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breasthigh. The entire tract is very dense, and, although the extreme 

 difference in the age of the trees is about ten years, the difference in 

 their size is far greater than the discrepancy in age would explain. 

 More than half the stand is 1 inch and under in diameter, and yet 

 many of these trees are as old as near neighbors three times as large. 

 This results from the extreme vitality of the sugar maple, and shows 

 the urgent necessity for thinning at an early age. Two plats, each 

 0.7 acre in size, were thinned, with the following results: 



Thinning of a maple-sugar thicket, showing the number of trees per acre of various diameters 

 in the original stand, the number removed, and number left. 



Figures 4 and 5 show the tract before and after thinning. Twelve 

 cords to the acre of fair firewood were cut, an amount which should 



FIG. 4. Stand of maple saplings in need of thinning. 



ordinarily pay for the thinning. The large number of small trees left 

 after thinning is noticeable in the illustration, and is a point not to be 

 overlooked. All trees that in no way interfered with the dominant 



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