FORESTRY 165 



In many places the price of wood is exceedingly high. 

 Good lumber is every year becoming harder to get. 

 We have awakened to the fact that the farmer who 

 has a wood lot on his farm has a valuable piece of 

 property. 



Management of the Wood Lot. A few acres of 

 wood land, if properly managed, will furnish wood 

 and other timber to the farmer for years to come. 

 Now, what constitutes proper management of the 

 wood lot? 



First, desirable young trees should be kept growing. 

 Undesirable ones should be cut out and used for fuel 

 or other purposes. 



Second, it is not, as a rule, a good plan to pasture 

 the wood lot. Animals injure and destroy young 

 trees by browsing upon them and gnawing their bark. 

 Again, their sharp hoofs injure the roots, and their 

 continuous tramping hardens the soil. 



Third, if grass is allowed to get into the wood lot 

 it starves out the young seedlings or, at least, checks 

 their growth. This is another good reason why the 

 wood lot should never be pastured or seeded to grass. 



Fourth, old trees and dead trees should be carefully 

 removed, the saw-timber saved, the limbs cut into 

 wood, and the brush piled up neatly. As a rule, it 

 is not a good plan to burn the brush. Many young 

 trees are killed in this way. 



Fifth, when bare spots appear in the wood lot, young 

 trees should be encouraged to grow there, either by 

 planting seeds or young trees. Seedlings should be 



