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CHAPTER I. 



TENDING OF WOODS DURING EARLY YOUTH. 



Young woods require special protection against external 

 dangers until they can shift for themselves ; they must l)e 

 kept clean, and a proper density or composition of the crop 

 preserved. iVccordingly the subject will be divided into four 

 parts. 



1. Protection tujaiiDit Kxtenial Ifaiuicrs. 



The details of this subject will be found under Forest 



Protection. For the present pur])oso the following notes will 



suffice. 



a. Fire. 



Although woods require protection against lire at all i)eriods 

 of their life, it is specially necessary during early youth. 

 Protection is atiorded by removing all intiammable matter, or 

 clearing lire traces around the area and at suitable intervals 

 in the interior. 



In addition, the area must be watched, so that any tires 

 which occur may be promptly extinguished. 



l>. Fras/ (ind Ih-aiijlhl. 

 \\here regeneration takes place, whether naturally or 

 artificially, under a shelter-wood, the latter provides the 

 necessary protection against frost and drought, or, at any 

 rate, insures a considerable reduction of the danger in either 

 case. In cultivating cleared areas, shelter for tender species 

 must be artificially provided by growing simultaneously, or 

 beforehand, a special shelter-wood, or nurses. The trees 

 selected for this purpose must be frost-hardy and possess a 

 thin, or moderately dense crown. The best nurses in tem- 

 perate Europe are birch. Scotch pine, and larch. Where 



