4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



so that we can not adopt their methods without modification, yet 

 certain great principles and facts have been established which are as 

 applicable to use here as they are there. 



The first, the fundamental point in tree-planting on a large scale, 

 that is, in planting what may be called a forest, is to consider the trees 

 as a Crop, like any other crop, only this requires a much longer time 

 than ordinary crops to come to maturity. This will at once put the 

 subject to many if not to most persons in a new aspect. Accepting 

 the idea that trees are to be planted like corn or wheat, as a crop, there 

 follows at once the necessity of care and cultivation and the consider- 

 ation that these are the conditions of success. We do not expect to 

 harvest an ordinary crop, and one that will yield a satisfactory pecu- 

 niary return, without having bestowed upon it care and labor. No 

 more should we look for success in the larger growths of the forest 

 without a corresponding culture. And when we come to look upon 

 the growth of a forest in this light we shall easily, almost inevitably, 

 regard our ordinary native forests, where the trees are simply suffered 

 to grow up in complete neglect, exposed to injury from the intrusions 

 of cattle and from other causes, as at best only a partial utilization of 

 the fields which Nature has provided for our comfort and profit. It is 

 true that trees will grow and come to maturity in rough places and on 

 poor soils, where nothing else will grow or where the cultivation of 

 other crops is impracticable and unprofitable. It is true also that the 

 growth of these great forest-crops, instead of impoverishing, enriches 

 the soil. Hence there is no use of our poor and what we call waste 

 lands, which abound more or less everywhere, at once so economical 

 and profitable as to devote them to the growth of trees. Left to them- 

 selves, as our forests and woodlands generally are, they are remunera- 

 tive. But they might be made much more remunerative. They would 

 be, if, instead of regarding them as one of the accidental products of 

 Nature, we were to regard them as one of our staple crops, something 

 to be managed and cared for by us. 



The proper care of a tree-crop, as of any crop, requires its protec- 

 tion from injury. But we have left our forests unfenced, or, if we 

 have inclosed them, it has been not so much for the sake of excluding 

 destructive animals from them as for the purpose of making them past- 

 ure-grounds for our cattle, where they have been free to range and 

 feed upon whatever might please their taste. The tender buds, the 

 green and succulent shoots, the young trees sprouted in Nature's seed- 

 bed and started for the growth of a century, perhaps more, we have 

 put at the disposal of the teeth and horns and trampling hoofs of cat- 

 tie. This has been regarded as a cheap way of feeding these animals. 

 But there is no fodder for cattle so expensive as forest-fodder. Grass 

 is cheaper than trees. Sir John Sinclair, in his " Code of Agriculture," 

 says : " A landlord had better admit his cattle into his wheat-field than 

 among his under-wood. In the one case they only injure the crop of 



