98 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
ter belts of quick-growing species to check the wind 
until more desirable kinds may gain a foothold, or to 
plant nurse trees to shelter tender species in youth 
from the action of frost, wind, and sun. On steep 
mountain sides or high embankments where the soil 
may slide on the shghtest provocation, it is often 
necessary to fix it by means of wattlework before 
planting. This wattlework serves to hold it in place 
until the trees one plants have rootage enough to 
perform that function. Wattlework consists of sticks 
or twigs twisted together and woven between short 
stakes which have been driven a short distance into 
the soil. Thus a mountain side may be firmly knitted 
together, apparently patched and stitched like an old 
garment. 
The exigencies of each case demand certain pre- 
liminary works upon which the success of the forest 
depends. When the forest is once established, no 
further work of this kind is necessary. 
Suppose we are employed to reforest a territory 
in the bad lands of Mississippi or Alabama where, 
owing to deforestation, the clay soil has been cut by 
erosion into many gullies. It would be expensive 
and useless to fill these hollows with earth, but by 
building brush dams at frequent intervals across the 
gully, much can be accomplished. The brush dam 
can be held in place by stones or by poles firmly 
