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Yes, and while we're on this fire proposition, I want to tell you something else, and that's this: In some sections of the country farmers are in the habit of burning off the dead grass on pasturelands during the winter, with the idea that earlier and better grass is thus obtained in the spring. Well, there's absolutely nothing in it! In fact, it's just the other way; more and better grass grows on the unburned than on the burned land. You can see for yourself that the old grass and the fallen leaves would, if left alone, enrich the soil and so make better grass from year to year, and that the better sort of grasses would be killed or seriously injured by these fires. Careful investigation by government experts has proven this to be true. Here, I'll give you the very words from Farmers' Bulletin No. 1117: "Burning over the ground with the aim of improving grazing is an expensive mistake. Although it is possible to secure grass for stock a week or two earlier in the spring, most of the rich leguminous plants and annual grasses are exterminated, leaving as survivors only the hardy and coarse perennial grasses." Then, when you add to this the fact that we are every year burning up so much timber in forest fires and that this grass-burning is one of the most common causes of forest fires -- well, you're not going to do that sort of thing on your farm, are you? Why, it's the craziest notion in the world! The great thing is, not to start fires but to stop them. Some of the Western States which still have so much timber are at the very front in this matter of fire protection. In addition to the government and State services the owners of timber tracts have fire-protection associations of their own. In the Pine regions of the Southern States, where the idea of burning over the grass is most popular, there are more forest fires and larger losses than in any other important forest region. To protect the wood-lot and your nursery of young trees, if you have one, it would be wise to run several furrows around the tract to prevent fires from other peoples' woodlands from crossing over. It is also well to post notices warning hunters and others not to build any fires in your woods without permission. When it is necessary to burn brush, don't make large heaps. Choose a still day for burning, and plough furrows to protect nearby woods. And when you are through with your burning, put out your fire with water and then cover it with earth. The same precaution applies to camp-fires. "A tree will make a million matches, a match may destroy a million trees," is one of Uncle Sam's wise sayings. Never forget it! |
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