INJURIOUS INFLUENCE OF THE ELEMENTS. 137 



alarm bells cannot muster crowds of willing workers to 

 our distant wildernesses ; therefore, we cannot yet act in 

 case of emergency as they do in Europe. But if we can- 

 not extinguish the fire in quite the sama way as they 

 do, we can do just as much to prevent it, and to 

 limit its ravages. The best means adopted in Europe for 

 preventing the spreading of the fire over a large extent 

 of the ground, is the laying out of their forests, and 

 dividing them in somewhat isolated independent blocks 

 by means of the safety-strips, in German called 

 " Schneissen." * With such openings you can much 

 more easily subdue an approaching forest-fire than if the 

 work of extinguishing has to be commenced in the 

 midst of an unbroken forest. 



However, forest-fires, especially in coniferous woods, 

 cause another injury much beyond the actual destruc- 

 tion of timber by burning, in this, that the trees that 

 have been killed or even scorched by the fire become 

 principally liable to attacks by wood-boring insects. The 

 larvae of these by boring large galleries in the substance 

 of the wood, will in a single season render it worthless 

 for sawing or use in any other form than, as fire wood 

 and quite inferior for that. It is, therefore, the best we 

 can do with a burnt over wood plot to utilize the remains 

 as soon as possible for charcoals. 



*See page 60, note. 



