HOW TO. IMPROVE THE WOODLOT. 25 



PLANTING. 



Where the ground is bare or insufficiently stocked, or where the 

 trees are old. and no young trees are springing up, it is worth while 

 to plant. It does not pay to have even a rod of waste land. A hand- 

 ful of acorns or maple seed or a few dozen plants of pine or spruce 

 and a few hours* work will start a new crop of valuable wood where 

 previous abuse has caused nature's provision to fail. On bad ground 

 such as rocky, steep, poor hillsides, where it is difficult to make these 

 live, plant locust, hazel brush, anything that will grow and hold the 

 ground from washing away rather than leave it bare and getting 

 worse and worse. Afterwards it will be possible to work in some- 

 thing better." 



THINNING. 



Thinning will sometimes o-ive young growth a chance to start natur- 

 ally where too heavy shade from a close stand of older trees has pre- 

 vented reproduction. This condition, however, is rare in the woodlots 

 of the Rock River region. In the same way it is well to notice where 

 a spread-crowned old Blue Beech or other comparatively undesirable 

 tree is keeping down thrifty young saplings of White Oak. maple, 

 etc.. and cut it at the first opportunity. It i< just as easy in getting 

 out firewood to exercise a little judgment and so improve the tract, as 

 to cut blindly without reference to the future. The best trees and the 

 best kinds of trees should be given a chance to grow in preference to 

 inferior ones. Crooked, stunted, diseased, or limbv trees should be 

 taken whenever they can be used. Straight, thrifty young trees 

 should be cut only when they are crowding each other or are hope- 

 lessly overtopped. Mere brushwood should not be allowed to choke 

 off good timber trees. A few strokes of the axe will often work 

 wonders in the way of giving the right trees a chance in dense young 

 growth, and many a fine little sapling whose top is whipped bare by 

 rubbing against the limbs of some less desirable neighbor that has got 

 a little ahead in the race may be saved by a single blow. The habit 

 of always carrying an axe when one walks in the woods and taking an 

 interest in the needs of the trees and observing their behavior, will 

 soon give anyone of ordinary intelligence something of the forester's 

 insight into the life of the woods and the way to make them grow and 

 produce timber. 



A much fuller discussion of the principles of thinning than is here 

 possible will be found in Bulletin Xo. 42 of the Bureau of Forestry, 

 "The Woodlot." already referred to. In thinning, however, it is best 

 to proceed cautiously: trees endure much more crowding than most 



°- Further information concerning planting will be found in Bulletin No. 29, 

 Bureau of Forestry, "The Forest Nursery.*' by George B. Sudworth. 



6S7— No. 44—03 3 



