16 IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 



Such work is termed Improvement Cutting. Thus by 

 selective and improvement cutting man can prevent the 

 waste of time Nature indulges in and thereby increase the 

 productiveness of the forest. That is about all that can be 

 done along this line with virgin forests, but it should be 

 rigidly carried out if conditions do not indicate that the 

 whole stand should be removed and a new forest planted, 

 a point which will be discussed later on. But no treatment 

 of virgin forests can be depended upon to increase ma- 

 terially the area of productive forests, and that is what is 

 absolutely necessary in this country. 



All will agree that land suitable for agriculture should 

 be reserved for that purpose ; but it is equally true that 

 land not so suited, and which has once borne a crop of 

 trees, can and should once more be devoted to that use ; 

 and there is a large area of that kind of land in this coun- 

 try. Eeclothing such land with trees is called Reforesta- 

 tion. It embraces replacing trees that have been removed 

 from a forest for any cause ; and, likewise, contemplates 

 sowing seed or planting young trees in a forest, whether 

 virgin or second-growth, where too few exist for profit ; or 

 where those standing are of undesirable species; and it 

 also includes a complete restoration of tree-growth by sow- 

 ing or planting seeds or trees on any barren land where 

 trees once grew, or can be made to grow. When depend- 

 ence is placed on Nature to sow the seed for renewal the 

 system is known as Natural Reforestation; and when 

 man aids by removing a portion of the trees, so that Na- 

 ture may sow seed where it will have a chance to grow, or 

 he himself sows the seed or plants the trees, the scheme is 

 very properly called Artificial Reforestation. 



It will thus be seen that there are substantially two 

 methods of reforestation ; one by natural processes alone, 

 and the other largely, or entirely, through the instrument- 

 ality of man. The former is the one by which Nature 

 brought forth the virgin forests and by which she would 

 perpetuate them if allowed to do so. She grows and ripens 



