FORESTRY ON THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



By Warren H. Miller 

 PART II. THE STONY PASTURE 



A 



S I said before, forestry is nothing 

 if not practical. If you know 

 from the farm records that the 

 pasturage yield from your stony 

 acreage does not exceed from one to two 

 dollars per acre per year, rest assured 

 that you will do tetter, far better, with 

 a well-managed forest on the land. 

 (This statement applies in general to all 

 stony and brambly pasturage, relics of 

 the Glacial Age, clear across the United 

 States). The trend of modern dairying 

 is a.ll in the direction of rich pasturage 

 cut and carried to the stock, and land 

 that must be hand-cut, ruinous or im- 

 possible to machinery, is better in trees. 

 Suppose then that you have decided 

 that a certain ten acres will pay you 

 best in forest. The first question will 

 then be what species to plant; and im- 

 mediately the three factors of climate, 

 soil and rainfall require your careful 



consideration. Your first and most 

 reliable guide will be Nature herself. 

 What trees is she growing now in your 

 woodlot? Which are evidently the 

 survival of the fittest? In judging this 

 question do not overlook man's inter- 

 ference in the processes of nature. The 

 chances are your woodlot has been 

 logged long ago, of its white pine and 

 the ancient stumps will be discovered, 

 buried here and there in the leaf mold. 

 Years ago the lordly white pine, the 

 noblest of eastern conifers, stretched in 

 unbroken forests from Maine to the 

 Western prairies and as far south as oui" 

 coastal sandy plains, the home of the 

 yellow pines. In Southern Jersey you 

 will find it mixed with shortleaf, pitch 

 pine, red oak and white oak on the rich 

 sandy loams that extend down from the 

 limestone ribs of the State. It thrives 

 equally well on the slates of Pennsyl- 



The Sturdy Evergreens Stand Erect Against the Snows. 



101 



