172 INJURIES TO MARITIME PINE. 



forests, for the most trivial objects, the embers of which they keep 

 constantly glowing to supply them with fire for their pipes, for their 

 meture, a preparation of Indian corn, and to broil their salt fish and 

 their sardines, culinary operations which ought to be attended to 

 before leaving their homes. These fires in the open air are left 

 burning on ground covered with combustible matter while the work- 

 men go about their work. Is it surprising then that there should be 

 so many fires 1 



"Insurance companies bring themselves with difficulty to insure 

 pignadas ; moreover, they cannot do otherwise than require a high 

 premium, which the greater part of proprietors will not agree to pay. 



" The provident cultivator, who wishes to protect his forests against 

 a general conflagration, takes the prudent precaution to interpose in 

 his forest masses cultivated clearings sufficiently large to form a 

 barrier which cannot be overleapt by the destructive scourge. This 

 preventative costs less than the premium of insurance. 



" Forest fires occasion more damage in young pineries than in those 

 which are in a state of decadence ; for the old trunks are not con- 

 sumed by the fire, and they have lost nothing of their fitness to yield 

 wood for carpentry work, and the employment of them in this way 

 affords some indemnity to the proprietor ; it is otherwise with young 

 pineries, which the fire destroys without giving any compensation.'' 



