40 BULLETIN" 285, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTURE. 



well stocked with a thrifty reproduction, plentiful enough to be 

 mutually protective. 



Care should be taken to remove at the first cutting: (1) Trees of 

 species not wanted in the reproduction, such as beech when in mixture 

 with yellow birch, sugar maple, and other more valuable species; 



(2) damaged trees, liable to depreciate before a second cutting, and 



(3) heavy-foliaged, limby trees which shade the ground too thor- 

 oughly for successful reproduction and would be apt to damage 

 young growth when removed. Where the reproduction groups are 

 numerous, it will often be necessary to fell trees toward each other so 

 that the damage from their fall may be reduced to a minimum. 



As a result of the first cutting, there will thus be left a uniform but 

 rather open stand of sound, well-shaped trees of the best species, 

 interspersed with groups of well-started young growth. The increased 

 light and root space stimulate growth in both the old and the young 

 trees, prepare the soil for seed, and increase the seed supply from the 

 large timber. Within 5 or at most 10 years the reproduction may be 

 expected to be complete over all well-lighted spots. The remaining 

 merchantable trees, now considerably larger owing to their growth 

 since the first cut, are then felled with the greatest care to minimize 

 the damage to the reproduction. If the felling and removal of the 

 first crop is carefully done, such gaps as remain in the reproduction 

 will not be large, and will, in most cases, result in increased growth 

 of the adjacent stand due to the abundant light thus admitted. 



Second-growth. 1 — Under this title are included all young hardwood 

 stands, whether they result from the removal of older stands, from 

 fire, or from any other cause. In composition such young stands 

 vary even more greatly than those which preceded them, for they 

 contain great quantities of small, weedlike species, like fire cherry, 

 dwarf maple or "moose maple," aspen, etc., which, on account of 

 their short lives or intolerance of shade, do not remain long in the 

 stand. 



Sprouts commonly form a large proportion of the second-growth 

 after logging. They spring abundantly from most hardwood stumps, 

 large or small, but those from large stumps are rarely thrifty, except 

 in the case of basswood and chestnut (PI. IX). Among them appear 

 various small annual weeds, like "fireweed" (Ereclitites hieracifolia 

 and Eu^atorium sp.), blackberry briers, fire cherry and other small 

 trees, and finally forest-tree seedlings. Though not always the last 

 in this succession, seedlings of the desired kinds often find difficulty 

 in growing up through the tangled masses of vegetation which follow 

 clearing (PI. VI). Thus yellow birch must come in, if at all, within 

 a few years after the land is cleared, or other vegetation will be apt 



1 The management of second-growth hardwoods is discussed in Bulletin 170 of the Vermont Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station, Burlington, Vt. 



