The Woodlot that Pays 



typical woodlot problems. These results will be published in 

 bulletins. Failures will teach no less than successes. The response 

 to the government offer has been most gratifying. As fast as 

 the Bureau of Forestry is able to get to them the applications 

 have been taken up. From woodlots to state forests, the plans 

 include tracts of widely divergent types and sizes. They prom- 

 ise to help to tide over the expensive experimental stage of a 

 vast national forest policy. 



Bulletin 42 of the Bureau of Forestry, 1903, is "A Handbook 

 for Owners of Woodlands in Southern New England." It is full 

 of practical, every-day advice for practical, every-day men. It 

 is based on extensive investigations in this region. It urges that 

 the following steps be taken: 



I. Thinning in woods not yet mature to improve the con- 

 ditions for growth, and to utilise material, much of which would 

 otherwise be wasted. 



II. Cutting in mature woods in such a way that the succeed^ 

 ing growth will follow quickly, will be composed of good species, 

 and will be dense enough to produce not only trees with clear 

 trunks, but also the greatest possible amount of wood and timber. 



III. Pruning which is only practicable under certain special 

 conditions. 



IV. Protecting forest property against fire and, in some 

 cases, against grazing. 



V. Re-stocking waste land by planting, or sowing. 



These are practices that fit any region and any woodlot. 

 Under them, a forest is returned to health and efficiency of pro- 

 duction, from a state of poverty wherein every cutting harms 

 rather than improves it. 



"The virgin forest" is often understood to be a synonym 

 of the best possible stand of timber. In fact. Nature is a wasteful 

 forester, as all second-growth woods show when left to them- 

 selves. Such a forest as the state of Saxony grows for papei 

 pulp reminds one of a field of grain. The spruces stand, tall 

 and slim and close, and without a weed, bearing at eighty years 

 a tree crop beside which a patch of second-growth trees here would 

 look like volunteer grain come up by chance in a fallow field. 

 Gradually we shall come to imitate the European foresters and 

 demand of our forest lands the highest possible yield and quantity 

 of timber. 



483 



