THE PROTECTION OF FORESTS 



FROM FIRE 



By HENRY S. GRAVES 

 Forester, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



Part III — Continued from October number 



Burning Brush Piles 



An excellent time for burning brush 

 is after the first snow of winter. (PI. 

 IV.)='= This is usually a light fall, and 

 the snow does not penetrate the com- 

 pact piles of brush sufficiently to prevent 

 burning. There is no danger of the fire 

 running on the ground, and the branches 

 of the standing trees are so damp as 

 to prevent injury by the rising flames. 

 If the brush is burned before winter, 

 it should be only during damp weather, 

 when the ground is so wet that fire will 

 not run easily. 



When large areas of piled brush are 

 to be burned the work should be organ- 

 ized with care. It should never be 

 undertaken when there is a strong wind, 

 and the best time is in calm weather. 

 If there is any wind, the burning should 

 begin with the piles on the lee side. 

 Several piles may be fired at one time, 

 but they should be some distance apart, 

 with one or more unburnt piles between 

 them. When the first fires have been 

 burned down to coals, the intermediate 

 piles may be ignited. This alternating 

 method of burning the piles prevents 

 the injury to trees and young growth 

 between the piles that might result from 

 the collective volume of heat of adja- 

 cent fires. Just as the brush on level 

 ground is burned against the wind, so, 

 on a hillside, the piles near the top are 

 burned first, and the work progresses 

 down the slope. 



Whenever large a'-eas of piled brush 

 are to be burned, a sufficient force of 



*Plate IV appeared in the October num- 

 ber of American Forestry. 



men, equipped with fire fighting imple- 

 ments, should always be present to in- 

 sure that the fire will not get beyond 

 control. In some instances, when brush 

 is piled in the winter during logging 

 and left for later burning, the piles 

 become very wet from the snow and 

 rain and do not dry out till late spring 

 or summer, a time when burning on 

 a large scale is dangerous. If the brush 

 of winter lumbering can not be burned 

 as the logging proceeds, the piles must 

 ordinarily remain unburned till the first 

 snow of the following winter, or till 

 especially wet weather comes in late 

 summer or fall. 



The devices used in dififerent local- 

 ities for starting fires in piled brush are 

 many. Some loggers use a torch of 

 burning wood, as resinous pine ; others 

 cary live coals from one pile to another ; 

 others use a long-handled torch ; others, 

 again, pour a little oil on the brush and 

 start it with a match. The most satis- 

 factory seems to be an ordinary tubu- 

 lar torch with wicking and a ferrule 

 into which a rake handle can be in- 

 serted. A good substitute, though a 

 crude one, for the last is a piece of bag- 

 ging or burlap wound around an iron 

 rod or stick of wood and occasionally 

 saturated with oil. 



The cost of burning piled brush in 

 the coniferous forests may vary from 

 one to thirty cents per thousand, ac- 

 cording to the manner in which the 

 brush is piled, the condition of the 

 brush, the size of the crew needed to 

 prevent the running of fire, etc. Com- 

 monly, it ranges from five to fifteen 

 cents per thousand feet. Where the 



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