The Sentinel=record., 1914-11-29
FOREST RANGER
 AND HIS LABORS
FAR FROM BEING THE LIFE OF EASE AND OUTDOOR VACATION
 THE PUBLIC THINKS.
In Winter He Must Burn Rubbish and Make Trails and in Summer Guard Against Forest Fires.

Washington. Nov 2S.-Out in the snow-pied reaches of l60 federal for est reserves, a small army of Forest Rangers, Uncle Sans most pictur- esque employees. are burning brush. making trail, and building bridges. in order that timber from the mutifari- ous use of posterity may not perish from the face of the earth
 Mounted on snow shoes or skis, and clothed in corduroys and macNnaws, the Forest Ranger has settled down 10 his winters work. far back in the wooded hills, miles from human com panionahip, with no line of communi- cation but the attentuated strand of telephone wire which he himself has strung behind him. For the Forest Ranger is a kind of 'hiberIatins" an imal that works while he hibernates, with the last danger of destructive forest fires gone with the arrival of the heavy snows. he deserts his look ont station. and devOtes his attention t. the work of the winter. the clean ing mp of his range, and the mainte nance of the trails he has wrough, through the forest.
 The first snows start the Ranger out to burn the brush piles left by the logging crews that cut over sale areas, and free use timber on hls range The brush is left in piles nG- til a wet blanket of SHOW insUres against the starting of forest fires from the blazing refuse Then it is burned with the snow on hand as nat. ure's own fire eXtnguisher
 The ranger furnishes up his snow shoes or skis, and patches up his hand or dog sled. A way over on the other side of his range he knows there is a bridge that spans a mountain tor rent, which needs considerable strengthening to stand the weight which the breakup of the winters ice and the spring freshets will put upon it. So he loads a quarter of a ton of bridge iron on his sled, hitches up his dogs, shoulders a provision pack and closes up the log cabin that he calls headquarters. He may nave tc negotiate a snow choked pass. seven or eight thousand feet in attitude where the wet, heavy snow clogs his snow shoes, and where he may have to make three or four trips to haul his pack over the crest When he ar rives at his destination he may find his bridge buried under a ten foot drift of heavy snow which he will spend a day penetrating Through de. lays and heavy travelilg. he may find his supplies giving out, and by the time he has fought his way through a snow storm back to headquarters he may have been luuching for days on frozen raw bacon, and sleeping in sodden blankets under a shelterine tree.
 Throughout the long winter the ranger is kept busy with just such jobs as these Ten feet of snow may come down from the mountains and bury has cabin. and he must dig him. self out and take the trail And he must keep everlastilgly at it untiC the spring breakup sends him sour rying to the high points to watch for the curl Of smoke that fOretells the coming of the forest fire
 Development of the winter work on the ranges has removed the Pores. Ranger from the patronage class fication in government jobs. Former ly Congressmen were inclined to look on the Forest Ranger place as de-. sirable position for some constituent looking for light outdoor work. That time has passed, however, for the Forest Ranger must submit medical certificate showing that he is able bodied before he is appointed A ,he Forest Service puts 1t:
 file must be able-bodied and capa. ble of enduring hardsAips and of per forming severe labor under trying conditions: able to take care of him self and his horses in regions remote from settlement a supplies; ana must be able to build trails and cao. ins and pack in provisions without assistance. He must know something of surveying. estimating and sealing lumber. and the livestock business and in addition 10 this he should have general knowledge of farming and mining
 ABOUT STATE FAIR.