FOREST TREES. 211 



stool or stump, after the tree is cut down ; and this mode of 

 re-production is chiefly relied upon in most of the woodlands of 

 this State. It becomes, then, of great importance to ascertain 

 what are the best modes of felling, whether by thinning out or 

 cutting entirely down ; in what period a wood, so cut down, 

 will renew itself, so as to be profitably cut again ; at what age 

 of the tree the stump will shoot most vigorously ; at what age, 

 if any, trees cease to shoot from the stool ; what trees will not 

 thus shoot ; what season of the year is found best for felling a 

 forest, when the object is to have it renew itself speedily ; and 

 what season, when the object is to destroy the forest. 



In felling for timber, the practice is to select suitable trees, 

 from any part of the forest ; for fuel, it has now become nearly 

 a universal practice to cut clean. Experience has uniformly 

 shown this to be the most economical method. 



The white birch is of most rapid growth, and springs at once 

 from the stump. This may be profitably cut in from ten to 

 twenty years; a growth of maple, ash, and birch, black, yellow 

 and white, in twenty to twentj^-five ; oaks, in from twenty to 

 thirty-three. Where the trees are principally oak, the forest 

 may be cut clean three times in a century. Cedar swamps, 

 which grow from seed, cannot be profitably cut in less than forty 

 years. Pitch pines require from forty to sixty years to be in a 

 condition to be felled. In many places, the experiment has 

 been tried of burning over the surface, ploughing and sowing 

 with rye. When the trees were of hard wood, this practice is 

 strongly condemned. In the case of^pitch pines it is recom- 

 mended. The seedling pines make the most rapid progress 

 when the surface has been softened by cultivation. The trees, 

 best for fuel, shoot again most readily and grow most vigorously 

 when cut under twenty -five years. The wood is formed within 

 that time as rapidly, taking a forest together, as at any other 

 age ; and for fuel, it is then of most value. Stumps of young, 

 healthy growing trees shoot most vigorously. They should not 

 be under fifteen years, nor much over twenty. Shoots will not 

 come from very old trees. Evergreens never give permanent 

 shoots from the stump. Several persons, who have attended to 

 the growth of the sugar maple, say that the stump of this tree 

 makes no shoots ; and the same is said of the beech. 



The convenience of the wood-cutter will generally lead him to 



