434 FIRE-CONSERVANCY. 



guide lines than are demanded by the other circumstances of the 

 case, the cushion of cut grass should be well and evenly laid, the 

 standing grass along the edge being beaten down, if necessary, to 

 facilitate the operation. The result of firing this cushion will be 

 to increase very appreciably the width of the guide line, and if 

 the firing is delayed as long as possible consistently with the safety 

 of the forest, in most places a broad belt of the standing grass 

 will also be consumed. The guide lines thus widened ought to 

 present a sufficient obstacle to the passage of fire until the re- 

 mainder of the grass on the trace, or at least most of it, is dry 

 enough to be fired. If there is danger in waiting until the whole 

 of the grass is dry, the second firing should be undertaken before 

 such danger arises, and the trace must be finally cleared by a third 

 firing. Occasionally a fourth firing may be found necessary. 



We now come to the consideration of the time for firing internal 

 lines. It has been said above that they need not be ready until 

 the grass in the forest is so dry as to render the direct attack and 

 extinction of a conflagration a difficult or at least an uncertain, 

 matter. But, on the other hand, it is evident that the earlier they 

 can be cleared, in order to minimise the risk to the forest in the 

 event of the fire on the trace getting out of control and crossing 

 the guide line, so much the better. Hence if the grass on the 

 trace dries before that on either side of it, it should be burnt with- 

 out delay, or at any rate before the latter becomes inflammable. 

 But it is seldom that the grass on an internal trace is fit to burn 

 thus early, for such traces generally flank either a watercourse or 

 a road cut through as heavy forest growth as the average of the 

 area to be protected. Nevertheless the fact of such road of water- 

 course forming one side of the trace diminishes very considerably 

 the risk of late firing and in most cases enables the forester to 

 wait until the grass on the trace is nearly all dry. Here we see 

 proved the great importance of clearing the trace on the windward 

 side of the watercourse or road, which at first, until the grass in 

 the forest is nearly dry, serves as an internal fire-break itself, and 

 later on, when the trace is fired, acts, if wide enough, as the very 

 best possible guide-lino. If the width of the road or watercourse 

 is insufficient for this latter purpose, a few feet of the standing 

 grass will of course have to be cleared along it early in the season, 

 formed into the usual cushion and burnt as soon as it is dry. 

 This, really the first, burning will invariably extend in many places 

 beyond the cushion of cut grass, and at some points even over the 

 entire width of the trace, and thus render the subsequent or main 



