26o Forestry Quarterly. 



than $2.50. This stock is not ordinarily furnished by commercial 

 nurserymen, but the seed-beds require so little room — for White 

 Pine, a square yard sown with two ounces of seed will furnish 

 enough seedlings to plant an acre — and so little care that it should 

 be a simple matter to raise it, especially for farm wood lots. 



This type of stock should, however, be used only where there 

 is a density of stand of .7 or .8. The old stand should be removed 

 two years after planting, as the seedlings require protection only 

 during the first two years, and after that time will not make 

 straight or rapid growth without open sunshine. The old stand 

 can be removed without much danger of injury to the plantation 

 so long as the planted trees are small. With Birch, if two or three 

 years are allowed to elapse before cutting, the planted trees will 

 be given opportunity to keep ahead of the sprouts which will come 

 from the Birch stumps. Cutting the Birch in July or August 

 would of course prevent its sprouting. Two dollars and fifty 

 cents per acre is $4.50 less than $7.00, the usual cost of planting 

 per acre. Four dollars and fifty cents compounds at 4 per cent, 

 interest to $31.98 in fifty years, and would, therefore, add appre- 

 ciably to profits. 



The tables in Forest Service Bulletin 22, "The White Pine," 

 show that suppression retards trees about ten or twelve years. 

 In other words, if a stand of Birch or Cedar were large enough to 

 cut in ten or twelve years, the most practicable method would be 

 to postpone the plantation until two or three years before cutting. 



Scrub Oak. — In many parts of Northern New England there 

 are large areas covered with entirely worthless Scrub Oak ( Quer- 

 cus nana.) These barrens are the result of repeated fires on dry, 

 sandy lands. Little forestry can be practiced where the fire 

 question has not been solved. Where it has been solved, however, 

 there is no reason why these lands should not produce their share 

 of timber. Probably the best species for such areas are Norway 

 Pine, Scotch Pine, White Pine, or Pitch Pine. Yields probably 

 as good as on the poorest White Pine lands should be obtained. 

 In many cases fire protection alone would produce a good crop of 

 Oak, for a large proportion of what apparently are Scrub Oaks 

 are Black Oaks and other valuable species of Oaks dwarfed by 

 the fires. Where planting is desired — and Pine should yield a 

 better revenue than Oak — no thinning is necessary. The fires 

 generally have so reduced the Scrub Oak stools that sufficient 



