On Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:53:15 -0900, Jan Flora
wrote:

In article ,
In article ,
John Bachman wrote:


The farmers here (NH) used to burn off their fields regularly. Burning
really spruced up the fields nicely, killing weed seeds and other
pests "reconditioned" the soil for the new crop. It was a nice,
organic time honored method.

But the environmentalists managed to outlaw field burning on air
pollution grounds. So now the farmers use chemical methods to control
weeds and other pests. This is a perfect example of the law of
unintended consequences.

Did those opposing field burning really accomplish anything?
Just to make sure that there is no misunderstanding, use of a propane
weed burner has nothing to do with burning fields.

You do not have to char the weed, just apply a bit of heat to it and
get it to wilt a bit and that sucker is a goner.

I wet down the area before I use my burner - that prevents flare ups
but I keep the hose handy just in case. Use a little common sense and
there is no problem. I cannot imagine any justification for outlawing
their use.

You can use your weedburner the way you want and I'll use mine the
way I want.

We use it to light off hay meadows, pastures and lawns that need old
grass cleaned off. I burn my yard every spring. The native bluestem
(Calamagrastis Canadensis) gets six foot tall every summer, if it's
not kept grazed or mowed down.

It's a common practice in this area to burn the meadows every spring,
right before greenup, and has been since the 1930's, when the first
homesteaders showed up. It helps keep encroaching willows beat back, too.

We also use the weed burner, AKA The Tiger Torch, to light the
woodstove and the shop stove, to preheat the engines on our diesel
farm tractor and various bulldozers in the winter, and recently used it
to fire the pressure canner to steam open an ABS waterline with a
40' plug of ice in it. (That took 3 days.)

I've heard that you can use a weed burner to burn green weeds back,
but have never seen anyone use one for that.


Ahh, I wish that burning off meadows was still available here (NH) but
alas the air pollution folks managed to get it outlawed.

Yes weed burners have many uses, melting ice in winter is another.

I use it on green weeds but only individually, not an area burn.

John