PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 351 



regarded as being- rather inefficient and is apt to be replaced with 

 some one who can see to it that nature is given the best chance for 

 re-seeding the land in her accustomed way. 



Experiments should also be made in the cutting out of the poor 

 kinds to give the better kinds a better chance. It often happens that 

 .where the land is pretty well seeded to white pine that poplars and 

 other trees of little value crowd in so thickly that the young pines 

 are smothered. A little attention to the cutting of the brush at the 

 right time would give the pines advantage over the poplars and 

 secure a stand of pine instead of poplar. This same will apply to 

 other trees as well as the pine. 



The experiments which I would have in mind as to renewing tree 

 growth would be largely those which could be conducted by the axe 

 and bu«h scythe, for I thoroughly believe that if we are to have any 

 system at all, that these will be found the most practicable tools in 

 securing the re-seeding of the land to the most valuable new 

 growth. 



We need to have a study made of the light-demanding and shade- 

 enduring qualities of all our trees, especially those that are valuable 

 for timber, in order to find out the best conditions under which we 

 can secure a new growth of the valuable kinds. It is well known 

 to all foresters that there is a great difference in the amount of shade 

 which certain trees will bear. Some trees, as the Cottonwood and 

 most of the poplars, Norway and jack pines, will endure very little 

 shade. On the other hand the hop hornbeam andironwood and the 

 white pine will endure considerable shade. 



The advantage of this study is that it shows what it is possible to 

 grow upon the land. For instance, I have seen in this state a high 

 growth of poplar with trunks ninety feet high and the tops nearly 

 forming a canopy over the land, while underneath was a beautiful 

 growth of white pine, six inches in diameter and fifty feet high, 

 that had been greatly improved from the crowding which it had re- 

 ceived from the poplars, which was not hurt by the shade of the 

 poplars and was in just the right condition to take profitable pos- 

 session of the entire land. Underneath these pines there was a 

 thick growth of brush. In such condition the soil is best protected 

 frotn the sun and the snows are retained to best advantage, and aJl 

 the light conditions and soil conditions have been fully availed of. 

 We have other conditions in this state which occasionally closely 

 resemble this one. For instance, on our hardwood land it is not 

 uncommon, at least over small areas, to see a full canopy of tall 

 maples or oaks under which there is a good growth of hop hornbeam, 

 under which there is a growth of kinnikinnick and some other of 

 our shade-enduring shrubs. 



It is very important to study these conditions in order to know 

 how to protect the soil and how to renew the tree growth on the 

 land to the best advantage and how to make it yield the greatest 

 product of good timber. It is in such ways as these that forests are 

 cultivated, and such cultivation is worthy of most careful study and 

 experiment, and we have never tried it here on any considerable 

 scale. 



