138 OUR NATIONAL FORESTS 



conditions which make fire danger very great. 

 These conditions may be a high wind, low relative 

 humidity, high temperatures, or a combination of 

 the three. When a Forest Supervisor is informed 

 by the District Forester that emergency conditions 

 are likely to exist during the next ten days or so, he 

 immediately sends an alarm to all his Rangers to be 

 especially watchful. 



Improvements and Equipment for Protection. 

 After the preliminaries of fire protection finance, 

 forest fire history, and the study of weather and 

 emergency conditions have been worked out, prob- 

 ably the first and most important prerequisite to 

 forest fire protection is a matter already spoken of, 

 namely, the improvements and the equipment. 

 The construction and maintenance of improvements 

 and the possession of suitable equipment is second 

 in importance only to the organization which is to 

 do the actual fire suppression. Roads, trails, tele- 

 phone lines, fire lines, lookout stations, Ranger sta- 

 tions, tool and food caches, a central supply depot, 

 and many other things are necessary before men 

 can be effective. Each Forest Ranger has use for 

 the following equipment: fire fighting tools, water 

 bags and pails, teams, pack horses, wagons, auto- 



