has been in operation fourteen years. Just as soon 

 after the March elections as the address of these officers 

 can be obtained, a printed copy of the law, with in- 

 structions, is each year sent them, and they know their 

 duties. The law says: "They shall patrol their dis- 

 tricts in dry seasons, and with the approval of the com- 

 missioner, may employ patrols to guard against careless- 

 ness in use of fire. It is true, a warden is paid only $2.00 

 a day for actual service, and for not more than fifteen 

 days in a year, unless with the approval of the commis- 

 sioner. But this would not prevent a vigilant warden, 

 where the situation is dangerous, from going or sending 

 out ten or twenty miles, if need be, to seasonably prevent 

 or suppress fires. 



How Our System Can Be Strengthened. 



Although there have been several very dry arid 

 dangerous seasons during the thirteen years previous to 

 this that our fire warden system has been in operation, 

 yet the average damage from forest fires per year during 

 this period has been only $30,000. The public takes 

 little note of fires that are prevented or of property saved. 

 The spring of 1900 was said by some people to have been 

 as dry as the fall of 1894. June 22, 1900, the village of 

 Moose Lake, Carlton county, was saved by the prompt 

 suppression of a forest fire two and a half miles south- 

 west of that place by the fire warden service. In April 

 of the same year, the village of Cass Lake was saved from 

 destruction by the fire warden service. The same can 

 be said' in respect to the villages of Blackduck and Ten- 

 strike in May, 1904. 



The majority of people are careful and law-abiding. 

 But we must remember that the forest region of Minne- 



