(i94 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



the most favorable conditions for reproduction, and at the same time 

 require a minimvmi of expense and be easily carried out. 



The initial policy in brush disposal in yellow pine was to pile and 

 burn all brush on the sale area. This was to eliminate the fire risk, 

 and if carried out would aid in controlling insects. It gave no soil pro- 

 tection and no protection of the seedlings after germination, but prob- 

 ably created a better seed bed than other forms of disposal. But as 

 time went on it was found that while the operator was required to pi^le 

 his brush the brush was not burned and the piles remained for years. 

 Areas of piled brush still exist, 9 to 10 years old, and these piles will 

 burn today with considerable heat and form a fire menace of some pro- 

 portion. This failure to burn was not due to lack of good administra- 

 tion, but to the difficulty in this district of finding a proper time in 

 which to safely burn large areas of brush. 



There are but three chances for this — the first snows, the spring and 

 the summer rains. It frequently happens that the first snow comes 

 suddenly and sometimes is two feet deep. Such piles as are burned at 

 once in the storm before the snow gets too deep are the only ones that 

 can be burned, and if the officer happens to be on other duty that day 

 he waits till spring. He then finds that the inside of the pile remains 

 so damp that it will not burn, long after the surface litter has dried 

 out so it will carry a fire. Spring burning has therefore had to be 

 largely abandoned. The summer rains on the whole ofifer the best 

 opportunity to an alert officer. But these rains are variable and light, 

 and unless the brush is burned at once after a rain or during the rain 

 the fire escapes frequently into the unburned slash, runs broadcast and 

 destroys seed trees and reproduction. For these reasons it has been 

 found impractical to burn all brush, and it takes good administration to 

 secure the burning even on fire lines. 



Piling was also the most expensive method, requiring the most labor. 

 When it became evident that after requiring the operator to pile, the 

 Service was unable to secure the burning of the piles, the system broke 

 down, and the second era, known as lopping, was ushered in. 



Top lopping consisted of lopping off all the limbs on the top and 

 scattering them to lie flat at a safe distance from the live timber. 

 While inferior to piling and burning as a measure of fire protection, it 

 was better than piling zvithoiit burning. It also secured the maximum 

 soil protection against erosion where needed and was simple of enforce- 

 ment. 



Scarcely had this method been substituted for the piling and burning, 

 when Dr. Long developed his theory of rot, and showed that limbs 



