20 THE WOODLOT. | 



waste land, but promising woodland, covrespondingh^ increased in 

 value. Ultimately it will return a fair interest on his outlay. 



Planting or sowing should be done also on cleared sprout land where 

 the new crop of sprouts is thin. (See PI. IV, fig. 1.) A good rule 

 is to plant or sow wherever there are openings 15 feet square. Plant- 

 ing should also be done when trees of certain sorts are wanted which 

 otherwise would not come in. and also when it is necessary for any rea- 

 son to clear the land at once. Planting can be done far more cheaply 

 than is commonly supposed. White Pine, one of the most profit- 

 able trees to raise, can be planted for $10 per acre, even when trans- 

 planted trees are brought from a nursery and the labor hired. If 

 the plants are raised in a home nursery, the cost can be reduced to from 

 16 to |9 per acre, and if they are obtained from the fields near by, to 

 from |3 to $6 per acre. Wild seedlings, however, are less apt to thrive 

 than nursery plants. As for hardwoods, they are very easih^ started 

 by planting nuts or acorns, an abundance of which can be gathered in 

 the woods. The cost of planting them, especialh^ to one doing the 

 work himself, would be trifling, since it would be necessary only to 

 walk back and forth over the area and plant the nuts li to 3 inches 

 underground at the proper season. White Pine, Red Oak, and Chest- 

 nut in suitable situations are all cheap and profitable trees to plant, 

 and capable of yielding merchantable woods in thirty to fifty years. 

 The planting need not be done all at once. It is often better, especial^ 

 at first, to plant a small area each jesiv. 



The chief dj-awback to planting is the danger from fire, to which 

 large plantations are particularly exposed. On small tracts, protected 

 by their location and conveniently watched, this danger does not exist. 

 It is, therefore, the small owner for whom planting is most practical. 



The details of planting are not within the plan and scope of this bul- 

 letin, which is more directh^ concerned with the treatment of existing 

 woods. Those who wish to familiarize themselves with the details of 

 planting are referred to "The Forest Nursery" (Bulletin 29 of the 

 Bureau of Forestry). 



PRUNING. 



The pruning of forest trees is not always practicable. It is entirely 

 out of the question in sprout woods where only cord wood is to be pro- 

 duced. On the other hand, many owners of pine woods would find it 

 profitable to prune their trees in order to obtain a greater percentage 

 of clear lumber. In such a case the pruning can be done along with 

 improvement cutting. It is a universal rule that only such trees should 

 be pruned as are expected to form a part of the final crop. The prun- 

 ing of small, suppressed, or sickly trees is a waste of time, because 

 they will die or will be cut out in improvement cuttings. 



Pruning does the most good in the earl}^ life of a forest, between 

 the ages of 15 and 30 years. In such cases pruning will add to the 



