6*2 BULLETIN 544, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



BURNING THE PILED BRUSH. 



Careful organization of the work should precede the burning of 

 piled brush. A sufficient force of men equipped with fire-fighting 

 implements should be on hand to prevent the fire from getting beyond 

 control. Burning should not be attempted in windy or dry weather. 

 The most opportune time is after the first snow of winter. The 

 piles are then dry enough to burn well, except for the outer snow- 

 covered layer. There is little or no danger of the fire running along 

 the ground, and the snow cover on the branches of the standing 

 trees affords the necessary protection against their injury by the 

 rising flames. In the absence of snow, damp weather is essential 

 to insure the ground being wet enough to prevent the spread of the 

 fire. With a slight wind, other things being favorable, burning may 

 take place, provided the fires are started on the leeward side of the 

 area and progress against the wind. Likewise when brush is being 

 burned on a slope the uppermost piles should be started first, the 

 progress being from the upper to the lower level of the slopes. A 

 further precaution is necessary where the piles are close, namely, 

 that only every other or every third pile be fired at first and these 

 allowed to burn down before the remaining ones are started. If all 

 the piles are fired together, a strong uninterrupted upward current 

 of heated air will inevitably cause injury to the remaining standing 

 trees even if they have short crowns, well up from the ground. The 

 alternate unburned piles act as a check by interposing cool air spaces, 

 thus isolating separate fires. 



BROADCAST BURNING. 



Broadcast burning has been previously mentioned in connection 

 with the clean cutting in strips of even-aged spruce stands. Here 

 the object is not only to get rid of the large amount of brush which 

 cuttings of this sort yield, but to eliminate as well the deep accumu- 

 lation of undecomposed litter which greatly hinders the coming in of 

 spruce seedlings and also constitutes a menace to what seedlings do 

 succeed in getting established by endangering their future destruction 

 by fire. It is also cheaper than piling and burning. In using this 

 method the logging is conducted in the ordinary way, except that the 

 tops are lopped to allow the mass a better opportunity to settle and 

 thus facilitate clean burning. 



The same or greater care must be exercised in using this method 

 to insure its complete control. Favorable climatic conditions must 

 be chosen and a well-equipped force of men provided. The slash 

 should be fired at a time when it is dry enough to burn well, but not 

 so dry as to endanger the adjoining timber and allow the fire to get 

 beyond control. The brush in the open area will dry out more rapidly 

 after a drenching rain or moderate fall of snow than will the timbered 



