Little Falls herald., 1911-04-07
\ WARMING r DRIES s FIRE Pro.
=s...5s5 Il lection.

Il
the morning, and when he returned at
night be found his home in ashes. His
mousse. barn. every building on the
place. all his machinery, hay, feed.
everything he owned except bis live
stock were burned By ire that some
one had set in an adjoining swamp.
His wife had gone through all the
terror Of seeing her home that she had
1rleo IN vain to stop the approach
OF the fire.
THE FIRE LAWS.
The state legislature in it's present
! session is giving much attention to I'M
proving the forest fire laws but no law
can ever be made that will give posi-
| tive protection to the settler. The
settler must do more to protect HIM
self. and the villages and town of the
t1mbered sections must look more to
their own protection. The state can
50 patrol the forests that a fire can be
prevented from spreading over large
area, and it can do more to prevent
the careless starting of fires and the
criminal neglect of them by men who
carelessly start them, but 1t cannot
protect every individual settler and
every individual town from fires
started at their own doors where
there is comhustible material between
the fire and buildings. =.
WHAT MUSI BE DONE.
The settler in the timber must do as
the settler on the prairie did in the
early days-put out fire break. The
! p' alrie farmer expected a fire every
fall and prepared for it. Tkere is
| greater need of preparation on the part
OF farmers living in the timber, and
yet this preparation IS commonly neg
lected. It Is neglected for the reason
that sweeping fire IN the
woods is uncommon. Fires may appear
! for days and weeks in the woods and
burn anu die out without doing
damage. The settlers place and the
| village may stand for years with little
protectlun-stand until protection is
forgotten-and then in AL unguarded
time be entirely destroyed. Over one
half or the farmers places and villages
and towns in the timber section of
| Northern Minnesota are without ample
fire protection. Nothing but plowed
| field or tract has been burned over is
protection on the edge of a forest.
! Farmers, plow a frebreak around
your buildings where the plowed tield
does not give protection. The clearing
itself is not projection unless it is
plowed. Make that frebreak an i'm
portant and necessary part Of each
years work.
Village officials entrusted with forest
fire protection should do something
more than tack up the sign sent out
from the fire warden's Office, warning
against setting fire. ALI brush and
dead timber for space of three hun
dred teet surrounding the entire VIII
Iage should be burned. A few men
and few days work at the proper
time can give more protection to a
town from forest fires in this way than
any state law can possibly give. A
day gwen to protection before the fire
is worth a year afterwa1d. Self pro.
lection is the first and greatest law.
| The farmer living at distance in
tho woods near neighbors and without
this most of all.
In spite OF all the disaster of the
past season from forest fires, fires are
| SCll1 SOU duO d1lOWcu u run. IoOple
have been lenient in dealing with men
who start fires for clearing land, bnt q
man who starts a fire for any purpose
and allows it to run, and gives no con
Germ to it, should be dealt with to the
limit of the law, and law in this re-
spect cannot be made too severe
A. j. Mcclure. Supt.
Northeast Experiment farm.
Grand Rapids. MINI.
| March q, 1911.