34 Forests and Trees 



has usually two causes, one immediate, the other more 

 remote. If a great amount of inflammable material be 

 left where fire can reach it, the whole blame for the resulting 

 disaster does not rest on the person who applied the nec- 

 essary spark, whether thoughtlessly or with design. A 

 sun-parched pine forest often burns, but usually the fire 

 has gathered force in the brush left from previous cuttings. 

 Lumbermen seldom start fires directly, but, by leaving the 

 brush of the winter's cutting on the ground, they have pro- 

 vided the material for almost all of the great fires and many 

 of the lesser ones. Until means have been found to secure 

 the proper piling and burning of the brush left when timber 

 is cut, there can be no adequate protection of the standing 

 trees. The securing of this must be the first step in any 

 system of forest protection. 



Of all the direct causes of fire the most common is the 

 burning brush pile in the new clearing. This gets out of 

 control, reaches the slash left by the lumbermen, and only 

 the amount and condition of the available material sets 

 the limit on the conflagration that may follow. One fire 

 provides fuel for the next, and the chain of destruction is 

 only complete when the whole forest is consumed. 



Railways have also been accountable for many fires. 

 The first danger arises from those set to clear the right of 

 way when the roads are being built. This danger is the 

 same as, and may be considered a part of, the general menace 

 of fires set for clearing land. It passes when the road is 

 completed, but the likelihood of fire from sparks from the 

 locomotive is fairly constant. 



