Cancididn Forcslri/ Journal, March, 1U17 



1003 



Slash Disposal as a Commercial 

 Proposition 



The Actual Working Out of Debris Destruction on Crookston 

 Lumber Company's Extensive Limits. 



By B. W. Lakin, Sup't. Crookston Lumber Company, Bemidji, Minnesota 



Editor's Note. — The following 

 paper was prepared by Mr. Lakin, 

 with a view to placing matter-of-fact 

 evidence before the lumber firms of 

 Eastern Canada. 



I was asked to tell you how we burn 

 cir brush or slashing, in Northern 

 Minnesota. All I can tell you is that 

 it has been the policy of the Crooks- 

 ton Lumber Company at Bemidji, 

 Minnesota, for the past 10 years to 

 burn the slashings in the spring on the 

 lands we were logging. 



In doing this we endeavor to do it 

 in' as' economical and efficient way as 

 possible, and it has become such a 

 system' with us that we consider the 

 benefits more than overcome the ex- 

 pense. Our brush, or slash burning, 

 is all done in the spring, and early 

 before the fire is liable to spread to 

 adjoining lands, as early spring fires 

 will not run in standing timber. 



Our country is rolling with prac- 

 tically no stones. We are logging 

 white and Norway pine, spruce, 

 tamarac and balsam; about 75 per 

 cent, white pine, 10 per cent. Norway, 

 10 per cent, spruce and 5 per cent, 

 tamarac and balsam, with an average 

 of about eight thousand feet to the 

 acre. 



Future Values 



We take of the above mentioned 

 limber everything that will make a 

 log 6 inches at the top end and 10 feet 

 long. There is still left on the land 

 a great deal of other kinds of timber, 

 such as white birch, poplar, maple and 

 elm, and in burning we are anxious to 

 save all the timber left standing to be 

 sold later with the land. 



We own nearly all the lands from 

 which we are cutting timber, and after 



the pine timber has been removed our 

 land is valuable for agricultural pur- 

 poses and we are careful to preserve 

 the timber left, as well as do away 

 with a serious fire risk. 



Now we start out logging with the 

 IDEA in mind that the brush is to be 

 burned. 



In sawing the timber we use a crew 

 of four men — two for the saw% one to 

 undercut and mark the log lengths, 

 and one to trim off limbs and pile 

 them. Then in the sprang, as soon as 

 the snow is off, we send our men in to 

 burn the slashing. They, as a rule, 

 do not have to do any more piling 

 of the brush, and we are careful not to 

 wait until it gets too dry. If there is 

 any danger of the fire leaving the land 

 we are operating on, we first burn 

 around the outside of the slashing. 

 We find that by burning early and 

 with care, that the fire does not injure 

 the standing timber, nor does it 

 materially affect the small under- 

 growth. Where a tree has been felled 

 off by itself, we do not attempt to 

 burn the brush, for it alone consti- 

 tutes no fire risk. 



Burn Before May First 



We have a State law that requires 

 that the brush be burned before May 

 1st, and we find; from experience, that 

 unless it is a very late spring, that it 

 is unsafe to burn after that, and if we 

 do burn after that it is done under 

 the supervision of the Forest Ranger, 

 and special care is given that the fire 

 is not allowed to get beyond control. 



The manner in which the burning 

 is done all depends on the instructions 

 sent out from the main ofiice. if you 

 instruct your men to be careful they 

 will, no doubt, do it, but if you issue 



