436 Forestry Quarterly. 



piling if it allows of the complete destruction of the brush without 

 injury to the standing trees, and cheaply. With reference to the 

 camparative advantages of scattering or piling brush, this would 

 probably depend on local conditions; that is, the preference of 

 scattering over piling would depend principally upon the fire risk 

 involved, the silvicultural condtion of the stand, the species, and 

 the locality, particularly with reference to slope and possible ero- 

 sion. In brush piling, all sorts and shapes of methods have been 

 tried, and the kind of brush piling which will prove best for any 

 given stand must finally be worked out for each locality or stand. 

 For instance, in clean cutting where cordwood is utilized and 

 nothing but the top branches go into brush, or where the stand is 

 nearly clean cut and cordwood taken, I believe that the wind-row 

 method is much preferable to brush piles. One thing I think is 

 necessary to be considered in deciding on the type of brush dis- 

 posal, and that is, the period intervening between the piling and 

 the time when the brush will be burned. If there is any chance of 

 the brush having to go through a snow before it is burned, you 

 can not pile it low nor spread it out. You must protect it by the 

 heavy pieces around the outside. If this is done properly, and 

 the pile is symmetrical, such a pile will go through two or three 

 heavy snows without losing its shape. It may settle a little, 

 and the brush fall away from it, but it stands up, and can be 

 burned under almost any conditions. If deemed desirable, 

 care may be taken to make the pile symmetrical, or to place 

 sticks around the outside in such a way that the pile will shed 

 snow. Where properly built, such a pile can be burned in 

 snow four or five feet deep with good results. The injury to 

 trees left depends on a lot of factors, primarily, of course, on 

 the number of trees left to the acre and the number of brush 

 piles to the acre, the size of the piles, the condtion of the 

 brush at the time it is burned and the depth of the snow. With 

 fairly deep piles, and the brush in prime condition, cutting from 

 a stand of lodgepole of about 12,000 to 15,000 to the acre from 

 which is removed from 2,000 to 5,000 feet to the acre, you will 

 run perhaps 25 piles to the acre. Under other conditions you may 

 get as high as 100 of these piles. The number of piles lighted and 

 the number of piles not burned will, of course, vary. Mr. Gregg 

 conceived the scheme of plastering the trees nearest the piles with 

 snow at the time of burning. By adopting this plan we found it 



