SYLVICULTURE. 



to forty years Avill yield vineyard stakes, hop poles, telephone) poles, 

 posts, rails, ties and wood for the extraction of tannic acid; a rota- 

 tion of five years is said to be used for the production of hoop poles 

 for barrel hoops. 



The European complaint does not seem warranted in America 

 that rotations exceeding twenty years invite a disease known as 

 " heart-rot." 



In Alsace-Lorraine, thinnings take place in the tenth year; the 

 cut is made in early winter, and the stumps are sometimes pro- 

 tected from the influence of frost by heaps of brush. In the Appa- 

 lachians, such precautions are not called for. It is unnecessary, it 

 not unwise, to reduce the number of sprouts starting from one 

 stump artificially. Spring cutting and high stumps are objec- 

 tionable. 



On dry and impoverished soil, or under the regime of fires, 

 Cnestnut coppice is hopelessly lost. 



F. Cottonwood: 



Coppice forest of Cottonwood produces match stock and pulp- 

 wood. The stumps have little vitality and will not endure more 

 than four rotations of twenty years each. Very low stumps are re- 

 quired to insure healthy sprouts and to encourage the production of 

 rootsuckers. The growth is very fast in the first years. 



G. Willows (Osier-culture) : 



Osier culture is considered a money maker in Germany where 

 labor is cheap. It is now in vogue in New York and in New Jersey. 

 The best species are Salix viminalis, Salix amygdalina, SaHx pur- 

 purea, Salix acutifolia (caspica). The rotation comprises one or 

 two years. With the exception of Salix caspica, a moist soil is re- 

 quired (meadow land in river bottoms) by the willows. 



The stumps do not yield a return for more than twelve to six- 

 teen years. 



For the formation of an Osier grove, shoots two feet long are 

 used, of which about 80.000 are put in per acre. It is stated that 

 the more shoots there are per acre, the better is the quality of the 

 Willow, as branchy stuff cannot be used for basket making. 



Cultivation between the rows is said to be very advisable or 

 even necessary, especially in the first year. There are many insects 

 feeding on the leaves and many fungi besetting the leaves of the 

 Willows. 



A one-year rotation is best. After three or four years, however, 

 a two-years' rotation frequently intervenes, so as to allow the root 

 to develop unhampered. The shoots two years old are used for the 

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