616 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



men of the State also gave their aid. 

 J. Girvin Peters of the United States 

 Forest Service also visited Texas and 

 reviewed the situation for the members 

 of the legislature. 



The passage of the bill has met with 

 hearty approval throughout the entire 

 State, for it is apparent that in about 

 thirty years southern yellow pine in 

 Texas will have practically ceased to 

 be an important commercial resource, 

 unless the cut over forest lands, valuable 



chiefly for the growing of timber, are 

 protected from fire and unrestricted 

 grazing and managed in a way to insure 

 continuous production. The impor- 

 tance to the State of the law cannot be 

 over estimated. The next forward step 

 in this direction which the State should 

 make is to revise its method of taxing 

 timber land to provide for the payment 

 of taxes on such land under a system 

 which will encourage private owners to 

 grow timber as a crop. 



WOODLOT IMPROVEMENT 



EVERY farmer needs fuel; every 

 farmer needs fertilizer ; and every 

 farm woodlot needs improve- 

 ment. Why not kill all three 

 birds with one stone? By judiciously 

 planned thinnings the condition of the 

 woodlot can be greatly improved; the 

 material removed in the thinnings can 

 be burned as firewood and the wood 

 ashes left are so rich in potash as to 

 make a valuable fertilizer. 



The woodlot is, perhaps, the only 

 farm crop to which the farmer has not 

 considered it necessary to devote any 

 care. His grains are sowed on carefully 

 prepared soil; his vegetables are culti- 

 vated, and his fruit trees are pruned 

 and sprayed; his forest trees alone 

 are left to look out for themselves. 

 This is the more remarkable when it is 

 taken into consideration that any labor 

 expended on the woodlot not only 

 improves the final crop, but ordinarily 

 pays for itself as well. No detailed 

 technical knowledge is required for the 

 work, all that is necessary is the exercise 

 of common sense. 



It is obvious that the trees in any 

 woodlot are not all of equal value. 

 Some are taller, straighter, thriftier, 

 and of species which yield more valuable 

 wood than others. It is also obvious 

 that there is a constant struggle going 

 on between the trees for light and grow- 

 ing space. The object of thinning is 

 simply to give the best trees the advan- 



tage in this struggle by removing the 

 poorer ones which interfere with their 

 development. 



First of all defective trees should be 

 removed. This includes trees attacked 

 by insects or fungi (conks), trees with 

 fire-scarred butts, with tops broken off 

 by wind or lightning, and in general all 

 trees which are unthrifty from any cause. 

 Next come the trees of poor form, such 

 as very crooked or very branchy ones, 

 which are interfering with the growth of 

 better formed neighbors. And finally 

 are the trees of less valuable species, 

 such as dogwood, iron wood, and horn- 

 beam. These not only take up space 

 that might better be occupied by such 

 species as oak, hickory, and ash, but 

 also, as a rule, produce seed more 

 abundantly and so reproduce them- 

 selves at the expense of more desirable 

 trees. 



While the wood removed in these 

 thinnings is frequently of no value for 

 other purposes, it can practically always 

 be used to advantage for fuel. In this 

 way the work can be made to pay for 

 itself, particularly when the future use 

 of the wood ashes for fertilizer is borne 

 in mind. The essential point to remem- 

 ber in making such thinnings is that 

 the woodlot is a tree society, in which 

 the best trees should be given every 

 chance to attain the greatest possible 

 development by the removal and utili- 

 zation of the unfit. 



