THE AET OF THE SECOND GROWTH 



The forest farm produces victuals for the lumber camp and 

 forage for the teams and yokes; it yields the best possible fire 

 lanes. 



Under these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that 

 a local, permanent or temporary combination of sylviculture and 

 agriculture is frequently indicated, in sprout forests as well as in 

 seed forests, in cultured forests as well as in culled forests. 



A. Reasons prompting the forester to adopt a combina- 

 tion of sylviculture and agriculture may lie in the following 

 considerations : 



I. Frequently it does not pay to eradicate the " weeds " in the 

 forest previous to artificial or natural I'egeneration by n. s. r. In 

 such cases, the forester may take advantage of the fertility stored 

 up in the humus, using it for a number of years for the production 

 of field crops and freeing the soil incidentally from competing weeds. 



II. Similarly the forester is often at a loss to save his regen- 

 erations from the attacks of wild or tame animals. Allowing the 

 plantations to pass their earliest youth in the midst of farm crops 

 wliich pay for the expense of protection from animals by imme- 

 diate returns, protection for the plantations is obtainable at a 

 reduced charge. 



III. The fertility stored away in the accumulated humus, al- 

 though exhaustible within three or four years, frequently furnishes 

 a snug revenue (especially where farmland is scarce, as in all 

 mountain districts) defraying the outlay, or part of the outlay, 

 required for successful reforestation. In a heavy leaf-mould, many 

 species refuse to regenerate their kind. 



IV. In the prairies, agriculture must precede the tree planta- 

 tion, which will not thrive in soil devoid of porosity. The planta- 

 tion of trees, on the other hand, will protect the farm from drought 

 in summer and from high winds during winter; it will shelter the 

 stock during severe blizzards, etc. 



Henry von Cotta, as early as 1819, advocated plantations of 

 trees in rows twelve feet to fifty feet apart, the intervening spaces 

 to be used for agriculture. The trees and the rows were to be 

 decimated gradually, and were again to be reinforced in keeping 

 with the reqviirements of the farm. 



Cotta's plan might be successful where drought is to be dreaded 

 during summer, scorching the grass meadow and the grain field. 



B. Modern application; 



I. Field crops intervening between two generations of the forest. 

 All over the pineries of the South where abandoned fields pro- 

 duce splendid polewoods of Pine, the woods are cut at the thirtieth 



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