New Weapons For Fighting Fire

The Fire Demon, which takes a toll of more than a million dollars a year from California's forests and fields, now faces a defensive army equipped with new and powerful fire suppression weapons, reforts S. B. Show, chiif of the California District, U. S. Forest Service. These weapons are 6O horse-power tractors, 5 ton blade-graders, and heavy V-type drags used in the construction of fire lines and motor ways (rough fire control roads) in the national forests of the state.

The Forest Service, from years of experience in the ways of conflagration, has long known that an important factor in the prevention as well as the control of large fires, is a network of motor ways and fire lines that will permit of reaching the fire in the shortest possible time and placing it under control before it has a chance to become a big fire. When fires are thus promptly suppressed, the saving in fire fighting expenditures alone, not to mention the saving of valuable forest resources, is often equal to the cost of the road or fire line. Lack of appropriations for such work and the high cost of man power for building fire lines and motor ways through the dense brush that clothes many foothill bnd mountain areas, has prevented general adoption of this system of fire prevention by Federal foresters.

A veritable army of meq were formerly required to do this gruelling fire line construction work, and the cost of manual labor frequently reached $500 a mile. In some regions, with extremely roughterrain and dense brush growth, 175 sweating, toiling men were able to build only

New Booklet On Lumber Buying

"Taking the Mystery Out of Lumber Buying" is the title of a booklet that explains in layman's language the meaning of American Lumber Standards, tells how lumber is graded by experts at the mills, describes the grades and sizes provided by those Standards for ordinary construction purposes, and in general simplifies lumber-buying for the great majority of people who have no technical knowledge of lumber grades and know little of the many uses for which lumber is adapted.

Single copies of the booklet are available on application to the National Lumber Manufacturers Association, Transportation Building, Washington, D. C.

Hovrrd M. Guto

Gritzmacher

& GUNTON Wholcrden

112 Markct Sr - San Francirco

Tclcphouc Suttcr 71190

'Dougler Fir - Spnrcc - Rcdwood

Rcdrvood ud Ccdar Shinglcr

Fir Pilin3 - Ccdrr Porte

Split Rcdwood Productr

Ajrntr: A. F. C,;ot Llrnbc Co. Tlhaoo&. Orrfo one mile of cleared fire line a day. When dependence was placed upon muscle, and mattock, brush hook and shovel, the work, in the face of an on-rushing fire, was often disastrously slow.

The idoption of machinery in the place of hand labor bids fair to revolutionize fire line construction. Powerful tractors, pulling heavy V-drags or graders, plunge with brute force through the dense brush, leaving in their wake a broad, open fire line, often constructed at the rate of a mile an hour. The overwhelming power of these firebreathing behomoths, steadily surging forward through the sturdy scrub oak and towering chaparral, is reminiscent of a giant brontosaurus of prehistoric days as he stalked irresistibly through the Cretaceous swamps.

Experiments conducted by the Forest Service in the national forests of California during the past,two years, have resulted in the construction to date of 160 miles of motor ways on the Shasta, California, Tahoe, Stanislaus, Sierra, Santa Barbara and Cleveland national forests, and 110 miles of fire lines in the Angeles and Cleveland national forests. The average cost of the motor ways was $125 per mile, and of fire lines from 40 to 50 feet wide $50 per mile, as against a former cost by hand labor for fire line constructibn in the same regions o{ approximately $40O per mile.

The Forest Service will have 32 tractois and graders operating this season in the national forests of the state, and is planning to further extend the construction of fire lines and motor ways as rapidly as funds are made available.

W. R. RIPLEY VISITS LOS ANGELES

W. R. Ripley, vice president of Wheeler, Osgood Company, Tacoma, Wash., accompanied by Mrs. Ripley, spent several-days in.los Angeles recently to attend the gradua- tion of his son Alex B. from the Haivard School.

N. H. HUEYVISITS LOS ANGELES

^.N. H. Huey, Aizona lumberman with headquarters in Phoenix, attended the Shrine convention in L6s Angeles during the week of June 2. During his stay in the Sjuttr- land, he called on hls lumbermen-friends.'Mrs. Huev accompanied him on the trip.

There Is A Reason

Why thc largert rnillr arc inrtalling our IMPROVED AIR COOLED REFUSE BURNERS.

WE .ARE ABLE to car€ for yorn requirementr for air cooled and brick tined refure bunerrnew and ured boilerr of dl rizer and typer.

SEATTTE BOILER

WORI(S Scrttlc, Werh.