The Record-courier. [volume] (Gardnerville, Nev.) 1904-current, 1913-02-21

nt ialiSCi iiiNCiihS
which was held in Gardnerville from
February 14th to 18th inclusive
proved to be very instructive, giving
the Rangers a much broader view of
their duties.
The meeting was arranged with
the idea of a travelling school in
mind, the district office men being
the instructors. The one object of
of the meetings was to show clearly
to the Rangers how their work ties
in with public service and is fund
amentally a part of conservation.
Mr.. Dubois, the District Forester.
was the first speaker, his subject be-
ing General Efficiency and Protect
ion. He gave a very broad and
comprehensive view of the relations
which should exist between Govern
ment employees and the public.
especially the settlers in and about
the National Forests. He compared
the Forest Service with the Army.
Where the army has for its main
purpose the protection Of the nation
as whole, the forest service pro-
tects and preserves the the nation S
natural resources from monopoly and
wonton destruction.
Under the topic of Protection, Mr.
Dubois gave the general principles
governing the control of forest
fires. He showed how important it
was that we should have rigid fire
laws, which should be short and
simple and which shoul appeal to the
cooperative public spirit. One of
the best methods of fire protection
is the education of the public,
either through theschool, or by
pamphlets and lectures.
There are three main classes of
of fires; ground, crown and surface.
Mr. Dubois took up each class of
fire and showed both the direct and
indirect damage from them. Thus
by taking accurate data it is shown
that 10 per cent of all number
one lumber is degraded by fires.
Among the indirect damages the
following topice were covered; in
crease of erosion, shortening of the
eriod of precipitation run-of, pre-
tarding of reproduction, destruction
of seed crop, retarding of growth, a
common loss to the community due
to loss of timber, decrease of the
power of resistance of trees to fun
gus and other diseases.
Mr.. Dubois finished his talk with
a general discussion of fire fighting
plans, explaining how the forest SER
vice is keeping down the fire loss by
system that is analogous to our
modern city fire departments.
Mr.. Dubois talk was accompanied
by a moving picture entitled the
Forest Ranger, which was shown on
the afternoon of the third meeting
The main feature of this picture is
the forest fire. Here is shown in
graphic style the way in which many
of our most destructive forest fires
are started; that is, by campers fail
ing to put out their camp fires.
The pictures illustrate how the camp
fire spreads to the neighboring trees
and we soon have a roaring forest
fire. The fire is discovered by the
lookout who calls out the rangers,
who are shown on the fire line, COM
batting the flames. The fire increas-
es in magnitude until it becom es
necessary to call out the settlers and
other forest employees. A settler
and his family are shown fleeing
from their home which is soon
swallowed up by the flames.
Doctor Meinecke, the Forest
Pathologist, gave a short, but
very instructive talk on tree diseases
and their relation to conservation.
He showed the condition which
caused trees to become diseased and
explained how these diseases de-
stroyed trees. Doctor Meinecke
gave very detailed explanation of
the manner in which areas that con-
tain no plant or animal life, gradu-
I ally become forested. How the
area first gets covered with organic
material in the form of dust, etc.
and fine particles, either by wind or
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