FOREST GUIDES DEPARTMENT 



161 



small group of trees, or a certain number of 

 representative species and learn to know them 

 well, rather than attempt to master all of them 

 and later on find that you have acquired only a 

 superficial smattering of most of them and know 

 none real intimately. 



PLANTING TREES 



"Every Forest Guide should be a tree planter. 

 It is a helpful and wholesome kind of work. In 

 order that each Guide may know some of the 

 good points of tree planting, a list of the benefits 

 which may be derived therefrom follows : 



i. Planted trees will help supply the constantly 

 growing demand for wood. They are a credit to us 

 who set them out, and will be a blessing to future 

 generations. Cheap wood is gone forever in Penn- 

 sylvania. 



2. Planted trees afford excellent protection to our 

 water supplies and prevent erosion on steep slopes. 



3. Planted trees beautify and protect homes and 

 make our landscape cheerful. 



4. Planted trees utilize the energies of nature 

 which might otherwise be wasted. 



5. Planted trees beautify and improve highways, 

 waterways, and byways. 



6. Tree planting will make worthless land pro- 

 ductive and yield useful forest crops. 



7. Tree planting will help fill up the storehouse 

 of needed wealth. 



8. The planted forests of France helped win 

 the war. 



"There is great need for forest tree planting. 

 It is not hard to find places upon which trees 

 should be planted. Bare hillsides and poorly 

 stocked mountain land is common, idle corners 

 are present everywhere, and eroding slopes and 

 gullies are doing enormous damage in every 

 community. 



OTHER THINGS TO DO 



"Stopping of forest fires will do much tc re- 

 build our devastated forests, but there are other 

 things which must also be done in order to place 

 them in a satisfactory condition. These impor- 

 tant tasks should go hand in hand with or fol- 

 low right after protection. Some of these es- 

 sential things are: 



1. Securing a new growth of valuable trees as 

 quickly a >le on every acre of devastated land 

 within the State. We cannot afford to leave so many 

 acres of mountain land remain idle. It does not pay 

 to delay. Right now is the time to see to it that all 

 unproductive areas of forest land are so stocked with 

 trees that they will begin to produce a valuable for- 

 est crop. 



2. Another thing to do is to give preference to 

 the important forest trees and eliminate as rapidly 

 as possible the undesirable kinds. Nature does not 

 show any preference for the important timber trees 

 in the early stage of reforestation. As a rule, many 



different kind of trees come up after fires and lumber- 

 ing operations, and in the struggle for an existence 

 the inferior ones often win out. If the job of re- 

 stocking our forest land is left to nature entirely a 

 great deal of ground will be occupied by worthless 

 trees. It is our business, therefore, to learn to know 

 the best trees, and then help them overcome inferior 

 ones such as scrub oak, fire cherry, trembling aspen, 

 sumachs and other similar weed trees. While in 

 camp the Forest Guides should show their apprecia- 

 tion to the land owner by helping him improve the 

 composition of his forest by cutting out the inferior 

 trees and thus help those of better quality. 



3. A third thing which is essential to rebuilding 

 our forests properly is the removal from the forests 

 of all trees of poor quality and undesirable form, 

 as well as all dead, dying and damaged specimens. 

 In almost every forest there are wolf trees, that is, 

 trees which are unattractive, have a wide-spreading 

 crown, and a twisted and hollow trunk. Such trees 

 grow very little in size and are continuously decreas- 

 ing in value. They should be removed from the 

 forests for they possess no future promise, and are 

 suppressing and even killing many young and thrifty 

 trees beneath them. Their days of usefulness and 

 service are past, and the way should be opened up for 

 a younger generation of trees by removing their 

 suppressors. 



Forest Guides should make it a rule to use for 

 camping and other essential purposes only such 

 material as will help improve the forests, and thus 

 assist in rebuilding them and making them even more 

 productive and more valuable than the original 

 forests. 



4. Another important thing to do is to stock 

 completely all forest land so that it will begin pro- 

 ducing forest products of value. Our forests are 

 now full of gaps and openings in which nothing of 

 value is now being produced. Many of these areas 

 are small in size, while some of them cover large 

 areas. The loss from a single blank area may not be 

 great, but when all of them are added together, the 

 loss is enormous. 



"Let us give nature a chance to establish for- 

 ests of baby trees on all these areas, but if she 

 does not succeed, the thing to do is to go out 

 upon these barren areas and plant upon them 

 selected trees, which are well-known, sure to 

 grow, and will produce a valuable crop of tim- 

 ber. We must not compete with nature or try 

 to outdo her in places where she is doing good 

 work, but our aim should be to fill in all fail 

 places. The Forest Guides can be of great ser- 

 vice in this work for there is a big tree planting 

 job before all of us. It will be a creditable piece 

 of work for the young and brave men of every 

 State to go out among the hills and start to re- 

 clothe them with the best kind of trees which 

 tre now available." 



