225 



elusion of the sun and winds, but of the deep mulching of leaves which annually cover 

 the ground and keep it moist, while, by their decomposition, they form a rich mould com- 

 prising all the ingredients of vegetation. 



If we dig only a few inches into this mould we find it everywhere permeated by 

 fibrous rootlets emanating from larger roots, which under these circumstances have kept 

 near the surface where they draw nourishment from the rich material there provided. 

 If the single tree in the open ground had tried to live by such means, it would speedily 

 have perished for want of noiu-ishment, or would have been uprooted by the winds as 

 forest trees are liable to be when left alone in a clearing. 



In the woods the necessity no longer exists of sending the roots to a great depth 

 either in search oi nourishment or for support against storms, and nature always adapts 

 herself to circumstances and attains her ends by the simplest and most economical means. 

 If we now consider the facts I have stated, which anyone can easily verify for him- 

 self, we shall find that all the essential principles of tree culture are comprised within 

 their limits, and by their rational observance we may secure healthy and vigorous trees, 

 and develop at will either such forms as will fit them for timber or for ornamental use. 

 The five trees I have cited — maple, chestnut, linden, oak and ash — are among the 

 most common and yet the most valuable of our forest trees, and may be taken as repre- 

 sentatives and proper illustrations of the facts I am stating. Either of these trees, if 

 growiiig by itself in proper soil and undisturbed by other than natural influences, will at- 

 tain, at maturity a height of seventy or eighty feet, with a spread of limb equal in diameter 

 to its height, and a trunk of such massive proportions as leaves no room for apprehension 

 of inability to uphold the wilderness of foliage it has to support. But these same trees, 

 if growing in a wood, will send up a slender stem, straight as an arrow, fifty, sixty, or 

 seventy feet without a limb or a leaf, till it reaches the average height of its fellows, and 

 sends out its tufts of foliage to secure the benefit of every sunbeam it can catch. 



We see, therefore, that if we wish to form a beautiful and symmetrical tree, or a 

 grove of such, composed of individual specimens of majestic and graceful proportions, we 

 must allow it free access to sun and air, with full power of expansion on every side. 

 While young, however, the growth will be more vigorous and healthy, and we can develope 

 the desired forms more easily and successfully, by leaving a much greater number of trees 

 than are eventually to remain, and removing from year to year all which are near enough 

 to the final occupants to check or impede their full development. 



If, on the other hand, we wish to develop the trunk or bole for use as timber we 

 must plant, or suffer the trees to grow more thickly together, and thus extend its trunk 

 longitudinally by forcing it to ascend in search of the sunlight on which its very existence 

 is dependent. The indigenous growth, however, is always a great deal too thick for suc- 

 cessful development. - The trees are so crowded that many of them perish in the struggle, 

 and those which survive are drawn up into such spindling proportions that not one in a 

 hundred ever attains the dignity of timber, whereas by proper and reasonable thinning, 

 and judicious culture and pruning of the trees selected for final retention, every acre of 

 woodland might be made to yield an annual crop of fire-wood, and all the while be grow- 

 ing timber, which eventually, in many instances, might be worth more than the land 

 itself ; or by a diflferent process of management may be converted into a grove of majestic 

 and graceful, ornamental trees. 



The proper performance of this work constitutes the most important part of forest 

 culture, and for want of the knowledge of how it should be done, or from ignorance of 

 the possibility of its application to our native forest, a vast area (in the aggregate) of 

 woodland is running to waste ; yielding no revenue and promising nothing better in the 

 . future than fire-wood, of which a very large proportion is yet susceptible of redemption 

 and conversion into timber of great value at far less cost of time and labour than would be 

 required for the planting and rearing of new forests, while the very process of develop- 

 ment would be yielding an annual income instead of demanding large outlays. 



Travel where we may we are never out of sight of forest, and every wood lot is a 

 mine of wealth, waiting only the application of intelligent labour for its development. In 

 almost every tract of woodland may be found more or less of the trees I have named, and 

 in many places also hickory, walnut, butternut, elm, cherry, beech and other valuable 



15 (F. G.) 



