PROTECTION AGAINST FOREST FIRES. 237 



Continuous drought enhances the danger of fires breaking out, 

 whilst strong winds increase the chances of any fire becoming a 

 serious conflagration ; and when these two factors enter into 

 favourable combination, they can speedily produce the most 

 unfavourable and disastrous results for the woodlands, especially 

 in coniferous tracts. 



Wherever the forests are in the vicinity of large towns, or 

 are traversed by railway lines, there always exists greater 

 danger of fires breaking out than under exactly the opposite 

 circumstances. 



119. Preventive Measures against Fire. 



Certain measures for the obviation and prevention of forest fires 

 lie outside the scope of Protection, and entirely in the domain of 

 Forest law. These are such as refer to instructions of various 

 sorts framed and issued under rules made subject to legislative 

 enactments dealing with forest matters, and include orders relative 

 to the lighting and extinction of fires in the woods, the use of 

 torches and other naked lights, and sometimes even the prohibition 

 of smoking. 



So far as the Protection of Forests can go, it is concerned 

 solely with the measures that can ordinarily be taken by owners 

 of woodlands to obviate the occurrence of fires on the one hand, 

 and, on the other, to prevent their spreading to any considerable 

 extent when once they have broken out. Among such protective 

 measures may be reckoned the following : 



First of all, the prudent conduct of all operations within the 

 woods for the purposes of which it is necessary to employ fire, as, 

 for example, in the burning of bark for the destruction of insects, 

 the burning of turf for the manuring of nurseries, and the firing 

 of heath, &c., before the cultural operations of sowing or planting 

 can be advantageously commenced. It is a matter of very con- 

 siderable importance that the workmen should be thoroughly 

 impressed -with the necessity for prudence in the case of fire, and 

 that a proper amount of supervision should be bestowed on 

 them. 



Forest pathways and their immediate vicinity should be kept 

 clear of all inflammable matter, and green lanes should be kept 

 free of long grass. Young growth bordering woods or frequented 



