Study 11. Fuel-woods of the Farm The work of this study should be conducted in the wood-lot or in a bit of native forest, where there is a great variety of woody plants, big and little, living and dead. There should be found a few trees fallen and rotting; a few, broken by storms or shattered by lightning; some, diseased by fungi or eaten by beetles or ants; dead snags, tunneled by woodpeckers; old boles tattooed by sapsuckers; sprouting stumps; and scattered weaklings smothered by lustier competitors-in short, the usual wildwood mixture of sorts and conditions. The tools needed will be a pocket knife and a hatchet or a brick-hammer to split and splinter with. The modern convenience of matches will be allowed to all. A few axes and cross-cut saws may be taken for common use. To save the axes from certain abuse, chopping blocks should be provided in advance. The program of work will consist of: (1) a gathering of fuel stuffs from the wood-lot; and (2) a testing of them in fire-making. I. The wood-lot should first be explored for fire-making materials. Quick-kindling stuff will be wanted chiefly for this brief exercise. These are of several categories: (a) "dead and down" stuffs in the woods, the result of nature's pruning and thinning. Nature has placed good fire-making materials handy. As you collect, observe what kinds of trees hold their dead branches longest and preserve them most free from decay. If there are shattered trunks within reach, knock off the shattered ends and try them for kindling. Compare splintering with chopping as a means of preparing kindlingstuff from dry softwood. (b) Resinous stuffs, such as the "curl" of the outer bark of the yellow birch, the bark strips from hemlock and other conifers, pine knots from rotted logs, etc. These will be the more needed in the rain. If there be many kinds of materials available, some sort of division of labor may be arranged for the collecting of it. 2. The materials gathered should be carried out to an open space on the lee side of the woods, and tried out in firemaking. Let the fires be so arranged as to secure a minimum of inconvenience from smoke. Each student should make a small fire (not over 18 inches in diameter), using one kind of material only. Let those more experienced at fire-making try more difficult materials say green elm, for a climax. Let each effort result in a fire and not a smudge: it should catch quickly and burn up steadily and clearly with little smoke. To this end materials should be selected of proper kind and proper size for ready ignition, must be so arranged as to admit air FIG. 46. A simple rack of bent wire suitable for the block-testing outlined in this study. below, must "feed" inward as the center burns out and must not be increased in size faster than the increasing heat warrants. With the individual fires burning steadily, let observations be made on the readiness of ignition of other woods, green and dead, wet and dry, sound and punk. Different kinds of bark will show interesting differences in readiness of ignition. Demonstrations: At a common fire of larger size a number of demonstrations may be made. I. The long-burning qualities of different kinds of wood may be roughly shown by placing pieces cut to like size and form on a wire rack such as is shown in figure 46, setting the rack upon a broad uniform bed of coals, and noting the time at which each piece is completely consumed. 2. The fire-holding qualities of the same kinds of wood may be shown by like treatment of a similar lot up to the point of their complete ignition-then removing them from the fire FIG. 47. Rubbing sticks for fire-making: a, drill-socket, to which pressure is applied with the left hand (a pine knot with a shallow hole in and timing the disappearance first of flame, and then of red glow. 3. The burning quality of the same kind of wood in different conditions, green and dead, sapwood and heartwood; dead wood wet and dry, sound and punk; pieces from knot and from straight-grained portions, etc., may be tested as in paragraph 1. 4. Ancient methods of starting a it will do for this); b, the fire may be demonstrated in the interdrill, an octagonal hardwood stick about fifteen inches vals while waiting for the pieces used long; the top should work smoothly in the drill socket; n I, 2, and 3 to burn out. c, inelastic bow for rotating With the drill. It is moved horizont apparatus shown in figure 47 anyally back and forth with the right hand; its cord, d, is a one can start a fire by friction of one leather thong with enough slack to tightly encircle the piece of wood upon another and caredrill once; e, fire board of fully nursing the first resulting spark. Flint and steel and tinder may also be tried. dry balsam fir, or of cotton wood root, or even of bass wood. Observe how the notches are cut with sides flaring downward; a little pit 5. Some interesting peculiarities notch; 2 is yet in use; 3 is a of certain woods may be shown at a new unused notch. The rotating of the drill with Common fire: pressure from above rubs off (a) wood powder which falls beneath the By having green chunks notch and smokes, and then, burning at one end, the liquids in with gentle fanning, ignites. A dry piece of punk should the wood may be made visible. be placed beneath the notch to catch it, and some fine Green elm will exude water at the tinder (such as may be readily made by scraping other end; red maple will froth; fine, dry cedar wood) should flames, be added to catch the first hickory will exude a very limited quantity of delicious "hickory honey.' (b) By burning pieces of chestnut, sumach, etc., the crackling of woods may be demonstrated; also the ember-throwing habit of hemlock. A shower of sparks may be had by throwing on green and leafy boughs of hemlock and balsam. The record of this study will consist in: I. An annotated list of the kindling woods found, with notes on their occurrence, natural characters, and burning qualities. Names, if needed, will be furnished by instruc tors. 2. A sketch showing your own preferred construction of a fire, with pieces properly graded in size for ready ignition, and properly placed for admission of air. 3. A brief statement of the results of the demonstrations made at the common fire. XII. WINTER VERDURE OF THE FARM "The damsel donned her kirtle sheen; -Walter Scott (Marmion). In winter when the fields are brown, the pastures deserted, the birds flown, and the deciduous trees stark as though dead, the evergreens preserve for us the chief signs of life in the out-of-doors. They mollify the bleakness of the landscape. So we cover with them the bleakest slopes, we line them up for windbreaks, and we plant them cosily about our homes. Nature has used the larger coniferous evergreens on a grand scale, covering vast areas of the earth with them and developing a whole population to dwell among them. Two species of pine have been among the most important of our country's natural resources: the white pine at the North and the pitch pine at the South; and these two have conditioned the settlement of the regions in which they occur. Both have been ruthlessly sacrificed, and we have but a poor and shabby remnant of them left. At the North the white pine was cut first; then the spruce, and then the hemlock. This was the order of their usefulness to us. Old fences made of enduring pine stumps surround fields where there are no living pine trees to be seen, bearing silent testimony to their size and their aforetime abundance. Our evergreens, broadly considered, fall into two groups of very different character. These are the narrow-leaved evergreens (the leaves we call "needles"), mostly conifers, and the broad-leaved evergreens. The former are mostly trees of the forest cover; the latter are mostly underlings. The former are mostly valuable timber trees; the latter have little practical importance. The former are plants of an |