INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ROTTING OF SLASH IN ARKANSAS. 13 



No areas were seen on which brush had been cut and scattered 

 where there had been fire. What effect, therefore, a fire would have 

 on such areas as compared with those on which brush had been piled 

 or pulled can not be stated from actual observation. However, areas 

 were seen on which there had been fires where brush had either been 

 pulled or piled. Many trees whose tops had been left with the limbs 

 unlopped were seen with the needles or leaves burned from only 

 the lower half of the tops. This leaving unburned the leaves and 

 needles in the upper half of the felled tree tops seemed to indicate 

 that fires in the forests of Arkansas in pulled brush do but little, 

 if any, more damage than the regular ground fire which is fed by the 

 normal annual leaf debris and underbrush. Many areas on which the 

 brush had been piled were seen where forest fires had killed a large 

 portion of the young reproduction up to 4 inches in diameter. 



Brush when lopped and piled rots much more slowly than under 

 either of the other methods of disposal. Such piles may be expected 

 to persist from three to six years longer than the same brush when 

 pulled or scattered, depending upon the size and compactness of the 

 piles. This would eliminate the large brush piles from consideration 

 in disposing of the slash on these areas. 



The best method of brush disposal over such areas would be that 

 which is the least expensive, which reduces to a minimum the damage 

 to the forest when fires occur, and which leaves the slash in such 

 condition that it will rot most rapidly. It is very evident in view of 

 these three things that the lopping and piling of the brush is the 

 poorest method to follow, since not only is it the most expensive, but 

 brush when piled rots the slowest and the reproduction on such areas 

 is apparently damaged most by forest fires, judging from the burned 

 areas seen. This would leave the choice between scattering and 

 pulling. 



Pulling, as practiced in coniferous timber, would not be practicable 

 in certain types of hardwood sales, such as stave sales, since the oak 

 tops are usually too heavy to be moved as a whole by the methods of 

 logging in use on such areas. However, when tree tops fall near 

 reproduction or near trees to be left, it is immaterial whether the 

 top is pulled away by a team or by hand or whether the objectionable 

 sections of the top are sawed out and rolled away. 



Brush when pulled or left in the tops rots with nearly the same 

 rapidity as when lopped and scattered. The difference in time be- 

 tween the rotting of the pulled and of the scattered brush is appar- 

 ently about one year in favor of the scattered brush. Whether a 

 possible maximum gain of one year in the time of rotting between 

 the brush that is pulled and that which is scattered is sufficient to 

 offset the difference in cost between these two methods must, of 

 course, be considered. 



