60 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



Besides having the right kinds of trees, the forester 

 should also see to it that there is no land idle, and that 

 all trees are in a thrifty condition, growing in size and 

 value. The amount of wood which grows each year per 

 acre varies very much with the nature of the soil and 

 with the kind, the number, and the age of the trees. 

 For better lands about one cord per acre and year may 

 be expected; on poorer lands or from more neglected 

 woods the amount may fall to only about one half cord. 



The selection forest is the oldest form of properly 

 tended woods and has been in use in some European 

 states for more than seven centuries. In our own coun- 

 try it is practiced with more or less skill by many hun- 

 dreds of farmers ; and even some of our large forests ate 

 lumbered on the selection principle. Thus, in the pineries 

 of North Carolina, the home of the " tar kiln," farmers 

 are selling the timber of their large woodlands to lumber- 

 men, and many of these pieces are logged over for the 

 third or fourth time in a century, each lumberman cut- 

 ting only the larger trees and leaving the smaller for a 

 future crop. 



The same is true of a number of tracts of spruce 

 lands in Maine, where some men introduced this method 

 many years ago. Generally these large woods have not 

 received much care. In cutting, the men often cleared 

 large patches, which remained uncovered a long time. 

 Commonly fire gets into these larger slashes, since it 



