DEVELOPMENT OF BRUSH-DISPOSAL POLICY 695 



when left on the bole decayed faster than when cut ofif and lying fiat 

 on the ground. Based on the theory that the early disappearance of 

 the wood of the limbs and tops was of primary importance, this was a 

 strong argument against top lopping. It happened that the large timber 

 sales in yellow pine were located almost exclusively on the north half 

 of the Coconino and the Tusayan National Forests, where there is a 

 conspicuous absence of natural reproduction and excessive damage 

 from sheep grazing. The idea of leaving the tops as they fell without 

 lopping appealed strongly to the timber operators, of course, and to 

 the Service this policy had the advantage of increasing stumpage values 

 by reducing the cost of brush disposal from 50 cents in piling and 35 

 cents for lopping to 15 cents for top lopping. It was thought, also, that 

 the limbs if left on would keep sheep from eating and cattle from 

 trampling the seedlings and would give grass a chance to produce seed. 

 To secure fire protection of standing timber, the tops must be removed 

 to a suitable distance from live trees. This distance was set at 20 

 feet and afterward increased to 25 feet and even to 30 feet. In this 

 form "top pulling" was authorized as a substitute for lopping or piling 

 and burning. 



Standard instructions, issued in 1916-17, cited all three methods as 

 permissible and left the choice of them to the supervisors. Top pull- 

 ing became standard practice for the big sales on the Coconino and 

 Tusayan. 



But on the New Mexico forests, and generally on small sales, it was 

 found that top pulling w^orked out very badly as an administrative 

 measure. When small operators were permitted to "pull" tops, they 

 could seldom be induced to get them consistently far enough from live 

 trees for protection. The laborers could not get the idea of what was 

 wanted and the operators tended to leave tops as they fell and call it 

 good enough. 



It also developed that on forests or areas of abundant reproduction 

 it was impossible to pull tops far enough in any direction to get them 

 away from the young timber. Finally, it became evident that the fire 

 danger was apparently much greater when the limbs, with their needles, 

 were left on the tops than when these were lopped ofif. The necessity 

 of getting rid of the 'linib zvood by decay had been apparently over- 

 emphasized as a matter of fire protection. 



If the reduction of the excessive fire risk created by the slash is of 

 first importance, the character of this risk was the point to be consid- 

 ered. The destruction of standing live timber in case of fire was caused 

 either by roasting the cambium of the bole or by destroying the foliage 



