220 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



soil, climatic conditions, and tlie requirements of seedlings of different 

 kinds. While the beech requires the darkest shade, the pine tribe 

 and the oaks are more eager for light, and should by the successive 

 cuttings be early freed from the shade of the mother^ trees. Beech 

 seedlings are more tender, and only by the gradual removal (often 

 protracted through many years) of the shelter of the parent trees can 

 be accustomed to shift for themselves, without liability of being killed 

 by frost. The final cutting of the former generation of trees leaves 

 many thousand little seedlings closely covering the soil with a dense 

 shade. 



That the method of management must differ according to species 

 and local conditions is evident; and especially in a mixed forest is the 

 best skill and judgment of the forester required to insure favorable 

 conditions for each kind that is to be reproduced. That such seed- 

 ings are rarely satisfactory over the whole area, and that bare places 

 of too large extent must be artificially sown or planted, is to be ex- 

 pected. 



CLEANING AND THINNING. 



There are in such a natural growth, of course, more individuals to 

 the acre than can be expected to develop. A struggle for existence 

 soon begins, and a constant natural thinning out is the result, requiring 

 the judicious aid of the forester to produce a desirable termination of 

 the struggle. In this the one point never to be lost sight of is, to keep 

 the soil well shaded. In fact, with this one general rule in view any 

 jjractical man may be expected to make few mistakes in the removal 

 of trees when the necessity for it appears, which does not occur until 

 the stems have reached the size of hop poles. Before that time the 

 clearings are mainly to afford protection to the slower-growing and 

 more valuable species by removing or cutting back the quicker-grow.- 

 ing and inferior kinds. By no means, however, should the small 

 shrub vegetation ever be disturbed, unless spreading over valuable 

 timber-gro\vth. So far from injuring the future trees of the forest 

 this undergrowth is a decided benefit, keeping the soil shaded and 

 sheltered against winds, and therefore moist, and adding to its riches 

 by the decay of its leaf -mold. On the other hand, if of two or more 

 valuable kinds one threatens to overtoil the other and to shade it out, 

 the ax may properly do its work in preserving the deserving weaker 

 one. The question whether a more vigorous clearing out in the earlier 

 stages of development does not favor better development of the re- 

 maining growth without injury to soil conditions is still an open one 

 though experiments for its decision have been instituted. * 



Up to a certain point the effect of the struggle between the trees of 

 an even-grown thicket must be considered distinctly useful by forc- 

 ing height growth and showing more clearly which are the individuals 

 of weak constitution and therefore not destined to become the domi- 

 nant growth of the forest. Among this class, which we may call the 

 over-shaded, moves mainly the work of interlucation, ^. e. , the peri- 

 odical thinnings which are made for the purpose of stimulating in- 

 creased development in the dominant, fore-grown trees, and which is 

 due to the increased enjoyment of light and room. 



How this struggle for life and supremacy, by exclusion of the neigh- 

 bor from the necessary factor of existence, light, proceeds in a natu- 

 rally grown forest is shown in the following interesting table, which 



