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-1 AN forest fires such as those whose devastation of life and property in Idaho > and Montana is so fresh in ' the public mind be pre vented? Cannot human ingenuity, caution, and wealth devise some means of making such horrors impossible? These questions have been asked by thousands of persons throughout the country in the last few weeks, ever since the first bad fire began. The Idaho disaster has given an add ed insistence to these appeals for in formation, appeals that indicate a hope that some preventive system may be discovered and put into op eration. In response to these questions Gif ford Pinchot, former chief forester, and Henry S. Graves, the present chief forester, return the same answer: “No!” Such a fire, they say, is to be classed •with the great Chicago conflagration, the fire that set Baltimore back, the San Francisco earthquake, the Gal veston flood. Disasters of this sort can neither be foreseen nor dealt with in line of ordinary human endeavor. This fire, according to Mr. Pinchot, Mr. Graves and the experts who have spent years in the forest service, re sulted from an unusual combination of circumstances. The main causes were the exceptional drought and the high, steady winds that prevailed for £ long period preceding the outbreak of fire. But ordinary forest fires can be pre vented. Thousands upon thousands of them are prevented every year by the forest rangers and forest guards. But they are ordinary fires, which, if caught early, can be promptly sup pressed before they attain serious pro portions. “More forest rangers and forest guards,” is the cry of the forest serv ice. It is the cry that has been hurled from the department of agriculture, of which the forest service is a bu reau, to the capitol for several years. But it has usually found congress stone deaf. “There is not nearly enough men,” said Mr. Pinchot, sadly, in talking of the Idaho disaster. “Just how many are really needed it is difficult to say. but many more than the 2,000 now engaged in fire prevention and fire fighting.” Just as eternal vigilance is the price of peace, so eternal vigilance is the price of safety from forest fires. As well as it is possible with the number of men it has, the forest service now looks after this part of its business. It has fire fighting down to a system, and. so far as ordinary cases go, its force works effectively. The only trouble lies in the size of the force. Situation Becoming Acute. But, with the recent disasters in mind, it is likely that congress will do something better in this line in the near future. The loss of human life and the loss of property (not only to the government, but to corporations and private individuals as well) are almost sure to arouse a keener and greater interest in the whole forest question. Wood is becoming scarce. Its de pletion is being felt by the railroads and other big corporations, and their co-operation with the government in the matter of fire protection is almost a certainty. Surprise has been expressed at the extent of the probable loss of life in the great fires that have sw*ept cer tain sections of the west. To the un initiated, a government forest reserva tion means a great wilderness of trees, uninhabited, save by itinerant hunters and the forest rangers and ruards. It is true that some of the forest ranges answer to this description, but ethers are, for forests, densely populated. Their population consists of small landholders —“nesters” they are called in the west. They are men who, with their families, take up small claims on government forest reserve lions and farm and raise stock on a small scale under the limitations set dowh by the government. It Is nothing for a forest reserva tion to have a population of 10,000 persons, exclusive of the employes of the forest service. Several of the forests in Idaho and Montana are filled with “nesters.” As for the loss in money from for est fires in ordinary years, that in it self is enough to warrant extraor dinary effort and expense in the pre vention of such disasters. “Will it pay to support an adequate fire protection system?” This is the question practical lum bermen of the old school ask. The forest service men are confident it will. They have had experience and know that reasonable protection re quires no patented tools, no secret method. Co-operation on the part of the state governments and more money from congress will bring about the desired results. “Does the maintenance of an expen sive fire-fighting force pay a city?” is the counter question of the forest service experts. The affirmative an swer comes promptly. The government methods of fight ing and controlling forest fires are simple. They consist of nothing more than extreme care to prevent as many fires as possible and plain, bus inesslike methods of getting to work on the flames as soon as they are dis covered and staying with the fire un til it is out. An ax, a mattock, a pick, a shovel and a wet gunny sack, if water is ob tainable, are the forest ranger’s fire fighting apparatus. In the more ac cessible regions, where water is abund ant, wagons equipped with hose are used. But these are Impossible far up in the mountains, where the most sure-footed horses find progress dif ficult. Get Quickly to Work. There the work is done by the cool, nervy rangers. Trained woodmen they are, who know their work and have the heart to do it. They haunt the high places and keep persistent watch over the surrounding country for miles. When they see a fire they go to it. If it looks too big for one or two men to handle they hurry to the nearest station for help. In some of the ranges the telephone and telegraph wires and the railroads are at their disposal. Gradually the forest service is lay ing out a network of telephone lines through the forest reserves. But such a system as is contemplated in con nection with forest preservation is in its infancy today, and, in the last an alysis, the average embryonic fire is fought by small groups of men, some times by only two men, sometimes by a single one. Of the thousands of fires that are put out every year in the national re serves before they get well started the general public knows nothing. They are part of the regular routine of the forest guards and rangers. The amount spent on forest fire fighting by the forest service is ap proximately $50,000 a year in ordinary years. Twice or three times that sum would not seem large in view of the amount of property saved, to say noth ing of loss of life prevented. Aside from the loss of life and leav ing out indirect results of forest fires, damage done by such conflagrations include the death of standing trees, in jury to trees that are not killed, in jury to the soil, reduction of the growth of the stand and the effect on reproduction. Some of the resistant species of trees are harmed but lit tle, while forest fires at times utterly wipe out species of less vitality, so that they never return to the terri tory which has been swept by the flames. In considering the causes of fires the forest service has learned by ex perience that the principal ones are sparks from locomotives, sparks from sawmills, camp fires, burning brush, careless smokers, incendiarism and lightning. For the prevention of fires, or les sening their ravages, the following are necessary; Elimination, so far as possible, of the causes of fires, a proper organ ization of the forest by the careful dis position of slash, by which is meant chips and cut branches, the opening of roads and trails, adequate super vision, and sufficient men, armed with the proper apparatus. The forest service gives great im portance to the necessity of carefully burning brush and of the establish ment of trails through the forest, so the small fires may be the more easily got at. The brush should be piled In small piles and each pile burned in dependently. This work is best done in the winter, whoa there is snow on the ground, or when the air is moist and less liable to spread the flames. The careful watching of a tract makes it safer, because hunters, camp ers and others crossing that tract are more careful of their fires. By effi- dent supervision most of the unnecee sary fires can be prevented. As part of this supervision by th forest service all the government for est reserves are posted with warn ings. These warnings are printed li English, Italian, French and Spanish They warn against carelessness ant describe the penalties. The four lan guages are used because many Italian! are at work on the railroads and more Mexicans are adrift all over the west Watch for Incipient Fires. Ail over the forest reserves are lookout stations. In the fiat country they consist of platforms in the tops of high trees, approached by ladders If there are no tall trees towers art erected. In the mountainous coun try any high peak or crag will do. Prom these lookouts the keen eyed rangers and guards, provided with the best long distance glasses, keep a constant Watch over the territory as signed to them. Prom one to another they signal in various ways. Where* ever it is possible the telephone ia used. In the wilder regions more primitive methods must need be em ployed. Among the most effective is the old fire system, the system used by the Piets of Scotland, the system the white men of Europe found the red men of America using when they first struck the shores of the western hem isphere. At a time when fire signals are nol needed the rangers and guards builc little brush piles all over their terri tory. Placed about 100 feet apart they are ready to burn at a moment’s notice. A regular code of signals pre vails. The number of brush fires burn ing at the same time conveys the sig nal. One fire means a forest fire on the west of a certain mountain. Two fires mean one to the east, and so on. Where there are no brush fire sig nals the simple Indian system of a small fire and a blanket serves the purpose of Uncle Sam’s forest guar dians. The small fire is started. Then wet grass or earth is used to deaden it and make the smoke heavy. Over (he fire a blanket is thrown to hold the smoke down. When the blanket is released a solid puff of smoke goes skyward. Again the blanket is ap plied and quickly removed. Up goes another puff of smoke. Other methods are the heliograph— a windmill with small mirrors at tached to its wheels, which flash the signal of a fire, and, in some cases, the flag system of the army signal corps. Best of all, however, is the tele phone. Since 190 G the forest service has built 4,850 miles of telephone line, and is extending them as rapidly as congress appropriates the money. In a report on the forest fire ques tion Chief Forester Graves says it is impossible to give a specific rule for the number of men required to pro tect tracts of different' sizes, although he supports Mr. Pinchot in saying that the forest service is undermanned. In some cases a single man has to watch a tract of 1,000 acres. More men are required in flat regions, as in the mountain regions a single man may, by climbing to a high peak, and there pitching his camp, keep guard over a vast territory. The fire fighting crews of the for est service are well organized. One man is always in charge. All know their business. The first rule is to get there as quickly as possible. Then organization counts. A well organized small crew can do more work in an hour than an ordinary gang of able bodied men, well intentioned but ig norant, could accomplish in twenty four. Hand-to-Hand Conflict. in most cases the battle between the rangers and the fire is a hand-to hand conflict. Using coats, slickers, gunny-sacks, or whatever they have, Uncle Sam’s guardians go after the fire as though it were a den of snakes, and beat it out. Dirt, if it is loose, may be dug up and thrown on the fire. Sometimes water is absolutely nec essary. Often it has to be brought from a distance, and must be used economically. A little water is thrown on the ground to deaden the fire, and then beating begins. The forest guards know that the most effective way to use water is by means of hand sprays. These little pumps throw water from twenty to thirty feet, and by them the water can be placed where it will do the most good. Where it is possible chemicals are used, but they are not feasible in the remote places. If the fire cannot be checked quickly light trenches are dug ahead of it in its direct line ol march and the fight is made ovei these trenches. So much for the ordinary surface fires. They are handled with com parative ease if caught in time. The great danger lies in what are known as crown fires. They are the fires which move along the tops of the trees. Naturally they move more rapidly because of the air that fans them. Also they jump distances, while a sur face fire creeps slowly and steadily along. Backfiring is usually required to head off a crown fire. This sys tem is effective on level ground, but a crown fire running through the mountains is almost impossiole tc check, even by the most skilful back firing. The crown fires were responsible for the great damage recently done in Idaho. They got ahead of the guards and rangers, passed beyond all human control and took their tribute in life and property. After all, the handling of ordinary forest fires is a question. It is one of an organized force sufficient ly large. The increase of the present fire-fighting force is apt to receive at tention at the hands of congress In the near future. WANTS NO MODERNIZED BIBLE King James Version the Best of All, Says Writer In Success Magazine. V e are just old-fashioned enough to take no stock in the modernized Bible which is shortly to appear, “couched in every-day language, with obsolete words and phrases eliminated.” The King James Bible has done more to preserve the good old Saxon words and style, which are the best English lit erature has produced, than anything else. Instead of a movement to get us further away from that vigorous, simple, classic style, and in the inter est of establishing the finest literary Ideals possible to a people destined to use the curious hybrid which the Eng lish language has become, it w r ould be more sensible to frown upon all efforts to improve on the King James Bible. It is the greatest treasure house, in spiration and teacher of good English that we possess.—Success Magazine. FOR THE SKIN AND SCALP Because of its delicate, emollient, sanative, antiseptic properties derived from Cuticura Ointment, united with the purest of cleansing ingredients and most refreshing of flower odors, Cuticura Soap is unrivaled for preserv ing, purifying and beautifying the skin, scalp, hair and hands, and, as sisted by Cuticura Ointment, for dis pelling itching irritation and In flammation and preventing clogging of the pores, the cause of many disfig uring facial eruptions. 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