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subjects. This pamphlet is known as " Forestry for Farmers," 

 and a copy can be secured by any one who will address a postal 

 card to the Secretary of Agriculture at Washington. Every farmer 

 in Massachusetts should secure a copy, read its pages carefully, 

 and keep it on his shelf for reference when he has work to do in 

 his wood lot. Another government publication of great value, and 

 which is sold for a nominal sum, is the "Primer of Forestry, Part 

 I." Neither of these works deals in any language which cannot 

 be understood by the average man. Both are written by practical 

 and skilled foresters, and are among the best works on the subject 

 for the use of farmers. The "Forestry for Farmers" tells how 

 trees grow, about soil conditions, rate of growth and reproduction, 

 how to plant a forest, what kinds of trees to use, the best methods 

 of cutting in the wood lot, and something about the economic 

 relation of the wood lot to the farm. 



The most valuable woodland growths of our State to-day are 

 doubtless the white pine and the chestnut. There is no trouble in 

 keeping a chestnut growth perpetual, owing to the strong sprout- 

 ing proclivities of the tree With pine it is different. Cut a pine 

 lot clean, and a hardwood growth follows. Forestry proves that 

 this is needless. A pine lot can be kept continually in pine, if 

 enough old seed-bearing trees are left in suitable locations, and all 

 fires and cattle kept out. A pine seedling is a very delicate plant, 

 and the trampling of cattle or a light leaf fire will kill it at once. 



Again, there is a great deal of white pine in this and in neigh- 

 boring States that is growing under conditions which are most 

 unsuitable and unprofitable. It is common enough to see an old 

 pasture, for instance, growing up thickly to white pines. Few 

 owners of such growth think of going near it to study the condition 

 of the trees. For the most part they grow up as best they may, 

 and at the end of forty years, say, they are cut and sold for cheap 

 box boards. Where they stand thickly, at the end of the forty years 

 the trunks are small, and covered with dry branches from butt to 

 crown. Where they stand in comparatively open ground, they are 

 larger in diameter, shorter, but covered with limbs, though these 

 are mostly living. Now, every one knows that every limb, whether 

 alive or dead, means a knot in the lumber which runs clear through 

 to the heart; it is equally well known that clear lumber is worth 

 many times more than knotty lumber ; but it is not generally known 

 that it is an easy matter to grow clear lumber, and thereby to pro- 

 duce a more valuable crop than is possible if the trees are left to 

 take care of themselves. 



The writer is personally acquainted with two men who have for 

 years made it a practice to take care of their pine lands. One of 



