PROTECTION OF THE WOODLOT 133 



portions. Farmers often delay too long making provision for 

 preventing fire. A fire line ceases to be a fire line when it 

 becomes covered with dry leaves and other material. Even in 

 that condition they will serve, however, as trails along which 

 men can move in fighting a fire. Experienced men often will 

 not enter the woods to fight fire unless along a trail that 

 will also lead them out of the woods in case of danger. Lines 

 should be opened up through large woods for this purpose. 

 The ground in a woodlot should be kept clear of all inflam- 

 mable material. Dead tops and fallen limbs as well as the 

 slash after logging should be worked up into cordwood and 

 the rest piled and burned. 



A surface fire passing through a woodlot often can be 

 beaten out by the use of wet sacks or branches of trees. 

 Where sand or dirt can be had it can be thrown from a shovel 

 on a fire with good effect. Water where it can be obtained 

 is. probably the best means of fighting fires in the woodlot. 

 A pail of water and an ordinary force pump will put out 

 many feet of fire or lay it so low that it can easily be beaten 

 out. In some regions where woodlots are of value fire ex- 

 tinguishers are used and work well. In thickly settled regions 

 fire engines and trucks equipped with fire fighting tools are 

 held in readiness to go to woodlot fires and extinguish them. 



Where fire burns down below the surface and runs in dry 

 humus where it has accumulated in thick layers, trenches must 

 be dug down to the mineral soil around the fire to keep it 

 from spreading. Such a fire is called a ground fire. It burns 

 slowly destroying the humus and soil and causing great dam- 

 age by burning ihe roots of trees causing them to fall over 

 in the first wind. 



The time to fight a large fire is at night when the dew 

 has dampened the humus and foliage and the fire burns low 

 and slowly. Under the drying and warming action of the 

 sun the woods become dry and wind is apt to rise or change 

 suddenly. A fire in the daytime usually burns too hot and 



