32 



there is enough moisture in the woods to render easy the con- 

 trol of the fire. Conditions are so varying that it is hard to 

 arrive at an average cost of making a fire line. With inex- 

 perienced hands and unfavorable conditions the cost may 

 amount to $20 a mile; with experienced hands and favorable 

 conditions it should not exceed $10 a mile. They should be 

 burned off each year. There is usually a good deal of brush 

 and a good many snags in the way of raking the paths the 

 first time; so that the cost is less after the first burning. In 

 the fall, when most of the leaves are down but not yet very 

 dry, is the best time of year to burn a fire line. A fire line 

 may not stop all fires; but it stops ordinary fires, and it 

 checks even the most severe ones long enough to get them 

 under control. 



148. It is the practice in some parts of the State to 

 burn off the woods to improve the pasturage. It is doubt- 

 ful whether this improves the pasturage in the long run. 

 Some farmers claim that woods that are not burned over 

 have more grass in them; and they have quit burning them. 

 Even granting that burning does improve the pasturage, 

 when the injury to the woods is reckoned in, it makes an ex- 

 pensive improvement. The cost is hard to estimate exactly; 

 but the indications are that it would be cheaper to seed 

 down a piece of land to good grasses than to burn the woods 

 for the sake of the wild pasture that follows in the wake of 

 a forest fire. 



149. The pine woods in South Georgia are burned to 

 protect the turpentine boxes. If the cup and gutter system 

 of turpentining is used there are no boxes to protect, and 

 the main reason for burning is done away with. Even 

 where the boxes are used the same amount of money spent 



