10 AGKICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE OF TEXAS. 



belief that they improve the range. There are still a few people who 

 believe that burning is necessary in order to check the ravages of the 

 cattle tick. The tick will never be eradicated or the quarantine removed 

 by burning over the land, but may be controlled by rotating the stock 

 within fenced pastures or dipping the stock. There is an unfortunate 

 opinion expressed now and then that burning is necessary in order to 

 facilitate travel in the woods, to get rid of insects and snakes and to 

 improve the general healthfulness of the community. Only rarely are 

 fires started with malicious intent to injure property. Most fires are 

 entirely unnecessary and avoidable. 



CONTROL OF FIRES. 



Fire is an indispensable agent when rightly controlled. It is a vicious 

 and ruthless destroyer when uncontrolled. No one who has carefully 

 studied the woodland fire problem in Texas can believe that fires should 

 be entirely prevented. There are conditions of extreme hazard which 

 may and should be removed by burning, but all such burning should 

 be restricted to certain areas and never be permitted to run over ad- 

 jacent property. While burning under certain conditions is highly 

 essential, yet between a proper use of fire and promiscuous, unrestrained 

 burning there is a Avide difference. Owners of land who desire to keep 

 their lands fire free should be allowed to do so without question and 

 with only reasonable concern for the safety of their property, or else 

 be fully repaid for all damages incurred. Today an owner has no 

 assurance that his land will not burn over at any time, and he has 

 little recourse when the damage has been done, unless the blame can 

 be charged to a railroad or some other corporation. There are instances 

 at hand where farm wood lots in agricultural communities, appar- 

 ently safe because of their isolation from other woodlands, burn over 

 year after year in spite of precautions which the owners take them- 

 selves. . Very little chance has the owner surrounded by uncultivated 

 areas or crossed by railroads to keep his land free from fire. Every 

 owner has a right, of course, to burn over his own land if neighboring 

 property is not injured or endangered as a result. It is equally the 

 right of every owner to be protected in his property. The forest fire 

 laws of Texas recognize these rights, but in order that the laws may 

 fully accomplish their purpose, a strong public sentiment against fires 

 is necessary. 



The most serious hazard which should be removed by burning is the 

 accumulation of large quantities of slash from logging operations. It 

 would be desirable if such slash could be thrown away from sapling 

 and pole trees during logging and burned when the slash itself is dry 

 but when the ground and humus are wet enough to prevent the destruc- 

 tion of the humus and the spreading of fire to other property. Such 

 burning of cut-over land is generally recognized as essential to securing 

 the best reproduction from seed, in the case of longleaf pine. Follow- 

 ing lumbering and the burning of the slash, fires should be absolutely 

 excluded for a period of years. With longleaf pine this period may be 



