110 FARM FORESTRY 



and fastest growth, much time can be gained, and trees will 

 grow to cordwood or standard size in a very much shorter 

 time than if they had been left to themselves. By making 

 thinnings in a dense stand of young trees we are helping 

 nature to do in a shorter time what she would ultimately bring 

 about unaided in a much longer time. By judicious thinnings 

 throughout the life of a stand of growing timber often as 

 much as twenty years can be cut off from the time necessary 

 to bring the trees through to maturity. When the trees are 

 finally mature and ready for the harvest but a few will be 

 left of the many that started. Those that survive and form 

 the final stand will be fine specimens of trees, the survivors 

 in the struggle for existence. 



Thinnings to Improve the Character of the Woodlot. 

 Woodlots that have not received proper care will often be 

 found full of defective, ill-shapeii and weed trees. A thinning 

 made to remove this material from the woodlot to benefit 

 the trees remaining is called an improvement thinning. 



In removing this material from the woodlot care must be 

 taken not to remove too many trees at one time. As far as 

 possible the openings made in the canopy should be small, 

 so that the neighboring crowns will close over them in a few 

 years. The improvement should be a gradual one. The wood 

 needed for use on the farm should be selected from the poor 

 material year after year until it is all removed. A small 

 amount removed each year for several years will accomplish 

 the same result as many trees removed in one year, and their 

 removal in this way will be an advantage to the woodlot. If 

 too many trees are removed at one time the woodlot will de- 

 teriorate because of the exposure of the soil to the sun and 

 other elements. One of the first principles of growing forest 

 trees successfully, as we have learned, is in keeping the forest 

 floor dark, so that grass and weeds which dry and exhaust 

 the soil will not grow. If the canopy is broken too much 

 by the removal of too many trees in a growing woodlot those 



