The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1916-12-29
HOW STATE FORESTRY WORKS
Minutes Count in Fire Projections; Big
Difference i'm Dollars When Fires
Are Starting.

The other day, up in Western Mary
land, man stood at the top of q
metal tower, and looked around him
at the woods and mountains. The
tower under him rose on four stilt-
! like legs, and was topped by small
wooden box with sides of glass and
wood. Its windows gave him a view
of forests that still covered the hills
as far as his eye could see. A hun
dred and fifty thousand acres of them
coated the mountains below the peak
where the watch tower stood, and
with his glass the man could get a
pretty thorough view of all of them.
He had been climbing his tower
each morning and descending again at
night for the six or eight weeks that
the fire weather" lasted. On this
particular morning the air was clear,
and he chuckled with relief as his
eye took in the first of the ranges
about him. for there was no smoke to
cloud its clearnesS. Many another
morning one quick look to fix it in his
mind. and he was at his phone. His
voice went over the wires that led
down the side of the tower and on to
the clearings, and the nearest Forest
Warden collected his tools and was off
to a fire somewhere within the thou
sands of acres that constituted his
timbered domain. When he reached
it, there was work The lookout knew
it; hence the chuckle.
The recent chuckle. though, was
quickly smO .hered Down in a cor
ner, near d clearing. a ring Or two of
,rIy1
spirals. With a muttered eXclama-
ton he was at his speaking outfit.
Several hurried calls. and the Ward
en- started from his home. Travelling
on horseback over the mountain
trails, with the telephOned directions
never out of his mind, it did not take
him long to reach it. Others, sum-
moned over the wire. were there
ahead of him, and once reached, the
fire was almost as quickly out.
AS they turned to leave the spot a
dog trotted into sight, then turned
tail, and was off in a second. The
Forest Warden, as the man from the
tower was called, had seen it, though,
and recognized it too. The dog was
the property of a man nearby who
raised few sheep for his living His
own acres being few, the sheep were
somewhat farmed out on the country
surrounding. This fire had been the
fourth in one spot within 4 week, and
the Warden began to make deduc-
lions. For it is known to those who
dwell in the mountains and woods
that fires make pasture. Even when
quickly out, the harm they do the
timber is infinitely greater, of course,
but what of that, when the timber be-
longs to another. and the grass is
yours for the taking.
So occasionally such men as this
start a fire in the forest In years
past they were frequent, and sane
toned by common consent That was
before the days of Forestry Board
and the Forest Warden It works diff
ferently now. The man suspected of
starting the succession of fires at this
one spot will be put under the sur
VIGILANCE Of the forest officers, and if
caught at such work there are forest
laws to cover the case.
More important. though, than this
work that the Wardens do is other
work, which shows the public where
its own best interests lie. Public SEN
timent takes years to form, and is not
changed in minute, but now it is
swinging around to a point where
burning woods for grass is frowned
upon, and the timber of the State is
! steadily drawing the sort of care
which economy, public-spiritednes
and good management demand.