Timber Culture. 159 



Let us next consider an average farming community, with its 

 little villages and hamlets, all in what is usually termed a timber 

 country. The original forest is perhaps three-fourths gone, and 

 the question of future supply frequently suggests itself to the 

 thoughtful land owner. Here timber culture in belts or solid 

 fields will doubtless pay, but it is rather a long-winded invest- 

 ment, with the pay all on the far end, while we are an impulsive 

 people, very energetic and active, but anxious to see the dollar 

 we work for very soon after our work is done; so the timber 

 planting on any extended scale is likely to move a little slow. 



In many instances, the timber that remains has attained its 

 largest value, and is annually losing rather than gaining, and. it 

 seems just as important and just as good management to harvest 

 such a crop as a well matured crop of hay or grain, but if it is to 

 be harvested speedily, speedy and earnest measures must betaken 

 for a new supply. In this direction, much may frequently be 

 done by simply protecting what is already growing. On almost 

 every farm there are neglected corners, parts of a remote pasture, 

 knolls too barren or ravines too broken for cultivation, on which 

 we may find thickets, groups or scattered plants of all our leading 

 timber trees. Mingled with them are plum and hazel bush and 

 brambles. Kemove the worthless growth ; cut out the weak and 

 poor where too thick; plant a few trees when too thin. If small, 

 exclude farm stock, but if above the reach of cattle, use the land 

 for pasture, and in ten, fifteen or twenty years you, or those com- 

 ing after you, will have something valuable for immediate use, 

 or that will go on for ten or twenty years more at a greatly in- 



j 



creased rate of gain. 



The first few years of young timber growth seems small and 

 slow, but as the rootlets reach out into broader feeding grounds, 

 and the annual rings gain a larger circumference, the rate of in- 

 crease is something like that of the rolling snowball. Nor is the 

 early growth so very small. Six years ago I took a little bundle 

 of fifteen Scotch Pine, weighing altogether perhaps ten pounds, 

 and planted them in pasture sod on a steep, gravelly knoll, almost 

 worthless for any other purpose. The planting cost, perhaps, two 

 hours' labor ; tbey have been spaded around just once since, cost- 



