316 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



SO long dried. To thicken a forest, or to increase the num- 

 ber of trees in a wood lot, it should be well fenced, and no 

 cattle be permitted to be in it. And something may be done, 

 if needful, by layers and cuttings. — Dea?ie. 



The practice of the populous nations of Europe, whose 

 forests have been cut off centuries ago, and who are com- 

 pelled to resort to measures of the strictest economy to sup- 

 ply themselves with fuel, ought to have great weight with 

 us, France, in an especial manner, ought to be looked up 

 to for wise lessons on this subject. Her vast and thickly 

 settled population, her numerous manufactures, her poverty 

 in mineral coal, the eminence which she has attained in all 

 economical arts, entitle her to great respect. It is the prac- 

 tice .of the French people not to cut off their woods oftener 

 than once in twenty or twenty-five years, and by law, when 

 they are cut over, the owner is obliged to cut the lokole 

 smooth, with the exception of a very few trees, which the 

 officers of the government had marked to be spared for 

 larger growth. Without giving any opinion as to the pro- 

 priety of the direct interference of the government on such a 

 topic, we should say that the example proves that in the 

 opinion of the French scientific and practical men, it is ex- 

 pedient when wood-lands are cut that they should be cut 

 smooth, in order that the new growth might start togethor, 

 not overshaded by other trees of larger growth. We have 

 no favorable opinion of the utility of cutting down trees in a 

 scattered manner, as they appear to fail, and still less of 

 planting acorns in thinner spots of the forest. The growth 

 thus produced must remain forever feeble. — Loi'vell. 



A valuable paper by the Hon. John Welles, republished 

 in the New England Farmer, vol. i. page 329, from the 

 Massachusetts Agricultural Repository, recommends cutting 

 hard wood trees between forty and fifty years of age ; and 

 the writer states that ' though trees may shoot up in height 

 by standing longer, yet the period of the most rapid vegeta- 

 tion is mostly over, and by this means much of the under- 

 growth is necessarily destroyed.' Mr. Welles is of opinion 

 that in cutting over a wood lot to obtain fuel, it is best to 

 take the whole growth as you proceed. He observes that 

 * we have been condemned as evincing a want of taste in 

 cutting off our forests without leaving what it would take 

 half a century to produce, — a shade near where it is nroposed 

 to erect buildings. The fact is that trees of original growth 

 have their roots mostly in the upper stratum of earth, and 



