Weekly journal-miner., 1908-11-18
CAMPERS CAUSE MANY FOREST
 FIRES
Carelessness To Often Is Origin Of Timber
 Conflagration
Special 10 the Journal Miner.

Special 70 the Journal-Ainer
 WASHINGTON, Nov. I6. - whl, starts there forest fresf This que. ton has been asked over and over again this summer by readers of the accounts of destructive forest Are, which have been raging in all parts of the country. ual answer. Many of the other tAing, which start blazes in the forest are gotten. li is true that perhaps on. half to three. fourths of the forest fires do begin as a result of the careiessnes,| of some camper, or from sparks flying from locomotives, but there are a nun | Der of things which set the wool, fire.
 A complete report of forest fires On the private forests of the country and their causes is not kept by anyone Uncle Sam. however, is most careful 10 account for the damage done by ihs blazes on his timberland under flores, administration, sggregating about l6s 100000 acres, and each year the ton area burned over, the timberland burr cd over, the amount of timber destroy cd and it's value, the cost of fghtibl fires, and the causes of fires are care fully checked up. These reports ai' made at the end of the calendar year and the announcement of this year Ilnasng W L.. "a more than two months.
 Last years figures, however, give
 good idea of the things which esus| fires in forests. Of the 1855 fires dis covered on the national forests las year, all of which were checked by tA
 rangers before they had burned oys
 Fourteen hundredths of one per cent the national forest area. campers eau ed 346, while railroads followed peI with 273; lightning came next, wit 1 l16; donkey engines used in lumberin | operations, fourth, with 65; earelss brush burning by homesteaders elea
 ing land, 3A; fires caused by inssnd
 aries and those set by herders an hunters, 90. For more than 400 of a hres. the cause is not known. This not strange when it is remembers
 that fire may smolder for days, the air is too thick to permit ti
 smoke to be seen at a distance, befoi| it breaks out when famed by q win| so as to reveal its presence 10 q watchful forest officer.
 ? While campers caused more fr
 than locomotives last year, there d many seasons when the railroads hoJ undisputed claim to first place. Flo est fires started by both are most . unnecessary. If campers would exc
 else care in starting camp fires ar
 be sure that they are extinguished b Tore. they are left, and if the railrO'
 companies would use the most mode and efficient spark arresters, it is rs , sonable to think that the annual fS est fire loss could be reduced mo
 than onebalf. Lightning ranks thi | , among the causes of fires, and n course, man has no greater responsib
 ity m this case than to put the hr a out as soon as possible after discoyei n Careless brush burning by homestea l CTS and persons clearing land is ss
 to be The cause of many of the fl
 which have started this year, partif
 larly those which have swept over
 Lake states.
 The ranger force on many of the ionai forests have been kept bu
 fighting fires which, if left to run
 checked, would have done incalculsl n damage. By quickening communi
 ton between important points throu the construction of telephone lines, {, building roads and trails, the natiO
 forests have been made more acee
 !ble during the past two years and { . nghting has been greatly fscilitat