48 FORESTRY BRANCH BULLETIN NO. 33 



controlling the fire but also in getting the brush completely consumed. Until greater 

 experience has been gained in the actual operations of brush-burning, it would seem 

 advisable to use some surer method. The best way is to pile the brush. The piles 

 may take any form, such as windrows, long rectangular piles, or round piles. They 

 must, however, be of a form that will allow the piling of the brush compactly and 

 to a height of at least four feet. Otherwise difficulty will be experienced in burning 

 the brush. For these reasons, round piles will probably be found the best. The best 

 piles are about eight feet in diameter and six feet in height. Such piles may be 

 burnt when covered with snow up to two feet in depth, and the brush will be practi- 

 cally all consumed. The piles may be lighted most conveniently with coal-oil torches. 

 The burning should be done when there is snow on the ground, the most favourable 

 conditions being found after early snow-storms in the fall. Snow-storms occurring 

 in the spring, after most of the winter's snow has thawed away, give other oppor- 

 tunities for brush-burning. Only under special circumstances should burning be 

 done when there is no snow on the ground, though it may be practicable when the 

 ground is very damp and the piles partially dried out. 



Brush may also be burnt while logging proceeds, in which case the swampers start 

 fires and throw the brush on them as soon as it is removed from the logs and tops. 

 This method should prove to be the cheapest and is especially advantageous as the 

 burning is independent of weather conditions and the brush is gotten completely 

 out of the way of the skidding teams. It cannot, however, be practised when the 

 logging is being done at a season when there is no snow, nor on areas where a heavy 

 stand of timber is being removed, because it would be difficult to find places to build 

 the fires on account of the large number of logs lying on the ground. 



The cost of brush-burning should be kept between 20c. and 30c. per thousand 

 feet, board measure, and in favourable circumstances can be reduced below that 

 amount. Early attempts in the Rocky Mountains will in all probability run in 

 excess of those figures until the men become familiarized with the actual carrying- 

 out of the operations. An expenditure of at least 40c. should be allowed for at the 

 start. 



COST OF SILVICULTURE. 



The cost of the changes from the ordinary methods of lumbering which have 

 been suggested can only be estimated in a general way, as the exact amount depends 

 on the detailed conditions of each operation. In some cases, the cost of logging will 

 be very little increased, because some of the operations, such as brush-disposal, tend 

 to reduce the cost of removing the timber. A constant influence toward increasing 

 costs will be experienced from certain factors. When a selection system of cutting 

 is being followed, the cost of felling and skidding will be increased because the trees 

 must be removed from among the others that are left standing. In any system where 

 a considerable proportion of the stand is reserved for future cutting, the cost of road 

 construction per thousand feet is proportionately increased, because if the area were 

 clear, the cost of the roads would be distributed over so much more timber. This 

 factor should be possible to calculate ahead of time with reasonable accuracy when 

 the details of a prospective operation are known. The cost of supervision, marking 

 and brush disposal are also mainly to be figured against the expense of logging 

 according to silvicultural methods. The total amount, where the methods are followed 

 in an intensive manner, should be in the neighbourhood of $1 per thousand feet, 

 board measure. 



CONTRACTS. 



A sale of timber may be for a definite area or for a certain quantity of timber. If 

 the area be bounded by rectangular survey lines it may include exactly a natural 

 logging unit, but xmially will leave out part of one or take in part of some other 



