372 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE ADVANTAGES OF A GOOD ROAD. 

 SMALL FORCE GETTING OUT CORDWOOD IN SEPTEMBER IN THE FOREST OF GILLEY, FRANCE. 



why J do so in the forest where the 

 growth of the big trees is the main point ? 

 A tree must have food for its roots and 

 sunlight for its leaves; not one of them, 

 but both. It cannot thrive if every 

 foot of the forest soil is covered with 

 saplings which contest for food with 

 the big trees. The roots of the latter 

 lie as close to the surface as the roots 

 of the sapling. They all must abide 

 where there is the warmth of the sun 

 and air and the microbial growth in 

 the humus to feed the roots. It is a 

 fallacy to suppose that many of the 

 main roots of a tree go far down into 

 the mineral soil in search of food. There 

 are several tap and anchor roots which 

 go down deep for the purpose of with- 

 standing the overturning effect of gales, 

 but the big feeder roots spread right 

 out about two feet or less below the 

 surface, as anyone who has stumped 

 many trees knows. Here they have a 

 network of sapling roots to contend 

 with, and if these latter are taken out, 

 not only is the forest a much more open 

 and pleasant place to walk about in 

 but the big trees have much more room 

 to put out new roots without robbing 

 each other. You do not need saplings 

 until the end of the revolution, when 



you can get them quickly enough by a 

 seeding cut. To clear out saplings and 

 brush is something more of a problem 

 than it looks, for a careless mattock- 

 man is likely to cut off many an im- 

 portant root of a big tree in his efforts 

 to clean up the forest floor. In my own 

 forest a mattock man will grub and 

 clear about 3,500 square feet of forest 

 floor per day, and I found that the best 

 way to insure my big roots not being 

 cut was to take his axe away from him 

 and let him use the mattock hoe alone. 

 This tool has a broad blunt adze edge 

 on one face, and a thin axe blade on the 

 other. The latter is good enough to 

 cut small roots and aid in uprooting 

 bushes, but will glance off a large root. 

 For clearing saplings the best procedure 

 is to cut them out close to the root- 

 collet and then grub up all those that 

 sprout again the following year. 



I know of two adjoining woodlots in 

 the western part of my State, one of 

 which has had the saplings cleared out 

 and the other is still a dense tangle of 

 underbrush ; and there is no comparison 

 in the vigor and value of the trees on 

 the two lots. The one is almost all 

 pure natural white oak, got by judicious 

 thinning out of undesirables which 



