THE WOODLOT STARTED FROM SPROUTS 119 



each other and will need to be thinned out. Or the sprouts 

 that start may because of their faster growth begin to crowd 

 more valuable seedlings and should be removed. Thinnings 

 to increase the rate of growth of the older trees as well as 

 the younger trees where they stand too thickly should be made, 

 the trees that are falling behind being removed and the more 

 vigorous trees given more room for their development. Thin- 

 nings to improve the character of the stand should be made 

 every few years, the trees to cut for cordwood being chosen 

 from those the woodlot can well do without. There is no 

 owner of forest land who can practice forestry more inten- 

 sively or to better advantage than the farmer on this kind of 

 woodlot. 



THE WORNOUT WOODLOT 



Wornout woodlots are those in which the forest capital 

 or the number of trees has been greatly reduced from the 

 normal number that should be present. The trees stand far 

 apart and no longer shade the floor. Grass, weeds, berry 

 bushes and shrubs cover the ground. The trees are nearly 

 all old and more or less defective. Such a condition results 

 from removing too many trees year after year, from the 

 constant removal of the fastest growing and more vigorous 

 trees and leaving the poorer ones, or from grazing or fire 

 that have killed the young trees and so have destroyed the 

 future of the woodlot. Such a woodlot is of but little value 

 for a farm. The trees being large will not supply the many 

 kinds and sizes of material needed. It is often turned over 

 to grazing. 



A wornout woodlot needs to be restocked by planting. 

 There is no other sure way of increasing the forest capital. 

 The ground among the trees might be fertilized and cultivated 

 and the trees thus stimulated to seed production and the soil 

 put in good condition to receive the seed when a seed year 

 is present. But it is difficult to renew a wornout woodlot by 



