452 KIRE-CONSEEVANCY. 



The widths of the different fire-traces should be shown ty means 

 of figures or in any other convenient manner. All watch-stations 

 should be marked, as well as the various beats. The number of 

 patrols located at the several stations should be indicated either by 

 means of figures or symboHcally. The scale of the map should of 

 course be large enough for the convenient representation of all 

 these details, and in order not to crowd too many lines into the 

 map, only the principal topographical features should be shown 

 and hill-shading, if employed, should not be too close. The map 

 should always be posted up to date. With the help of such a map 

 any one would be able to grasp at once the conditions of fire con- 

 servancy in a given forest and the manner in which the work was 

 being carried out. A man coming in charge would not have to 

 grope about in the dark until, after several years of study on the 

 ground and perhaps several disastrous failures, he had mastered all 

 the details of the work. Supervision would become singularly 

 easy, work would be thoroughly and efficiently organised, mistakes 

 and weak points at once detected and remedied or strengthened, and 

 everything reduced to a system. Improvement could rapidly follow 

 improvement until the fullest advantage was taken of natural aids 

 to minimise risks, and to save labour, time and expenditure. 



As a useful record for instructive reference a copy of the fire 

 map for each year should be filed. At the close of the season all 

 areas burnt during its course should be indicated on it by a light 

 wash of Indian ink or some colour. 



In conclusion, we cannot impress too strongly on the student the 

 necessity of keeping fire out of every one of our forests, even at 

 what might be considered a high rate of expenditure per square 

 mile. This rate need never, under the most unfavourable circum- 

 stances, exceed Rs. 40, which is equivalent to only 1 anna per acre 

 per annum or less than Rs. 7 in a hundred years. This trifling 

 outlay, which is smaller than the cost of an acre of plantation or 

 direct sowings only a few years old, will give a complete new self- 

 sown crop of nearly mature trees, besides whatever produce may 

 have been taken out during the interval as various individuals one 

 after another succumbed in the struggle for existence. And then 

 we must remember that the acre of plantation or direct sowings 

 itself can come to nothing without continued protection from fire. 



