She was just burning weeds, the main reason being to avoid the risk of unintended fire when we’re away. Another reason is so we can walk through those fields easily, and to eliminate hiding places for snakes.
I grew up in towns and cities and still know almost nothing about agriculture, but there are several reasons for fires around here: Burning trash; Keeping warm during the 2 weeks of winter; Making smoke near animals to keep mosquitoes away. A relative once lit a small torch for smoke to rid a beehive of its bees so he could get the honey … and ended up setting a stranger’s sugarcane field on fire. (And it’s said that you shouldn’t make enemies when you’re growing cane, as they may set your field on fire in the middle of the night.)
But for the last few months, there has been one reason for the major fires in our area: Sugarcane fields are deliberately burned before the harvest! This always strikes me as very counter-intuitive; after all, sugar, the intended product of the cane, burns. But the cane would be much too difficult to cut if not first softened by the burning.
During the sugarcane harvest season, the air is frequently filled with black ash from the sugarcane fires – so much so that it’s a major aggravation for (cleanliness-obsessed) Mrs. Septimus. The Thais joke “We have snow in our country too: Black snow!” Burning a sugarcane field is done in afternoon or evening with a few dozen workers on hand to cut breaks and ensure the fire doesn’t spread beyond the field. It’s a bit scary when they burn the field next to our house. Conversely, my wife waited till they’d burned their field, removing that fuel, before she burned our weeds.
The roads are now full of trucks piled high with harvested cane. Sometimes one sees a capsized truck. I think the philosophy is: If your trucks never tip over, it means you’re not filling them full enough. :smack: