66 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



growth started under seed trees in the period of about 

 ten or fifteen years, which makes this new crop of trees 

 covering our ten-acre lot near enough of an age to be 

 treated ahke and harvested together, producing a stand of 

 uniform age. Some twenty or thirty years later the stand 

 is thinned for the first time. 



Where the forest consists of a mixture of oak, ash, elm, 

 maple, etc., the method is about the same, only the seed 

 trees are fewer, representing only about half or less of the 

 original stand. Moreover, it is well in these mixed stands 

 to give the 3'oung plants more hglit and remove the last 

 of the seed trees earlier, since the young plants need more 

 light and care less for protection. 



In pine, only about twenty-five to thirty per cent of the 

 trees need to be left for seed trees. Some men leave only 

 about a dozen trees per acre. The seed trees should be 

 removed when the young plants are two 3'ears old, since 

 the young pine does not tolerate much shade. 



All kinds of trees can be reproduced in this way, but 

 the success varies considerably with different kinds and in 

 diiferent localities. In Europe, where this method has 

 been tried a long time, it is commonly used for beech and 

 balsam, less often for spruce, seldom for pine and oak. 



In our own country, where land is cheap and labor dear, 

 this method will give good results in all our large pineries. 

 East and West, in the spruce forests of the eastern states 

 and Canada, and in the majority of our hardwood forests. 



