648 PROTECTION AGAINST I'OREST FIRES. 



that a considerable area of forest is rendered unproductive 

 when the length or breadth of the internal tire-traces are 

 excessive, and that the cost of protection is thus greatly 

 enhanced, so that he will limit the number and breadth of the 

 fire-traces to the minima compatible with efficiency. 



Fire-traces in Europe are broadest for coniferous forest, but 

 rarely exceed 100 feet in breadth, while in India they are 

 sometimes 400 feet broad. 



^Yhenever the soil-covering on the traces can be utilised for 

 thatching material, litter or fodder, it should be cut and removed. 

 This may often be done by concessioners at no cost to the owner 

 of the forest, or even on payment to him of a certain sum. It 

 frequently happens, however, that the soil-covering has no 

 local value, and must then be carefully burned to avoid the 

 greater expense of cutting it. 



Before burning fire-traces, the soil-covering is usually cut 

 on guide-lines on either side of the trace, their breadth being 

 about three feet more than the height of the covering. For 

 greater safety, cross lines as broad as the guide-line are some- 

 times cut at intervals across the trace itself, so as to divide it 

 into segments, each of which may be burned separately. 



The guide-lines should be cut some time before the fire-trace 

 is to be burned, and the cut material thrown on the trace, 

 where it will dry, and facilitate the burning. A broad short 

 scythe or a sickle may be used to cut the grass, heather, etc., 

 from the guide-lines. 



In burning the traces, it is a golden rule to remember that 

 grass and heather in the open become dry sooner than under 

 cover of the forest, so that border fire-traces may be burned 

 before the internal ones. In firing a trace, a still afternoon 

 should be chosen and men placed on either side of it, two of 

 whom fire the edges of the traces up to a cross line, if one haa 

 been cleared, or if not, to a sufiicient distance for the other 

 men to be able to beat out the return fire which runs along 

 the ground in the stubble towards the forest. The other men, 

 armed with evergreen boughs, which they can use to protect 

 their faces from the heat of the fire, keep back on the guide- 

 lines, or even in the forest beyond them, until they see the 

 return fire approaching too near the edge of the forest, when 



