FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 357 



untouched surrounding growth. In most cases, when such a fire has once gained 

 headway it will run its course, all human efforts notwithstanding, until a rain, or a 

 watercourse, or a swamp stops its spread ; or until it has reached the green timber, 

 where it may be checked. These are the dangerous fires and the most difficult 

 to cope with. 



On the other hand, the fires on the covered hardwood slopes are progressing 

 slowly ; they smoulder persistently in the soil, however, wasting the stored accumula- 

 tion of vegetable mould, and causing the fall of trees without necessarily burning more 

 than their roots. It is possible, with due vigilance and without great effort, to subdue 

 these fires or keep them in check. 



It is evident that different methods must be pursued in these different cases. The 

 present law provides a system of firewardens whose duty it is to put out fires. This 

 duty they may be able to perform in the last described cases; but it is almost if not 

 entirely impracticable or impossible in the first class of cases. There are, besides, 

 mechanical limitations to performing the duties of a firewarden over too large a 

 territory; hence the appointment of a sufficient number of deputies, properly chosen, 

 properly located and properly instructed, to act at least during the dangerous season, 

 is necessary. Nor is it sufficient to have these firewardens employed only to put out 

 fires, to go to fires when they have assumed dimensions. They should patrol their 

 beats regularly through the dangerous season, prevent the starting of fires by their 

 vigilance, and extinguish the small fires in their incipiency. The cost of such service, 

 if efficient, will be large and an argument against it. As long as a fully organized 

 forestry service is absent, in which the fireguards perform other necessary duties and 

 useful work besides their patroling, the objection is valid. 



Again, the personnel of the organization is of first moment; and even when proper 

 persons have been chosen, only a constant inspection and oversight will keep the 

 organization alive, its members on the alert. 



A great deal could also, be done by systematically subdividing the forest area, 

 especially the dangerous slashes and openings, and gradually reducing the debris on 

 the waste lands. If the State proposes to hold this property it might as well begin to 

 improve it, to make it grow useful timber instead of weeds, and in doing so remove 

 or reduce the danger of deteriorating these waste lands more. When such clearing 

 and planting operations are actively begun it will be possible, and a financially sound 

 policy, to employ also the necessary force for the protection of the young plantations. 

 Moreover, greater care in the use of fire will beinculcated, when the true value of 

 these waste lands, and the fact that an expenditure for their improvement has been 

 made, forces itself upon the attention of the careless. As long as these areas are 

 treated as worthless wastes it is natural that they are carelessly treated as such. 



