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deal of oiu- ciittiiii; is done carelessly. Too liigii a stiniip is left, 

 so tluit, Avlieii the si)i'out ooiues out, it is liable to be broken otl" by 

 wind; whereas, if tlie stump liad been cut low, even though it re- 

 quired a little more bending of the baclc, the sprout would be 

 able to establish a root system of its own, and there is tlien al- 

 most no limit whatever to the life of the mother stump.- If a 

 liigh stump is left and the sprout comes up six, eiglit, or ten 

 inclies from the ground or furtlier, we cannot expect anytlung 

 else tlian tlie gradual dying out of the mother stump; lience a 

 great (h'nl can be (huie in })roperly cutting the cliestnut which 

 w<' wanl to reproduce by sprouts. Another cause for unsatis- 

 laclory r«'sulls from r('i)r(»ducti<)n l)y sprouts, and |m'I Imps a jus- 

 tiliabh' one, in view of present markets, is tlie leaving of old mis- 

 i'ormed trees and forest weeds. These low-growing, Iialf-trees 

 are usually very tolerant and shade the sprouting stump in a 

 way that prevents vigorous growth. A certain amount of shade 

 is desirable, but, as a rule, in our wood lots the owner, or the 

 contracting cutter, does not ])ay much attention to these weeds 

 and leaves them. Tliej take advantage of the space and so shade 

 the ground or the sprouting stumps that the sprouts are not vig- 

 orous. One or two cleanings to remove these undesirable trees 

 would make the competition for space and light much less severe 

 and no doubt would result in better formed chestnut and oak, 

 and the chestnut, because healthier, Avould be better al)le to re- 

 sist both insects and fungi. These cleanings can be made as re- 

 peated cuttings on an exceedingly short rotation, even though 

 the pi-oduct Avill be of value for posts and mine props only. If, 

 instead of this weeding out, so to speak, of blight-infested trees, 

 here and there, we might induce the owners to use a definite sys- 

 tem of culling, 1 believe we would be accom|)lisliing more ])er- 

 nianeid results. If instead of this destruction of scattered in- 

 fested trees, which may be and probably is effective in the south- 

 eastern i>art of the State, on small tracts, if, in the place of this 

 weeding out i)rocess, I say, we could iiMJiice tlie o\viiei-s to use 

 some such system as clear-cutting and plaid lug with iion-siis- 

 ce]»lible trees, or cutting so as to kee]) the forest reproducing 

 rapidly by si)routs, I believe we wouM accomplish very much 

 more for forestry in I*ennsylvania. If we could in some way 

 bring about such market conditions as to justify clear-cutting 



