PROTECTION OF FORESTS FROM FIRE 257 



Whenever large areas of piled brush are to be burned, 

 a sufficient force of men, equipped with fire-fighting im- 

 plements, should always be present to insure that the fire 

 will not get beyond control. In some instances, when 

 brush is piled in the winter during logging and left for 

 later burning, the piles become very wet from the snow 

 and rain and do not dry out till late spring or summer, a 

 time when burning on a large scale is dangerous. If the 

 brush of winter lumbering cannot be burned as the log- 

 ging proceeds, the piles must ordinarily remain unburned 

 till the first snow of the following winter, or till especially 

 wet weather comes in late summer or fall. 



The devices used in different localities for starting 

 fires in piled brush are many. Some loggers use a torch 

 of burning wood, as resinous pine; others earn 7 live coals 

 from one pile to another; others use a long-handled 

 torch; others, again, pour a little oil on the brush and 

 fire it with a match. The most satisfactory seems to be 

 an ordinary tubular torch with wicking and a ferrule into 

 which a rake-handle can be inserted. A good substitute, 

 though a crude one, for the last is a piece of bagging or 

 burlap wound around an iron rod or stick of wood and 

 occasionally saturated with oil. 



The cost of burning piled brush in the coniferous 

 forests may vary from 1 to 30 cents per thousand, accord- 

 ing to the manner in which the brush is piled, the condi- 

 tion of the brush, the size of the crew needed to prevent 

 the running of fire, etc. Commonly, it ranges from 5 to 

 15 cents per thousand feet. Where the cost has been 



