The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-08-20
BRUSH DISPOSAL
EXPERIMENTS MADE
Forestry Department Seeks to
Determine Best Method of
Handling Underground
Scheme of Scattering Brush
Over Soil as Protection
From Sun to Be Tried

Is yellow pine reproduction better
where the brush is cut up and scattered
over the ground, or where it is piled
and burned? This is a question which
the forest service hopes to answer
through experiments which have just
been started on the Fremont national
forest in Oregon.
Whenever the government sells TIM
Der from the national forests an essen
tial provision of the contract is that
the brush must be disposed of. In the
yellow pine region it is usually piled
the whole cutover area is burned
broadcast under careful guards and
after fire lines have been constructed
about the area.
The primary object of the disposing
of the brush on cutoyer areas by burn
ing is to get rid of a firetrap, but in
some types of forest, particularly in
the Douglas fir forests, it serves an
other very beneficial purpose, that is,
it promotes the natural seeding up of
the area and the starting of another
crop of Douglas fir.
In the yellow pine forests, however.
such as are found over in eastern Ore
gon and Washington and in the south
west, the effect of burning brush may
be detrimental rather than helpful to
the young growth. In these semiarid
regions the soil dries out very rapidly
and natural reproduction of yellow pine
is in some localities very poor on this
account. Thick brush is quite effective
in protecting the soil from the intense
sunshine and helps to conserve the soil
moisture. 1t may be wiser, therefore
to leave the brush unburned in these
dry stands of yellow pine.
1t is to settle this question in this
latter type of forest that the present
experiments have been begun. On an
area from which about half of the mer-
the Oregon Valley land company two
representative plots of about eight
acres each We're selected. Each was
divided in two parts In such way that
the conditions on one half were just
about the same as conditions on the
other half. On one the brush will be
piled and burned, on the other it will
be cut up and scattered over the
ground. Here, with the two methods
being tried side by side. is a good OPP
portunity to prove their relative merits
L MS 1all there VIII De abundant yellow
pine seed, so that by next summer the
results of the experiment should begin
to show. These plots will be exam
ined by officers of the forest service
from time to time. If there are more
seedlings at the end OF two or three
years on the half OF which the brush
is scattered than on the half on which
the brush is burned, it will indicate
that, in order to secure the best growth
of young seedlings. it is better not to
burn the brush.
If the experiment does turn out this
way IL is probable that in this yellow
pine region, where the soil is liable to
dry out and natural reproduction is
poor the brush will be scattered over
the ground in logging operations on
the national forests hereafter. Wherever
the danger from fire is great, however
the brush will have to be piled and
burned even though this method may
be less favorable to reproduction. The
essential consideration is TO prevent the
brush on cutover lands from being 8
fire menace. In most types of forest
slashings are a menace for years after
| logging unless the brush is disposed of
The burning of brush on cutover lanC
is becoming a common practice. not
only by the forest service, but by lum-
berrnen on their own lands. In fact sir
some of the eastern states the burning
of brush after logging is made compul-
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