56 
timbered, so that they hardly seem to deserve the appellation of cut- 
over lands. Nevertheless, even in these forests fires have run, never 
far, to be sure, but still strips 5 miles and more in length are seen, where 
the fire has left a dense, heavy cover of dead and dying, scorched and 
charred trees of all kinds. Fortunately these tracts are not very numer- 
ous. Their only hope lies in clearing them for farm purposes, for which 
nearly all of this heavier land is eminently well suited. 
RESTOCKING. 
What may be done to restock the land will vary from place to place, 
according as the land is well under way to reclothe itself, or is a bare 
waste, or is a tangle of débris, or covered with worthless thickets of fire- 
damaged woods. The restocking may be done at once or by piecemeal. 
It may be done thoroughly or roughly. It may assist nature to a small 
or large degree. Where scattered saplings and defective trees have 
been left in logging and have survived the fires, they continue to seed 
the ground. About each of them a little crop of seedlings springs up 
after good seed years (every three to five years), and if protected these 
grow; and in about twenty years, by the time the mother trees are gone, 
they bear seed themselves, and then the process of restocking really 
begins. Thus, much valuable time is: lost, and the ground remains 
exposed too long to wind and sun, and is thereby reduced in its fertility. 
In many districts seed trees are wanting; repeated fires have killed 
both mother tree and seedlings, and nature must be assisted if any- 
thing is to be accomplished in reasonable time. In most sandy pinery 
lands where the fires have made a clean sweep the work does not 
require much preparation, and a very cheap beginning can be made by 
planting a much smaller number (say 500 per acre) than is really needed 
to make a satisfactory stand. These plants, together with the Poplar, 
Birch, and other brush, soon make a cover for the ground, the young 
Pine rapidly grows into marketable wood, and at the age of twenty and 
less it begins to shed an abundance of seed, so that before the first 
trees are ready to cut every foot of ground would be covered by a 
promising pine thicket. 
Where the ground is covered with large quantities of dead and down 
timber, and especially where dense thickets of fire-killed brushwood 
offer serious obstacles to any sylvicultural processes, fire may have to 
be resorted to as a cheap and rapid means of clearing. The outlay for 
all work of this kind need be made but once; the forest once estab- 
lished will be permanent, and by judicious logging and adequate pro- 
tection against fire it will renew itself indefinitely. 
Of equal and perhaps greater importance than the choice of proper 
methods will be the selection of the proper trees to plant. Among the 
native growth the pines are preferable to the hard woods, and the 
White Pine is foremost in this as in every other respect. Nevertheless, 
Red (Norway) Pine and even Jack Pine will prove of great value and 
