234 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



Surface-firing consists in burning the vegetation 

 which may cover the ground and oppose the growth 

 of the seedlings. There are two methods of practis- 

 ing : it (I.) open air firing, (II.) firing in heaps. The 

 first consists in setting fire to this vegetation with- 

 out any preliminary operation, care being taken to 

 prevent the fire from spreading. In the second 

 method, the vegetation is cut up with the soil in 

 sods and allowed to dry. After drying the earth is 

 shaken off as far as is practicable, and the dry stuff 

 burnt in small heaps. The ashes are then scattered 

 over the whole surface of the ground. This latter 

 process is especially applicable when the soil is wet 

 and covered with rank grass. If patches of heather 

 and furze cover the ground, it is advisable to pluck 

 them up with the hand before firing. By this 

 means their roots are killed, which would otherwise 

 furnish a new crop heavier than the first. Surface 

 firing destroys noxious vegetation, and also results, 

 by means of the ashes, in the restitution to the soil 

 of inorganic elements, which increase its fertility.* 



* This statement admits of a doubt in the case of open air firing. 

 If converting the vegetation, which covers the ground, into ashes 

 yields at once a large quantity of inorganic elements, on the other 

 hand all the organic elements, of which plants stand most in need, 

 are volatilised, the surface soil is baked, and any vegetable mould 

 and debris that may have collected since the last firing is totally 

 destroyed. Active growth during the first one or two years is no 

 proof that the soil is not impoverished ; it is simply the effect of the 

 ashes, which are soon exhausted. The Dhya cultivator in India 

 only understands this fact too well ; and a very casual inspection of 

 the open jungle tracts in that country is quite sufficient to convince 

 one of the injurious action of fires on the surface soil. The other 

 method of firing is not so objectionable, as the soil remains un- 



