PROTECTION AGAINST FIRES AND MOVING SAND 31 



difficulty of clearing a narrow strip, but it was considered worth 

 while trying out on wide tire lines where partial clearance seemed 

 feasible. If an adoption of some such plan could be effective 

 it would solve the maintenance problem of intensive fire hues, 

 which under the system of triennial clearance is costly without 

 being entirely satisfactory. 



Contract Conditions. — Contractors clearing lire lines are 

 governed by the following rules :^^ The boundary corners are 

 designated by the forest officers but the contractors must at their 

 own expense run the exterior boundaries between known corners; 

 all brush and trees must be cut level with the ground; all rub- 

 bish cut must be disposed of; work must proceed systemati- 

 cally; the material cut belongs to the contractor but it must 

 be either carried away or completely burned in small piles as 

 the clearing proceeds; if the burning cannot proceed the clearing 

 will be stopped; a schedule of damage is given for cork oak 

 injured, a 16-inch tree being assessed at 2.40 francs ($0.46) if 

 just peeled for the first time, 1.20 francs ($23.16) if never peeled, 

 but 4.80 francs ($0.92) if fire killed in burning brush; in addi- 

 tion it must be felled even with the ground. The basis for 

 contract payment is a price per hectare, and the contractor 

 must furnish an account of the area brushed each day, but this 

 is checked by the forest officers and deduction is made for open- 

 ings if they exceed 5^ of the area brushed. In case the forest 

 is burned over by fire owing to clearance the contractor receives 

 no pay whatever for work performed. 



Dune and Oasis Protection. — The protection of valuable 

 property from damage by moving sand has been successful 

 both along the coast line, as at Bizerta, and at desert oases as 

 at Nefta, Tozeur, El-Hamma. and El Oudian. 



Oases Protection. — In 1885 the French Forest Service 

 detailed Forester Baraban to investigate the question of fixa- 

 tion and afforestation of sand dunes of Tunisia around the 

 oases. Baraban has shown that the movement of the sand 

 dunes in Tunisia is usually different from that in Gascogne. 



'^ Cahier des clauses speciales pour les travaux et de debroussaillemeat et de 

 protection contre I'incendie, approved 1895. 



