86 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE FARM 



Study 11. Fuel-woods of the Farm 



The work of this study should be conducted in the wood-lot 

 or in a bit of native forest, where there is a great variety of 

 woody plants, big and little, living and dead. There should 

 be found a few trees fallen and rotting; a few, broken by 

 stonns or shattered by lightning; some, diseased by fungi or 

 eaten by beetles or ants; dead snags, tunneled by wood- 

 peckers; old boles tattooed by sa]3suckers; sprouting 

 stumps; and scattered weaklings smothered by lustier com- 

 petitors — in short, the usual wildwood mixture of sorts and 

 conditions. 



The tools needed will be a pocket knife and a hatchet or a 

 brick-hammer to split and splinter ^^'ith. The modem con- 

 venience of matches will be allowed to all. A few axes and 

 cross-cut saws may be taken for common use. To save the 

 axes from certain abuse, chopping blocks should be provided 

 in advance. 



The program of work will consist of: (i) a gathering of 

 fuel stuffs from the wood-lot; and (2) a testing of them in 

 fire-making. 



I. The w^ood-lot should first be explored for fire-making 

 materials. Quick-kindling stuff will be wanted chiefly for 

 this brief exercise. These are of several categories; (a) "dead 

 and down" stuffs in the woods, the result of nature's ])runing 

 and thinning. Nature has placed good fire-making materials 

 handy. As you collect, observe what kinds of trees hold their 

 dead branches longest and prescr^'c them inost free from 

 decay. If there are shattered trunks within reach, knock off 

 the shattered ends and try them for kindling. Compare 

 splintering with cho]:)])ing as a means of i)rei:)aring kindling- 

 stuff from dry softwood. 



(b) Resinous stuffs, such as the "curl" of the outer bark of 

 the yellow birch, the bark stri])s from hemlock and other 

 conifers, pine knots from rotted logs, etc. These will be the 



