996 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1917 



tern as efficient as possible, patrol- 

 men,, guards etc., should be supplied 

 with cheap, good automobiles in 

 order to get them to fires with the 

 minimum of delay and the maximum 

 of fighting force. This, of course, 

 subject to the presence of the neces- 

 sary roads. 



It goes without saying that in 

 order to use Automobiles effectively 

 there must be a good system of roads 

 covering a large part of the District 

 to be patrolled. 



Roads Bring Their Hazards 



There is another part that roads 

 play in the scheme. They create 

 hazard. Owing to the extra amount 

 of travel engendered by roads the 

 total danger of fires starting is greatly 

 increased. We find in looking over 

 almost any map of fires that a very 

 large percentage occur along roads 

 and other travelled routes, and travel- 

 lers are charged up with starting a 

 great many fires. 



Outside of the fires actually started 

 along the roads as the result of travel 

 the largest percentage are started in 

 close proximity to roads. This is 

 quite natural as nearly all fires are 

 the direct result of human occupation 

 of the country which naturally pre- 

 supposes roads. 



In the Vernon District, we have 

 a thickly settled country covered by 

 a good system of roads, with over 

 ninety per cent, of the annual fires, 

 occurring in their close proximity 

 We also have at very convenient 

 intervals, towns and villages with 

 garages and fuel supply depots. The 

 main roads can hardly be surpassed 

 in any part of the country, while 

 the lateral roads everywhere are in 

 condition to allow good speed to be 

 made with a car. With such condi- 

 tions in our favor we started the 

 1916 season with three automobiles 

 and one motorcycle. The results 

 show that they have more than paid 

 for themselves in the first season of 

 their use. 



Only one of these cars was used 

 by a temporary guard, the other 

 two cars and motorcycle were used 

 by the permanent supervisory staff. 



Unfortunately, in a way, the sea- 

 son proved so safe from a fire pro- 



tection standpoint that it was not 

 found necessary to put lookout men 

 on duty at any time, and we were 

 not able to secure figures on and 

 -work out a system of co-ordination 

 of Lookout and automobile. I am 

 however, fully convinced, through 

 the speed and efficiency developed 

 in fire prevention, detection and con- 

 trol by the cars in use that that 

 patrol by cheap motor cars is superior 

 to horse patrol, and that the next 

 few years will see a greatly increased 

 use of such cars in fire protection 

 work. 



Comparison of Costs 



During 1915 the patrol in the 

 Coldstream Guard District was by 

 horse-drawn buggy, while in 1916 

 it was by a Ford car. We have had, 

 therefore a good opportunity to study 

 the comparative efficiency of the 

 two methods, especially as the two 

 seasons were quite similar in weather 

 conditions. 



The Guard with the car travelled 

 in 1916 a total distance of 3496 miles 

 between May 1st and Sept. 30th. 

 Of this, 2321 miles were on straight 

 patrol and 1175 were on improve- 

 ment work. In 1915 the Guard with 

 a horse and buggy, in the same dis- 

 trict patrolled 1898 miles and tra- 

 velled 74 miles on improvement work. 



These mileage figures alone do not 

 show the full saving of the car over 

 the horse drawn vehicle. The Guard 

 with the car took twenty-eight days 

 less time on patrol than the 1915 

 Guard. Of course the object of pa- 

 trol is to be always covering as much 

 territory as possible and not a definite 

 task of a certain number of miles. 

 But this year and in 1915 it was not 

 necessary to patrol continuously, and 

 many short periods were open for 

 other work. The 1916 Guard was 

 able to take advantage of these short 

 periods to a far greater extent than 

 the 1915 guard and saved twenty- 

 eight days, for improvement work 

 out of the same period of patrol. 



This saving of time means a saving 

 of money to the extent of his salary 

 and expenses for the period and a 

 forwarding of the improvement pro- 

 jects of the District by twenty-eight 

 days' work. 



