SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 511 



FORESTRY. 



NATIVE WOODLAND. 



Woods on Eveky Farm. — L. J. Templin says: 



Perhaps no better or cheaper method can be adopted for this purpose than to 

 set apart a few acres of the present wood lot and so inclose it as to exclude all 

 live stock of every kind. Remove or destroy all worthless trees still standing 

 so as to let the sunshine to the surface of the ground. In many cases a new 

 growth will spring up spontaneously, which by properly thinning by removing 

 all worthless species, will produce a good future forest of trees. "Where a good 

 stand of profitable kinds is not reasonably sure, it may be secured by gathering 

 and planting the seeds and nuts of useful species. This should be done as 

 soon as these are ripe in the fall. When thus planted they will almost invari- 

 ably grow the following spring. By a little attention to thinning and pruning 

 to give a right start, such a plantation would, in a few years, become an object 

 of great interest and a source of much pleasure, as well as of profit at no very 

 distant future period. 



The Michigan Sugar Bush. — Mr. Eugene Davenport, of Barry county, in 

 discussing the value of woodland upon his farm, said a reasonable amount of 

 timber well interspersed with maple trees of various ages, was as profitable as 

 any part of the farm. He had every reason to believe that his sugar bush, if 

 given proper care and the young saplings allowed to grow, would be more 

 valuable for the manufacture of sugar a century hence than now, and that for 

 every intervening year it could be made a valuable source of income. He 

 would not preserve a single old tree when it had passed its time of usefulness, 

 but would give the woodlot the most careful attention looking toward its con- 

 tinuous usefulness. For protection of the larger timber he proposed planting 

 around the margin young trees, which would break the force of the wind and 

 become themselves firmly rooted as a result of their exposure. 



When to Cut Timber. — Timber should be cut, says John M. Stahl, 

 when the sap is flowing, that the bark may readily peel off. Some woods 

 make durable rails, posts, etc., though the bark adhere, but all last better 

 when the bark is stripped away, and some of our most valuable woods are 

 almost rendered worthless by being cut when the sap is not flowing. In 

 this section there is a large amount of pin oak — a wood which makes the 

 very best of rails if cut when the sap is flowing; but if cut when the sap is 

 not flowing it is folly to put the rails in a fence at all, unless in the top 

 courses where they can readily be removed. The same is true of hickory. 

 Cut when the sap is flowing, the bark falls off, and a rail made of it, if kept 

 off the ground, will last for half a century, but if cut when the bark adheres 

 the wood rots rapidly and worms help to make the rail soon worthless. The 



