CHAPTER IX. 
EXCLUSION OF ANIMALS FROM WOODLANDS. 
Farm stock should not be permitted to range in 
woodlands at any season of the year, even after the 
trees have attained a considerable size. Not only is 
this important in respect to artificial plantations, but 
forests of natural growth, which are to be permanently 
devoted to the production of timber, should be kept 
closed against them. Any forest will in time be 
destroyed bya system of persistent pasturage. The 
undergrowth is entirely extirpated in a few years, and 
the young trees, upon which the continuation of the 
forest depends, are destroyed. Cattle soon learn to 
bend or break down slender trees even twenty feet 
high, and browse the leaves from their tops. The 
lower branches of the larger trees are stripped of their 
leaves and dic. The growth of the wood is 
injuriously affected by the admission of cold and 
parching winds; by the trampling of cattle, which 
hardens the soil, and injures the roots of the trees, 
and by the close-fed turf, which forms wherever the 
shade is not too dense. From this combination of 
