MANAGEMENT OF FIRE PROTECTION LINES. 199 



Dr Kienitz thea reviews the various orders and regulations which 

 have been issued from time to time on the subject of these lines. 

 In the first place, and before the days of excessive traffic, the 

 authorities allowed the forest to come close up to the line, or 

 rather to the edge of the embankment or cutting, as the case 

 might have been. After the occurrence of fires in various parts, 

 the order was issued to break up the ground at a given distance 

 from the line, and the forest guards were instructed to patrol the 

 .sides of the line in dry weather, and at such times as trains were 

 due to pass through. The next method adopted was the digging 

 of banks and ditches about 1 chain from the line and parallel 

 to it. At intervals of 30 yards other ditches ran at right angles 

 from these to the slope of the jiermanent way, so that a tire break- 

 ing out between them might be easily controlled. It was not 

 until 1864, twenty-two years after the opening of the line, that a 

 strip of ground 50 feet wide was cleared of forest on either side of 

 the bare or cropped area, and this strip was rented by the rail- 

 way authorities, who undertook to keep a ditch 6 feet broad and 

 4 feet deep clear of surface growth along the boundary. The 

 effect of this broad, bare strip was, however, not sufficient to 

 prevent fires, and in 1868 about 100 acres of Scots fir, about 

 twenty-five years of age, were burnt. 



Since that time sufficient attention has been paid to the 

 protection lines to prevent serious damage being done. When 

 the railway line was taken over by the Government in 1880, a 

 more elaborate system was organised to ensure the safety of the 

 adjoining forests, and, according to present arrangements, the 

 following method is adopted. Each year the ditches which 

 intersect the bare strips are completely cleared of all growth be- 

 fore the 15th of March, while the ground between them is cleared 

 of all dead vegetable matter which would feed a surface fire. 

 Coniferous woods which are at all liable to ignite, and stand on 

 the second line, are thinned, cleaned, and pruned to a degx'ee 

 which hinders the occurrence of crown or branch fires. After 

 the felling of the crop on the second strip, the ground is to be 

 replanted with hardwoods ; or if the soil does not allow this, the 

 felling is to be delayed until the main crop behind has outgrown 

 the most dangerous stage for fire injury. Since 1887, the 

 Railway Department has been in favour of letting the cleared 

 strip for the growth of crops ; but as this is only practicable on 

 the better class of ground, the poorer soil has been planted with 



