288 THE FOKESTS OF ALLEGANY COUNTY 



ture and the fullest production of timber. If woodland affords good 

 grass pasture it is proof that the ground is not fully stocked with 

 trees; and if trees are wanting in grassy places, most likely it is be- 

 cause the incoming seedlings have been trampled down from season 

 to season by grazing cattle and so crowded out by the hardier grasses. 

 A properly stocked forest managed for short rotations of small tim- 

 ber, such as mining props, ties, etc., should afford no forage for stock. 

 Grazing should be relegated to cleared lands or to brush and wood- 

 lands intended only for grazing. 



REGULATION OF INDISCRIMINATE CUTTING. 



The injuries resulting from indiscriminate cutting are: removing 

 needed seed trees of the most useful species, the leaving of old trees 

 which are suppressing valuable young growth, and neglecting to lop 

 waste tops and trunks which otherwise fail to rot and supply fuel for 

 fire. 



Timber-cutting in the past has not left a sufficient number of seed 

 trees of the valuable species. The loss of a proper number of seed 

 trees is a disadvantage to the forest in depriving it of immediate 

 means of reproducing the kinds thus taken out. The return of 

 species from distant sources is slow and involves a loss of valuable 

 time. Care should be taken, therefore, in marking trees to be cut 

 out, that three to four seed trees of all the original useful timber 

 species of a locality be left evenly distributed on every acre. 



The timely removal of old trees which are suppressing and dam- 

 aging young timber is urgent. The need of such discriminative 

 cutting is very apparent in the forests of this county. As an example 

 of this need may be mentioned the suppression caused by a single 

 large White Oak standing on the lower east slope of Warrior Moun- 

 tain. Eight large sapling White Pines, four White Oaks, two Hick- 

 ories, two Walnuts, and one Shortleaf Pine were all entirely over- 

 topped by the heavy crown of the old White Oak, and were becoming 

 stunted and twisted in their efforts to reach the needed light. The 

 removal of the White Oak would have allowed these saplings to 

 advance. Failure to relieve them at the proper time has already pre- 



