CHAPTER XIII 



BURNING 



~^HE longer the timber has been felled before burning the 

 jL better the prospect of obtaining a successful burn. Natu- 

 rally, heavy, green timber full of sap does not burn well, whereas, 

 if cut for a reasonable time beforehand, the flames, even if they 

 do not thoroughly consume large trunks, at least burn well into 

 the heavy logs, and render them more subject to decay, more 

 easily handled, and more easily broken up, than if they are 

 merely slightly charred on the outside. Slothful management 

 is expensive management. 



When a manager proposes to burn timber it is his duty 

 to take precautions against the fire spreading further than he 

 intended. If another estate closely adjoins his plantation he 

 must give timeous notice to the manager of the next estate of 

 the exact date and hour at which he proposes to commence 

 work. Having received such notice the manager of the neigh- 

 bouring estate will post a gang of coolies to watch the boundaries 

 and be prepared to beat out any flames which might show a 

 tendency to spread. It is, of course, also incumbent on the 

 manager who proposes to start burning that he should have a 

 gang of his own coolies on his own boundary to take all precau- 

 tions against the spreading of the flames. 



Even if only Government jungle is on the boundaries it 

 is necessary to take these precautions. The writer is the 

 director of a plantation in the Federated Malay States, the 

 manager of which on one occasion received due notice that 

 his neighbour proposed to burn on a certain date. Gangs of 

 coolies were duly posted as usual, and the burning was in pro- 

 gress, when suddenly a fierce wind sprang up and carried the 

 flames and small pieces of burning timber into the plantation 

 with which the writer is connected. Despite all the efforts of 



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