296 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



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 these men owns timber in Plymouth County, 

 the other in southern New Hampshire, just over the Massa- 

 chusetts line. In general their methods are alike, but in 

 details of handling they differ. Both recognize the fact that 

 young pines grow best when close together, thus shading 

 and sheltering one another, or when coming up under the 

 protecting wing of a brushy deciduous growth. Both go 

 through their pines once a year, and thin out the poorest 

 specimens, or the brush and sprouts, and thus give the 

 young pines a good chance to push ahead. Both know the 

 value of clear lumber, and take care, as the trees advance, 

 to remove the lower limbs close up against the trunk, so 

 that there remains no stub outside the bark, and conse- 

 quently insuring clear timber beyond that point. Here is 

 where they differ. The Plymouth County man trims his 

 trees with a knife and thin-bladed axe, beginning wlien they 

 are, say, five years old. The New Hampshire man waits 

 till his trees are, say, ten years old, and then goes over 

 them with a saw. The Plymouth man secures a greater 

 proportion of clear lumber by beginning when his trees are 

 very young, but the New Hampshire man contends that his 

 timber sells well enough to suit him (and it may be added 

 that he is a keen business man). The thinning process 

 goes on from the first to the last. In cases where seedlings 

 have been planted, it is often worth while to do the thinning 

 for the first year or two with a spade rather than with an 

 axe, especially in the case of fine, thrifty specimens that are 

 crowding equally good ones. Thus many good seedlings 

 can be secured to take the places of the few that die from 

 natural causes, or to set out in new ground. As the trees 

 grow toward maturity, the improvement cuttings can be 

 utilized for firewood, or, if numerous enough, for lumber. 



It has been sufficiently demonstrated in practice that this 

 thinning and trimming is not expensive, if done at times 

 when there is little else demanding attention on the farm. 

 A tree can be pruned at any season of the year when it is 



