279 
ing and this quick height growth does not take place. Enough 
hg^ht fihers down between the crowns to keep the side branches 
aHve and the resuh is hmby bole, producing knotty wood. 
Another result of not growing trees closely enough together is the 
production of a rank growth of weeds, berry bushes and grasses 
which absorb the moisture and nutriment from the upper layers of 
the soil to the detriment of the forest trees. 
One of the principal reasons w.hy farmers' woodlots are not pro- 
ducing the amount of wood they should is because they are not 
protected from their enemies. 
One of the worst enemies to a woodlot is the owner himself. 
By his lack of judgment in the selection of trees to cut, always 
removing the best tree he can find, he fills his woodlot with use- 
less trees. He grows so few trees to the acre that the ground be- 
comes clothed with weeds and grass. He exercises no care in the 
removal of trees, breaking neighboring trees and destroying the 
undergrowth. He gives no thought as to what trees shall grow in 
the place of those removed. By allowing continuous fires and 
grazing he utterly destroys conditions necessary for the proper 
growth of forest trees and jeopardizes the future of his woodlot 
by the destruction of young seedlings. 
Fire passing through a woodlot consumes the leaves and other 
vegetable debris that has accumulated. This vegetable material 
when allowed to remain acts as a mulch and by its decay furnishes 
food to the trees and forms humus which tends to retain moisture 
and keeps the soil light and fresh. If it is removed the soil is ex- 
posed to the sun and rain, causing it to become dry and hard. 
Fire kills the small seedlings and scorches the larger trees, often 
killing the cambium or growing layer just beneath the bark. The 
trees thus become weakened and exposed to the attacks of insects 
and fungi. A thrifty tree is seldom so attacked. 
Grazing produces a similar effect bv packing the ground, by 
killing small seedlings by browsing and trampling, and by gnaw- 
ing the bark a place of entrance for the spores of fungi is formed. 
It has been said that trees and cattle cannot be grown successfully 
on the same ground. 
Insects and fungi do immense damage to forest trees. Where 
trees have been weakened by fire or grazing:, they are especially 
liable to such attacks. By maintaining conditions favorable to the 
best and most thrifty tree growth, by removing weak and defec- 
tive trees instead of allowing them to remain and become diseased 
and so a menace to the more healthy trees, the owner of the wood- 
lot can, in a large measure, prevent the attacks of these enemies. 
Trees decay because of the growth of fungi in the wood. These 
low forms of plant life gain entrance through wounds in the bark 
caused by breaking of limbs, gnawing by animals and through 
wounds caused by fire. Many trees in the woodlot can be found 
rotten at the base where spores of fungi have found entrance 
through areas scorched and killed by surface fires. If the bark 
