414 Journal of the Department op Agriculture. 



may reckon on seeing at least one fire each day. These fires burn- 

 ing out in many instances large areas, are impoverishing the veld 

 and, in addition, are driving the game to more inaccessible localities. 

 Many of the sweet annual grasses are disappearing, leaving the 

 coarser, wir\\, and tufted grasses to take hold of the land. Such 

 fires are due also to the carelessness at times of hunters and others, 

 who on leaving their camping grounds do not take sufficient precau- 

 tions to extinguish their fires. 



Empty or broken glass bottles, lying in the grass, may also be 

 the direct cause of a fire breaking out. To guard against this, 

 legislation, patrols, and the compulsory service of inhabitants in 

 assisting to extinguish the fires would be of great value if these areas 

 were more thickly populated, but at present the more important need 

 ia the permeation of every class of people in, or visiting, these parts, 

 with the knowledge that it is necessary to save and preserve the 

 forests, bush lands, etc. This, at the present time is probably of the 

 greatest importance. All classes of inhabitants should be alive to the 

 seriousness and evils of fire, so that in course of time fires as the 

 result of carelessness will be reduced to a minimum. So stringent 

 are the laws in some of the European countries that it is illegal even 

 to smoke a cigarette or an uncovered pipe in certain areas. No 

 veld burning should take place without the presence of a sufficient 

 number of beaters to effectively control the burning. There is, 

 however, in some parts of the country where railways pass through 

 forests, an ever-present possibility of fire, and the Railway Depart- 

 ment should not be blamed for their engines persistently coughing 

 out glowing cinders, which may cause fires on lands adjoining the 

 railway line, until the owners of such lands have taken proper precau- 

 tions for minimizing the effects of any such fires. 



Development of Forest Fires, etc. 



A fire always .depends on , the inflammability of the ground cover. 

 If this consists of damp succulent growth or if the area is cleared of 

 dry fallen twigs, so that the trees rise out of practically bare mineral 

 soil, a fire is impossible. All forest fires originate from ground fires, 

 which increase in size or die out, according to the quality of the 

 inflammable material on the ground. If this is suitable to the growth 

 of the fire, the flames sooner or later leap up into the crowns and 

 convert the wood into a sea of flame. The flames in the crowns of 

 the trees precede the ground part of the fire, scattering burning frag- 

 ments, which may cross roads, streams, or bare places, and under 

 such circumstances the fire assumes proportions which are only with 

 great difficulty and expense got under control. 



A fire in the crowns of trees can only spread when the ground 

 file follows it, feeding it from below. If, for some reason, the ground 

 fire loses its fuel for some distance, the crown fire dies out of itself. 

 On this principle, the methods adopted against forest fires are based. 



A fire may easily be extinguished if one can commence opera- 

 tions immediately^ after its start, by sweeping closely over the ground 

 towards the fire with wet sacks or with leafy branches of trees. This 

 sweeping is more effective than beating, as beating the flames from 

 above causes sparks to be scattered, initiating new small fires, which 

 require additional help to extinguish. It nearly always happens, 

 however, that the heat of a fire travelling with the wind is so great 



