17 



are old and very often overmature. They have evidently been left on 

 favorable situations from the original forest, and as a rule no attempt 

 has been made to renew them or keep up their vigor since the adjoin- 

 ing land was first cleared. A young and thrifty set of trees is a rarity 

 among the great number of old, open, and grass-grown groves. 



As a rule these groves are on small farms, where they are used 

 quite as much for pasture as they are for sugar making. In cases 

 where the pasturage can not be spared, and where sugar is only a 

 small item in the farm production, there is little to be done for their 

 improvement. When the grazing can be spared, however, and the 

 owner desires to increase the sugar-producing capacity of his trees, 

 it is undoubtedly better to bring about a reproduction from the old 

 trees than by planting a new stand. 



The first step to be taken in such a process of improvement in a 

 more or less open and grass-grown grove is the exclusion of stock. 



FIG. 1. Method of improving an open grove. 



After laying out proper driveways for sap gathering, the seedlings 

 should be allowed to come up everywhere else. All unsound and 

 dying trees should be cut out and young growth of all other species 

 than maple removed. In a very short time the young maple seed- 

 lings will take possession of the open ground and grow vigorously 

 where they get sufficient light. When they are 8 or 10 years old and 

 6 to 8 feet high, or more, the struggle for supremacy among them 

 will begin. In each opening large enough to permit the development 

 of a tree with a full crown, the strongest and most thrifty seedling 

 which has a favorable position should be selected, and the heads of 

 those within a radius of 12 feet or more about it lopped off with a 

 corn knife. The crowns of at least two- thirds of these trees must be 

 removed ; the remaining crowns will insure a good ground protection 

 and leaf fall until the favored tree has filled the opening. In the case 

 of small openings the thicket should remain unthinned; the struggle 

 24151 No. 25206 3 



