24 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES: THEIR USE. 
BETTER FIRE LAWS. 
Forest fire laws are ineffective mainly because they are not en- 
forced. The purpose of forest fire laws is to prevent fires. That 
principle should obtain in enforcing as well as in drafting them. A 
fire law inflicting reasonable penalties which is enforced is much 
more effective than a fire law inflicting excessive penalties which is 
loosely applied or waived. 
Each State within whose boundaries forest fires are working grave 
injury, and that means every forest State, to keep down fires, needs 
not merely a law upon the statute books, but an effective force of men 
actually on the ground to patrol against fire. The man who prevents 
the most fires is the man who is looking for them, not the man who 
goes to a fire after it is under way. The system of voluntary fire 
wardens is good as far as it goes; but to make it really effective it 
must be combined with a force of trained men whose first duty is fire 
patrol and who are sufficiently paid for their work. 
EDUCATION. 
The right use by American citizens of the forest and of timber will 
not be general until they learn how to practice forestry. For years 
the Department of Agriculture, by spreading broadcast the facts 
gained in its forest studies and by actual cooperation with the 
individual in the handling of his timber tract, his woodlot, his forest 
plantation, and his timber-treating plant, has aimed to awaken the 
American people to their national and individual need for forest 
conservation. 
Forestry has been given root and being in the great body of Ameri- 
can citizenship. No country takes poorer care of its private forests 
than ours, and no nation has a more wholesome and enthusiastic 
public sentiment for the right use of the forest than our own. 
WHERE WE MIGHT STAND. 
By reasonable thrift we can produce a constant timber supply beyond our pres- 
ent need, and with it conserve the usefulness of our streams for irrigation, 
water supply, navigation, and power. 
Under right management our forests will yield over four times as much as now. 
We can reduce waste in the woods and in the mill at least one-third, with 
present as well as future profit. We can perpetuate the naval-stores industry. 
Preservative treatment will reduce by one-fifth the quantity of timber used 
in the water or in the ground. We can practically stop forest fires at a 
total yearly cost of one-fifth the value of the standing timber burned each 
year. 
We shall suffer for timber to meet our needs until our forests have had time 
to grow again. But if we act vigorously and at once we Shall escape perma- 
nent timber scarcity. 
RC 21715] 
