SCIENTIFIC HARVESTING 361 



Planting and Care. — When the trees are transplanted to the 

 shelter belt it is well to plant them in some wholesale way after the 

 ground has been thoroughly prepared. Do not expect the trees to 

 thrive if smothered by grass, weeds or other wild growth. It is 

 better to give the plantation thorough tillage for a year or two. 

 Plant inter-crops, such as potatoes, cabbage or any crop which 

 requires thorough cultivation. They help pay for the work and 

 will induce the owner to cultivate the trees. Damage from tillage 

 instruments must be guarded against. 



After the trees are large enough to reasonably fill the ground, 

 tillage and the growth of inter-crops may cease. Nature will usually 

 do her own pruning. As the trees become crowded the side limbs 

 will drop off, except at the top. There is no objection to pruning 

 off the lower limbs in places where they become large and would 

 tend to form large knots in the timber. The prunings should be 

 gathered and used for fuel. Never allow them to rot on the ground. 

 They would encourage attacks of bark beetles and other forest 

 insects which first begin in dead twigs and then spread to the live 

 trees. 



Scientific Harvesting. — The modern principles of forestry teach 

 scientific harvesting (Fig. 262). This means that the products 

 from the wood lot or shelter belt may be secured without injuring it 

 or in any way destroying the future growth of products in the 

 plantation. A number of principles of forestry should here be 

 considered. 



1. Cut trees only when they are mature. Those which are 

 still growing rapidly and increasing their wood from year to year 

 should not be harvested. 



2. In cutting trees make them fall in such a way as not to 

 injure undergrowth or to ruin the saplings near by. This may 

 require more effort on the part of the woodsman, than careless 

 falling of trees. They may need to resort to the use of pulleys and 

 ropes to remove some of the top before the tree falls. This, how- 

 ever, is not always necessary. 



3. Use all parts of the fallen trees, not leaving anything which 

 can be of use to man. Too often we find this rule violated. Not 

 more than half the product of native woods has been used; the 

 remainder has been lost or worse than lost; it has even been 

 left to decay and caused the breeding of millions of forest insects 

 that have afterward attacked the live trees and destroyed millions 

 of feet of lumber. 



