RAISING OR KEEPING UP THE FOREST 45 



uses them, one who sows as well as harvests. He is a for- 

 ester, and his work in the woods is forestry. Since his 

 forest is small, the work is simpler, and it will be a good 

 opportunity to learn how he cares for the woods ; for 

 trees start and grow in just the same way, whether in 

 small or large forests. 



Coppice Woods 



Here is a piece of wildwoods in one of the picturesque 

 valleys of northern New Jersey. The soil is loam, very 

 rocky, and with too many large rocks on top of the groimd 

 to encourage its use for plowland. The woods, mostly 

 chestnut and oak, appear rather scrubby, and we miss the 

 large stately trees of the virgin forest ; there appear to be 

 no old trees, and nearly all trees seem to be in clusters 

 about old and much disfigured stumps. Evidently they 

 started as sprouts — but here comes a native who can tell 

 us more about this : 



" Yes, this is an old settled district, and the old woods 

 were cut down more tlian a century ago. Since then 

 these woods were cut over several times. Formerly, 

 when firewood was much in demand for iron furnaces, 

 the woods were cut over about every twenty years, but of 

 late we leave the trees to grow larger, so that they make 

 good railroad ties and telegraph poles, besides fii'ewood, 

 and this requires tliat they be at least thirty-li\'e or forty 



