THE TRAINING OF A FORESTER 



Fighting a forest fire in some respects is 

 like fighting a fire in a city. In both, the 

 first and most necessary thing is to get men 

 and apparatus to the site of the fire at the 

 first practicable moment. For this purpose, 

 fire-engines and men are always ready in 

 the city, while in the forest the telephones, 

 trails, and bridges must be kept in condition, 

 and the forest ofiicers must be ready to move 

 instantly day or night. 



It is far better to prevent a forest fire 

 from starting than to have to put it out after 

 it has started; but in spite of all the care 

 that can be exercised with the means at 

 hand, many fires start. Each year the 

 Forest Service men extinguish about forty- 

 five hundred fires, nearly all of them while 

 they are still small. At times, however, 

 when the woods are very dry and the wind 

 blows hard, in spite of all that can be done, 

 a fire will grow large enough to be danger- 



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