The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-11-12
NLEARING land is the biggest
" proposition that the farmer or

to the region west Of the Cascade
mountains. Probably no other one
thing has served more to retard the
Development Of this region than the
tremendous cost In labor. time and
money of getting the land cleared
and ready for cultivation. Any sug-
sestion or method that will save
even a small amount per acre should
mean a great deal in the aggregate.
My experience in land clearing in
the northwest is limited but have
cleared and superintended the clear
Ing OF hundreds Of acres in the
hardwood regions Of Missouri, also
the pine land country Of Alabama
and. while conditions in those states
are quite different from those in
TINS country, still. l think out of
that experience l can offer some
suggestions that will be helpful to
the man who is up against land
Clearing in this country.
OF course, no method or sugges-
tion can be made to apply indiscrim-
1nately to all kinds and conditions
OF land clearing, but each man may
discern which suggestions, if any,
are applicable to his especial piece
Of clearing.
To the man with second-growth
TIMBER, or timber too small to be of
commercial value. my method OF
Clearing pine lands in the south
may offer some helpful suggestions.
For that country it simply cut the
cost in half. proceeded as fol-
lows:
Preliminaries.
In early midsummer-the begin
ming of good drying weather.
went into the timber with force
Of men, pairing them to right hand
and left hand choppers. and assign
ing to each pair strip of ground
about 20 feet wide, these strips par
aleling each other across the land
to be cleared. The men were in
structed to cut all trees nearly to
the point of falling, until they had
gone some distance, when each pair
of choppers was given the signal
to throw tree in the direction
from which they had come. l will
add that all trees had been cut to
fall behind them. as grass behind
the mower. This was easy while
the timber was straight and the
weather usually calm at that sea-
son Of the year. At the given
signal each pair Of choppers would
fell tree as nearly simultaneously
as consistent, and as the timber
was thick these trees, striking
others, caused whole areas, some
times amounting to an acre or two,
to fall. This insured, first, the easy
Telling Of all trees in the same di-
rection, and at the same time with
less labor than if each tree had
been felled separately. The tree
trunks all lay parallel and not tan
gled up. Thus was greatly lessened
the subsequent work Of piling the
poles for burning, after slashing
had been fired. In this way the
slashing was quickly done and the
trees left to dry just as they fell.
Right here is point, il all limbs
are left on the trees the sap will
be pumped out Of the trunks in a
fraction Of the time it would take
the sun to dry 1t out. This insures
much better burn. Having the
timber distributed uniformly over
the ground instead Of piled insures
q more uniform destruction of
briars and other small growth at
firing time. I let this dry as long
and as thoroughly as weather condi-
tons would permit; then, with a
force Of men stationed at intervals
around the slashing, gave the
signal-a revolver shot-to begin
firing; each man to fire to the right
of him until he reached the point
where the next one began. This
gave me- quickly circle of fire
around the entire slashing which, In
reasonably calm weather. causes a
current of air from circumference tc
center Of slashing. This air current
quickly became almost gale from
81 ~ H., l.. ~.