166 The Farm Woodlot 



quantity or quality. The amount of wood needed on the 

 farm is the standard for cutting, without any regard to the 

 amount produced. The rate of growth, which is the only 

 true gauge of the producing capacity, is not considered. 

 When the woodlot is large, sufficient timber is not removed 

 and the excess growth rots away. When the woodlot is 

 too small, all the annual product and some of the produc- 

 ing stock are taken, thus decreasing the output yearly. 

 Nearly every woodlot is deteriorating in quality under 

 the present system of management. The most desirable 

 species are cut until they are all gone and the undesirable 

 species are left to seed up the vacant places. A few years 

 of such treatment leaves a tangle of tree weeds, worthless 

 for almost any purposes except firewood. A little care in 

 the selection of trees for cutting would make it possible 

 to utilize most of this poor timber for firewood before the 

 good species are cut and thus insure the seeding of the 

 ground by the better species. In this way the value of 

 the woodlot may be improved from year to year instead 

 of lowered. This properly belongs to sylviculture and will 

 be taken up in detail under the head of "The Care of the 

 Woodlot." 



TRESPASS 



There is no form of property that is so liable to trespass 

 as forests. There is a very general idea that the forest 

 is common property and open to the public for hunting, 

 picnics and wood supplies of all kinds. The small woodlot 

 is not exposed so much to theft as to hunters and tramps 

 who are likely to set fires. However, when the woodlot 

 borders on the property of another, especially forest land, 



