THE PRINCIPLES OF FORESTRY 171 



be wonderfully improved by planting in suitable places a 

 number of well chosen kinds of trees. 



Care and Management. — The farm wood-lot should be 

 managed in such a way as to produce regular harvests of 

 fuel, lumber, posts, and railroad ties, through a long series 

 of years. Advancing prices of these materials make the 

 wood-lot a very profitable part of the farm. 



In the proper management of the wood-lot there are a 

 number of principles to be applied. Some of the most 

 important are given here: 



1. In cutting the crop take those trees that are ripe, 

 not the young or middle-aged ones. 



2. Save the small seedlings and saplings to renew the 

 forest when the old trees are harvested. 



3. Take out the badly shaped and diseased trees and 

 those of inferior kind. Such are called weeds, and may be 

 used for fuel. 



4. Leave good specimens that are old enough to bear 

 good crops of seed. These will naturally re-seed the wood-lot 

 and keep it supplied with young growth. 



5. Usually the wood-lot should not be used as a pasture. 

 This destroys the young trees and the future life of the 

 forest. The leaf mulch is never good in a pasture. 



6. The stand of trees left at any time must be neither 

 too thin nor too thick, as this affects the shape of the trees 

 (Figs. 93, 94). 



7. Some kinds that send up shoots from the stumps, 

 called coppice growth, must be thinned to avoid crowding. 

 Catalpa, chestnut, locust, mulberry, osage orange, and others 

 send up rapidly-growing coppice from the stumps. 



8. Trees damaged by storms> should be harvested before 

 insects and diseases attack them, as these often spread to 

 healthier trees. 



9. Always pile up and burn the waste brush after each 

 harvest. This will check the spread of insects, and reduce 

 the danger from fire. 



