Destroying the kutans (winter shelters for livestock) along the Dzhalka and near Shali in March 1837, Feze's troops deliberately burned food. Rozen's report to Minister of War Chernyshev of 12 April 1837 records: in the kutans they "burned a considerable quantity of the grain found in them"; near Shali the troops "seized the watchmen present at them and a multitude of food supplies"; and Birzul's column burned "several hundred chetverts of the grain found in them" (chetvert - an old grain measure of about 210 liters)[1]. Burning hundreds of chetverts of grain at the end of winter left the families who had fled to the forests and mountains without means to survive until the harvest.