294 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Verily, as Wilson Flagg says, " man is only a half reason- 

 ing animal ; the blood of the ape still courses through his 

 veins." 



Other introductions of insects and plants occur. The 

 Russian thistle is imported, and sweeps over our western 

 prairies, adding to the farmer's "crown of thorns." Intro- 

 duced grain insects destroy the crops. Moths and scales 

 carelessly imported injure and destroy the trees. 



Let man, then, study the natural conditions of field and 

 forest, abandon all attempts to improve upon nature by 

 introducing new forms of animal or vegetable life, and devote 

 his misplaced energies to protecting those native birds and 

 animals which are the naturally constituted guardians of 

 vegetation. This is the first great lesson to learn from 

 nature's forestry. 



Now for minor details. From nature's planting we may 

 learn the depth to which the seed should be buried, and that, 

 when a wood lot is cut off, some trees should be left to shade 

 the young plants. We may learn that young oaks grow best 

 on pine ground and when shaded by a few pines ; that timber 

 trees grow best and straightest when they are planted thickly, 

 so that the tops, continually reaching for the light, build up 

 a tall, straight trunk. We may observe how the lower limbs 

 of the pine die and fall off, so that the wood-rings of later 

 years will form clear timber, free from knots. We may 

 anticipate nature's pruning here by trimming off the lower 

 branches of young pines, continuing this process year by 

 year as the trunk grows upward, so that in thirty or forty 

 years we may grow from the seed good, clear white pine 

 timber, free from black knots. We can remove sprout 

 growth, leaving seedling trees, getting cord wood first and 

 good timber later. We can anticipate nature again by 

 cutting the weaker trees ere they begin to decay, and by 

 rational forest management we can secure an annual product 

 from the wood without sacrificing it as a whole. We can 

 protect the birds w T ho, living in the woods, will help to keep 

 down the insects, not only there but in the near-by field, 

 orchard or garden. 



Meanwhile, study nature's methods. Her book is always 

 open, and " he who runs may read." 



