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. 
