BURNING OF DEAD AND DOWN TREES 509 



upper hole. Pracically every tree will burn down if ignited in this 

 manner. It takes an average of ten minutes to set fire to a tree by 

 this method. Only a few trees were burned by the use of the auger, 

 the entire operation being based on the other procedure. The two 

 methods combined can be used to advantage in actual practice. One 

 man on horseback would follow up the burning crews and use the 

 auger on such trees that did not burn down, and in this way clean up 

 an area very successfully. 



A majority of the trees that did not fall were so burned and charred 

 over that they will not catch fire from any surface fire and thereby be 

 the means of spreading a fire. This was proved many times in attempts 

 to burn old charred snags and trees. More labor and more fuel was 

 required to get them started, and in many cases the fuel would burn 

 up but the tree would not ignite. If a fire could be started in the roots 

 under the tree there would be more chance of burning these old 

 charred snags. The auger method, however, would make short work 

 of them. 



WORK ACCOMPLISHED DURING THE EXPERIMENT 



Area covered 2,000 acres 



Trees set on fire 4,600 



Trees burned per man per day 115 



Average number burned per acre 2.3 



Total volume of trees ignited 5,530,000 feet b. m. 



Average volume per acre burned 2,760 feet b. m. 



Average time to fire a tree 4.1 minutes 



COSTS 



Labor $218.78 



Subsistence 30.75 



Automobile travel (416 miles at 7 cents) 29.12 



Kerosene and matches 2.30 



Total $280.95 



Cost per tree -06 



Cost per acre 14 



The above costs are certainly far below those obtained in felling 

 with a saw. In 191 T D. C. Birch conducted a study of the costs of 

 felling snags on timber sales on the Plumas National Forest in Cali- 

 fornia. His investigations showed an average felling cost of 21 cents 

 per tree of 30 inches diameter, based on 14-0 trees of mixed conifers. 

 For yellow pine having an average diameter of 23.7 inches it cost 



