256 I'orestry Quarterly. 



The types of brush on old pastures characteristically vary on 

 very small areas. Frequently several kinds of brush grow to- 

 gether on the same quarter acre, or perhaps one quarter acre is 

 covered with Juniper, the next with Cedar and Birch, and the next 

 is mainly open. An average per acre of the cost of removal of 

 inferior species would, therefore, be of little value in making a 

 practical estimate of the cost of the work on a given pasture. A 

 general discussion of the conditions would be of more value. 

 Hence the field work on which this article is based consists mainly 

 of ocular observations and the conclusions have been guided by 

 measurements on a small number only, of sample plots. 



To simplify discussion, the various sorts of brush are treated as 

 if they occurred separately: 



Ground Juniper. — This shrub occurs abundantly on every aban- 

 doned pasture. It reaches a height of three or four feet and its 

 beds are sometimes thirty-five feet across. The cost of clearing 

 away, piling and burning this material — the chopping is best done 

 with a bush hook — so that plants can be set out 6x6 feet apart — is 

 at the maximum $4.00 per acre. This expense was determined by 

 chopping out "wells" 6x6 feet apart in Juniper patches, in which 

 to insert the planted stock, until one-sixteenth acre was prepared. 

 Fortunately it would never, in practice, be necessary to spend 

 $4.00 an acre on Juniper, because it never covers a pasture in full 

 density and even where comparatively dense, plants may be in- 

 serted largely between its clumps. Planted White Pine is ordi- 

 narily spaced 6x6 feet to insure rapid height growth and early 

 pruning. A large number of the trees are removed in thinnings. 

 Where small clumps of Juniper, not more than ten feet wide, 

 occur it will not pay to chop out holes in them for planting. Ten 

 foot spacing should, however, be the exception, not the rule, since 

 it would cause a growth of crooked limby trees. 



Wholesale cutting away of Juniper is unnecessary, but the chop- 

 ping out of "wells" before inserting the plant facilitates planting 

 and eliminates danger of the Juniper choking out the planted trees. 

 The occurrence of Juniper on a pasture should never discourage 

 putting the land on a paying basis by planting. Juniper is seldom 

 dense enough to cause an extra expense of more than $1.00 or 

 $1.50. This amount would compound at 4 per cent, to only $8.00 

 or $10.00 in fifty years — an insignificant expense, compared to the 

 profits estimated for plantations. 



