434 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



September 



fortunate for the trees to stand too far 

 apart than too close together. What is 

 wanted is a healthy stand of the most 

 valuable kind of timber, and for that we 

 must have tall, straight trees, with trunk 

 clear of branches far above the ground. 

 They must have room enough, but not 

 too much room. I make this point 

 strongly, because I find in dealing with 

 men on the ground that their first idea, 

 as a rule, is to thin out, and generally 

 to thin out far too strongl) r . In that 

 way danger lies. Give your trees suffi- 

 cient growing space, but be careful not 

 to give them too much. If you admit 

 too much light to the ground, so that it 

 dries out and the grass starts, it becomes 

 difficult for the young seedlings to gain 

 a footing. You must keep the soil 

 moist and loose and in condition for a 

 good seed bed, and to that end keep the 

 forest dense. 



There are two kinds of cutting which 

 the farmer is called upon to do. The 

 first, of which I have already spoken, 

 is thinning in order to give the trees 

 which form the future crop the best 

 chance for satisfactory growth. In my 

 experience, it has been a most useful 

 rule, as it is a very safe one, to ask 

 yourself this question : What are the 

 trees that are to form the future crop 

 in this forest ? In very many cases you 

 will find yourself led in this way to take 

 out old trees of large size which other- 

 wise would seem naturally indicated to 

 remain, because after considering you 

 find that the majority of the crop is 

 composed of younger trees. If the old 

 trees were permitted to stand, they 

 would inevitably shade out the younger 

 ones beneath them, and you would have 

 a lot of slim poles growing up between 

 old useless trees with spreading crowns. 

 The Germans call these overbearing 

 trees ' ' wolves ' ' in their forest termi- 

 nology, because they bear down and de- 

 stroy the little ones. They shut out 

 from the light the young trees which 

 would otherwise come out and in due 

 time make valuable timber. This, to 

 my mind, is a point of very great im- 

 portance. 



When you come to the second kind of 

 cutting, which if the final cutting, when 

 you take out the old trees under which 



there is young growth, or where you 

 expect young growth will shortly be, 

 you will find many different methods 

 open to your choice. The one essential 

 thing to remember is that your object in 

 taking out the old trees must be not only 

 to harvest them, but to get a young 

 crop. Just as soon as that conception 

 is born among the farmers and lumber- 

 men of this country, the forests will be 

 safe, but until that time there can be no 

 assurance of safety. That is the kernel 

 of the whole business : you must provide 

 for a second crop. 



You will have noticed, in talking with 

 farmers on the ground and with the 

 managers of your own farms, that young 

 trees less than 10 or 12 feet in height 

 apparently do not exist for them. I 

 have had lumbermen tell me over and 

 over again that certain trees, as, for ex- 

 pie, Yellow Poplar, never reproduce 

 themselves. I have taken the men who 

 made these statements into the forest, 

 and have shown them quantities of 

 3 r oung growth of the trees which they 

 say never reproduce themselves. The 

 lack is not of young trees, but of the 

 habit of taking them into account. A 

 young tree of three or four years' growth 

 may be as important for the future of the 

 forest as one 20 feet high. Therefore, 

 in cutting out the old trees, save every 

 little seedling that you possibly can, and 

 throw the old timber in such a way as 

 to break down as little as possible of the 

 young growth. Every sound tree can 

 be thrown at least three ways, and the 

 chopper soon gets into the habit of tak- 

 ing damage to young growth into ac- 

 count when he gets ready to fell the 

 tree. It is astonishing how difficult it 

 is to get men to take slight precautions 

 at the beginning, and yet how easily 

 they fall into the practice of them after 

 a little. 



I am reminded in that connection of 

 the experience of the Bureau of Forestry 

 with an important timber tract in the 

 Adirondacks belonging to a member of 

 this club. After careful study on the 

 ground, the Bureau laid down certain 

 rules for the cutting of Spruce. These 

 rules were discussed and revised with the 

 owner and the lumberman, and with the 

 jobbers who were to do the work. Be- 



