40 BULLETHSJ" 418, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUEE. 



diameter in the tops as practicable so as to cause the least ■waste, and to a minimuin 

 diameter of 7 inches when merchantable in the judgment of the forest officer in charge. 

 The log lengths shall be varied so as to make this utilization possible. 



All yellow-pine logs are merchantable under the terms of this agreement which are 

 not less than 10 feet long, at least 8 inches in diameter inside bark at the small end, 

 and, after deductions for visible indications of defect, scale 33 per cent of their gross 

 scale. * •* * 



DISPOSAL or THE LOGGING DEBRIS. 



The brush left after logging decays slowly in the dry climate of 

 eastern Oregon, and the fire season is long. Slashings on which the 

 brush is not disposed of properly are serious fire menaces. If they 

 become ignited they make a bad fire whiob is apt to destroy all the 

 young trees so carefully reserved in the logging and those whichi have 

 sprung up afterwards. The brush should be piled as the logging 

 proceeds, in small compact piles, away from the bases of reserved 

 trees and as far as possible from groups of reproduction. Wben the 

 piles become dry enough and the season is such that tbere is no danger 

 of a general conflagration, preferably in the late fall, the piles should 

 be burned. The danger of a severe fire within the next few years is 

 then practically removed. The cost of lopping the larger pieces of 

 debris and piling all the brush in a thorough fashion amounts to 

 somewhat less than 25 cents for each thousand feet of timber logged, 

 and the cost of burning it amounts to a few cents more. 



Besides creating a security against fires, the piling and burning of 

 the brush has added advantages; it makes the logging decidedly 

 easier, since, if the piles are properly located, the teamsters and horses 

 can more readily get to the logs to haul them out, and it also tends to 

 prevent the inordinate increase of bark beetles and other insect ene- 

 mies that breed freely in logging debris. 



In exceptionally dry situations where reproduction is scanty and 

 has difficulty in becoming estabhshed, as on the pumice soils of the 

 Klamath-Deschutes divide, it may be better forest management to 

 scatter the brush as a mulch over the surface of the ground, in order 

 that it may assist in preventing the evaporation of moisture from the 

 soil and in shielding the young seedlings from hot sun, dry winds, 

 and frost. The method is being tried on a small scale experimentally 

 by the Forest Service at the present time and is used quite generally 

 in the Southwest, where the fire risk is less and reproduction is difii- 

 cult. But it should be used only in localities where the fire risk is 

 small, as where the trees are scattered and the brush does not make 

 a continuous or heavy cover. At all events, fire lines or strips on which 

 all the brush is burned should be built, so that should a fire get into 

 the debris it could be confined to a small area. 



To enforce the proper disposal of the slash on sales of stumpage on 

 the National Forests, a clause such as the following is being used in 

 the contracts with the permittees: 



Tops of all trees feUed, whether merchantable or nonmerchantable, shall be lopped, 

 and all brush piled compactly at a safe distance from living trees, as directed by the 

 forest officer in charge. 



