SUPPRESSING SPROUTS ON CLEARINGS 59 



ten days the two or three cords of wood should be turned into good hard 

 coal. When uncovered water or dirt should be thrown upon coal that is too 

 lively when spread out on the ground. 



Cutting to Kill Brush. Just when to cut to kill depends upon 

 the character of the growth and of the season. One conclusion 

 seejms to be that with deciduous growths the best time to cut is 

 when they have just made their most vigorous growth, and this is 

 in the summer but the month to be chosen for the work will de- 

 pend upon the location, though August is generally selected as the 

 best time. 



In the case of evergreens, the cutting should be just before the 

 coldest weather, in which they are the nearest dormant. Ever- 

 greens, however, differ much in tenacity of life, for while most kinds 

 are easily killed, the California redwood will endure almost any 

 atmse with the axe or fire and still spring up repeatedly and per- 

 sistently for years. 



The Use of Sheep and Goats on Sprouts. On sprouting brush, 

 there is, perhaps, no cheaper or more effective means of repression 

 than sheep and goats. They are used after the top growth is cleared 

 away instead of grubbing, if one can wait, for by the persistent cut- 

 ting down of growth many small stumps and roots will decay 

 enough in a year or two to be plowed out with a strong team and 

 plow. 



Sage-Brush Clearing. Desert vegetation was formerly largely 

 cleared by grubbing or snaking out with a length of railroad iron 

 with a heavy team at each end. Recently for large clearing a steam 

 tractor has been used the cleared brush being used for fuel. 

 Hitched to the tractor was an outfit consisting of a roller to bend 

 the brush down, cutters to dig it out, and a rake to collect and dump 

 into windrows. The roller is made of iron cylinders about three feet 

 in diameter and seven feet wide. The digger consists of three heavy 

 V-shaped "weed cutters" which run underground, being supported 

 on wheels hitched behind the roller. Trailing behind the digger is 

 the rake, which is about 12 feet wide and runs on 7-foot wheels ; it 

 is shaped like an ordinary horse hay-rake. The teeth of this ele- 

 phantine rake plow through the ground some inches deep. Brush 

 cannot get into the wheels, for they are lined inside with sheet iron. 



Burning of the Debris. However the trees and underbrush may 

 be wrenched from the soil, fire is the final cleaner. Where trees are 

 to be worked up into fire-wood, it should be done as soon as they 

 are felled, for the work is much less than after they become dry and 

 hard. If it is not designed to break the land the first winter, the 

 wood is left to season and it becomes lighter and easier to handle. 

 The brush and roots, if no use is to be made of them, can be left to 

 lie on the clearing to dry out during the following summer, and 

 after 1 the first rains of the following fall the whole area can be 

 burned over. Such stumps as do not burn with the brush must be 

 gathered in piles and re-fired. Burning before the first rain should 

 not be attempted, unless it be in exceptional situations, because of 



