70 THE HUMAN SIDE OF TREES 



Japanese plums. He also created a plum which 

 tastes like a pear. A certain group of chestnut 

 trees under his training learned to bear fruit at 

 the age of eighteen months. He has improved the 

 quality of many apples. 



When man educates the trees in great natural 

 groups we call it forestry. It is in reality a great 

 tree university. In one sense man is conserving 

 the woodlands for his own use and purposes, but at 

 the same time he is a servant of the trees and is 

 aiding them to reach their own highest develop- 

 ment. He sees that the young trees have adequate 

 air and light. He protects them against fire and 

 even risks his own life to save them. When suf- 

 ficiently progressive and enlightened, he removes 

 such trees as he requires for his own use in a sane 

 and scientific way. Instead of cutting down whole 

 tracts and even wantonly burning over the denuded 

 areas, he thins only those trees which have reached 

 marketable age. This is called selective cutting 

 and man soon finds that it pays him in hard cash 

 to give the trees a square deal. The rule is to cut 

 each year in a given area only a number of feet 

 equal to the estimated annual growth. Instead of 

 using up the forests and subjecting the country to 

 all kinds of calamities, this maintains the wood- 

 lands as an undiminished capital from which timber 



