How to Build a Fire
Choose an open space, if possible, for your fire. Beware of having it under tree branches, too near a tent, or in any other place that might prove dangerous. Start your fire with the tinder nearest at hand, dry leaves, ferns, twigs, cones, birch bark, or pine-knot slivers. As the tinder begins to burn, add kindling-wood of larger size, always remembering that the air must circulate under and upward through the kindling; no fire can live without air any more than you can live without breathing. Smother a person and he will die, smother a fire and it will die.
Hard wood.
Soft woods are best to use after lighting the tinder; they ignite easily and burn quickly, such as pine, spruce, alder, birch, soft maple, balsam-fir, and others. When the kindling is blazing put on still heavier wood, until you have a good, steady fire. Hard wood is better than soft when the fire is well going; it burns longer and can usually be depended upon for a reliable fire, not sending out sparks or sputtering, as do many of the soft woods, but burning well and giving a fine bed of hot coals. The tree belonging exclusively to America, and which is the best of the hardwoods, comes first on the hardwood list. This is hickory. Pecan, chestnut-oak, black birch, basket-oaks, white birch, maple, dogwood, beech, red and yellow birch, ash, and apple wood when obtainable are excellent.