FOREST PROTECTION. 



271 



Our Indian used fire freely in order to 

 make open places for game, to improve the 

 grass and berry crop, to produce fresh 

 withes for basketry, and even to kill the 

 grasshopper upon which he fed. 



Even to-day fire is often set by ranchers 

 to improve the pasturage. Often in the 

 spring of the year as you approach the 

 Gulf coast of this country from the sea you 

 will see the heavens aglow with the light 

 from forest fires which have been set by 

 the cattlemen. The custom is almost uni- 

 versal, and its effect is ultimately to con- 

 vert the land into great prairies or savan- 

 nas. 



Just so have the natives in many parts 

 of this country learned that young berry 

 bushes bear larger and better fruit than 

 older plants, so that fires are often set to 

 prune them; and the perpetrator of the 

 act, although the fire may cause no end 

 of damage, and although the land may 

 belong to another person, often feels that 

 it is the poor man's privilege and resents 

 the law that strives to punish him. 



Then, often fires are set with malicious 

 intent. These are usually the result of 

 quarrels and represent a crude method of 

 venting revenge or jealousy. Fires are 

 often purposely set by wood thieves to 

 burn the slash and hide the stumps. 



Some time ago, and perhaps in certain 

 districts to-day where the charcoal indus- 

 try has been or is still practised, fires often 

 occurred, but many were purposely set by 

 the burners in order to buy the wood at a 

 low price — charred wood was fit for char- 

 coal, but unfit for other purposes. 



Fires are sometimes set by children and 

 weakminded persons with no other rea- 

 sons than to see them burn. 



Fires are set through carelessness which 

 often borders on maliciousness, when, for 

 instance, hunters leave camp fires or farm- 



ers while clearing land burn brush at a 

 dangerous time. At other times they may 

 start from a combustible gun wad or from 

 a lighted cigar stump. They are often set 

 also in smoking out wild bees or in dis- 

 lodging an animal from a hollow tree. 



Another fruitful and wholly inexcusable 

 source of fire is the locomotive, which 

 staves through the forest emitting often a 

 trail of fire which under certain circum- 

 stances, especially when laboring up a 

 grade, is equal to a display of fireworks. 

 Fires are set also from live coals which 

 drop from the grate, and, striking the ties, 

 bound into the combustible litter by the 

 side of the track. 



Although there are many fires set 

 through carelessness, the fault is not al- 

 ways with the person who sets it, because 

 even the most thoughtful are sometimes 

 lax, but with the lumberman who leaves in 

 his wake an immense amount of rubbish 

 which is appropriately calle<i;"slash." 



This slash consists of ?He tops and 

 branches of many trees. It covers the 

 ground in many places in great masses. 

 It becomes as dry and inflammable as tin- 

 der. The living trees left by the lumber- 

 man are buried in the midst of it. A 

 lighted cigar thrown thoughtlessly by the 

 wayside is sufficient to ignite it, and in less 

 time than it takes to tell it a fire is pro- 

 duced which sweeps with resistless fury 

 over the ground, leaving desolation in its 

 wake. This is the inevitable result of our 

 methods of lumbering. 



An enumeration of all the causes of fire 

 would fill much space. They may be due 

 to a locomotive, a madman, a careless boy, 

 an incendiary, and even in war to sun 

 glasses; or, it is said, even to desperate 

 rebels who have fastened slow matches 

 to the tails of serpents. The effects, how- 

 ever, are the same. 



AMATEUR PHOTO BY R : E. PRESCOTT, 



BLACK TURTLE AND EGGS. 

 Winner of 39th prize in Recreation's 4th Annual Photo Competition. 



