64 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 



The Cultivation of Trees on timber lands in this section has 

 never received much attention and the only data as to the rate 

 of increase that we have to follow are what can be obtained 

 from the native forests, and these are for this reason only 

 approximately correct. In European countries and elsewhere 

 it has been proved by long- experience that more timber is 

 grown per acre, and that the growth is much more rapid on 

 land where some attention is given to systematic forestry than 

 on that which is left to itself, and it will seem reasonable to' 

 believe this, when we consider that much of the energy of 

 trees may be expended in fierce competition with neighbors 

 which may weaken them all and perhaps bring about unheal- 

 thy conditions, and that natural forest land is generally 

 unevenly stocked with trees and often with those that are not 

 the most profitable kinds to grow. In the cultivated forests 

 unnecessary crowding is prevented by judicious thinning and 

 the land is kept evenly and completely stocked with the most 

 profitable kinds. 



RESTOCKING FOREST LAND. 



Various authors have suggested planting, seeding, prun- 

 ing, thinning and various other ways of continuing or im- 

 proving the new growth in this section, Let us consider these 

 matters separately. 



The planting of trees has been recommended as a remedy 

 for the depletion of our timber landg. The objection to this 

 is that the first cost of planting is so great that such remedies 

 are seldom justified. It would hardly be possible to stock an 

 acre of land with young pine for less than fifteen dollars per 

 acre and while large tracts of land can be bought for perhaps 

 fifty cents per acre, yet even at this very low price for the 

 land the investment would be too large to start with. How- 

 ever, where the seeding trees have been destroyed on large 

 areas it may be best to do some planting in order to bring- 

 about the conditions for natural seeding and occasionally to 

 make the whole stand more uniform by taking up some trees 

 where the growth is too thick and planting in vacancies. 



Seeding by hand has also been recommended but experience 

 shows that it is difficult to save seed of White Pine at an ex- 

 pense of much less than one and one-half dollars per pound 



