XViii FOREWORD 
disposal of the Department have been barely sufficient to carry on 
our present measures of fire protection, and if we raise the wages 
of our men to a fair standard, this additional expense, coupled with 
the increased expense of the necessary materials, supplies and 
equipment, will so cut into our District fund that we will be unable, 
on account of lack of finances, to carry on our work as we should. 
But any slacking up in our efforts for the protection of the Dis- 
trict should not even be considered. Rather we should extend and 
improve our methods of protection by every agency we can devise. 
Even if the District tax is raised to two and one quarter mills, 
the landowners will not be paying for their fire protection an in- 
crease proportionate to the increase in the cost of every other 
kind of service. | 
How near we may come in the future to making our forests 
really fire proof is a matter for conjecture. Probably the menace 
of forest fires will persist as long as we have forests and natural 
conditions make them highly inflammable at times. Lightning, 
spontaneous combustion and inevitable accident will doubtless con- 
tinue to set fires in the wilderness as well as in the village. and 
city. As a nation we are notorious for the amount of valuable 
property that we convert into cinders and smoke each year, and 
the greater part of-this loss arises simply from lack of care and 
precaution. 
- Tam convinced, however, that the damage we suffer from forest 
fires set by human agency is really caused by the carelessness of a 
very small proportion of our public. Of the thousands of indi- 
viduals who pass through our forests and woodlands. each day 
during the danger season, if even one in a thousand were habitually 
careless with fire we would hardly have a green acre left after a 
dry period of ‘a week’s duration. But the measure of carelessness 
and indifference exhibited by this very small per cent. is truly 
amazing. Sometimes in burning brush and clearing land, fire is 
allowed to smoulder in debris or stump for days till a brisk wind 
begins to scatter sparks broadcast. Men engaged in lumbering 
and doubtless claiming some measure of woodcraft as a part of 
their business, sometimes neglect to extinguish their luncheon 
fires. Fishermen, passing along a stream, have been known to 
throw lighted matches and burning tobacco into the litter behind 
them, instead of into the water at their feet. Our records show 
that fires are set each season by just such careless practices, and 
not a small part of the activities of the Forestry Department is 
concerned with combating indifference and carelessness by edu- 
cational methods. 
