56 



THE DESTRUCTI^^ AGENTS OP FORESTS. 



filled soil itself; and crown fires burn through the treetops. 



Cro^vn fires are confined entirely to softwood forests, and 

 hence have occurred in West Virginia only along the moun- 

 tains where there were pure stands of spruce^ hemlock and 

 other trees of that character. The destructive effects of such 

 fires have already been referred to. In most cases the crown 

 fires have started from surface fires, and these have often been 

 followed in our high mountains by fires that burned the soil. 

 Practically all the fires in the state have been those that burned 

 the litter on the surface. 



The means of preventing and extinguishing fires are many 

 and varied. It is better, of course, to prevent a fire than to 

 extinguish it, for even small and seemingly harmless fires do 

 much indirect damage to mature trees and often kill the young 

 seedlings. The best policy, then, is to see that the common 

 causes of fires are reduced to the minimum by every possible 

 means. If sparks from locomotives and saw mills are allowed 

 to scatter broadcast^ if persons who travel through the woods, 

 carelessly or maliciously setting fire to it, are allowed to go 

 unpunished, and if no effort is made to lessen the amount of 

 dangerous, inflammable litter in exposed places, then all tlie 

 fire-fighting force that can be mustered may not be able to keep 

 down losses from this cause. If the people of West Virginia 

 will stand by the law which is already enacted for the suppres- 

 sion of fires they will be suppressed ; for all the citizens of any 

 state working in co-operation can make sure that the common 

 causes of fires are eliminated. 



But no state has been able to reach all the fires in time to 

 stop them before they were under headway. A few states, 

 recognizing the value of promptness, have established and 

 equipped lookout stations in order that forest fires may be dis- 

 covered and extinguished before they have spread into danger- 

 ous proportions. It has been found out that guards are as nec- 

 essary in forests as night watchmen are about greatly exposed 

 buildings. The commoner means of fighting fires that are un- 

 der way are by back-firing and by clearing strips of ground of 

 all inflammable materials in advance of the fires. Water and 



