78 



Canadian Forestry Journal, May-June, 1912. 



Only if the protecting strips are J'oimg, it 

 is safer to have a second strip, 36 feet wiile 

 and arranged like the first, kept up It'liiiul 

 it. 



When a new railway is built, a menaced 

 stand will be handled like any other forest, 

 i.e., only a broad enough lane will be made 

 for the right of way, and on both sides a 

 protecting strip as described above. The 

 forest is not changed except to clean up 

 the ground, remove all material which in 

 burning would generate much heat, as dry 

 t^vigs, heather, etc. At the edge of the road- 

 bed and on the outside of the forest toAAard 

 the protection strip, the ground must be 

 cleared entirely, 4.5 feet wide, so that the 

 mineral soil will prevent any spread of the 

 ground fire. The trees on this 4.5 feet strip 

 may be left; they must, however, be pruned 

 so that the yearly clearing of this strip can 

 be done by horse-drawn harrows. 



If the timber on a protecting strip must 

 be cut off on account of overmaturity, the 

 strip must be replanted immediately. The 

 protecting strip on the other side of the 

 track, as well as the forest lying next the 

 strip to be lumbered, must not be cut until 

 the young growth has reached a height 

 sufficient to prevent a transverse wind from 

 blowing the sparks into the forest. 



Choice of Species. 



The kind of trees to be chosen for plant- 

 ing must satisfy the following conditions : — 



(1) The trees must be adapted to the soil, 

 so that they start well and continue to 

 thrive. 



(2) They must form a thick bark early, 

 so that they will not be killed by ground 

 fires. 



(.3) Their crowns must be thick enough 

 at all seasons to catch flying sparks and 

 to shade the soil in order to prevent a thick 

 growth of grass. 



According to a current opinion, hard- 

 woods are better than pines; this view is 

 based on an incorrect observation. Where 

 hardwood thrives, as a rule the ground is 

 fresher and the fire risk less than where pine 

 grows. The young pine, one inch in diam- 

 eter, is safer from a running fire than the 

 same-sized hardwood tree (beech, oak, birch) 

 because it early forms a thicker, non- 

 conducting bark than the other. Its crown 

 is a better spark-arrester, because it is 

 green in the danger season, spring, before 

 the leaves of the hardwoods have appeared. 

 It must, however, be pruned to a sufficient 

 height to prevent a weak fire striking up 

 into the crown. For the narrow protecting 

 strips, pruning up to 3 to 4.5 feet is suffi- 

 cient. 



On the dry sand of the North European 

 plains the common pine is the only indi- 

 genous tree which forms a safe protecting 

 stand. In other forested areas, there are 

 evergreens which have the same refistance 

 to fires, and are suitable as Pinus silves-tris. 



Formation and Care of Strips. 



Sowing is the best way to start a stand, 

 for the main object is to have s-troug even- 

 growing plants, and it allows us to keep 

 the ground between the plants clean for 

 several years. If the ordinary pine is 

 chosen, it is best to plant in rows parallel 

 to the track 3 ft. G in. apart; in the ro^vs, 

 18 inches is the spacing for strong one- or 

 tAvo-year-old pines. If possible, a little good 

 soil should be put in the holes. Strong 

 plants with well-balled roots, or three-year- 

 old transplants should be set three feet 

 apart. Between the rows a horse harrow 

 should be used once a year, so that if a 

 running fire starts in the young growth, it 

 will go out at once. If the ground is too 

 rough for horses, it must be bared by hand. 

 This harrowing must be kept up until the 

 stand is so high that ground fires cannot 

 catch in the tops. In order to reach this 

 stage as soon as possible, the lower, dry and 

 suppressed branches are cut off as soon as 

 the pines are three feet high; only on the 

 outside row are all the branches left, so 

 that they form a mantel reaching nearly to 

 the ground to catch the sparks. 



Simultaneously with the pruning, all super- 

 fluous trees are cut, i.e., those which stand 

 too close to another tree. In their early 

 years, a spacing of 3 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. is 

 about right. Later all suppressed trees are 

 cut, so that only thrifty trees with thick 

 crowns remain. By means of the thick 

 close crowns the undergrowth of grass, 

 lichens, etc., is prevented, so as to furnish 

 little nourishment to a ground fire, which 

 then runs harmlessly through. It is desir- 

 able that these protecting strips should burn 

 often, so that no accumulation of fuel can 

 occur to be dangerous for a later fire. 

 If there is no fire for a year from sparks, 

 the advisability of setting a fire under favor- 

 able weather and wind conditions (toward 

 the track) to burn the ground-cover, should 

 be considered. 



As soon as it becomes impossible to work 

 the ground between the rows, precautions 

 should be taken that a fire catching in the 

 protecting strip does not run into the stand 

 to be protected. For this purpose, before 

 mentioned, the bare strips are laid out, 

 whose surface must be made fireproof, each 

 year, by raking off inflammable matter or 

 by working the soil. On the woodward side, 

 the strips are 4.5 feet wide, and those to- 

 ward the embankment and the right-angled 

 strips 3 feet. 



This baring of the soil can be well ac- 

 complished by using a spring harrow. In 

 this case the bare strips must be arranged 

 so that the animals drawing the harrows 

 can work uninterruptedly, and a' uniform 

 width of six feet should be chosen. A 

 form as shown in the sketch is good. The 



iConrliidcil on P((f/(' 81). 



