168 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



trees are then marketed, leaving a new 

 stand of young ten-year saplings on the 

 section. In this way the reproduction 

 has cost nothing; but, though this 

 system was originally proposed and 

 adopted in Germany, it did not become 

 popular there, for it does not pay as 

 well as the planted forest, because the 

 trees are not as straight as if planted in 

 rows, several years are lost in getting 

 the reproduction, and the crop is har- 

 vested in three cuts instead of one. 

 Today in Germany you will see but 

 few of these forests except along the 

 upper Rhine, but the system is very 

 popiilar in France. It is destined to 

 be used in American forest estates very 

 extensively, being a change on the lines 

 of least resistance, and will be made 

 along with the planted evergreen forests 

 on old waste land . Our problem , then , is 

 how to change our rough-and-tumble 

 woodlot into a standard forest, for by 

 doing so 3^ou combine beauty and util- 

 ity, keeping all the pleasurable aesthetic 

 features, yet at the same time making 

 something valuable out of what is at 

 present but a mess of cord wood. 



The first step is an inspection of your 

 domain, with a view to ascertaining 

 what are the dominant trees and their 

 ages in the various parts of your forest 

 property. In Chapter One of this series 

 we looked over the property with an 

 eye to preserving and accentuating its 

 aesthetic beauties; now let us see what 

 can be done towards organizing the 

 forest into something of utility. Nature 

 has already been trying to do something 

 along the lines of the French standard 

 forest, for her dominant species in each 

 locality, that is, the trees that thrive 

 best in your different conditions of soil 

 moisture and exposure, have usurped 

 most of the growing room, and the other 

 species are struggling for a foothold. 

 Some of these will be undesirable from 

 a forester's standpoint and will have to 

 be discouraged, others are just what 

 you want and only need a little help 

 and encouragement to form a section 

 in themselves. The size of the section 

 does not matter, within reasonable 

 limits, that is, not too small to make a 

 commercially profitable cutting; it is 

 the age with which you are principally 



concerned. It is important to intro- 

 duce a series of sections of as even ages 

 as possible, and here also nature has 

 been at work, for many localities will 

 have a dominant age, that is, the 

 major part of the trees will be approxi- 

 mately of an age. Here, for example, 

 is a grove of maples, a regular sugar 

 bush of them. Taking the places 

 where they are thickest and other places 

 where they still predominate there 

 must be several acres of them. Fitrthcr 



How A Forest Floor Should Look. 



S.-^PLINGS .\ND BRUSH CLEANED OUT AND TREES PROP- 

 ERLY THINNED. Forest of gilley, France. 



inspection shows that a little judicious 

 thinning of undesirables will make that 

 stand almost pure maple. Now, of 

 course, one is not to run amuck with 

 the axe here and take out everything 

 that is not a sacred maple, there may 

 be a fine white oak or several of them, 

 and maybe one or two scenic trees 

 which should be left in for their aesthetic 

 value, but quite a few nondescript trees 

 can come out to give the young maples 

 under them a chance to come ahead. 

 Such a "bush" usually wants thinning 

 also, for young maples endure a lot of 

 shade and are prone to get a good deal 



