FARM FORESTRY 249 



roadsides, and stream banks, should be covered with growing 

 trees, for these places could not be used more profitably in 

 any other way. 



Planting the wood lot. The seedlings of such trees as 

 catalpa, black locust, walnut, ash, and poplar may be pur- 

 chased for small sums, and an acre, of land will support from 

 500 to 1,000 of these trees. The trees should be planted on 

 land prepared as if for a corn crop, and set from six to 

 eight feet apart each way. The young trees should be culti- 

 vated for the first four or five years, or until the crowns touch 

 and the canopy entirely shades the ground. In a compara- 

 tively short time the young forest will be full of promise, 

 even within the lifetime of one generation. 



If the farmer already has a wood lot, so much the better. 

 His scientific forestry then will consist in cleaning out worth- 

 less, dead, misshapen, or crowded trees, and giving all valu- 

 able species every advantage of root and crown space. If 

 fire is kept out and the grass is shaded down, the forest will 

 naturally regenerate itself, and the farmer may use the ma- 

 ture trees and the-thinnings from his wood lot without impair- 

 ing the permanency of his forest. 



The wood lot a source of supply. A good timber lot is 

 one of the best crops a farmer can raise, anjl will yield good 

 interest on the money invested. Such supplies as farm 

 building frames, shingles, fence posts, telephone poles, fuel, 

 taken from the farmer's wood lot, mean a considerable sav- 

 ing in expenditures when these necessities would otherwise 

 have to be purchased. 



