FORESTEY FOR SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND. 15 



years old, and no effort is made either to rejuvenate the forest when 

 it becomes thin or to provide for thrifty crops. The result is a forest 

 which deteriorates from generation to generation. If cord wood alone 

 is desired, and the plan is to cut the woods clear every twenty to thirty 

 years, the owner should keep the following rules in mind: 



First. Stumps should be cut low, in order that the sprouts may 

 become independent of the old root system as soon as possible. 



Second. Stumps should be cut smooth and slanting, so as to permit 

 the water to run off, as from the roof of a house. If the stumps are 

 cut trough like, water collects in them and they are apt to rot and 

 infect their sprouts. 



Third. Care should be taken not to tear the bark from the stumps, 

 since this often prevents buds from developing at the root collar. 



Fourth. The sprouts should be cut when the sap is down, or else in 

 earlv spring. When they are cut in midsummer, new shoots are apt 

 not to complete their growth and harden their wood before frosts. If 

 sprouts freeze before completing their growth they usually die down 

 during the following year. 



Fifth. If the new crop is thin through the failure of some stumps 

 to sprout, it may be filled in by transplanting small seedlings or by 

 sowing acorns or other nuts in the openings. 



When sprout woods have been allowed to grow fifty to sixty years, a 

 good way to insure a full second crop is to take them off' in two cut- 

 tings. First, the woods are thinned rather heavily in the manner 

 described on page 16, so as to permit the seeding up of the ground; 

 when a good crop of young seedlings has come in, as would usually 

 occur in five or six years, the older trees are cleared awa3^ The sec- 

 ond crop will then be composed of a large number of seedlings in 

 addition to the sprouts which come up from old stumps, thus rejuve- 

 nating the forest. 



METHOD OF SUCCESSIVE THINNINGS. 



The ''Method of Successive Thinnings" consists in cutting and at the 

 same time providing for the reproduction of a merchantable stand by 

 a series of rather heavy thinnings. A period of ten to twenty 3"ears 

 elapses between the first thinning (see PL I) and the time when the 

 last old trees are finall}^ cut away from above the new crop of seed- 

 lings. It is a good method for those owners who do not wish to cut 

 their woods clear at one time, but prefer gradually to transform them 

 into a new and thrifty crop of desirable trees. The Method of Suc- 

 cessive Thinnings is also applicable to stands of such kinds of hard- 

 woods as bear heavy seed, like Hickory and Oak, because the seed will 

 then be dropped in abundance all over the ground; whereas if the land 

 is cut clear the seed must be brought by animals, and a longer time 

 will be required for reproduction. 



