- An old settler trick for felling a tree.

The historic 1875 Settlers Guide for the Pacific Slope was written for some of the first settlers heading into the Pacific North-West.

The "How to Make a Farm" chapter covered selecting your land, clearing it, putting the first crops in and how to use livestock to improve the soil.

The first and biggest job a 19th Century pioneer or settler had was clearing his land. Without that he couldn't build the family's cabin, start to grow crops and turn out the livestock.

It was a big job - usually just a man and his family and some axes. They had to do it quickly because the longer it took them to get crops in the longer they would be waiting and going hungry the next year.

A fantastic technique they used is given away in the 1875 settlers manual.

"Take a long shanked auger, bore two holes, one above the other, at an angle so they will meet some distance inside; after which some pitch fagots are lit and introduced into the upper hole, the flame causing a suction of air from the lower hole, acting something like a blow pipe. The portion of the tree inside of the sap being more or less of a pitchy nature, burns with great rapidity and in a short time appears and roars like a huge furnace."

The chapter goes on to explain that this technique largely keeps the fire within the tree, lessening the chance of what we call today an uncontrolled burn.

It's quite ingenious - creating a self-sustaining bellows out of just two holes and a source of ignition.

If you've ever used this technique, or are willing to give it a test, send us a report and in recognition of your efforts you'll get a one week free pass to all the Pioneer Handbooks downloads.

Please just make sure it's a tree that needs to be dropped, and isn't being felled for the sake of the experiment.

This chapter and more can be downloaded for free at www.PioneerHandbooks.com.

Even if you never expect to fell a tree, you can still hit the Facebook Like button below and save this how-to from disappearing into history

It's easy enough to do and a great way to keep this knowledge alive.