l68 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



takes the pay ore, culling the best kinds and cuts, 

 and abandoning the rest to its fate, which is 

 usually made hazardous by fires running through 

 the forest, fed by the debris he has left. 



If these fires have not killed the remaining 

 growth, he may come back after a few years, and 

 may find some of the smaller trees of the useful 

 kinds, which he had left standing, grown to such a 

 size as will pay to cut and transport to market ; these 

 he calls "second growth." Possibly he may re- 

 peat this culling process several times ; but finally 

 the desirable kinds are cut out, and there is left a 

 growth of undesirable kinds, of weeds which he 

 has helped in their struggle with their rivals of 

 useful kinds, by the removal of the latter. 



Meanwhile, wherever an opening is made by the 

 cutting of trees, seeds from the neighboring growth 

 fall to the ground and sprout, giving rise to some 

 aftergrowth, but this is apt to be preponderantly 

 of the undesirable kinds which were left; more- 

 over, this young growth under the shade of the 

 old trees, being deprived of the desirable amount 

 of light, develops slowly and poorly. As a result 

 of these operations, then, not only the present com- 

 position of the growth is deteriorated, but also its 

 future. Thus, in Kentucky, where the valuable 

 white oak used to form 40 per cent of the forest, the 

 aftergrowth contains hardly 5 per cent; and in 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, where the 

 white pine has been culled out severely, its absence 



