158 Forest Fires. 



hiring men to extinguish fires, and it should be adopted generally. 

 If farmers found that they might have taxes to pay for damages 

 done by this cause, they would be very careful in burning their 

 fallows, and in seeking to prevent it from being done carelessly by 

 others. 



635. A ground-fire that runs through a young plantation of ash, 

 oak, catalpa, and other deciduous trees, may kill down the tops, and 

 apparently destroy them entirely. We should not give them up as 

 ruined, for they will often sprout from the roots, and grow as vigor- 

 ously as before. The most that can be done in such cases, is to cut 

 off' the old stems and all but the thriftiest of the new ones. As for 

 the old one, it only does harm by preventing its place from healing 

 over. Several small growing sprouts from one root are not so de- 

 sirable as one strong one. 



636. In humid climates, and in damp grounds, the undergrowth 

 sometimes comes in so as to cover the surface, to the injury of the 

 growth of the trees. 1 It. is necessary, in order to secure the 

 greatest benefit, to clear out the bushes and ground-herbage and 

 burn it. For this purpose the material, after being pulled up, is 

 best arranged in piles, at some distance from the trees, covering 

 it with sod before setting it on fire. By avoiding a dry time, 

 this can be done safely, as the fire will smolder away, with much 

 smoke and little flame, until the whole is reduced to ashes. These 

 are then spread over the ground, tending to renew its fertility. 

 The larvae of many kinds of insects that find shelter in the litter, 

 are by this means destroyed. 



(3.) Control of Forest Fires. 



637. Among the means employed for stopping the progress of a 

 forest fire when started, the following are the most important: 

 Throwing water and wetting a line of ground ; sand and soil thrown 

 upon the edge of a line of fire will sometimes do almost as well ; 

 the fire may be whipped out with green bushes ; the rubbish may 

 be raked away toward the advancing fire and burned : and some- 

 times furrows may be plowed, to present a line of fresh earth. 



638. Back-firing, consists in setting a fire commencing along some 

 road, stream of water, wall, or other line where its spread in one 



1 In French Forestry this undergrowth is called "bois mort" literally "dead 

 wood." 



