SYLVICULTURE 



acre of. ground must be placed under the (permanently) most 

 remunerative industry. 



The forest farm produces victuals for the lumber camp and for- 

 age for the teams and yokes; it yields the best possible fire lanes. 



Under these circumstances it is not to be vi'ondered at that a 

 local, permanent or temporary combination of sylviculture and agri- 

 culture is frequently indicated, in coppice forests as well as in high 

 forests, in cultured forests as well as in culled forests. 



A. Reasons prompting the forester to adopt " agriculture " may lie 

 in the following moments: 



I. Frequently it does not pay to eradicate the " weeds " in the 

 forest previous to artificial or natural regeneration by n. s. r. In 

 such cases, the forester may take advantage of the fertility stored up 

 in the humus, using it for a nuuber of years for the production of 

 field crops and freeing the soil incidentally from competing weeds. 



II. Similarly the forester is often at a loss to save his regenera- 

 tions from the attacks of wild or tame animals. Allowing the plan- 

 tations to pass their earliest youth in the midst of farm crops which 

 pay for the expense of protection from animals by immediate returns, 

 protection for the plantations is obtainable at a reduced charge. 



III. The fertility stored away in the accumulated humus, al- 

 though exhaustible within three or four years, frequently furnishes a 

 snug revenue (especially where farmland is scarce, as in all mountain 

 districts) defraying the outlay, or part of the outlay, required for 

 successful reforestation. 



IV. In the prairies, agriculture must precede the tree plantation, 

 which will not thrive in soil devoid of porosity. The plantation of 

 trees, on the other hand, will protect the farm from drought in sum- 

 mer and from high winds during winter; it will shelter the stock 

 during severe blizzards, etc. 



Henry von Cotta, as early as 1819, advocated plantations of trees 

 in rows twelve feet to fifty feet apart, the intervening spaces to be 

 used for agriculture. The trees and the rows were to be decimated 

 gradually, and were again to be reinforced in compliance with the 

 requirements of the farm. 



Cotta's plan might be successful where drought is to be dreaded 

 during summer, scorching the grass meadow and the grain field. 



B. Modern application: 



I. ITield crops intervening between two generations of the forest. 



AU over the pineries of the South where abandoneS fields pro- 

 duce splendid polewoods of Pine, the woods are cut at the thirtieth to 

 sixtieth year of the trees; the soil is then used for the production of 

 corn, cotton or small grain for a number of years and thereafter 



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