ESTABLISHING A WOODLOT 43 



production by seeding means sometimes the leaving of a few 

 seed trees per acre to sow the seed, but the trees left are 

 usually those that will be of little value for timber, and often 

 they can be utilized later after the seed has been sown. Often 

 natural reproduction comes from trees surrounding the area 

 cut over. The principal objection to natural reproduction is 

 that the trees that result will be such as nature selects. They 

 will be the kinds that are able to get started whether they are 

 desirable species or not. Often the better kinds of trees are 

 crowded out because the conditions of the soil or the light 

 may be more favorable for the poorer kinds of trees. Unless 

 the owner by cutting out such trees determines what trees 

 shall be present in the final stand, the result will be a product 

 of nature, wild and irregular. Other objections are that the 

 reproduction is apt to be more or less bunched about the seed 

 trees or around the edges of the cut-over area, so that the 

 tract will not be fully or evenly stocked with trees. Yet 

 the natural method will be the one that will be used commonly 

 by woodlot owners except where new woodlots are started, 

 where there are no trees to sow the seed, as in the Prairie 

 region, or where new species are wanted. 



STARTING A WOODLOT BY DIRECT SOWING OF THE SEED. 



The Broadcast Method. — In the broadcast method the seed 

 gathered from trees is scattered evenly over the area to be 

 reproduced. Usually some preparation of the soil is made 

 before the seed is sown or otherwise the conditions must be 

 favorable, the soil being moist and loose so that the seeds will 

 not dry out before they start to germinate. Where prep- 

 aration of the soil can be made and the seed sown can be 

 covered in some way as by brush being drawn over the area 

 or by being raked or harrowed into the soil, good results can 

 be obtained. After a woodlot has been cut over and the min- 

 eral soil is more or less broken up and exposed from logs being 

 dragged out of the woods, success will often follow broadcast 



