MASSACHUSETTS WOODLANDS. 13 



In old, abandoned pastures we often see young pines coming up 

 underneath a stand of gray birches. While the pine seedlings are 

 very young, let us say not more than four or five years old, the 

 birches protect them from the hot sun and wind, and act in the 

 role of nurse trees. But as the pines increase in size, they need 

 the sunlight; and, further, the branches of the birches, as they 

 sway in the wind, cut the tender leading shoot of the pine, killing 

 it and causing the tree to be stunted and crooked. In such cases 

 the birches should be removed; but if they are too small to make 

 cord wood, or if the young pines are scattered, it is only necessary 

 to remove the trees immediately surrounding the pines. If done 

 in this manner, one man can easily cover an acre or two a day. 



If diseased or decaying trees are removed from a stand with 

 no special reference to the principles of thinning, the operation is 

 an improvement cutting, and not a thinning. 



THINNINGS IN GYPSY MOTH WORK. 



Nowhere are thinnings more useful than in woodland infested 

 with the gypsy moth. The cost of the work against this pest, may 

 it be spraying, burlapping, or creosoting egg clusters, is in a large 

 measure proportional with the number of trees to be treated. One 

 of the first methods used in the work against the gypsy moth in 

 woodlands is to remove the underbrush, and in that way reduce the 

 material to be worked on as much as possible; and it is extremely 

 beneficial, as well as advisable, at the same time to carry on a 

 scientific thinning, and remove from the woods all the trees which 

 will not compose the final stand. 



A thinning made in preparation for the work against the gypsy 

 moth should be of the heaviest nature possible, consistent with a 

 fair protection to the soil. 



A change is also necessary in the preference of species, the gypsy 

 moth being especially fond of oaks; and it is also hard to detect 

 the egg clusters on white oaks, so that as far as possible they should 

 be removed from the final stand. The gypsy moth caterpillars do 

 not seem to be as fond of hickory, walnut, ash, chestnut or swamp 

 maple as they are of most of the other species of deciduous growths. 

 From experiments which have been carried on in a very thorough 

 manner, it has been proven that the small gypsy moth caterpillar 

 cannot feed upon the conifers; and where thinning operations are 

 being carried on, and a mixed growth must be taken into considera- 

 tion, it is advisable to separate the conifers from the deciduous 

 growth, thus giving an opportunity to use tanglefoot and protect 



