56 AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 
Another warning showed a homesteader’s family fleeing before a furious 
red and yellow conflagration. 
The script was :— 
DANGER! 
Destruction of Homes and Resources 
by Forest Fires 
is a loss 
To the Entire Community. 
YOU SHARE IT. 
$400,000,000 
a day 
is distributed in Pacific Coast States 
by Forest Industry. 
FIRE PREVENTION IS PROSPERITY INSURANCE. 
BE CAREFUL WITH FIRE. 
Still another, on a safety match box, was— 
A tree will make a Million matches, 
A Match will burn a Million trees. 
WATCH THE MATCH ! 
The campaign achieved its objects. A strong public sentiment has been 
created. The burning-house attitude has been adopted for the forest. Publicity 
has justified itself. 
Measures of fire prevention are of two classes, (1) to lessen the fire liability, 
and (2) to reduce the fire hazard. 
Under the first head is included the disposal of valuable timber exposed 
to a very great fire hazard; under the second “the removal of slash or brush, 
the encouragement of grazing to remove inflammable undergrowth and to 
keep down grass, also the education of the public in the safe use or avoidance 
of fire, the enforcement of preventive laws and regulations, and the general 
surrounding of the use and occupancy of the forest with proper safeguards.” 
Enforcement of necessary precautions against fire is one of the most 
important. features of Timber Sales Contracts. 
The cutting of dead trees which by their height constitute a fire menace 
is a standard requirement. 
The débris remaining after logging is a source of great danger to standing 
timber, because sparks from locomotive and stationary logging engines often 
ignite it during the dry seasons. 
Where clean cutting is employed. the practice is to bur broadcast after 
constructing fire lines round the exterior boundaries of the area. 
Otherwise the standard requirement is lopping and stacking in teepee 
shaped piles with small material at the bottom, and subsequently burning 
under the direction of a forest officer. 
A less costly method and one frequently employed is to start one or more 
fires on selected spots at least 15 feet from any standing tree and to throw 
on the nearest blaze the brush as it is cut. Studies made by the Forest Service 
show that not over 2 per cent. of the total acreage of a given operation is 
burned over when this plan is adopted. 
