THE SPROUT HARDWOODS REGION 371 



starting of a fire, though they may increase its severity when 

 once under way. Inasmuch as an ordinary leaf fire on a clear-cut 

 area kills the sprouts which have started, there is no great gain 

 from the fire protection standpoint in removing the brush and 

 tops, certainly not enough to justify the expense of the opera- 

 tion. In making improvement cuttings the tops should be cut 

 up and then scattered so that they lie close to the ground. If 

 cordwood to a two- or three-inch top is taken, practically no 

 extra work in brush disposal is needed. On areas cut clear it is 

 often necessary to throw the brush into piles or windrows to 

 give room for removing the wood. Here there is too much 

 debris to make scattering practicable, so the present practice is 

 preferable. In doing this care should be taken not to make 

 heavy piles of brush on top of stumps which may sprout, or on 

 groups of seedlings. 



Where a cut-over area is to be planted the brush must be 

 disposed of. This should be done by piling and burning, when- 

 ever possible, while the logging is in progress, in the manner 

 described under the white pine region. The burning of hard- 

 wood tops will usually cost somewhat more than coniferous 

 tops. 



Methods of Fighting Fires. — Modern methods of fighting 

 forest fires, ^ such as the use of bucket pumps and chemical ex- 

 tinguishers, are the most effective in this region. Probably so 

 far the former has been employed more often than the chemical 

 extinguishers. 



Protection against Grazing Animals. — There is a great deal 

 of grazing by farmers' stock in the woods, more in the scattered 

 woodlots close to farms than on the larger tracts in the rougher 

 portions. Here the producing power of the forest has often 

 been greatly lowered by grazing, which has brought in grass 

 and reduced the density of the stand. Red cedar is encouraged 

 at the expense of valuable hardwoods, and is sometimes the 

 only reproduction found seeding in under stands of hardwoods 

 which have been opened by grazing. The lands should be 



» See Chapter VIH. 



