the cut-over country is rather scant, and that they would be perfectly 

 delighted if someone would get something done about it, and why not 

 find out just what it was that happened to the Soil Survey Law which 

 passed the Legislature a couple of years back? 



Back at the State House you will be told that there was such an 

 act, that it was passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor, 

 and then, as a measure of war economy, something happened which 

 let the appropriation lapse, and why not ask about that at the 

 Governor's office? 



CASE OF BANKRUPTCY. 



Put it in common business talk and it comes out clearer. What is 

 the essential nature of the case? Why, it's a case of bankruptcy; 

 some millions of acres of land do not pay enough in taxes to cover 

 the cost of assessing and collecting the taxes and attending to the 

 administrative routine. The owners and the interested parties do not 

 seem to be able to fix things up. Creditors are getting uneasy. What's 

 to be done in a case like that? Oh, get a receiver appointed. 



All right, now we have a receiver. What will be do? The very 

 first thing will be to stop the wasting of assets. Then he will 'have a 

 full inventory made. Then, having found out just what he has on 

 his hands, having located liabilities and assets, he can proceed to plan 

 things so as to wind up the concern or get it on its feet again. 



Our receiver will find that to stop the wasting of assets it a real 

 job. The biggest item will be in getting rid of the fires. If it had not 

 been for the fires all those idle acres would today be producing timber 

 good timber and lots of it; the lands would have stayed productive if 

 it had not been for the fires. 



CARELESSNESS IS CAUSE. 



To keep fires out of a forest country is not easy, but still it is simple 

 enough. First you must prevent them from getting started if possible. 

 About 95 per cent of all fires are due to carelessness. To cure that 

 sort of carelessness requires large doses of skillfully administered pub- 

 licity an advertising campaign. Also a little law enforcement. A 

 little law enforcement would increase the publicity, too. Matter of 

 novelty and surprise generates interest, as it were. A lot of the fires 

 could be prevented from starting. 



But some fires will start in spite of all one could do. The job of 

 putting them out is simple enough. The first thing is to have a system 

 of lookouts and patrolmen which can detect the presence of a fire 

 within a few minutes of its start, get its exact location, and report the 

 facts to headquarters. Headquarters then sizes up the situation and 

 sends a competent crew equipped adequately so as to get it to the site 

 of the fire within an hour or so after the fire first showed up. The crew 

 then puts out the fire, or if it can't, that fact is reported back swiftly 

 and reinforcements come in a-flying. 



WHAT ABOUT COST? 



If the receiver for the bankrupt part of Michigan has all this ex- 

 plained to him he will begin to be doubtful. "All very well," he will 

 say, "but what about the cost of all t'hose roads and trails and lookouts 

 and telephone lines and tools and what-not? How could I ever justify 

 such expenses?" 



