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Prize winning Letters from Progressive Farmer Readers
RIIILD A "FIRE LINE" TO PRO- A "Fire Line- and How to Make One . .HASTENING THE CEDAR'S
KEEP ALL THE ACRES PRO
DUCTIVE '
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TEGlXVliVLllNMMtt I AM now, in charge of Shamrock- , GROWTH,
. -'H .- V 'v;- Farm here in Greene County.-1 am : v r -'--;': , :.
gladtd, say that there is a much bet-
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Fa
A ItrioHiraPri
Progressive Farmer has often
Pnze ew r , . ,1 and long been showing the folly "tV
TO MY mind the: most important others touch us along. that.line ; and pasture may never be worth anything 0f our trying to cultivate so mariv'
thing to do for .qut.timb'erands' there b more danger of a fire cross topu ih your life but it may be acres that we really cultivate nonr ?
is to protect or However, the Southern farmers have'--'-
Fires injure 'the .mature txes they-- iThe fire line u about 15. feet wide. your, grandchildren, ; if yo.u take care not quit it,r and until they ?do it
kill the seedlings, arid they burn : up " Wc-m raking the leave to- ; of iu It used- to be the common , be-: should hot be a high ' crime to call it'
the seeds that are lying a so-called ''scrub cedar" up again once in a while. We all'
leaves and littery Wge. make narrow paths; then., never, grew into tne stateiy cedar tree. know that most of us do it but can'
jury to the larger .trees it:: is clear : wev burned the pace betweeht the that is one of the: most valuable of all anVi 0f us give any valid reason why'
that a stand tannol , . - .,; .
when the seeds ana jseeaungs are,, enough if it were
stroyed at irequenx intervals. rV7 nre a uiue aneaa on ttie lee tide or tuaiiy maKe tne large ceaar tree,-put only a waste of labor, for that is a
tp ininrv doeslnottstoolwithh 'But when we
trees Fires burn the 'leaves and lit- he ,small per cent to 'the acreage
ter and this lessens! the fertility of -were alto careful; to goJback over jhe But the growth, of the young cedar ia any crop to what it
the soil, as some one put; it, s ipu "7 " satisiy tne . market, we tend, Dy just
would take to,
tend, bv iust
necessary to -hastening the ' sd much, to depress or to glut ! the
M.not make humus out . of t smoke.". ', to tenure that 'the 'fire Wa out;
t,,p ro'n make if hut of leaves and : I he "fare line" it about a mile long.' growth Ot. the tree also causes it to market. It adds also tn the- risk We
litter ; so nature 'should:! be run in producing and; saving that
chance to make ' humusthev thing co we "did "not ctrhivate that":
4hat most of our ioils are deficient in, Thi i a, tmall -outlay at com- briars, bushes, -and other worthless spare , acre, and would let it alone:
parea wun tne neip it gives us in pror material, snouid .De - cleared: away, most ' any acre in the South would '
soon bring us a crop much morej
Fires Often Uo 4 rf Acre uamage : tectmg several; hundred acres of tim- -then the lower limbs of the cedar
11 lb not easy to-recKon;yie cost 01 v V ;
a fire in monev. I bn6&- made a ' v; Fire; lines ?;
heipr -: Ahe be done with the biggest crop in the world, trees. -
uui tduua wuuiu tu uccu uccs.u ? un
careful estimate of the damage done
by a woods fire here in the. Piedmont,
region. As nearly as I could reduce
the, damage to dollars and cents, it
amounted to $4 an: acre. This seems
to be about the average ; for "this re-,
gion. It is worth while tox try to pre
vent a loss as great as that. : :
My experience in';. fighting .woods
fires goes back to ' the. old farm in
Bartow County, Georgia, where I was
born. Our woods- were back on a
mountain on the- easC side of the
place. At that time it was : a com
mon practice to set the wods afire ev
ery winter. This practice -was based
on the belief that burning the woods
increased the grass and so made a
-better range for cattle. We had: no
stock law, and many persons let. their
cattle'range in the woods beyond our
place. If one of thern did riot set the
woods afire another would.v These
fires burned parts of our Tence sever-;
'y'P& sapling ishould'be trimmed off; as; far. sure, much more ; profitable, and a W.
are a help, and only a up as a man can reach with.sawor hundred-fold' more enduring.. I mean ;
.
A COMMON -EXAMPLE OF ASTE IN CUTTING TIMBER
ply let alone. ; ' ' : ;.;;'-!'!;;-"
A stand of trees yielding an income
in mast, fuel or timber, if properly
dealt with, will keep it up indefinitely, -iird
be no worse. We might call it an
income; in perpetuity ; an endowment
for your children. In order to grow a,
crop, of forest trees at least two
things are essential: the available
seed, and fire kept out,.. When a tract
is already set to timber, and you cut
all, leaving no tree to ptoduce seed
of the kind you want, and then burn
the very land itself, by what right do
you expect another "growth of the
kind you had? " "
We are still practicing, the same
methods of. wanton destruction today
on our forest that the pioneers-practiced
on the buffalo and other, wild
animals,- wasteful, criminal destruct
ion. The only reason we have not
reached the same result, extermina-
ai times nnn ran river-a nsrt rF ntir " - - : -if- it.. -f. ' 2 ' . i ,var"'
vroods before we could t,ut hem out rom "i- neaitny. sentiment among inc narp instrument, so .mat tne tree ti is that thcre SQ man more
wooas Deiore we could put them out. neighbors and. an understanding, with will not be left in a bruised or ragged t e s B t unj ss w hold jt -s in
We wanted tn nrntrr nr Imic' and - . 1 ...3 . . . ..nr.- 'it. t j trees, out uniebb we noia u, it is m
our woods a7W a7 inC nanQS inai Pf' turn out Uv.uuioii, yi-course, tne larger -uu COUrse of t me ust as inevitable. -
SlLi vB' 1- ?l g a fire occurs. : Our hands on Sham- taller, the sapling is the higher up it w, iU we persist in clearing a
ossTsP l1Snf rock " ;Pruned;with safety, but this piece.'c frouTd fo T t v.tio J whlcS
osses than most farmers in the coun- the run when the farm ben tolls. . We high.pruning often endangers .the life .in sell or less or hrinz Iess rental
tl"Ll5 Jlyice tha haye had t0;us the bell only once of the tree. . - . , . '
toonm Uc" h ?7ear n ten. minu es - a ter it . After the pmning is done, all lhnbsare destructively industrious.
rn o "A-" v n 1 It! toned we nad iour men at tne aanger and brush should be removed from
,u!c iuhk inc iue 01 our point a mile from headquarters.
"" "sc me greatest aanger was.
'J ft
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Beit Method of Fighting Fire
A S TO tools to fight fires with, my.
-Tl experience is thant pays to take
1- . -4 4 - " ."....
the ground, to prevent all danger of
fire. ' ,A young cedar grove, once
swept by fire, never amounts to any
thing afterwards.
A young cedar grove should never
Whitakers, N. C.
ZENO MOORE.
an ax, a hoe, and a rake when going be thinned out. The thicker the trees
to a fire. The main reliance is on are, the more rapid will be the growth
. pinetops, cut as they are needed. The . and the better timber they will make..
Take is useful in pushing back smol- Careful pruning is. all that is neces
dering leaves after the blaze has been sary to start them off to growing. I
knocked out with a pine top. The hoe have seen this method of hastening '
is handy" where there is a mat. of the cedar's growth thoroughly de-,
. grass and the fire creeps along monstrated during tlie past 20 years,
through it; by beating the fire down and I am convinced that the cedar
with a pine top and then cutting to sapling which has ; been carefully ,
thcsod;with a hoe the fire can be pruned will grow to the size of a tel
.stopped. It seems a simple matter to ephone post 10-years in advance of
beat out a fire with a pine top. And the unpruned tree. v:
' yet I haye had to show my hands that
a blow .should come a little slanting
towards the fire.. At first most of
.them hit straight down; and in doing
so often scatter the. fire' instead oi
Hnocking.it back.
People are just beginning to real
ize the value of cedar timber. The
vast cedar brakes that once dotted
bur country are gone, and in most
cases -the owners of . these brakes
realized very little for their timber.
Another thine that experience' has Lumber companies bought them for a C
has taught me is that it pays to send - song, and as they cut out the larger
-a man around the edges of a burned timber they broke down and destroy-;'
' area after the fire appears to be out. cd the smaller growth. I knew of one"
One fire broke out three times after it cedar brake in our community' that ;
was beaten out; and but for. the pre- .was sold for $500 25 years ago.. If this'
cautionof having a man there, all of .brake were staiding today it would
our work would have been lost. .probably be worth $20,000. .
- ALFRED AKERMAN. . WHITNEY MONTGOMERY
: Greensboro, Ga. . 'J; . , :Eureka, Texas. , . '
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