Silviculture Treatment of Abandoned Pastures. 255 



since it indicates that on such situations there is abundant leeway 

 for expenses necessitated for removal of inferior species. 



It should also be noted that the estimates of financial yields are 

 based on present stumpage prices; the stumpage value of New 

 England timber will undoubtedly continue to rise, especially with 

 the exhaustion of the Southern timber, now a question of perhaps 

 a score of years only. The estimates of financial yields also allow 

 liberally enough for protection from fire to eliminate the danger 

 of loss to investments from that source. The profits so figured 

 are therefore most conservative. 



Furthermore, on all abandoned pastures, valuable species such 

 as Chestnut, Oak, Ash, Hickory and White Pine are slowly reseed- 

 ing the ground under the species of temporary type, such as Cedar 

 and Birch, and forcing their way through the crowns of these 

 earlier trees, ultimately to suppress them. Each of the ruling 

 species of forest trees in time regains its former type of locality. 

 The presence of reproduction of these valuable species may re- 

 duce considerably the cost of planting. The conditions on various 

 pastures differ extremely, but from fifty to a hundred years may 

 be given as a rough average of the length of time required for a 

 fairly complete re-stocking with valuable species — a period long 

 enough for one or two rotations of White Pine. 



The species which restock cleared lands promptly and abun- 

 dantly (in numbers) are Red Cedar, Juniper, Gray and Black 

 Birch, Poplar, Cherry, Scrub Oak, and Pitch Pine. Cedar and 

 Juniper have a stiff, prickly foliage on which stock will not browse, 

 and these species are the first to gain possession of the land. Birch 

 and Poplar, with delicate shoots, are much more liable to injury by 

 stock, and appear after a pasture has been partly or completely 

 abandoned. Where seed trees of these species occur. Birch and 

 its allies may rapidly suppress any Cedar and occupy the land 

 almost exclusively, and where seed trees of the species mentioned 

 above are absent nearly pure Cedar may result. All gradations 

 from pure Cedar to pure Birch occur, however, in the less recently 

 abandoned pastures. Black Birch also, is an important species in 

 early reforestation, and although it may be considered an inferior 

 species in Chestnut and Oak woods, its wood is of fair value for 

 both fuel and lumber. It grows rapidly to considerable size, and 

 is long lived, and, therefore, cannot be classed as undesirable on 

 old pastures. 



