FOREST PROTECTION. 139 



where the range is large and not fully stocked, the injury 

 is much less than where the range is crowded. This 

 combination of forest and pasture has led to the use of 

 several methods of protecting young seedlings against 

 cattle, among the first of which might be mentioned 

 the planting of seedling conifers between the buttresses 

 of old stumps, where it would be very unlikely that the 

 cattle would step on them. It is also practised to pro- 

 tect the seedlings by driving two strong stakes in the 

 ground near them, and occasionally, over a considerable 

 acreage, the cattle and deer may be fenced out until 

 the trees are so large that they will not injure them. 

 Under some conditions, the eating off of the leaves from 

 the sides of the trunk of saplings would prove a desirable 

 pruning. It is very certain that while forests and pas- 

 tures cannot often be very well combined together, yet 

 it is possible to combine them under some conditions. 

 It is quite common to see the new growth of spruce and 

 fir in European forests protected from the browsing of 

 deer by covering the tips of the young shoots with a 

 little coal tar or common cotton batting. The cotton 

 batting seems to be very disagreeable to the deer, and 

 to afford about as good protection as the coal tar. It 

 is, however, rather more difficult to put on. 



Severe Winters. These may injure many kinds of 

 young seedlings, which when two or three years old will 

 be perfectly hardy. Seedlings of such kinds should be 

 dug at the end of the first season's growth and be 

 heeled-in over winter, or protected where they grow by 

 a mulch or earth covering in winter. 



Alternate Freezing and Thawing. Seedlings are often 

 thrown out of the ground by alternate freezing and thaw- 

 ing, and in this way have their roots broken. This is 

 most likely to happen where the ground is bare ; if covered 

 with leaves or grass, or shaded in other ways, this seldom 



