276 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



sometimes even before, seedlings of sugar maple and other toler- 

 ant hardwoods spring up. They prevent softwood reproduction 

 and will finally cause the type to revert to the hardwood type. 



Methods of Handling the Forest. 



Both intensive and extensive management can be practiced 

 in the northern hardwoods region. There are more opportu- 

 nities for intensive methods than in the spruce region, owing 

 to the broken distribution of the forest, interspersed by farms, 

 and the greater local population. Much of the territory, how- 

 ever, is so situated that only rough methods are yet applicable. 



In management a few of the more valuable hardwoods and 

 those best adapted to the site should be favored. An effort 

 should be made to increase their representation as compared 

 with the inferior species. 



The trees to favor are sugar maple, white ash, yellow birch, 

 basswood, and red oak where it occurs. Beech is a less desirable 

 tree. 



The greater part of the territory will have to be kept under 

 hardwood forest for the present generation at least. In the 

 sections where intensive methods are possible it may be advisable 

 to gradually change the most poorly stocked portions of the 

 forest from hardwood into coniferous stands. This can only be 

 done by planting. While the hardwood species now dominating 

 the forest (sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech) are well adapted 

 to the site and reproduce excellently, they are not rapidly growing 

 trees and do not furnish timber of such high average value, nor 

 as large yield per acre, as such species as white pine and spruce, 

 which could be planted.^ White ash and basswood are rapid 

 growing species and their lumber is in demand for certain in- 

 dustries, hence special care should be taken to encourage them in 

 preference to all other hardwoods. They are recommended for 

 extensive planting. White pine, Norway spruce, and European 

 larch are the conifers rehed on for general planting. There will 



1 See Chapter on Planting, where a fuller explanation of the advantages of 

 conifers over hardwood trees is given. 



