The Hillside Farmer and the Forest. 2>7 



fire? How did it get a start so near the ranch that we 

 know so well? Did somebody blast stumps, and did 

 some treacherous fuse set fire to the grass? Have chil- 

 dren caused it by carelessness? Has a traveler on the 

 road thrown a lighted cigar in the neighboring field? 

 Enough, that it " got away " from somebody. Let us 

 turn out, then, and lend a hand as best we may to stay 

 the progress of the hungry element as it gathers into its 

 maw everything alive, everything burnable, everything 

 devourable, even soil and rock. The whole neighborhood 

 assists, and as evening comes, cool and quiet and calm, 

 backfires are run towards the terrific blaze, and trails 

 are cut with hoe and shovel to stay the wild run. 



But circumstances do not always favor the settler; 

 some fires have refused to be stilled so quickly. The 

 wind that is raised with every blaze has carried embers 

 to places where no brand should spread. When the 

 rancher would have been satisfied to have acres burned 

 over, square miles have been laid waste. The heat was 

 so great that nobody could get near the path of the fury, 

 and fencing and buildings have had to be sacrificed. Only 

 when bare fields and wide roads intervened the fire 

 stopped and burned itself out. The next picture shows a 

 once promising stand of second-growth timber that had 

 been ruined but two weeks previous to the taking of the 

 photograph. The fire spread so swiftly that no limbs 

 were burned, even twigs escaped the singeing flames. 

 If timber thus burned happens to be near enough to mar- 

 ket to bid for fair returns, the rancher sets to work 

 trimming and cutting up the charred wood ere it has time 

 to become worthless. 



With such burning over only the first step towards 



