CHAPTER V. 

 FOREST REGENERATION AND TREATMENT. 



THE timber lands of this country should, as a rule, be 

 managed so as to get the greatest cash returns from them, 

 for that only is practical forestry which has this funda- 

 mental feature always in view. Our virgin forests have 

 contained, and those remaining now contain, a large per- 

 centage of trees past their prime and losing in value each 

 year they stand. Such forest products should be worked 

 up as soon as a good market is found for them. In virgin 

 forests there is no increase, the annual growth being just 

 balanced by the annual decay under normal conditions. 



The Cultivation of Trees on timber lands in this section 

 has never received much attention, and the only data as to 

 the rate of -increase that we have to follow are what can be 

 obtained from the native forests, and these are for this 

 reason only approximately correct. In European countries 

 and elsewhere it has been proved by long experience that 

 f more timber is grown per acre, and that the growth is much 

 ! more rapid, on land where some attention is given to sys- 

 tematic forestry than on that which is left to itself, and it 

 will seem reasonable to believe this when we consider that 

 much of the energy of trees may be expended in fierce com- 

 petition with neighbors, which may weaken them all and 

 perhaps bring about unhealthy conditions, and that natural 

 forest land is generally unevenly stocked with trees, many 

 of which are rotton or otherwise defective, and often with 

 those that are not the most profitable kinds to grow. In 



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