1 Jax., 1900.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. : 51 
By far the greater amount of such work has, however, been done by 
farmers and other owners of small tracts of woodland. Very many farmers 
have made a practice of thinning their wood lots with care, first removing the 
dead, dying, or unpromising trees, and then letting the remainder stand in 
order to utilise the growth of the trees, and to obtain continually from the 
wood lot firewood na abi material for the farm, and occasionally a crop of 
larger trees for the market. Other farmers. again, devote a number of acres to 
the production of hardwood sprouts for fuel. They cut over the land every 25 
or 30 years, and calculate that from one-half to one cord of wood is produced. 
annually by this system of forestry. 
_ Tree-planting on waste places on the farm is yet another kind of forestry 
which has been practised. Work of this character is now widespread, and much 
of it has been accomplished. In New England there are numerous instances of 
planting white pine on waste places with excellent results, and in Massa- 
chusetts the planting of larch has proved highly satisfactory. Many farmers 
ave found it profitable to plant locust and red cedar for fence posts, and in 
More than one case the cultivation of black walnut has brought larger returns. 
In the central west the fast-growing catalpa and the ailanthus have produced. 
Temarkable results in short periods in the hands of private growers. 
A distinct branch of tree-planting is practised in the treeless States of the 
West. There, in addition to the uses to which their wood is put, trees have 
proved of great value in the form of windbreaks. In these cases the best 
results haye generally been obtained from the osage orange, catalpa, maple, elm, 
box elder, N orway spruce, Scotch pine, and others, according to differing local 
conditions, 
There is yet another use to which tree- lanting has been ies Along the 
anks of streams trees have been set to fix the fast eroding soil and to prevent 
increasing floods; and on cultivated hillsides which have begun to gully from 
the washing of rain, trees have been made to do good service in checking the 
“Xcexsive surface drainage and saving the fertile soil. ; 
The protection of woodlands from fire forms one of the most important 
branches of forestry which has been practised in the United States. indeed, 
without such protection any efforts to cut the timber with a view to reproduc- 
ton or to plant new forests are useless. Various measures to guard against 
Orest fires have been adopted in different localities. For example, in the 
antic pine belt many forest-owners burn off the upper layer of leaves and 
pees in the early spring in order to prevent the spread of fire later in the 
ason, 
Tn Michigan, lumbermen have endeavoured to lessen the danger from fire 
by Jopping and burning the brush left after lumbering. The cutting of fire 
Strips along railroads, and even within the forest itself, has been used as a 
precaution against fires. But a common and very effective way to guard against 
+° 18 careful watching. Many large owners of forest land employ a number 
a men as a fire patrol, and often an extra crew of watchers is hired during the 
angerously dry seasons. In the same way many lumber companies which own 
°gging eitacnt employ a man to follow the trains and put out any fires that 
May be started. 
fits nas foregoing is extracted from a circular by Gifford Pinchot, forester of 
Cave: nited States Department of Agriculture. The year-book of 1899 will 
¢ asist of a résumé of the achievements of this country in every branch of 
“ence relating to agriculture, and will be prepared with a view to its special 
sh bution at the Paris Exposition. The division of forestry will contribute a 
ort history of forestry in the United States, and also an account of the efforts 
wi paseo landowners to apply the principles of forestry. An impression 
mn the prevails abroad that little or nothing has been done in the United States 
oushe way of forestry. This impression, Mr. Pinchot thinks, the year-book 
ae to remove, and, in seeking information regarding such forest work as has 
any qe sttbed, he earnestly invites correspondence from those who have done 
Y work along the lines of forestry. — Florida Agriculturist. 
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