CARE AND PROTECTION OF THE FOREST 131 



naturally trample out many young seedlings and thus pre- 

 vent the starting of any young growth. To keep down 

 mice and rabbits it is usually sufficient to protect or quit 

 hunting their natural enemies, the owl and the hawk 

 (buzzard), the fox, weasel, and mink. 



Where a farmer has not enough pasture and feels that 

 he must use his woods, it has been found best to let cattle 

 in part of the woods and keep them out of those portions 

 where a young growth is to be started. After the sap- 

 lings are ten feet high they are well out of reach of the 

 animals, and the place may then be opened to cattle. 



On the whole, grazing and the growing of timber do not 

 go well together ; for if the forest is as dense as it should 

 be, there is but little grass, and the animals are poorly fed 

 and constantly tempted to roam and browse. Sheep and 

 cattle generally do not eat pine, spruce, and other conifers. 



PROTECTION AGAINST INJURIOUS PLANTS 



In our walk through a piece of wildwoods we noticed 

 fungus growths, little upturned shelves on beech and 

 maple, wherever they had been blazed or notched with 

 the ax. 



Were we to look a little more closely, we should find a 

 great deal of such growth and learn that fungi, too, rank 

 among the enemies of our woods. The amount of destruc- 

 tion in old wildwoods is, naturally, very great, for here it 



