FORESTRY ON THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



171 



ery and transplanted, or else trans- 

 planted from a commercial nursery in 

 which root-pruning has been well at- 

 tended to, the young tree is almost sure 

 to succeed . These young saplings should 

 go on not less than fifty-foot centers, 

 for the capacity to produc ' nuts is 

 directly dependent upon sunlight and 

 general unhampered vigo . Needless to 

 say all hindering trees are to be taken 

 out. 



After a look-over of the property we 

 have in mind a rough plan of the make- 

 up of the future forest, and can then 

 lay out one of the most important items 

 in it, the roads and trails. These should 

 in general follow the boundaries of the 

 various sections or rather the bound- 

 aries should be made by the roads, 

 which are in turn determined by plane- 

 table measurements and their utility 

 in serving the various sections. You 

 have lumber, cordwood, and forest 

 products to take out (for none of them 

 should be stored in the forest itself, 

 since to do so is to invite an insect 

 epidemic) ; there are saplings, seedlings, 

 soil and spray-wagons to take into the 

 forest, so practicable roads and trails 

 that are reasonably negotiable to nar- 

 row-gauge wagons (such as the port- 

 able spray-ptmip) must be provided. 

 Our photograph of the trail and road- 

 crossing in the forest of Compiegne 

 will give some idea of the pride the 

 French take in such work. Eight 

 feet width will answer for a forest road 

 and the principal labors in connection 

 with building it are taking out the 

 trees in the way, stumping with dyna- 

 mite, and grading through the duff to 

 mineral soil. In general the trails will 

 boimd or lead through the small sec- 

 tions, and the main road will serve the 

 larger ones directly, and the others in- 

 directly by way of the trails. And, 

 until such a road is built, you have no 

 forest but just a brush patch, out of 

 which nothing can be taken except 

 in winter when the snow makes it 

 possible for sleds to operate. These are 

 all right and necessary for transient 

 lumber operations, but for a permanent 

 forest that is to be an active part of a 

 country estate, a good system of roads 

 and trails should be put in, as much as 



on any other part of the farm. Of 

 course the bulk of the lumber work will 

 be done in winter, as there is no better 

 solution of the winter labor problem on 

 a big farm than to employ the men in 

 active forest operations during the slack 

 times of December and January; but 

 there is a good deal of summer work to 

 do also, such as planting spraying and 

 sugaring-oft" in the spring, and getting 

 out nuts and cord wood from thinnings 

 in the fall, so that good roads are by no 

 means an expensive luxury ; in fact, with- 



A Seeding Cut in a Pure Oak Forest. 



NOTE THE SPACING OF THE SEED TREES REMAINING. 

 FOREST OF BERCY, FRANCE. 



out them the forest degenerates into the 

 inactive woodlot, where most of the 

 products are let go to rot because it is 

 too expensive to take them out to make 

 it worth while. 



I have spoken of the clearing out of 

 underbrush incidental to a seeding cut. 

 While, in certain French forests, the 

 underbrush is allowed to remain for the 

 sake of the leaf fall that it contributes 

 to the general forest humus, I never 

 could see any real gain in so doing. 

 No one would think of running an 

 orchard with all the ground space filled 

 up with little trees and bushes, and 



