The Improvement of the Woodlot 1483 



Because of the protection it affords against disagreeable winds, and because 

 of its beauty and the pleasure to be derived from it, the woodlot often 

 makes the farm a still more pleasant place on which to live. For this 

 reason alone the farm frequently commands a higher sale value. 



The expense needed in caring for the woodlot is much less than for 

 other crops. 



One of the troubles with the farm-help problem is that many farms do 

 not have enough winter work to hold the good help all through the year. 

 The woodlot offers one means of providing winter work for men and 

 teams at times when they might otherwise be idle. 



In one way or another the soil should be kept usefully busy. The need 

 of most farms is better cultivation, rather than more land to cultivate. 

 The good lands should receive the best possible tillage, and good woodlots 

 should be maintained on such lands as are not well suited to other crops. 



HOW TO CARE FOR THE WOODLOT 



There are three principal ways in which a woodlot left to itself is not so 

 good as it might be. There are, therefore, three chief aims to be kept in 

 view in caring for the woodlot: (i) to keep the ground covered with as 

 many trees as can grow to advantage; (2) to have only the best possible 

 trees; (3) to make the trees grow rapidly. 



Density of stand 



Openings in the forest do several kinds of injury. An open space is idle 

 ground. The trees around it will have many low branches unless their 

 trunks are already cleaned of limbs to a good height, and each branch 

 means a knot in the timber. Every opening tends to dry out the soil by 

 letting in sun and wind, and means a poorer leaf mulch on the ground. 

 Care should therefore be taken that all open spaces are covered with good 

 trees as quickly as possible. This is done by protecting desirable young 

 growth and by planting trees or seed when a good crop will not start of 

 itself. 



Young trees need protection from grazing animals, fire, and breakage 

 due to carelessly felled timber. Grazing animals should be kept out of 

 the woods whenever there is not enough young growth to keep the ground 

 well covered. A woodlot which is so clean of undergrowth that it looks 

 like a park is not in so good a condition as one which has young trees 

 coming on wherever there is light enough for them to grow. Even v*^hen 

 there is a good supply of young growth, if after turning in animals it is 

 found that they are breaking or browsing the young trees, the animals 

 should be shut out again. This is assuming that the woodlot is valued 

 more as a place to raise timber than as pasture. It should be made either 



