Forestry in the United States 



seeds — are the winter store of birds and many of the smaller 

 woods folk. 



Noxious animals, including dogs, the worst enemy of deer, 

 are exterminated by the wardens, who also keep off poachers, 

 and do all they can to promote the well-being of big game and 

 small. In winters of deep snows it is necessary to cut down 

 trees so that the ruminants may be kept from starvation. Ear 

 corn and fodder are often scattered on the snow that covers the 

 natural food supply. The animal mortality in the North Woods 

 is sometimes appalling in severe winters. 



It is most common to find a single forest serving two, or 

 even all three of these different purposes. Lumbering may be 

 profitably carried on in protective forests without damaging them 

 as conservers of the water supply, or interfering to a great extent 

 with hunting. It takes a long time and very thorough clearing 

 to overcome the wildness and to expose the floor of our American 

 forests. Young growth from seed and stumps covers the scars 

 made by lumbermen who, as a rule, want nothing but good-sized 

 logs. Fire and grazing are much more effective agents of deforesta- 

 tion than lumbering, but lumbering fosters fires by the "slash" 

 it leaves behind. 



When forestry is mentioned, commercial forestry is usually 

 meant. Wood is necessary to civilised life, and the production 

 of it is a problem that becomes graver as population becomes 

 denser. The history of European countries may eventually 

 be repeated in ours. First came the cutting down of trees for 

 use and for the clearing of land. Then experimental work of a 

 vague and general nature to check wastefulness, and provide for 

 the future productiveness of woodlands. Then more definite 

 plans, more generally effective in their workings, toward the same 

 end. Last, the growing of wood as a crop, seriously, laboriously, 

 profitably, as a general farmer may at last take to celery culture 

 or to strawberries or melons, and make a fortune out of a few 

 acres. Such forestry and such farming are intensive. They are 

 specialised to a high degree. 



Intensive forestry at its best can be seen in Germany. State 

 and private forests can be found in which tree crops are grown 

 as carefully as any agricultural crop. The land is prepared, the 

 seed selected, the young trees protected, cultivated, pruned and 

 thinned. Such a forest is as clean and as thickly set as a field 



457 



