Plate IX, Fig, 1 Fire Line Cleared near Railway 



a fire would be so severe as to kill 

 all the timber, whereas an annual fire 

 burns only the year's fall of leaves or 

 needles, and does little damage to the 

 standing trees. Where the trees are 

 tapped for turpentine the litter is raked 

 away from the boxed trees so that the 

 fire will not reach them. 



There is no question that in the un- 

 protected yellow-pine forests this cus- 

 tom has resulted in saving a large 

 amount of old timber, but it has also 

 retarded the reproduction of the forest 

 by killing off young growth and seed- 

 lings in their tender stage. Deliberate 

 burning of the litter as a protective 

 measure is justified only under special 

 conditions and only on selected areas. 

 The considerations bearing on the use 

 of fire in this way are : 



1 i ) It should never be used except 

 where absolute fire prevention can not 

 be assured and there is real clanger 

 resulting from heavy leaf litter. 



(2) It should be used only in stands 

 in which there is no reproduction that 

 it is desired to conserve. 



(3) It should be used only where the 

 benefit in fire protection more than off- 

 sets the injury to the soil resulting 

 from repeated burnings. 



(4) It should be used only with very 

 fire-resistant species. 



664 



(5) It should be used only wnen the 

 trees are old and large enough to have 

 developed the corky bark necessary for 

 resistance to the heat of the fire? 



(6) It should be used only when the 

 fire can be controlled. 



The burning is done best in early 

 spring, when the loose litter is dry but 

 the ground below is damp, the purpose 

 being to burn only the upper litter. 



In many places it is very difficult to 

 control the burning without the use 

 of fire lines. A tract divided by roads 

 and paths into small blocks presents a 

 simple problem, for each block may be 

 burned separately, and there is no dan- 

 ger of the development of a fire too 

 large to control. On large tracts with- 

 out roads, ground-cleared fire lines may 

 be used to protect areas of young 

 growth, or they may be developed at 

 certain points to aid in the control of 

 broadcast burning. 



Annual burning for fire protection is 

 never justified where it can not be sys- 

 tematically controlled. The practice in 

 many parts of the South and West, of 

 setting out fires to burn off the litter 

 and brush, usually for the sake of a 

 better range, can not be justified, for 

 the fires are uncontrolled ; and they de- 

 stroy an immense amount of young 

 growth and otherwise damage the for- 



