LET'S NOT OVERLOOK THE WOODLOTS. 

 By Alfred Gaskill. 



In American Forestry for October Dr. Fernow tells a doleful 

 tale of the failure of forestry' to interest lumbermen in its plans. 

 There is no disputing the fact, and though some explanations 

 other than those given by the good doctor can be advanced, it is 

 worth while to use his "we leave out of consideration the farmer's 

 woodlot", and an article in the Quarterly Journal of Forestry 

 (Royal English Arboriculture Society) also for October, 1912, to 

 emphasize the importance of what in this country we call wood- 

 lot forestry and what in England stands for forestry itself. No 

 one will quarrel with my assumption that woodlot and woodlot 

 forestry may apply to forests of considerable size and value. 



I shall let the following quotations from the article referred to, 

 Forty Years' Management of Woods, tell their own story. They 

 have been abbreviated as much as possible vnthout sacrificing im- 

 portant points, many of them suggestive of other things than yield 

 and price. 



"* * I undertook the management of the woods on the Owston Park 

 estate, near Doncaster, forty-three years ago. My instructions were to 

 manage them with a view to getting some pecuniary return. The welfare 

 of the woods was not to be sacrificed for the sake of the game ; at the 

 same time the interests of the game were to have every consideration short 

 of that. * * * 



"I was to have full power to thin such of the woods as I considered 

 proper; to sell the timber in the way I thought best, and. subject to 

 rendering a proper account to the chief agent, was to have entire manage- 

 ment and responsibility. 



"From the time of entering to my duties until now I have never once 

 been interfered with, either by the proprietor or his head agent. * * * 



"The situation of the estate is low lying. * * quite four-fifths of the 

 woods are at an elevation of 19 to 35 feet, with a clay soil, or m some 

 cases a peaty soil resting on clay. * * In 1869 there were 335 ^^^^\^^l 

 enclosed plantations. There were also several open woods which had 

 been thrown into pasture land, and of which there would have been no 

 occasion to speak here were it not for the fact that from time to time 

 timber has been felled from these open woods, and accordingly I add 15 

 acres, which makes the total at that time 350 acres. Since i^ twelve 

 acres have been grubbed out and converted into arable land, and S7 acres 

 have been planted. At the present time (1912) there are 380 acres ot 

 enclosed woods. 



"At the time of my taking the management the ages of the woods were 

 from 30 to 90 years- In 60 acres of the younger woods were a fair sprink- 

 ling of larch, the principal crop being oak with a small proportion of ash. 



