SYLVICULTURE 



allowed to revert to Pine planted by n. s. r. from adjoining woods. 

 The same system is followed by thousands of farmers in the old 

 country. 



II. Field crops temporarily raised amongst and together with 

 forest crops. 



a. In coppice forests: 



In Germany, the owners of coppice woods, after coppicing, fre- 

 quently burn the debris on the ground, ploughing the soil roughly 

 thereafter and using it for growing small grain or potatoes as long 

 as the fresh stool shoots do not overshadow the farm crops too 

 severely. 



This system allows the farmer to continuously ( although inter- 

 mittently) produce field crops on steep slopes liable to wash, with 

 the help of fertility furnished by the humus and by the activity of 

 the tree roots. 



b. In high forests: 



1. In the early stages of sylviculture, acorns and pine seeds were 

 frequently planted (like red clover) with barley, oats or summer 

 rye. Compare Par. XV for details. 



2. Sir D. Brandis has established in Burmah a system named 

 "toungya" by which seedlings of Teak, planted with rice by native 

 lessees on government reserves, obtain protection from wild animals 

 and fires as well as from the Bamboo threatening to suffocate the 

 seedlings. 



3. A similar system has been practiced since 1810 in the German 

 Rhine valley where splendid polewoods of White Oak have thus 

 been raised: Here in years past the returns from toungya used to 

 more than cover the expense of forest planting and protecting. The 

 field crops shade the Oak slightly and tend to protect it from the 

 effect of late frosts as well as from the attacks of grub worms 

 (Melolonthidae) . 



4. In Western N. C., the expense of clearing the forest for field 

 crops amounts to ten dollars or twenty dollars, according to the 

 density of the growing stock and according to the yield derivable from 

 the sale of timber removed. 



On good forest soil a few years of corn crops are apt to refund 

 the outlay incurred for clearing. 



Thereafter the Pines, the Oaks, the Yellow Poplars and the 

 Ashes of the adjoining woods will quickly produce a superior planta- 

 tion of trees. 



Where the soil is stocked with tree weeds, and where no im- 

 mature trees must be sacrificed, the system can be strongly endorsed. 



174 



