62 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 
