TIMBER GROWING AND LOGGING PRACTICE 21 
Prompt detection and prompt suppression of fires are the key to 
small losses in woods fires just as in city fires. The ordinary prac- 
tice is to locate fire-lookout towers 15 or 20 miles apart on prominent 
hills, where the men on duty during the season when there is danger 
of fires can overlook the intervening territory. These towers are 
generally of steel construction, of various heights up to 60 or 70 
feet, have an inclosed glassed-in top so that the observer can remain 
on the tower even on cold windy days, and are provided with a map 
mounted on a table and a sighting device (alidade) which enables 
the observers to locate fires quickly. Their cost in place ordinarily 
varies from $1,000 to $2,500. The towers have the ordinary tele- 
phone service of the region which enables the observers to report 
promptly any fires that are detected. If the local telephone service 
is unreliable, a special official telephone line is very commonly con- 
structed from the observation tower to a reliable public line or to 
the home of a local fire warden. 
4. A modification of the fire-lookout tower system is employed in 
some instances where the wooded territory is broken up by farms 
or settlements to such an extent that farmers or other residents are 
certain to see a forest fire about as quickly as an observer on a look- 
out tower. Under these circumstances, an effort is made to interest 
whole communities to serve as voluntary fire observers and to ap- 
point some of their number to take charge of fires when reported. 
Such a plan ordinarily aims to provide one fire warden for each 
2,000 or 3,000 acres of timberland. These men are unpaid except 
when actually fighting fires. 
5. To supplement both these detection and suppression forces 
already mentioned, some States at times employ patrolmen, who 
actually patrol the country where fire danger is great. During the 
early fishing season when the woods are dry and inflammable they 
spend their time along streams or lakes most frequented by fisher- 
men. They warn fishermen against throwing away lighted matches 
or burning tobacco, or leaving camp fires burning. Commonly, they 
come upon and extinguish small fires in the woods or camp fires left 
burning before these have been seen by the men on the lookout 
towers. During the summer they are busy with summer campers 
and tourists, and during the fall their attention is turned to the 
hunters. 
Experience has indicated that the best results are obtained where 
all men are employed by a central State organization and all pub- 
lic activities in prevention, detection, and suppression of forest fires 
come under its direction. There should be no division of adminis- 
trative authority between the State and lesser political subdivisions 
such as the town or county. The costs of fire suppression should first 
be met by the State, but a portion of it, ordinarily one-half, should 
be billed back against the county, town, or local political subdivision 
within whose limits the fire occurred. This brings the forest-fire 
problem home to the local population in an effective way and teaches 
them the need of exercising care to prevent forest fires, a vast ma- 
jority of which are commonly due to carelessness and thoughtless- 
ness, often of local people. 
Any organization is impotent without adequate funds for its sup- 
port. A poorly organized, poorly administered, and poorly paid 
