42 HANDBOOK FOR CAMPERS. 



saving a burning liouse. Tlie ranger immediately calls up om 

 or more of his assistants by telephone, and they are dispatch 

 to the fire without delay. This system has proved to be ver; 

 economical, and the majority of fires are kept to an area undei 

 one-quarter of an acre and are handled by one or two men. 



Where large fires occur, owing to exceptional circumstancei 

 large bodies of fire fighters may be required. These are, as far 

 as possible, organized in advance, so that no time may be lost. 

 They are recruited from near-by ranchers, stockmen, lumbermen, 

 and even from settlements outside. Transportation facilities 

 both for the men and for their subordinates are also arranged 

 beforehand, and tools and nonperishable food supplies are 

 cached in places where a demand for them is likely to arise. 



In the more thickly settled portions of some Forests, especially 

 where there are numerous occasional visitors from near-by 

 towns, moving patrolmen are employed. These, by calling the 

 attention of campers to the necessity for taking proper pre- 

 cautions, and even by their very presence, keep a great many 

 fires from starting. They also attend to the extinguishing of 

 such fires as occur, and in the case of large fires take charge 

 of the fire fighting until relieved. 



A few years ago the opinion was very prevalent in California 

 that the entire forest area should be burned over periodically 

 in order to effect a general clean-up. This theory — the so-called 

 " light-burning " theory — is now very largely discarded, and 

 properly so ; there are certain arguments in favor of it, but it is 

 chiefly based upon conceptions that are fundamentally wrong. 

 In the first place, although it appears to cost nothing, it is in 

 reality an extremely expensive measure when performed eff< 

 tively. Some irresponsible advocates of this theory assume thai 

 it is only necessary to touch off a piece of forest at the prop© 

 season and that the fire will do its work without further attend 

 tion. This is by no means the case. It Is obvious that ther( 

 are many areas from which the fire should be kept at a' 

 hazards; or, if they are to be burned at all, it should be wit] 



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