66 BULLETIN 1294, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
success. Before the systematic attempt at reducing special dangers, — 
the company had spent $10,000 a year in 1919 and 1920 for suppressing 
fires originating on these risk areas. For 1921 the cost of constructing — 
lines along 6 miles of right of ways, of patrol following trains, and of — 
fire suppression, totaled but $3,600, and damage to cut-over land was — 
reduced to a small fraction of that for either of the two preceding years. 
The work was continued by the company in 1922. That year 186 fires © 
starting within the risk area resulted in burns totaling only 50 acres. 
The point of particular importance is that the method is effective 
and not excessive in cost. It is now being adopted more and more 
by railroad and lumbering companies throughout the California pine 
region. Ji proper care is used in burning the strips there is little 
danger of fire escaping to adjoining lands and, once constructed, the 
effectiveness of the breaks in reducing special dangers is thoroughly 
proved. Burning of the strips is required periodically, but only for 
as long as the risk exists, and not so as to involve the permanent 
relinquishment of the land for forest purposes. 
Although the use of fire on forest lands during the period of growth 
is a violation of the principles so far deduced in this bulletin, and 
although it naturally results in severe damage to reproduction within 
the burned strip, the practice is amply justified on the basis of sac- 
rificing a small portion of an area in order to secure better protection 
on the remainder. If, however, the general scale of fire protection 
were intensive enough to guarantee success on cut-over lands, the 
practice would be of doubtful expediency. 
CLEANING OF BARRIERS 
One of the chief results of repeated fires which has already been 
noted has been the creation of an almost continuous area of brush 
along the lower edge of the timber zone, part of which is restocking 
with forest trees and part of which has reverted to a nontimber type, 
or chaparral. This area is one of extreme hazard. Fires originating 
in the brush type are a serious menace to adjacent standing timber, 
and the sieobtonl of insulating the timber zone proper from the 
adjoining nontimber type is critical in many parts of the region. 
A complicating factor in the problem is that the numerous fires in 
the chaparral areas definitely reflect the state of mind of a mmorit 
of the settlers living within this zone. A small amount of forage is avail- 
able on these areas for a short time after they are burned, while dense 
unburned fields of chaparral are totally inaccessible to stock. Firing 
of these areas for low-grade, Sana agricultural use is a common 
practice and is the most serious handicap, not only in the protection 
of the chaparral areas themselves but of the adjoming timberlands. 
Until this practice ceases, protective burns are largely defensive. 
An attempt has been made to solve this problem by deliberately ~ 
burning belts of from one-half to 2 miles in width near the upper edge 
of the chaparral, or permitting fires to burn here, with the idea 
that these barriers would automatically stop the run of fires toward 
the timber zone. The cost of these protective burns has run from 
10 to 25 cents for each acre burned. ; 
A serious difficulty has been encountered in making this barrier. — 
If conditions were right for securing a clean burn of the brush, the 
fires have been difficult to confine within the desired belt; and if the 
fires were readily controlled, a complete burn was not obtained, thus 
reducing the value of the barrier. 
