2 FARM FORESTRY 



clear the land for agriculture. Usually not all the land de- 

 nuded of its trees to make farm land could be cultivated. On 

 nearly every farm area there were places here and there where 

 the soil was too thin or the land too rough or stony or too 

 steep to raise a farm crop. Those parts of the farm often 

 were not entirely denuded of timber or if cleared were allowed 

 to grow up again to forest trees, and so formed the woodlots. 

 In the older settled parts of the country farm, woodlots have 

 been cut over many times and allowed to grow up again. In 

 New England some of the woodlots are said to be in the 

 seventh generation from the virgin forest. 



Some farm woodlots have originated also from the aban- 

 doning of land once tilled. In the early days land would 

 sometimes be cleared and used for growing crops that later 

 would be found not suited for that purpose. Such lands were 

 abandoned and soon would grow up naturally to forest trees. 

 Farm woodlots also originate by planting trees or sowing the 

 seed of trees. In the central portions of the country, on the 

 prairies, where trees do not naturally reproduce themselves in 

 competition with the heavy grass, this is commonly the origin 

 of the farm woodlot. 



Relation of Farm Forestry to General Forestry. — Farm 

 forestry is a branch of the general subject of forestry. It com- 

 prises the principles of forestry that apply to the management 

 of the farm woodlot. Forestry in general has to do with the 

 management of all forest land. Many are apt to think of 

 forests as tracts of wooded land covering large areas, and to 

 think of forestry as applicable only to such extensive areas. 

 Yet a woodlot is forested land and the fundamental principles 

 of forestry that apply to a large timber tract, such as a Na- 

 tional or a State Forest, apply equally well to the farm wood- 

 lot. There is no owner of forest land who is better able to 

 practice forestry than the farmer on his woodlot. Fle has the 

 time to devote to the work in the winter and his efforts will 

 cost him nothing. The principles of forestry as they apply to 



