WOODLOT FORESTRY. 



HISTORY OE THE FOREST. 



The forest is about forty years old. A cut was made forty- 

 four years ago which removed the entire stand. In the re- 

 stocking which followed, a part of the hardwood stand was made 

 up of sprout growth and a rather larger part of seedling growth. 

 Shortly after the cutting, pine was introduced by carting from 

 a forest some distance away branches laden with cones and 

 scattering them about. From these cones the seeds fell which 

 have produced the present pine stand. The pine trees on Mt. 

 L,aurel are thus somewhat younger than the hardwoods. The 

 growth has not been interfered with by fire or grazing. 



THE NEGLECTED W0ODE0T. 



The forest occupies twenty acres, and was composed of a mix- 

 ture of pine and hardwoods, decidedly overcrowded. The soil is 

 clayey or loamy sand, rather better than true forest soil, though 

 it is properly rated as such because the ground is too steep to 

 be cultivated as are the adjoining lands (see Fig. 2). A thin 

 layer of humus is being increased year by year, thus gradually 

 improving the soil. 



Many trees were dead or dying, even the dominating trees 

 suffered for want of space. Only a small percentage of the trees 

 were large enough for the saw mill, or for other material than 

 cordwood, yet it was apparent that if the small, stunted and 

 interfering trees were removed, the others would be able to 

 make a more rapid growth. Clearly the forest needed a heavy 

 thinning, by which all superfluous trees would be removed and 

 only the better ones left (see Figs. 1, 2, 3). 



The most plentiful trees were chestnut oak, white oak, red oak, 

 black oak, pitch pine and scrub pine, maple, red gum, tulip 

 poplar, while other species occurred in small numbers. The soil 

 is naturally adapted to the oaks; the presence of the pines being 

 due to the artificial seedling. The piries have made a very satis- 

 factory growth, however, for while they are naturally found in 



