The San Francisco call., 1904-11-28


every one Of our great fires in this
most disastrous year in the coasts MIS-
tory was fed by debris The plain
truth is there can be no great fires il
We have small ones / do not know
that there are advocates Of Indian cr
enti-Indisn methods. 1 should say il
is mostly a matter Of carelessness OF
in5iffereuce. When there has not been
s FIRE for ten or twenty years we are
not going 10 bother much about il in
This span sely-settled and busy eOuu-
Try. The only real worker in this line
is the railroad. Look out Of the cais
for thousands Of miles and you viii
see that the grass has been burned o.
the gr3rLc plOwed. II there is . bet
ser method the learned engine RS of
this IL hon investment should practice
surely.
AS fOr the burning up Of small trees
one should know that nature is most
generous here. A thousand little trees
are planted TO one that perfects. Look
along the railroad trenches above the
IRE line and you win see little pine
lh-ckets that a bear couldn't get
through. A dozen years later and nine
or OF ten are dead. Twenty years
later and not one in a hundred lives
tfe tANEef AAAN bAE AlAEls llASA SIOA
wide apart-the survival of the fttest
-or fghtest.
There is one thing that no man is
ever quite prepared for. and them is
tWinsi"
No man is ever quite prepared for
either fire or its twin-destrOyer. flood.
They truly come as a thief in the
night Il would seem that man, with
1a his ingenuity and great numbers.
should be able TO defeat the great fires
If Chicago, Boston. Baltimore and 50
on But they come right along at al
most regular periods And il trained
men In millions can't conquer fires in
the great cities how can we expect the
Ihinly settled country with no disci-
pline OF appliances 10 do SOP
The best that can be done il seems
10 me. is 10 set a few plain facts be
fore the people and urge them through
the press 70 constant care during the
ory grass season. For our fires. unlike
those Of Michigan. Wisconsin and like
lumber regions. are not forest fires to
begin with We have but little forest
on the level. as those States have Our
trees are on the mountains and are
reached. as a rule, by grass fires that
begin in the valley. When we have
more stock on the foothills il viii be
better
The swiss start their dairy cattle up
and climbing tiIi the end If the season,
when the cold drives them back home
with the cattle laden with cheese. They
never have fires. because they leave
nothing for the fire 10 feed upon. Hence
] advise the use Of fire. after the In
dian fashion. in places where the grass
is too luNUriant. OF course, as 1r.
Sterling says, il is dangerous work.
Few men have the patience and the
fine sense Of nature that an Indian
woman has and il ignorant and ire
sponsible strangers. knowing little
about the work. should be set 10 burn
grass. only trouble could come Of it.
BURNING THE GRASS.
have. IN the last eighteen years.
planted about twenty thousand trees
on mv hills here and have succeeded in
preserving some hundred redwood trees
Cf the second groE<h in my canyon L
could not have done this without burn
ing the grass as fast as IL riDened so
as 10 be 1T 70 burn. j OF course kept
cattle on my grass all the time, but
mine Is e rough bit Of ground and
there IS always z spot here and there
that escapes the cattle. This mas 10
be burned. I also burn the public road
when III can be burned. a public road
should be a good fire line, wall
against the fires Of careless neighbors;
but as the country could hardly afford
10 ploW or NOW the ground try 10 dis
pose Of the dry grass myself.
The generous soil OF Lake County l
noticed only last year sends up
growth Of vines moss and grasses that
leave hardly room for the stage TO
pass This year all that part Of the
state is in mourning. Had the pub
lie roads been kept clean the chances
are that the millions that went uD III
smoke this year in the northern coun-
ties would have been spared 10 US
And now one word about the men
who use the public highways. At the
most critical season of the year hun
dreds Of smart and ignorant young
men pour out OF he cities into the
foothills and mountains. And every
one has a gun. generally some old
style that loads with a 'wad"; this
wad is the very thing TO fire the grass.
or if the noisy young hunter" does
not start 4 fire with his old gun he
camps by the wsyside ana leaves the
embers Of his campfire 10 the winds.
All such creatures seem TO think the
roads as well as the earth, belong TO
1hem. But the public road is only
an easement. The public road is only
a right of way. The ground belongs
10 the man who Jet the county have IL