FORESTRY. 
It takes 30 years to grow a tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 
METHODS OF SILVICULTURE. 
That part of the forester’s business 
which concerns itself with the reproduction 
of the harvested crop is called silviculture 
or forest culture. This reproduction can 
be secured in various ways. The simplest, 
easiest, surest and, in the end, probably the 
cheapest way, is that which the farmer 
uses with his crops: harvest the ripe crop 
and sow or plant the new crop. The Ger- 
mans, having for more than I00 years 
fooled around with other, the so-called nat- 
ural regeneration methods, have come to the 
conclusion that after all this simple, if ar- 
tificial, method is in most cases the hest. 
The main objection raised against it is that 
it is more expensive, but of late it has been 
found that in the long run it turns out the 
other way. Nevertheless, it must be consid- 
ered, first, that the majority of mankind does 
not appreciate. the long run; and second, that 
as in the paying of taxes, we are all will- 
ing enough to be mulcted indirectly, while 
we object to paying directly. If we plant 
or sow, there is a definite direct outlay of 
$5 or $10, or $15 an acre; if we secure a 
new crop by natural regeneration, we do 
not know that we have paid for it in in- 
creased logging expenses, in waste of space 
and time. It is only the next harvester who 
finds out that it would have been better for 
the result if direct tax had been paid in- 
stead of indirect. - 
The natural regeneration of a wood crop 
presupposes the existence of a forest which 
it is worth while to reproduce. Of course, 
only the kind of trees which are already 
present can be so reproduced, by the seeds 
falling from them, or by the sprouts issu- 
ing from the stumps of the cut trees. 
The capacity for reproduction by sprouts 
is possessed by all deciduous trees, the so 
called hardwoods. The conifers, with the 
exception of the redwood, practically do 
not possess this capacity. Hence, the most 
important species, which furnish '¥, of our 
lumber consumption, can not be reproduced 
in this way. Moreover, the sprouts from 
the stump, or stool shoots, while growing 
much more rapidly at first than trees grown 
from seed, stop growing sooner; they do 
not make lumber trees, but only sizes fit 
for telegraph poles, railroad ties, fence ma- 
terial and firewood. The stumps are apt to 
rot and, unless new blood comes in nat- 
urally or is secured by the forester, the 
coppice, as such sproutlands are called, 
gradually deteriorates. 
For the farmer’s wood lot, which“is for 
other reasons fit only to produce firewood 
and small dimensions, this coppice system 
has many advantages and is mostly the one 
to develop. By cutting the stumps low, 
with a smooth, slanting cut, he can make 
them last longer and produce better sprouts, 
cutting the crop every 20 or 30 years, re- 
planting where stumps die out, and, by cut- 
ting the less desirable kinds in the sap, thus 
killing them out, he can gradually improve 
the composition of his crop. 
For timber purposes, only trees grown 
from seed will answer. In the so called 
natural regeneration, the philosophy is that 
the seeds falling from the trees which are 
standing on the ground or in the neighbor- 
hood, will sprout and grow into new trees 
when the old trees are removed. This is 
Nature’s way of maintaining and perpetu- 
ating the forest. The difference between 
Nature and the silviculturist is, that Na- 
ture does not care which trees reproduce 
themselves nor how slowly. or quickly or 
usefully the mew crop grows; 
the silviculturist makes distinction between 
tree weeds and useful species, which he fa- 
vors, and which he wishes to have develop 
as rapidly and as satisfactorily in form as 
possible. Where it happens that only one, 
and that a useful species, covers the ground 
exclusively, or nearly so, as for instance in 
the pineries of the South, such reproduc- . 
tion is readily secured. Two condi- 
tions only are necessary to start the new 
crop, namely, that just before cutting the 
old crop a seed year occur, as trees mostly 
bear seed only periodically; and that the 
soil be receptive, namely, in such condition 
that the seed falling to the ground can 
germinate. After the young seedlings are 
established, a further condition must be se- 
cured, namely, enough and not too much 
light for their development. This is se- 
cured by the gradual removal of the old 
trees. Various species require different de- 
grees of light or shade, hence the removal 
of the shade must be more or less: rapid. 
According to the manner and rapidity of 
removing the mother trees the silviculturist 
recognizes different methods by different 
names; as the strip system, when a narrow 
strip is cut and the seeding comes from the 
marginal timber; the group system, when 
smaller or larger openings are made here 
and there for new groups of young crop to 
develop; the nurse tree system, which is the 
best, when seed trees are left in even dis- 
tribution over the whole area and are grad- 
ually removed as light is needed by the 
young crop; and finally the poorest, the se- 
lection system. 
This last is similar to the method of our 
lumberman in the mixed forest when he 
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