operation of certain northern 

 hardwood types, it may be found sufficient and alto- 

 gether desirable to simply lop the large limbs and allow 

 the remaining material to decay on the ground ; with the 

 white pine, it may be found better to pile and burn all 

 brush during the lumbering operations; in the spruce 

 region, it may be more advisable to lop the limbs from 

 the tops and scatter them flat on the ground, and all of 

 these conditions may prevail in one state. 



We have seen by the foregoing that a number of 

 states are now equipped with efficient forest fire organi- 

 zations and ready to assume more authority and take on 

 more activities in this field than they are now doing; 

 and that such organizations are being started in other 

 timber states. We have observed the great direct causes 

 ; of forest fires to be railroads, and carelessness and ma- 

 liciousness of individuals ; that railroad fires promise to 

 be preventable or reducible to a low minimum ; that fires 

 caused by carelessness and maliciousness are possible of 

 considerable reduction, but that they will always con- 

 stitute a serious menace; and that lumbering slash will 

 always constitute a contributing fire danger. 



It would appear that our best efforts should be directed 

 toward the perfection of railroad fire prevention, the en- 

 forcement of law, and the systematic education of the 

 public on fire protection, and that we should devote 

 special attention within the near future to the matter of 

 general slash disposal. The means to this end lie with 

 the American Forestry Association, in its ability to 

 study and present to the public the methods and costs 

 of slash disposal in each timber region, and thereby to 

 prepare the public mind for legislative enactments ; and 

 with the Forest Service through the officials in charge 

 of the Weeks Act by collaboration with the forest offi- 

 cials of the several states. . 



THE ARECA PALM 



LINNAEUS has called the palm family the princes of the 

 Vegetable Kingdom, and the Areca Palm (Areca Catechu), 

 because of its straight, tall and graceful beauty, as well as 

 for its economic importance should not fail of mention Owing 

 to its slendor straightness, with a feathery tuft of fronds at 

 its summit, it has been likened to "an arrow from heaven" by 

 the Hindu poets, and one never sees a crooked growth in the 

 membership of the Areca family. Its chief use is in its fruit, 

 a small nut. not unlike a nut-meg. which has an annual export 

 from Ceylon alone of 8,000 tons. The use of these nuts is in 

 a combination with the leaf of a vine called Betel, and a pinch of 

 lime. This is chewed as Europeans are accustomed to chew 

 tobacco. The quid is made up of a thin slice of the nut and a 



bit of lime in the form of soft paste, rolled up in a betel leaf. 

 It is called a masticatory; the expectoration from this quid 

 or masticatory has the redness of blood; its use is universal in the 

 east. When Bayard Taylor first entered India he was shocked 

 by the impression that the entire population had hemorrhage ; 

 herein, then, is the commercial demand, chiefly from India, for 

 8,000 tons of the fruit of the Areca-nut palm. The users of 

 this masticatory claim that it possesses sustaining qualities, that 

 it reduces both thirst and hunger. Whether that be true or 

 imaginery, it is surely, like tobacco-chewing, a filthy habit and 

 one which we will certainly not charge against the beautiful 

 Areca Palm. 



