16 THE WOODLOT. 



This method is well suited to tracts belonging to water companies, 

 where a constant forest cover is required for the protection of the 

 watershed. It ma}" be used also b\" owners of country" estates who 

 maintain woodlands as parks, and therefore prefer, as soon as the 

 woods become mature, to have them cut gradually- rather than all at 

 once. After the first thinning a young growth of new seedlings and 

 sprouts from the stumps of the old trees will come in. As soon as the 

 ground is well covered with this 3"0ung growth the remaining trees 

 can be removed in several successive cuttings, stretching over a period 

 of ten to fifteen years. This method is particularly applicable to hard- 

 wood stands which are relatively even aged, like old sprout woods 60 

 to 80 3'ears old. 



The woodsman would make the cuttings in the following way: In 

 the first thinning he would take out the dead, dying, and defective 

 trees. Defective trees include those having frog stools or canker 

 , scars on their trunks, hollow trees, those partly girdled at the base by 

 fire, those whose trunks have been attacked by borers, top-dry trees, 

 and those badly broken or bent by ice and snow. Suppressed trees and 

 those crowding more thrifty trees are also cut, just as in improvement 

 cuttings. Very small trees are cut because they are usualh^ suppressed 

 so badly that they would never recover, and it is therefore better to 

 remove them and make way for a new crop. The largest- crowned 

 trees are also cut, because later on they would injure the new seedling 

 undergrowth much more than the trees with smaller crowns. The 

 removal of all these classes of trees would take away about 30 per cent 

 of an average second-growth hardwood stand and leave about 125 to 

 150 trees per acre. 



The woodsman would make the second thinning as soon as the 3'oung 

 growth is well established and begins by retarded height growth to 

 show the need of more light. In the second thinning some small 

 growth would necessarily be broken, but with care the damage would 

 be very slight and undoubtedh^ would be remedied by new growth 

 from seed of the trees still standing. The young growth might be so 

 far advanced at the time of the se(,'ond thinning that the whole stand 

 could be cleared. On the other hand, it might be desirable to make a 

 third thinning before the removal of the last old trees. Many owners 

 would prefer to prolong the successive thinnings over as long a time 

 as possible, so as to keep the older trees for their beaut}'. In such a 

 case the woods might be left after the first thinning until the trees 

 again began to deteriorate, which would probably occur within ten 

 years in the average wood lot. The second thinning would then 

 remove simply the dying and defective trees, which might amount to 

 5 to 8 cords per acre in a 70-year-old stand. This process would be 

 continued until all of the old trees were cut, the entire period of the 

 thinnings covering about twenty- five years. On account of the length 



