508 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



The work was done by a crew of four men — the forest supervisor, 

 two rangers, and the writer — all regular employees of the Forest 

 Service and very much interested in securing favorable results, but 

 doing no more than could reasonably be expected of others less in- 

 terested. 



The tools used were a small ax and a brush burning torch.. Each 

 man took a strip of convenient width, burning up to the man on his 

 right or left, depending upon the location of the one who was regu- 

 lating the direction of the strip. Usually a small quantity of pitch 

 wood or splinters was carried to assist in starting the fire. In a 

 majority of the trees the sapwood near the ground was rotten and 

 punky, so that with but little chopping a hole could be made in which 

 the fire could be started. In trees that were solid a hole sufficiently 

 deep was chopped in the wood as near the ground as possible, or in 

 a pitchy portion, where the fire would take hold. A few pieces of 

 bark and wood were all that were ordinarily needed to start the tree 

 burning. In cases of the down trees the fire was started in the roots, 

 if the tree had been uprooted. If broken ofi^. both the stump and tree 

 were fired. 



An area of 2,000 acres was covered in eleven days' work. During 

 this period 4,600 standing and down trees were set on fire. Of this 

 number 1,695 were standing and 2,905 were down trees. Not less than 

 80 per cent of the standing trees burned to such an extent that they 

 fell a few hours after being fired. A very considerable per cent 

 burned up entirely after falling. A greater part of the down trees 

 were consumed, so that a much cleaner area existed, with no damage 

 having been done to the living trees or reproduction. The fires would 

 not run, so that any attempt to lightburn would have been useless 

 and without the success accomplished by burning the individual trees. 



Those trees that had recently died would not burn well and in but 

 few cases was an attempt made to ignite them. By the use of a two- 

 inch auger such trees can be successfully felled and burned. Two 

 holes are bored into the tree, one perpendicular to the trunk of the 

 tree, extending a little past the center, if possible. The other hole is 

 started above the first and bored at an angle to and intersecting it 

 near the center of the tree. Lighted pitch is then dropped into the 



