CA NA I) I A N IK) A' TICfIL TURIHT. 



131 



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THE WOOD LOT. 



THE study of forestry for the pur- 

 pose of preserving those small 

 remains of our wild woods now left on 

 most farms will probably be the first 

 prafttical attention given to the subject. 

 When so little is known of forestry it is 

 not surprising that every farm owner 

 has a different theory, not distinct 

 enough however to make many of them 

 take any real care of their wood lots, 

 or to say anything about it unless ap- 

 plied to. 



It is generally admitted that the 

 forests ought not to be pastured, and 

 there may be a few lots from which 

 cattle are excluded ; but I have not 

 heard of anything more being done and 

 it would be hard to say what should 

 be the next advice to farmers or forest 

 owners. I notice in the last report on 

 prize farms in Ontario it is said that on 

 one of the best of them the wood lot 

 was cleaned up and carefully seeded to 

 grass, and that, since the farm has been 

 drained, the black ash trees are dyingj 

 Tliis is a management which seems con- 

 trary to all principle of forestry, as far 

 as concerns the growth and life of the 

 trees; for the first requisite in forest 

 life is to keep the ground fully shaded 

 — so much so, that grass cannot grow 

 — to keep it moist and free from pack- 

 ing, or the tracking of cattle, and to 

 encourage such a growth that drying 

 winds may not enter. 



It seems to me that as soon as a 

 wood gets so thin, that grass is seen, 

 its effectual growth is done, and it 

 would pay better to cut ofione or more 

 acres and convert into good meadow 

 land, and if need be, to plant out an 



acre of old field with .seedlings from the 

 same or other forests. 



I do not find in the best forests more 

 than fifty large trees per acre, and we 

 know that maples or other trees at 

 eight feet apart (680 to the acre) can 

 be grown till they will make half a 

 cord of wood each ; and if they are 

 thinned judiciously or in any case if 

 really in vigorous life, they will increase 

 faster than any old forest. 



To preserve a wood lot, if the trees 

 are only of a fair size, thick enough, 

 and few or no dead tops showing, I 

 think it will answer the purpose if it is 

 fenced into one of the ordinary culti- 

 vated fields; what pasturing with cattle 

 may occur m a rotation will not likely 

 injure it, as they will not touch trees if 

 they can get anything else to eat. 



If very open and exposed to winds it 

 would be well to enclose the bush with 

 a fast-grovving hedge, and in any really 

 open place put in seedlings till the 

 ground is properly covered. Any en- 

 closed wood I have seen, soon gets such 

 a growth of young trees about the mar- 

 gin that it is hard work to get into it, 

 and if the main trees are not too old 

 will in time make a heavy bush. 



But I have no intention of doing this, 

 unless, on a careful survey, the bush 

 turns out better than it appears at a 

 glance. After counting out the large 

 dead tops, the swamp elms, hollow bass- 

 woods and short lived iron-woods and 

 balsams, there will hardly be enough 

 worth saving, and these woods have 

 been overrun with stock so long that 

 the undergrowth amounts to little. 1 

 intend therefore to close ofi'the old brush 



