THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



617 



material makes it exceedingly difficult to control and ex- 

 tinguish a fire. If there is no material on the ground other 

 than the ordinary leaf litter, a surface fire may be easily 

 extinguished. Old logs, dead and down trees, and snags 

 lying about on the ground are also a great hindrance to 

 fighting fires, for when once ignited they are apt to 

 smolder for long periods, and so continue to threaten a 

 further spread of the flames. In many of our forests the 

 dead, standing snags constitute a dangerous feature. If 

 these are surrounded by a dense stand of conifers, they 

 often carry the flames up into the canopy and make a 

 crown fire; if isolated, they may burn for days, and finally 

 fall throwing sparks in all directions. The forester aims 

 to reduce the amount of this inflammable debris in a forest 

 as rapidly as possible, since the "clean" stand is easy to 

 protect in comparison with a stand that is littered with 

 dry debris. 



Disposal of Brush and Debris 



A first practical step is to prevent a further accumula- 

 tion of debris in a forest by disposing of the slash from 

 new cuttings. The application in all forests of a uniform 



Lodgepole Pine Damaged by Fire. 



method for disposing of this material would, however, be 

 unwise. It should be clearly understood that no fixed 

 rule of procedure and no single method could possibly 

 fit all the different forest conditions in a country so large 

 as the United States. The method used in any given case 

 must be chosen after a careful study, and must rest upon 

 a complete knowledge of the local conditions. Many 

 methods have been tried in the disposal of brush, but 

 those producing the best results are the following: 



(1) Piling and burning as logging proceeds. 



(2) Piling and burning in separate operations. 

 (r>) Lopping the tops. 



(4) Lopping the tops and scattering the brush. 



(5) Broadcast burning. 



Burning Brush in Making Fire Line. 

 An excellent time for burning brush is after the first 

 snow of winter. This is usually a light fall, and the snow 

 does not penetrate the compact piles of brush sufficiently 

 to prevent burning. There is no danger of the fire run- 

 ning en the ground, and the branches of the standing 

 trees are so damp as to prevent injury by the rising flames. 



If the brush is burned before winter, it should be only 

 during damp weather, when the ground is so wet that 

 fire will not run easily. 



Special fire lines may be classed under the following 

 heads: (a) Fully cleared lines; (b) tree-cleared lines; (c) 

 ground-cleared lines. 



The ideal fire line is a completely cleared strip, from 

 which are removed not only the trees and brush but also 

 all ground debris down to the mineral soil. 



Fully cleared lines are advisable when the risk of fire 

 is very great, and adequate protection can be secured only 

 by having a clear break which will either stop or check 

 possible fires. Such lines are necessarily expensive to 

 construct and maintain. They are, therefore, used only 

 when the property is valuable and the damage from a fire 

 would be very great, as, for example, to protect nurseries, 

 plantations, or valuable blocks of timber. 



By a tree-cleared line is meant one from which the 

 trees and brush are removed, but from which no effort is 

 made to clear the leaves or other small litter. The object 

 of such lines is not to stop a fire, but to furnish a vantage 

 ground for patrol and for fighting fires. 



By ground-cleared lines are meant strips on which 

 the small brush and ground debris are destroyed, and the 

 large trees are left standing. Ground-cleared lines may be 

 made in open woods, where there is little or no under- 

 growth to be injured or to interfere with the work of 

 clearing the ground. The usual procedure is to burn a 

 strip through the woods from 10 to 20 feet wide. This can 

 be done only where the conditions are such that a surface 

 fire may be controlled and restricted to the desired strip. 



(Continued from page 604.) 



The Success System of Sub-Irrigation can be installed at 

 a cost of about $20. per acre. 



The porous tile in this system is made of practically in- 

 destructable material and with proper care it becomes a 

 permanent feature and continues from year to year to 

 increase the value and productiveness of the land in which 

 it is installed. The tile is intended for sub-irrigation and 

 surface drainage and is laid in the ground so as to carry 

 the water in a continuous line of tiling by an uninterrupted 

 flow by force of gravity from a tank at a high point of 

 land to a well or other natural source from which the 

 water is had primarily. The surface of the soil remains in- 

 tact, there is no waste of land and all the water which does 

 not escape into the land is saved. 



Government reports show that 72 per cent of the water 

 used in surface irrigation is lost by evaporation. By this 

 system of sub-irrigation there is no loss by evaporation. 



Under this system the water is filtered before it enters 

 the tiling thus preventing any chance of clogging. The 

 tiling used in this system is so constructed as to permit 

 of its being closely and snugly fitted together at the ends, 

 making a solid and continuous line of pipe and rendering 

 it safe from all danger of being stopped up by outside 

 influences. 



The porous substance of which the Success sub-irri- 

 gating tile is made, permits water to pass through it like 

 perspiration through the pores of the human skin, but 

 there are no openings in this tile where dirt and roots can 

 get into it. This tile will effectively drain the land when 

 it becomes too wet and will fill the land with moisture 

 when it becomes too dry and will make the farmer a man- 

 ufacturer with the material in his hands to produce the 

 most perfect results of the soil regardless of whether it 

 rains or not. 



In the Saturday Evening Post of July 9th is a long 

 article descriptive of the wonderful results produced by 

 sub-irrigation in Florida. It is shown that land which 

 sold ten years ago for fifty cents per acre and which has 

 since been sub-irrigated, is now selling for one thousand 

 dollars per acre, and as high as $2,100 per acre net profit 

 has been produced on a single acre of this land in one 

 season. 



With the Success sub-irrigation system similar results 

 can be produced on the lands of any state, and as soon 

 as a sufficient number of acres are sub-irrigated in the 

 vicinity of any of our towns, land values will increase, 

 bank deposits and general business will grow, and can- 

 ning factories, cold storage plants and better marketing 

 facilities will result as a natural consequence. 



