An attempt is also made to reach the general public, that is, those living outside the local communities, but who occasionally travel through and use the National Forests. Many hundreds of thousands travel through the Forests every year by automobile or by other conveyances. These people camp in the Forests, fish, hunt, and enjoy the cool climate and beautiful scenery. Before they start on their trips, that is, while they are still in their home towns, and also while they are on their way, many means have been devised to reach them. They are confronted with newspaper advertisements, folders, booklets, and other printed matter. In towns and cities, public meetings, lectures, exhibits, expositions, county fairs, commercial clubs, and the chambers of commerce, all help, either directly or indirectly, by one means or another, to inform the people of the great fire danger on the National Forests. Even the letters sent out by the District Forester and the Supervisors have written appeals affixed to the outside of the envelopes by means of a rubber stamp. In short, every possible means is used to educate the public that uses the National Forests and in whose interest, in fact, the Forests are being maintained and protected. _Fire Suppression._ So much for the problem of fire prevention. In case a fire does get started, and there are thousands of them on the National Forests every year, the problem, as has been said before, consists of getting men and tools to it in the shortest possible time, in order to keep the damage down to the lowest possible point. To do this, a vast organization has been formed by the Forest Service, which is not unlike the Minute Man organization of Revolutionary days. A brief outline of this organization and how it works when a fire starts will give my reader a still better idea of what the Forest Service is doing in forest fire protection. But before speaking of this organization, a few preliminary matters are of interest; they deal with the manner of distributing fire protection funds, forest fire history, and the study of weather conditions. _How Forest Fire Funds Are Distributed._ It devolves upon the Forest Supervisor and also the District Forester to apportion the appropriation allotted for fire protection in the most economical and efficient manner. First of all, the money is allotted to the various Forests in proportion to their needs. These needs are measured by the size of the Forest, the value of its resources, the length of the dangerous dry season, the fire liability or the amount of money loss in case of fire, the fire hazard or the degree to which an area is subject to fire danger, the difficulty of prevention and control and many other factors. These same factors are employed to apportion the Supervisor's allotment of money to the various Ranger districts on his Forest.