354 
CLEARING FOREST-LANDS. 
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CLEARING FOREST-LANDS. 
As we resided upward of seven years in the 
western country, part of the time hutting it in a 
log cabin , and nearly the whole of it actively en¬ 
gaged in clearing forest-lands, and bringing them 
into cultivation, we profess to know something 
practically of the subject upon which we are about 
to write. 
There are several methods of clearing land, de¬ 
pendant entirely upon the price of wood and tim¬ 
ber in the neighborhood of their location. Where 
these are valueless, except for the purpose of fen¬ 
cing the farm and making its buildings, the slash¬ 
ing system of clearing is usually resorted to. This 
consists in taking a very large tree for the centre, 
and cutting it off as nearly as is possible to do so 
without endangering its falling. Then begin and 
cut all the trees in a circle of a hundred feet ot so 
from this centre, the same as the first, and in such 
.a manner as to ensure their falling toward the 
centre one if possible. When the circle is thus 
cut, four men with their axes take opposite sides 
on the outside of the circle at the largest trees, and 
commence cutting on them till they fall, taking 
care that the four trees shall come to the ground 
as nearly as possible at the same time. These, in 
falling, generally carry all the other trees with 
them that they touch, and they again others; so 
that when the circle so cut has finished falling, 
nearly all the trees in this diameter of 200 feet will 
lie with their heads pointing to the centre, their 
butts out, and lapping each other like reversed 
shingles. Others cut the trees so as to fall in a 
line head to head, making them appear, when 
they get through chopping a swath, as if they had 
been raked into winrows. To lay the trees in cir¬ 
cles or rows, requires both judgment and address ; 
and none but experienced hands should undertake 
it, otherwise they will fail entirely in accomplish¬ 
ing their task. Slashing is also performed by cut¬ 
ting the trees and allowing them to fall as they 
please; but this is considered very unworkman¬ 
like, and unless the wood and ground are very dry 
at the time of firing, it leaves many more logs to 
roll up into hea.ps for burning than either of the 
plans first mentioned. 
Heavy log-rolling is not only an expensive, but 
an excessively laborious business, as we well know 
to our cost. We reckon it equivalent to digging 
rocks and laying stone wall; a business also in 
which we profess a trifle of experience. The ex¬ 
tra number of logs usually left to be rolled after 
firing, let the trees be cut with all the address 
possible, is the greatest objection we have heard 
to the slashing system of clearing land, and al¬ 
though it saves labor in the first operation, unless 
the soil be a dry one, we would not recommend its 
being adopted. Where the soil abounds with clay, 
the land is tenacious in holding water, and if the 
forests growing upon it are slashed , the trunks of 
the fallen trees get so saturated with moisture, 
that scarce one summer in four will prove suffi¬ 
ciently dry to burn them. It will be necessary to 
let the trees slashed lie till the second summer af¬ 
ter being cut, before they will effectually burn. 
The second method of clearing land is, as fast 
as the trees are fallen, to cut them up into logs of 
convenient length, say 15 to 30 feet long, and roll 
them together, placing the largest at the bottom, 
and then pile the tops of the trees upon them, and 
bum when the wood becomes thoroughly dry. 
