RAISING OK KEEPING UP THE FOREST 69 



take two hundred acres in one piece and thin for seed 

 trees, get a new crop started, and harvest everything on 

 the two hundred acres ; then take up the next two hun- 

 dred acres ; and in five twenty-year periods he would 

 have harvested and renewed the woods on the entire 

 thousand acres. But this would not be good ; most likely 

 his large open stand of seed trees would invite the winds ; 

 the old trees would blow down, and the young trees 

 suffer from drought. For this reason it would be much 

 better to pick out five forty-acre or ten twenty-acre 

 pieces, and treat each by itself. To pick these cuttings, 

 or, as they have been called, " felling areas," is not always 

 a simple thing and requires good judgment as well as a 

 knowledge of the woods and the lay of the land. 



Generally it is better in our country to work from east 

 to west, to prevent the regular west and northwest winds 

 from throwing the trees ; but in a hilly country this must 

 be modified. In picking out the cuttings it is but natural 

 that pieces where considerable young growth exists come 

 first ; and also that a really thrifty stand of timber is left 

 and a less thrifty one taken instead, since the latter is 

 not growing as much timber as it should, and, therefore, 

 is not earning so much rent. 



On all points where the wind is likely to do much dam- 

 age, and also in the border of the woods, it is better to use 

 the simple selection method by which the woods are left 

 more intact, and are, therefore, more resistant. 



