HOW TO CARE FOR YOUR SMALL FOREST 



M. M. BRYAN 



To care for your small forest, know 

 first your goal. 



A good small forest has needles, 

 leaves, twigs, and small branches on 

 the ground, a mat that absorbs water 

 and keeps the soil from washing away. 

 Under the litter is a layer of humus, 

 usually dark-colored and rich looking. 



A good woodland has no damaged 

 and diseased trees. Poorly formed and 

 overripe trees have been cut out, so 

 that good ones have room to grow. 

 Remaining are well-formed trees that 

 are suited to the locality, the soil, and 

 the climate, and that will make high- 

 quality products. 



The forest floor has little sunlight: 

 If all trees are the same age, grass and 

 young trees cannot grow under them 

 because there is no sunlight; in a 

 mixed-age forest, there will be little 

 trees just sprouting, seedlings of vari- 

 ous sizes, and large, mature, or nearly 

 mature, trees. If your forest is in the 

 West or South, it may be more open, 

 and may even have some grass or 

 plants under the trees. 



The good forest has enough good 

 trees, neither too many nor too few. 

 If your goal is to grow Christmas trees, 

 the ground will be covered. If you are 

 a turpentine farmer, a few hundred 

 trees per acre are right. 



No matter what forest product is 

 being grown, the crowns of the trees 

 will be full and healthy; about a third 

 of the total height of each tree will 

 have branches and leaves. If the trees 

 are all about the same age, the canopy 

 will be closed in the form of a ceiling. 

 If the trees are of all ages, there will 

 be no continuous ceiling of foliage. 



Trees close together usually grow 

 tall and straight. They are trying to get 

 light. Lack of sunlight on the lower 

 branches causes them to die and break 

 off. Thus, a healthy tree prunes itself 

 and produces clean and straight logs, 

 without too much difference in size 



between the butt and the top of the 

 last log. 



Wildfire and grazing animals have 

 no place in a good forest. In some 

 western and southern forests, a little 

 grazing is possible. Hogs are kept out. 



Several rules of good management 

 will help you grow good trees. 



1. Make improvement cuttings; re- 

 move the undesirable trees so that the 

 better ones can grow faster. Usually 

 several improvement cuttings are made 

 before the final product is harvested. 



Often the products removed will 

 pay: Fuel wood can be cut from the 

 poorer trees, railroad ties from short, 

 forked trees, and even some sawlogs 

 for home use. The good trees that are 

 left are called the crop trees. 



If each acre is adequately covered 

 or fully stocked with the better hard- 

 wood trees, the forest should grow from 

 J/2 to 1 cord of wood a year on each 

 acre. In the small forest of good pine, 

 growth will average from 1 to 2 cords 

 an acre a year perhaps more in the 

 South, 



2. Thinnings should be made when- 

 ever the tops of the trees become 

 crowded or when many dying branches 

 appear an indication that the trees 

 want more room to grow. Often young 

 seedlings become crowded; when they 

 are thinned, firewood, pulpwood, bean 

 and tobacco poles, and fence posts can 

 be removed. In a few years another 

 thinning can be made to yield mine 

 timbers, small poles, pulpwood, rail- 

 road ties, more fence posts, and a few 

 sawlogs. 



Weed trees should be cut. Blackgum, 

 chokecherry, scrub oak, or other less 

 valuable trees may crowd out better 

 trees. 



Thinning also removes the excess of 

 young trees; often the unwanted small 

 trees can be cut about halfway down 

 and the tops bent over. They continue 

 to live and, by shading the ground, 



