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Show ing brush or rubbish, where in most cases water is not available, an organized or-ganized neighborhood fire company equipped with a chemical cart would be of the greatest utility. . The office of farm management uf the United States department of agriculture agri-culture has for some time urged the use of chemical apparatus as more effective than water against fires on the farm, especially where kerosene, gasoline or other oil is involved, and as an indispensable reinforcement to the use of water in all cases. That is secured in the California plan together with an even more effective thing, the organization of the men of the community com-munity in such way that they can make their efforts almost immediately effective against any fire. FIRE GOMES AMONG FARMERS Become Members of Voluntary Organizations With All the Necessary Equipment. PLANNED BY COUNTY AGENTS Estimated That Quarter of Million Dollars' Worth of Grain Was Saved Last Year Wider Field of Usefulness Seen. A smoke smudge on the horizon ra the country no longer means certain and complete loss. At least, this is true in 15,000 square miles of California where 6,000 farmers farm-ers have enlisted in rural fire companies, com-panies, equipped with trailer fire carts, stationed at strategic points and ready to meet the fire peril when it appears. The plan was developed by the county agricultural agents, in cooperation co-operation with the forest service of the United States department of agriculture, agri-culture, and it is estimated that a quarter of a million dollars' worth of grain was saved through it during the summer of 1918. The plan was devised de-vised for the purpose of reducing losses in grain fields and on grass ranges, but department of agriculture specialists believe it might be given a much wider field of usefulness in the protection of practically all kinds of farm property fiom loss by fire. Under the California plan the county farm bureau becomes the central cen-tral fire protection agency. A local fire company was formed at each community com-munity farm bureau center, and the members pledged themselves to respond re-spond instantly to the call of fire. Each community elected a "fire boss," who was commissioned as a deputy state fire warden, and a "fire dispatcher," dis-patcher," whose duty it is to remain at the telephone during fires to give information and obtain help. Trailers Carry Equipment. In most of the communities a two-wheeled two-wheeled trailer fire cart was obtained. These trailers are of simple construction, construc-tion, may be attached to any automobile, automo-bile, and are completely equipped with chemical fire extinguishers, water cans filled with wet sacks, with forks and shovels, and with a container for drinking water for the fire fighters. The trailer is kept at the cross roads or other most accessible point in the community, and the first automobile passing on the way to a fire hitches to the trailer and takes'it along. Out of the 3G6 rural fire companies organized organ-ized in California last year, 257 are equipped with such trailers. The saving of a quarter of a million dollars in a single season in this limited territory is. an indication of what might result if the plan were generally adopted in communities where conditions are such as to make it workable. There are some rural communities where such a plan might not be advisable, but in the majority, perhaps, it would be workable. Prior to the extensive spread of the farm bureau system, which came primarily as a war measure during 1917 and 191S, it would not have been possible, since it is necessarily a' co-operative community activity. But the farm bureau system has come to stay, and it nll'ords the sort of co-operative ef-( fort of which community fire protection protec-tion may well be a part. Similar Need Elsewhere. Throughout a dozen or more states, there exists a need for protection against fire in grain and grass fields, at thrashers, and the like, similar to that In California. Iu other large areas where wooded tracts are interspersed with tilled fields and where woods fires are of frequent occurrence and often spread to crops and buildings, there exists the same need as In the extensive grain fields. And, in the general prolo"tlon of farm buildings and fences, in hay loft and hay rick llres from spontaneous combustion or nccldent, In fires spreading from buru- |