The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-09-27
HEAVY DAMAGE BY THE FOREST FIRES Fire Season Has Considerable
 Time to Run LOSSES HEAVY FOR 1908 Methods Employed by Federal Govern ment to Keep Down Great Con
 flagrations Which Cause
 Such Enormous Waste.
LOSSES HEAVY FOR 1908


 Washington, September 26.-(Special.)- Forest fires are causing considerable dam age in many parts of the country at pres ent. It will be several months before the total destruction Is known, for the fire season has considerable time to run. In figuring out this years losses 1t will be natural to make comparison with the losses for last year which, according to Treadwell Cleveland, Jr., in the Year Book of the department of agriculture, will cause 1908 to be long remembered.
 "A dry season, combined with what seemed to be even more than the usual indifference toward small fires which might easily have been extinguished at the start" says MT. Cleveland, "'caused destructive conflagrations In practically evevy state, with losses aggregating s1O0,- 900, 900. In comparison with the havoc wrought elsewhere, the damage done to national forests was exceedingly slight. Had fires ragged within the forests as they did outside they would have destroyed timber worth sSo,OOO, ,0OO-enough to run the forest service for six years. More over, 1t is practically certain that most if not all of the damage which was done might have been prevented had the for ests been fully manned.'
 Finally the estimates of loss made by the service on national forests are par ticularly searching, and take full account of the injury done to young growth. Com monty, estimates of loss from forest fires are based upon the damage done to
 
 do not reckon the usually far greater loss in injury or destruction of young growing stock.''
 The methods by which the government keeps down the fire losses on the national forests include:
 1. Constant and systematic patrol by picked forces of rangers and guards
 2 The construction of roads, trails and telephone lines, which facilitate the mass ing of large fre-fghting forces.
 3. The construction of fire lines which, in some instances, check the spread of fire without human help.
 4. The equipment of the forests with fire-fghting tools and other supplies neces- sary in fighting fires. The supplies of tools are kept at convenient points at all times. in order to have them easily access sble to forest officers, in case fires break out
 5. Cooperation with railroads, timber land owners, and settlers in fire pro- tection, in this way making 1t possible to protect both the lands of the com panies and the forest service at much smaller cost to the government than would be the case were the national for est lands alone protected by the local officers.
 Just as the practice of forestry is in- portant in the movement for the con servation of all natural resources, so is fhe protection of the forests from fires important in the futherance of rational forest work. In fact, forestry in many instances means nothing more than con- servative numbering and the prevention of forest fires. Uncle Sam realizes that only through the wise use and care of the forests will 1t be possible to make natural timberland permanently produc- tive The practice of forestry does not mean abbreviating the use of the land. Instead, conservative numbering and pro- lection of the young growth from fire will bring about steadily increasing use, for with cultivation and care the yield of the forest increases and the prod uct improves in the same way that the value of the farm increases under proper system of management