40 IMPORTANT TIMBER TREES 



healthy plants or plant seeds. There would probably be 

 some places where the fire would not kill all, or, if killed, 

 all would not be consumed. In that case the axe must be 

 used and the brush be piled and burned. As there may be 

 adjacent territory that cannot be burned at this time, there 

 will, no doubt, again be seeds of worthless species scattered 

 on the tract planted ; but if the plants set out are vigorous 

 and of good size, they will be able to hold their own in 

 most cases. If not, and they are likely to be suppressed by 

 the fast-growing intruders, then the intruders must be cut 

 down. The farmer cannot permit weeds to choke out his 

 crop, and no less can the forester allow it. 



Another way to prepare such ground for planting is to 

 cut and pile the objectionable tree-growth in late fall or 

 early spring and burn it without permitting the fire to run 

 over the ground and destroy the humus, and in the spring 

 to set out strong vigorous plants. This will save the humus 

 that may have accumulated, but this method is expensive 

 and there is danger that a new growth will come from 

 sprouts, for there will be more vigor left in the roots than 

 if the fire had done the work, and there will probably be 

 some seeds remaining there which have failed to germin- 

 ate for want of opportunity or time, and these will send up 

 a new crop of pests. If the worthless stuff is sparse, quite 

 likely cutting and burning will be the best plan. Condi- 

 tions must determine which plan to adopt. 



There is another class of land from which, unfortunately, 

 little can be expected at present, for those who have to do 

 with it have not yet learned that we are in the beginning 

 of a timber famine, or that the best time to reforest is im- 

 mediately after the removal of the virgin stand, or even 

 that there is any necessity for reforestation. It is where 

 forests are being removed and where, if not promptly re- 

 forested with valuable species, there will come a mixed 

 growth of useless and valuable species, but over which the 

 useless ones will, in time, assert and maintain supremacy 

 and prevent satisfactory results. If planting on such terri- 



