Improving the Timber on the Jack Pine 

 Plains. 



MONG the discussions of the best methods of 

 ,\ utilizing the most unpromising territory in Michi- 

 gan is the following letter received by the Presi- 

 dent of the Forestry Commission from D. C. 

 Leach, whose reputation as a cranberry grower at 

 Walton, Michigan, is very widely known. He says in part: 

 "When I began experimenting on the cranberry marsh at 

 Walton, Michigan. I found the land east of the marsh quite 

 thickly set with oak grubs. The living sprouts from the grubs 

 were from three to twelve feet high. I say living sprouts for 

 the reason that still standing attached to the roots of the 

 grubs were many saplings two or three inches in diameter, 

 which years before had been killed by forest fires. You, of 

 course, know that this process of killing the growth above the 

 ground by occasional fires, and sending up new shoots the 

 following spring, has been going on for a long time. I have 

 no doubt that many of these roots are fifty or more years old. 

 As a rule they seem to be fire proof, and after each succeeding 

 fire send up new shoots as vigorous as any that have pre- 

 ceded them. Meantime the roots continue to grow, spreading 

 out on and near the surface, till many of them are two or 

 three feet in diameter, and sending their roots down many 

 feet into the sandy subsoil. 



"These large and deeply-rooted grubs are excellent starting 

 points or foundations for vigorously-growing oak trees. Their 

 vitality is remarkable. 



"About ten years ago I had five or six acres of these grubs 

 treated as follows : One of the largest and most thrifty of the 

 sprouts was trimmed up from three to six feet, according to 

 its size. In some cases, where the grub was large, two sprouts 

 were left, usually two or three feet apart. 



"Each year after this trimming, during the hot weather of 

 July or August, the young sprouts which had come up were 

 split off the edges of the grub with an ax. It is useless to 

 cut off the sprouts above ground, they will invariably grow up 

 again ; but treated as I have done, they are soon killed. Gen- 

 erally after this has been done for two summers the grubs 

 cease to send up sprouts and the growth is all turned into the 

 young trees. The rapidity with which they shoot upward and 

 increase in diameter, even on the very light soil, is remarkable. 

 Manj' of the bushes thus treated two years ago are now vigor- 

 ous and thrifty young trees, thirty feet and over in height and 

 from five to eight inches in diameter. Last summer I cut a 

 large number of fence posts from these trees, thinning them 

 out where two or three had been left on a single root. 



"So satisfactory was the result of my experiment that 1 

 have recently gone over some twenty-five acres more in the 

 same way. Where this was done two years ago, the young 

 trees already show marked improvement. The land where 

 this work was done was originally covered with a growth of 



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