FORESTRY ON THE COUNTRY ESTATE 



WHITE PINE AND RED SPRUCE ON THE LAKE ISLANDS. 



fast, for on these high dry ridges, grow- 

 ing in company with the sugar maples, 

 the red maple puts on the most amazing 

 solid dark reds imaginable in the fall, 

 and it is sure to be a landscape feature. 

 Better take these two spindly sugar 

 maples instead. Again : suppose you 

 find a few ash trees in the woodlot. 

 Why are there not more of them, and 

 will it be safe to take any of them with- 

 out risking their total disappearance? 



You will observe that a knowledge of 

 the tree species is one of the essentials 

 for the practice of intelligent woodlot 

 forestry ; not merely their identification 

 characteristics but what each species is 

 valuable for commercially and aesthet- 

 ically, what soils is prefers, how much 

 moisture it needs. 



There are not very many species grown 

 by nature in any one forest. I once 

 made for my good friend, Prof. Hickel, 

 of Versailles, France, a collection of 

 American tree seeds from the forest of 

 Interlaken, where I live. There were 

 thirty-two species represented, not such 

 a very great number to become ac- 

 quainted with if you are going to make 

 something of your woodlot, for these 

 are the materials with which you must 

 work. You should know the five pines, 

 four spruces, seven oaks, four maples, 

 four hickories, four birches, ten miscel- 

 laneous hardwoods and five miscel- 

 laneous conifers that constitute the bulk 

 of any forest population. The species 



shift as you go East or West, North or 

 South ; some drop out and new ones 

 come in, but the total number of species 

 represented in your particular woodlot 

 will remain about the same ; in all some 

 forty-five tree species. Some of these 

 prefer swampy soils, others the borders 

 of streams, still others rich moist bot- 

 tom lands or high dry ridges. Some will 

 be valuable to you for timber and fire- 

 wood, others for their special uses in 

 the arts, some will be fit for neither but 

 will be most valuable to you because 

 of their beauty and their wonderful 

 autumn colorations. 



You should familiarize yourself with 

 the identification characteristics of these 

 tree species from some good tree book, 

 such as Romeyn B. Hough's ''Trees of 

 North America," or Julia E. Rodgers' 

 "Book of the Trees." It is pleasant study 

 in itself and surely a knowledge that 

 you should have in mind before attempt- 

 ing to put into practice the suggestions 

 in these articles. I give you in addition 

 a working table of the forty-five species 

 representative of woodlot conditions in 

 the Middle Atlantic States, showing in 

 condensed form their natural climatic 

 limits, preferred soils, sunlight require- 

 ments, size and value of timber, dates 

 of leafage, flowering, seed ripening, and 

 autumn colorations. With a few sub- 

 stitutions the table will answer as far 

 West as the Mississippi River. The 

 dates are based on observations during 



