THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE WOODLOT 117 



Quantity to cut. When timber is ripe, the harvesting may be done by 

 taking a few trees here and there, or by clear cutting part or all of the 

 woodlot. But when making an improvement cutting, the object of which 

 is to help the growing timber, the number of trees removed should not be 

 great. It is impossible to give definite rules as to how much can be cut 

 safely; this is entirely a matter of judgment. The following sugges- 

 tions may be helpful, however. They apply to improvement cuttings, 

 not to the harvesting of ripe timber : 



1. Do not give a young tree so much room that the lower part of its 

 trunk will not be cleaned of branches. There is no danger that new 

 branches will start out on those parts of the trunk that have been well 

 cleaned of limbs. 



2. Even after the tree is well cleaned, do not give it so much room that 

 it develops a wide-spreading top instead of a compact one. 



3. Do not make an opening so large that it will not be filled by the 

 surrounding crowns in a few years, otherwise the soil may run wild. 



4. Since an opening should not be very large, it is a good plan not to 

 cut two trees whose crowns adjoin unless there is a special reason for 

 doing so. 



5. Do not thin so severely that on a clear day you will see more than 

 one third of the ground with the bright sunlight reaching it ; this sunlight 

 should be in small patches here and there. 



It is perhaps well to repeat that these suggestions do not apply when 

 timber is being harvested. 



How often to repeat cutting. The improvement cutting should be 

 repeated as frequently as there seem to be many trees that need to be 

 helped by thinning. It is usually not necessary to do this oftener than 

 once in five years. 



Thinning of sprouts. A special form of thinning is often advisable 

 where sprouts come up thickly from stumps. All sprouts coming from a 

 stump are using a part of the water and food taken up by the roots of the 

 mother stump. By thinning the sprouts the rate of growth of those remain- 

 ing can be greatly increased. No rule can be given as to how many sprouts 

 should be left on each stump; this will depend on how close together the 

 old stumps are, and how vigorous the sprouts seem to be. The aim should 

 be to leave enough trees so that they will shade the ground thoroughly 

 within a few years, and not to make such large openings that the trees will 

 not be cleaned of their lower branches. Usually from one to three sprouts 

 are left on each stump. Such thinning also tends to make the sprouts 

 straighter; if too closely crowded, they are likely to twist into every little 

 opening. The thinning of the sprouts should not be done until they are 

 several years old. If done when they are one or two years old, much of 



