POSSIBILITIES OF THE FARM WOODLOT. 59 



in the shade of the woodlots of the type mentioned, where the drainage 

 is not too poor. The hard maple is also fonnd and occasionally the red 

 maple as well. Elm freqnentlv starts and the white ash is not uncom- 

 mon. Tt is donbtless true that some of the conifers wonld be tolerant 

 enongh to hold their own under such conditions, especially the Norway 

 Spruce. It is in the openings in these old woodlots, however, that the 

 best results of planting would be attained and here again, any species 

 that Avould be desirable could be planted. Especial attention should 

 be paid to the borders here, as elsewhere, and this is one of the most 

 important matters, if not the most important. The soil should be pro- 

 tected from wind, and this can be done best by developing a border or 

 wind-screen and for this purpose the conifers are by far the best, the 

 Norway spruce first, then the pines, two or three rows of them planted 

 so that they will form a compact hedge. In such woodlots as those we 

 are discussing, however, the windbreak is not so important as in dryer 

 places, since the soil is naturally full of moisture and the growth usu- 

 ally dense. 



Proceeding across this flat plain towards the interior of the State 

 from almost any direction, we come sooner or later to a rolling country 

 in which the surface is broken by ridges of low, rounded elevations, 

 through which stream valleys of considerable size and depth break, and 

 which are also characterized by great variety of soils and by numerous 

 undrained depressions containing lakes or often only marshes or swamps. 

 The higher ridges are more or less parallel in a general way. and be- 

 tween them may be found broad plains and shallow, or narrow and deep 

 valleys. This is what the geologists call the morainal region, and is made 

 up of the material left by the melting ice of the glacial epoch of recent 

 geological history. The soils of this region owe their varied character 

 to their origin, since the ice in its movements was able to carry equally 

 well all sizes of material, and when it melted, this was dropped in any 

 order in which it happened to lie in the ice. 



It ii< evident that here there is a much more complicated condition of 

 affairs than on the lake plain, for not only are the soils very variable, 

 but the slopes and exposures have to be taken into account, as well as 

 the drainage, which here is often peculiar. Tt is evident that in a region 

 of such variable conditions, there is much more waste land, or untillable 

 land, than in the plain. Even where the ridges fade out into flat areas, 

 the conditions are still variable, for in some cases these were the bottoms 

 of wide, rapidly flowing, temporary streams of water from the melting- 

 ice, which left in their bottoms only coarse sand or gravel, while again 

 they are formed by the rapid melting back of the ice. and have a slightly 

 uneven surface, in the bottoms or hollows of which, even though these 

 are but a few inches deep, the water stands most of the time during 

 rainy seasons, and hence makes them unfitted for crops. In general, 

 the flat areas have less porous soils than the ridges, and hence are more 

 fertile, but some of them are so sandy as to be nearly or entirely unfit 

 for agriculture, as a permanent industry. With this very incomplete 

 picture of this type of region, let us consider the woodlots upon it. The 

 original forest was as varied as the conditions of the soil upon which 

 it grew and the remnants of this, existing in the woodlots. are. there- 

 fore, not by any means all alike either in condition or possibilities, and 

 the prescriptions to be given in regard to them must be varied accord- 

 ingly. It is evident that the woodlot on a ridge, would be of diff'erent 



