RAISING OK KEEPING UP THE FOREST 75 



Since .much of this wood in our forests is wasted, the 

 entire top being left in the woods, the slab and sawdust 

 being usually burned as rubbish, it requires about three 

 cords, or about two hundred and seventy cubic feet (solid), 

 to make one thousand feet board measure. 



Thus, even on the poorer land, our stand of pine would 

 cut about thirteen thousand feet board measure per acre 

 when sixty years old. In most of our Virginia and North 

 Carolina pineries it would do much better. Generally, 

 however, even well-kept woods are not fully stocked, and 

 if a fully stocked wood cuts a hundred cords, a forest in 

 which only seven tenths of the ground is covered with 

 trees would cut only seven tenths of that amount, or 

 seventy cords. 



Dense woods of beech or spruce, or both in mixture, cut 

 more than pine, and most of our mixed hardwoods grow- 

 ing on better soil could be made to cut at least as much 

 as the pine. 



Seeding from the side can, of course, be expected to 

 succeed only with trees like the pine, spruce, red fir, cedar, 

 birch, poplar, elm, and others the seed of which is light 

 enough to be blown some distance. 



In Europe, where it has been tried, this method has not 

 given general satisfaction ; the soil is exposed too long to 

 sun and wind and thus loses of its fertility ; grass, weeds, 

 and bramble cover the sunny eastern edge of the strip, 

 and often the seeding is too imperfect for those countries 



