I902. 



FORESTRY AND IRRICxATION. 



125 



doing excellentl}-, in some cases growing 

 2, or even 3 feet in height in a year. 



The above information shows that 

 very poor judgment has been exercised 

 in planting, and that there has been, 

 and apparently is now, an utter lack of 

 appreciation of the value of bringing 

 about actual forest conditions in arti- 

 ficial plantations in this section, though 

 it is occupied by well-informed and in- 

 telligent American farmers. The one 

 primary fact that entirely escapes them 

 (not to mention details of unskillful 

 planting) is the fact that grass and forest 

 trees are antagonistic types of vegeta- 

 tion and cannot be grown with any 

 striking degree of success upon the same 

 piece of ground at the same time. 



Their idea .seems to be that as a com- 



from the thinnings would produce im- 

 mediately at hand the necessary fuel for 

 boiling down the sap, while the above- 

 described orchards will be dependent 

 upon an outside source for fuel for this 

 purpose. 



The effect of grazing is undoubtedly 

 injurious in hardening the surface soil 

 and in causing a more rapid run-off of 

 the water. Still more injurious is the 

 failure of the trees to form at an early 

 age a continuous leaf canopy, which 

 would help to retain the moisture and 

 tend toward the formation of a good 

 layer of humus and the prevention of 

 soil washing. The beneficial effect upon 

 forest growth of retaining the moisture 

 in the soil, even in this region of abun- 

 dant and well-distributed rainfall, is 



THIS VIEW SHOWS BAD EFFECT OF WIDE PI.ANTING IN EXPOSED SITUATION. 



plete stocking is not advantageous in the 

 mature orchard, it is therefore unneces- 

 sary and unwise to plant a much larger 

 number of trees than the}^ wish to have 

 at maturity. This idea is supported by 

 the lesser cost of such planting, as has 

 been described, by the fact that trees 

 with full crowns and plentj^ of space 

 about them are more often ' ' good sap 

 trees, ' ' and also by the necessity of hav- 

 ing considerable room in which to work 

 during sugaring time. The farmers lose 

 sight of the fact that while the young 

 trees are developing into sugar trees 

 that is, trees of about ten inches in 

 diameter, breast high it is better for 

 them to mature under normal forest con- 

 ditions ; also that the wood obtained 



well shown by the fact that in these 

 plantations trees growing in slight hol- 

 lows or in situations locally protected 

 from the wind show better growth than 

 those next to them on slight knolls. In 

 general, for the Hard Maple, as well as 

 for many other species, a proper degree 

 of moisture is more important than a 

 rich soil. 



After seeing the poor condition of 

 these artificially planted trees it was 

 interesting to examine results of some 

 thinnings on small areas of volunteer 

 second-growth maple in the adjoining 

 town of Barnum. The rate of growth 

 on the remaining trees after the thin- 

 nings were made was greatl}^ increased, 

 which shows that labor can be much 



