156 



CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



cheap as any foreij>n stock, but I 

 cannot find any who will quote a 

 price either for fruit or ornamental 

 trees less than three times as high as 

 the American, without reference to 

 quantity, and as we are all freetraders 

 now I am trying nearly all imported 

 stock, and with proper care in packing 

 by the shipper and in setting in well 

 prepared soil, I found no trouble in my 

 plantation. My experience was how- 

 ever, that the trees two or three feet 

 high were less risk and less expense in 

 small lots. In a plantation of a great 

 many acres the cost might be more an 

 object than the subsequent cultivations, 

 but there are no difficulties in either 

 to prevent us all trying. 



What is Forestry? 



What is Forestry ? — It is the same as 

 agriculture— a business. The difference 

 is only in the kind of crop and in the 

 manner of treating the crop. It is the 

 production of a wood crop we are after. 

 This is the crop that grows, or can be 

 made to grow, on those parts of the 

 farm which are useless for all other 

 crops. It is a slow-growing crop, to be 

 sure, but it grows while you are asleep, 

 and you need put it in to the ground but 

 once, where it will thrive without fur- 

 ther care for many years ; and, if pro- 

 perly started, it needs no hoeing, no 

 cultivating, no worrying about the 

 weather. And when you come to reap 

 it, it will prove to yield a profit from 

 ground that would otherwise have been 

 left not only unproductive, but un- 

 sightly in addition. 



If only for the looks of it, a piece of 

 young timber, thriftily growing, en- 

 hances the value of the farm. There- 

 fore, plant the unsightly waste places 

 to trees, remove those ugly spots from 



your farm which spoil its good looks. 

 It costs but little more than an 

 occasional day of enjoyable work. 



Don't figure on the profit of the 

 sticks that you are going to cut ; there 

 is profit indirectly on your surround- 

 ings accruing from such planting 

 which defies all strict financial calcula- 

 tion, besides your own satisfaction 

 which will surely reflect from such 

 work beyond any direct money gain, 

 though this will not be lacking either 

 in proper time. It has been proved 

 over and over again that a good wood- 

 lot will sell the farm — if sold it must 

 be — at a better price than it would have 

 brought without it. 



And you who are the happy owner 

 of a wood-lot, treat it as the goose that 

 lays the golden eggs ; the eggs will 

 soon be high in price, the goose is worth 

 caring for ! If you cut, don't cut the 

 good trees only, and leave the bad 

 ones to spoil the looks of the lot, and 

 to injure the young growth that would 

 be better off if the gnarly old fellow 

 over head did not stand in its way 

 with shade and drip. Always give 

 some light and room to the young 

 folks ! 



Forestry means more than tree-plant- 

 ing ; it is the art of managing a wood 

 crop so that it will produce itself 

 spontaneously by the seed from the old 

 trees, and afterwards helping the 

 young growth to make the best timber 

 in the shortest time. Nature will 

 reproduce the forest and grow timber 

 without care if allowed by man, but she 

 takes time, and time is money — at least 

 to a careful man and manager. 



Then use your odd moments in im- 

 proving your crop ; the axe. too, is a 

 cultivator in judicious hands. — B. E. 

 Fernov), Chief of Forestry Division 

 United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. 



