112 AGRICULTURE. 



He should at least observe the following rules : 



1. Fire should be carefully kept out of the wood-lot, 

 for it has in no way a beneficial effect. It kills not only the 

 undergrowth, which is desirable because it helps to shade 

 the soil, and injures, if it does not kill, the young tree 

 growth, which is to take the place of the older growth, but 

 the worst effect is that it consumes the vegetable mould 

 which has accumulated by the fall and decay of leaves, 

 twigs, and other vegetation, and which forms the manure, 

 the fertility, of the soil. Fire is to be used only when 

 through bad management or otherwise a dense undesirable 

 undergrowth has come in, which it is too expensive to re- 

 move in other ways when the time for natural reproduction 

 has come or planting is to be done. It must then be used 

 with caution in early spring or late fall, before the brush is 

 too dry, when the fire will smoulder rather than burn 

 fiercely and can be kept within bounds. 



2. Cattle must be kept out where young forest growth is 

 to be fostered. Sheep and goats especially are of no benefit 

 to wood-crops, but horses and cattle may be allowed to 

 browse through the wood-lot where the young growth has 

 passed out of their reach. Pigs are a benefit by working 

 over the ground and thereby burying seeds, especially 

 acorns ; but after the seed is so brought under ground 

 where a young crop is expected to be reared next year they 

 must be kept out. Altogether, the cattle and farm animals 

 should be kept where you want them, and not where you 

 do not want them. Sometimes, however, the roaming of 

 cattle may be beneficial by keeping down too dense im- 

 penetrable underbrush in young sapling growth. 



It is better to so cut and manage the old timber that a 

 desirable new growth will spring up than to cut clean and 

 replant. Planting should be done only where there is no 

 desirable natural tree giowth. Hence where there is a well- 

 established wood-lot, the whole management of the crop 

 consists in proper cutting. 



How this is best done cannot be described readily within 

 the short space of this article, but every farmer who is 

 interested in learning the principles of using the axe to 



