EEQUIREMENTS FOR THE BEST SERVICE. 13 



need of fuel niioht be much inconvenienced to find no 

 trees on hi.s woodlot ])io- enough for cordwood. and it 

 would not help him to know that twent}^ years later he 

 would have an oversupply. In the same way a larger 

 forest may yield only a very irregular and unsatisfac- 

 tory product if at one time there are too many ripe 

 trees and at another too few. For example, if 100 

 acres become tit to cut this vear, and 200 next year, 

 and after that none at all until 500 acres become ripe 

 tifteen vears later, it is easv to see that the vield would 

 come atverv irregu- 

 lar and perhaps very 

 inconvenient times. 

 But a forest of 

 10,000 acres, com- 

 posed of loO even- 

 aged groups of trees 

 of every age from 

 1 to inO years, each 

 group 100 acres in 

 extent (see tig. 5), 

 would plain h' be able to furnish every year 100 acres 

 of 100-year-old trees ready for the ax. In such a for- 

 est the right proportion of young trees would alwa^^s 

 be coming on. 



The fourth requirement is growing space enough for 

 every tree, so that the forest as a whole (see tig. 7) 

 may not only produce wood as fast as possible, but 

 the most vahiable sort of wood as well. If the trees 

 stand too far apart, their trunks will be short and 

 thickl\' covered with branches, the lumber cut from 



Fig. 5.— Diagram of a forest Avith one hundred 

 even-aged compartmenls. 



