520 Forestry Quarterly. 



into blocks and reduce the danger of fires starting at those points 

 apt to be frequently traversed by human beings. 



Lopping the tops may prove desirable in some stands where 

 the brush is very heav)'-, in order to hasten the rotting of the 

 branches and needles. In many cases this is not necessary, par- 

 ticularly on steep slopes where the tops are pretty well shattered 

 to pieces by felling and logging. Recent inspection of slashings 

 near the Lolo Forest where no disposal had been made of the 

 tops, showed that, in the course of five or six years, the slash 

 had practically disappeared in both yellow pine and fir-larch 

 types. 



A specific example of a Forest Service timber sale will illus- 

 trate the saving which could be made on the present method of 

 brush disposal. A sale made to the Anaconda Copper JMining 

 Company, on the Bitterroot Forest, cutting on which has been 

 completed, covered an area of approximately 3,300 acres, with 

 a total cut of 52,600 ]\I board feet, chiefly yellow pine. The area 

 is located on the edge of the Forest, adjoining private lands cut 

 over by the A. C. M. Co. The brush on this sale was all piled 

 by the logging company and burned by the Forest Service. The 

 brush piling cost, on an average, about 40 cents per M feet. Much 

 of the work was contracted at this figure and it is safe to say that, 

 at any time, the company would have been glad to modify their 

 contract with an increase in stumpage of 40 cents per ]\I if brush 

 piling could be dispensed with entirely. The brush burning cost 

 the Forest Service 6 cents per M, making a total cost of 46 cents 

 per M, or in round numbers, $24,000, total. That is to say, as 

 much money was expended on the special proctection of this 3,- 

 300 acres for a period of about five years, as the annual cost of 

 protection and administration of the entire Bitterroot Forest con- 

 taining 1,154,550 acres. Only the greatest risk could justify the 

 concentration of such a large proportion of the fire protection 

 funds of this limited area; the expense is probably justifiable if 

 no other cheaper means of protection were available. The writer 

 believes that an almost equal degree of protection could have 

 been secured for an expenditure of about $10,000, a saving of 

 about 58%. 



The great danger on this area is from fire starting in the ad- 

 joining slash on the A, C. AI. Co lands. A strip 200 feet wide 

 along the Forest boundary on which the brush is piled and burned 



