AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AMERICAN FORESTRY. 57 
The fire season is during the four months of summer. During this period 
the operation of steam locomotives and donkey engines is not permitted, unless 
oil is used as fuel or the boiler is equipped with an efficient type of spark 
arrester. 
When climatic conditions are such as to make the danger from forest 
fires excessive, the operator may be required to cease logging on five days’ 
notice. 
The value of firebreaks, so widely used in- European forests, has not as 
yet been accepted unreservedly for the United States of America. It is 
recognised that they greatly reduce the hazard and the cost of prevention and 
control, but it has not been determined what their character should be and 
what their utility in proportion to their heavy cost. 
The advantages of topographic firebreaks on ridges, along contour lines, 
at the base of slopes and along streams are realised. These breaks, which 
become part of a permanent system of roads and trails, have been laid out 
extensively, primarily as roads and as means of access and attack for fire 
patrols and fire-fighting crews, and for administrative purposes. 
Isolating and divisional firebreaks for the purpose of subdividing the 
forest into smaller units within which fires may be restricted have not. been 
adopted. 
During the last eight years, 50 per cent. of the fires in District No. 1 
were traceable to the railroads. An average engine throws out. about 450 Ib. 
of cinders or ash per hour, which falls 35 to 150 feet away. One hundred per 
cent. of railroad fires start within 90 feet of the track. 
On the Deerlodge Forest the railway companies are required to plough 
a 6 feet fire line 50 feet from the line on both sides. The intervening space is 
burnt over. The cost is £40 per mile. 
A standard clause in sale contracts where logging railroads are used 
provides that: The operator shall clear the right-of-way of all inflammable 
material, including dead trees, for a distance of 100 feet on each side. No 
refuse may be burnt during the summer months without consent. During 
these months, the operator may be required to patrol all railroad tracks after 
the passage of each locomotive. 
The Criminal Code of March 4, 1909, provides a penalty not exceeding 
£1,000 or two years’ imprisonment, or both penalty and imprisonment, for 
setting fire, or leaving or suffering a fire to burn unattended near any timber. 
The Forest Regulations prohibit building a camp fire in leaves, or rotten 
wood, or against large or hollow logs or stumps, in a dangerous place, or, 
during windy weather without confining it to holes or cleared spaces; or 
leaving without completely extinguishing it. 
All forest officers are empowered to arrest offenders. 
Fires are not entirely prevented however. There are some which are 
not preventible, and of thirty-two specific causes of forest fires tabulated by 
the Forest Service, lightning ranks as a factor of very great importance, hence 
the necessity of measures of detection and suppression of fires, and the prepara- 
tion of a fire plan. 
It is set forth: “To ensure the adoption of every practicable means for 
protecting the forest property from fire, a systematic study of the conditions 
on every forest is necessary. The complete fire plan resulting from this study 
is simply a description of the fire. liability and hazard, and of every means 
which have been or may be taken to meet any emergency which may arise. 
The fire plan will be prepared for each forest by its supervisor, and in the light 
of experience will be modified at the close of each fire season.” 
