416 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



Streams of water bear such seeds as fall upon their bosom, depositing them 

 plong the shore; in places dense thickets result, while elsewhere only a seed here 

 and there finds lodgement. 



Ocean currents transport trees, plants and seeds, casting them upon the sands 

 it may be many thousand miles from where they were grown, some of which take 

 root and become established in new lands. 



Man eats the fruit, throwing away the stone at random ; and it is not unlikely 

 that the Indians were as fond of nuts and fruits as we, and carried them to dis- 

 tant camping grounds, where the seeds were strewn. 



The results are obvious. The weak, often most valuable, are strangled by 

 thorns. One acre may have a dozen trees of straggling growth, while another is 

 covered with dense timber. 



System must be observed in forestry if lands are to be made profitable and 

 as a rule, varieties should be planted separately, although with certain more valua- 

 ble timbers of slower growth, there may be planted other more rapid growing trees 

 to afford shade, shelter and temporary protection, and which may be removed as 

 necessary. 



It should be remembered that trees in forests, to be used for economic pur- 

 poses, require entirely different treatment from those which are grown as specimen 

 trees on lawns and in parks. In the specimen single tree, its value and beauty is 

 in the open, spreading head, with limbs growing close down to the ground, hiding 

 the trunk almost entirely, while the value of a forest tree is in the length and sub- 

 stance of the trunk, together with its freedom from knots or absence of low- 

 growing branches. 



It is of great importance that every foot of space in a forest plantation be oc- 

 cupied, in order that each tree shall make an upright stem, be long bodies and free 

 from knots. Thus, in the early stages of growth, the groves should be dense, and 

 as the trees increase in size, requiring greater space, systematic tlrnnings should 

 be made. Poles for various uses about a farm, fence posts, and much fuel will be 

 secured as these successive thinnings are made, while some kinds would supply 

 hoop poles. 



It would be advisable to plant trees of one year's growth, except in the case 

 of nuts and rapid growing seeds, in rows seven feet apart, for convenience of culti- 

 vation, with the ordinary farm implements, and the plantation should receive the 

 same care and attention which would be given a crop of corn, and this to be con- 

 tinued three or four years or until the strength of the plant, together with the shade, 

 would be sufficient to prevent the growth of grass, as when young trees are once 

 stunted and overcome by turf, the plantation is irretrievably ruined. 



It is much to be preferred that a forest grove should be in a compact form. 

 rather than scattered in narrow belts about the farm, as the outer lines of trees 

 lean outward to the light and become crooked, never making straight bodied valua- 

 ble timber, although for wind breaks they may be planted in belts. 



In the largest and finest forests of the Puget Sound region, the trees stand 

 very thickly, while some young thickets of fir, spruce and cedar are almost im- 

 penetrable. 



Eleven million feet of sawn lumber have been cut from one quarter section 

 of land in Washington, nearly seventy thousand feet to the acre. 



