The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-09-23
5ARELESSSM0KER MAY BE CAUSE
 OF FOREST FIRE
Forest Service 4'Is After l.. Facts Regarding These
 Blazes.
Judge Ru1nrny

waA hington, Sept. 23-As.. a basis for Securing. if possible, corporation of teosAsco users in the reduction of losses fkon1 forest fires, the Forest Service of the United States Depart naent of Agriculture is preparing to gather Information as to the extent to which firsS in the woods are due to smokers
 for a nurAoer of years as to the causes Of foTest fires" said Acting Forester Sharman recently in outlin- ing the plan. -rbut these statistics have not shown under a separate heading fires known to have their or izin in tobacco smoking. All fires started by hunters and fishermen, for example, are commonly classed as campers fires, those started by log gers, to Iunberren, and so on- From now on our men in the field making reports will be asked to indicate, so far as they are able, how many fires are started by smokers Undoubtedly the general use of cigarettes has tend cd to make the task of forest protec- ton more difficult In the days when woodsnnen and manual 1aborers usu- ally smoked pipes the danger from smoking was relatively small
 "A burning cigarette end seems such a small matter that relatively few people. trouble to be sure that it is out before tossing 1t away. In the western National forests where in the summer every spark of fire is particu- larly dangerous on account of the dry ness Of the vegetation, our forest rangers have again and again traced fires back to the point of origin and found there a cigarette butt, from which the fire had spread fan-wise down the wind Some of these cigar cite butts lay by the roadside where they had been tossed from the cars of automobili5ta
 Lumber companies sometimes for bid noking in the woods. Restrictive measures of this character would not be called for if smokers had a suffi- cient1y keen sense of responsibility, and the habit of care not to drop fire in any form
 It is not merely in the forests, ac- cording to the Department of Agri-- culture that smoking is the cause of special fire Eisk- The Bureau of Chemistry of the department has in recent years been studying the dust explosions which are often the cause of very great losses of property in grain elevators. four mills, etc. and finds many blazes due to smoking The educational campaign conducted by the bureau in the effort to lessen fire loSscs from this cause has had for one oe its important lines of effort bringing home to the ubiquitous smoker i'm grain elevators, flour mills, etc. the urgent need for care.
 The Secretary of Agriculture ad- dreEse1 a letter to a number or lead- smE tobacco manufacturers not long ago. pointing out that smokers cause naamy forest fires. that a single fire may cost the government thousands Of dollars for fire fighting. to say nothing of the timber burned up and the landscape desolated. and that by enclosing in tobacco packages some sOrf of warming against carelessness with fire. t1ae companies could materi- ally aid sn the campaign for forest prOxectf0n While most of the com pan6aS thus addressed made no reply, one of the largest tobacco companies i'm the country answered favorably and requested a suggestion for a slip which might be placed in packages oT smoking tobacco. as a warning. The department suggested a legend read ing
 Carc3csa Smokers Cause Many
 Forest Fires,
 says the United States Forest
 Service.
 Burned Timber Pays No Wages!
 <a'N>'
 your help to prevent fires.
 Be sure your match. pipe ashes,
 ciEnrettc are out before you let
 them fall