46 
FORESTS OF WISCONSIN. 
would furnish 5 billion and more of merchantable material. 
This same work of destruction continues; this very fall (1897) 
many hundreds of acres of young sapling pine were ruined by 
fire, and it will require many years before the opening of set¬ 
tlements and roads suffices to suppress the fire fiend. From this 
it is clear, and the fact is fully conceded by all persons convers¬ 
ant with the conditions of these woods, that the first and most 
important step in the right direction consists in the organiza¬ 
tion of an efficient fire police. 
That a diversity of opinion should exist on this subject, is 
but natural. To most people the entire subject is foreign, the 
problem too large. To many even well informed and experi¬ 
enced men the forest fire is an enormous affair, a calamity 
which man is entirely unable to combat. Nevertheless, the 
best informed men, nearly all woodsmen (“cruisers” and log¬ 
gers), whose opinion was sought in this connection expressed 
themselves in favor of such a police and felt certain of good re¬ 
sult. In considering this important subject it may be of in¬ 
terest to point out a few fundamental facts which may help to 
shape a policy. 
1. All fires have a small beginning. The Peshtigo fire, by 
far the most terrific ever experienced in Wisconsin, was known 
to be burning and gathering head for fully two weeks before it 
broke out in the final and then perfectly unmanageable form. 
The Phillips fire was heard and the smoke seen and felt in town 
for days before it reached the village and converted it into 
mins. 
2. All fires stop of their own accord after they have run for 
but a moderate distance, evidently finding obstacles which gradu¬ 
ally reduce their power. The Peshtigo fire did not involve the 
fourth part of Marinette county; the Phillips fire not a fourth 
of Price, and a most intense fire in northern Chippewa county, 
which when at its best sent fire-brands across a lake over half 
a mile wide, did not keep on running, but stopped without 
going much, if any, beyond the county line. 
3. The majority of fires are small fires. When the “whole 
