EMORY OAK IN SOUTHERN ARIZONA. 15 



MANAGEMENT. 



Two principal recommendations are at the basis of the very simple 

 rules necessary to the proper management of Emory oak: One is to 

 keep fires out; the other is to prohibit cutting from July to September, 

 and especially in August. The best results in securing coppice 

 growth will accrue from a system which confines cutting to the period 

 from November to April, inclusive. 



The stands of large trees in the broad open valleys are the hardest 

 to reproduce. Badly defective trees should be cut, and the density 

 of the stand increased by protecting the shoots from stock. Since 

 the range animals are not herded, and fences are out of the question, 

 a trial might be made of piling brush over the stumps to protect the 

 young coppice. This will, of course, increase the likelihood of injury 

 by fire, but these stands are more easily protected from fire than 

 from grazing. 



In the narrow valleys and on the slopes reproduction is more 

 assured. The stools are smaller, and have a stronger sprouting 

 capacity than the large trees in the broad valleys. Because of this 

 difTerence in size, it is easier to cut low stumps in the small stands. 

 To save wood, the saw should be used in felling and in cutting up the 

 timber above 6 inches in diameter. In thicket stands, where there 

 are several sprouts to the stool, if the poorer ones are thinned out it 

 will give the better sprouts the advantage of increased light. 



Clear cutting should never be practiced, and the wasteful pollard- 

 ing practiced by the Mexican woodchoppers, bad as it was, is prefer- 

 able, as a sort of rough selection system, to a clear cutting, which tends 

 to lay bare a large area and render all the unprotected new growth 

 susceptible to all sorts of injuries. 



Approved. 



JAMES WILSON, 



Secretary of Agriculture. 

 WASHINGTON, D. C., March 2, 1912. 



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