16 



DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



through careless burning. Timber that has taken hundreds of years to grow is 

 destroyed in a day, and the standing timber, in British Columbia particularly, is one 

 of our greatest assets. If proper care is exercised, however, there is no reason why 

 fire should ever run past the clearing. Unless the settler is experienced in this kind 

 of work it is just as well to have a friend or neighbour for the day while it is being 

 done. There is no trouble at all in burning 10 or 15 acres in one day. Do not be 

 deceived on a very calm day with the idea that there is no wind. A bush fire seems 

 to make its own wind and you never can tell where it is going to go. If there is a 

 very slight wind it isi always best to start burning on that side of the clearing 

 towards which the wind is blowing, and be very careful that it does not spread 

 past the boundary of the clearing. This will result in burning up the brush-piles 

 on that boundary before the fires get very large, leaving a strip of burned-over 

 ground across which the flames would have to jump before they could get past the 

 boundaries of your chopping. This is known as back-firing. If there is apparently 



Chopped and burning. 



no wind it is generally best to start and burn on the side next to the uncleared 

 bush, for the same reason that it leaves a burned-over strip as a protection to what 

 is not chopped, whether the latter is your own land or somebody else's. 



A ground fire running through unchopped timber may be a considerable help 

 in chopping later or it may be a great detriment; it depends so much on the kind 

 of timber and other conditions, and it is just as well to avoid having a fire in any 

 case, as one never knows how far it will go or what damage it will do. It is really 

 better not to burn at all if the day "is at all windy wait. Do not start more than 

 one or two piles at a time until you have got the strip all round your clearing 

 burned. The chances are that the fire will spread of itself into the interior of 

 the chopping without any additional fires having to be lit. By following this course 

 one never gets so large a fire at one time. 



