194 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



deprived the soil of a hold and allowed the rain water to 

 carry it away, leaving the surface a mass of gravel and 

 stones. Generally these places are used as pastures, but 

 their grazing value is very slight, and where this grazing 

 value becomes less than one dollar per acre each year it 

 is in most cases better to convert such waste land into 

 woods; for, as we have seen, a soil which is quite poor 

 for agriculture may still be very good for trees. Most of 

 these hillsides or bluffs at one time carried a good growth 

 of trees, and it is not uncommon for such lands to change 

 without help from bare pasture lands into brush lands 

 and, if left alone, gradually to revert to regular forest. 

 Usually this process is too slow ; lack of seed trees and 

 repeated fires keep these wastes in their bad condition, 

 and it is far better, therefore, to restock these places by 

 sowing or planting. In the New England States some 

 waste places have been restocked by white-pine seed in 

 spots five or six feet apart, and the same may be 

 accomplished at small cost and with good success by 

 sowing acorns, chestnuts, and seed of locust, maple, 

 and elm. 



Where the ground is rocky and poor, and the success of 

 sowing rather doubtful, especially in the case of pine and 

 other conifers, it is much better to plant young trees one 

 or two years old. When a mixture of oak, chestnut, 

 locust, elm, and maple is used the woods may at first be 

 treated as coppice. Later on it may be changed to a 



