182 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
twigs should not be removed, because they rot and 
enrich the soil. It is the slash and brushwood which 
menace the forest and prevent the hope of its renewal 
on cut-over land. 
Wood has been so abundant that its proper utili- 
zation is just beginning to be considered. The very 
word “ lumber,” as has been already explained, car- 
ries with it the notion of rubbish. 
Ina large part of the Old World sticks are cut 
about a foot in length with an implement not unlike 
a butcher’s cleaver. The sticks are then pinched into 
a bundle called a fagot. These bundles of sticks are 
excellent for starting a fire, and are quite as good as 
the bundles of kindling which are sold in our large 
cities. If it pays to convert good pine and spruce 
wood into kindling, it ought pay to convert sticks 
into fagots. At any rate, there is demand for kin- 
dling. The ordinary refuse of the forest in parts of 
Europe, especially France, is not sufficient to supply 
the demands for fagots. Various systems of lopping 
and pollarding are therefore practised. The tall, 
slender poplars, which are so characteristic of France, 
are divested of all their side branches for the purpose 
of furnishing fagots for fuel. One great objection 
which Europeans have to the American locust is that 
the spines interfere with the preparation of fagots. 
These fagots are in great demand at the bakeries, be- 
