, 68 ELEMENTARY FORESTRY. 



the best timber. The amount of waste in branchwood varies 

 greatly, it being very much in trees that are entirely open 

 grown and very little in trees that have been severely crowded. 

 But as over-crowding causes decay it is important to do the 

 thinning as soon as the tree has taken on a proper form. 

 Crowding on one side causes crooks and these can be pre- 

 vented by cutting' off the crowding tree or branch. 



The Ax and Saw, then, as will be seen from the foregoing par- 

 agraphs, furnish the most important means when used judic- 

 iously in securing the best growth of timber in forests and 

 the proper succession of growth on forest land. 



Waste in Forests occurs, h >as has been partially stated, in 

 branchwood. crooks, rot, and in growing of the kinds of trees 

 that are not marketable. The kinds that are marketable depend 

 largely on the demand. In considering this subject it is best 

 to be conservative and to select kinds that are of stable value, 

 and not likely to go out of fashion. Since crowding is best 

 done by small trees among the large timber trees, they should 

 be of a kind that are marketable when small. 



Much waste in timber is caused by cutting trees when 

 small. The amount of waste in the shafts of straight trees, 

 excluding trunks, branches and bark, may vary from eighty- 

 one per cent in a tree eight inches in diameter and ninety feet 

 high, to six per cent in a tree forty inches in diameter on the 

 stump and one hundred feet high. It will thus be seen that 

 there is great loss from cutting trees when small, especially if 

 they are growing rapidly. 



Succession of Tree Growth is an expression sometimes used as 

 though there were a natural rotation of trees on the land. 

 There is nothing of the sort. Sometimes hardwoods will 

 follow pine, or the pine the hardwoods where the two were 

 mixed at the time of cutting and there was a young growth of 

 one or the other kind which had a chance to grow when its 

 competitor was removed. Where land is severely burned 

 after being cut over, the trees that show first are generally 

 the kinds with seeds that float long distances in the wind such 

 as Poplar and Birch or those having fruits especially liked 

 by birds such as the Bird Cherry, which is very widely distrib- 

 uted. These show first on account of getting started first. 

 The pine and the other trees may come in later owing to their 



