The Sully County watchman. (Clifton, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1894, 1888-10-27
FOR THE FARMER.
The Necessity for Improving Woods and
Woodlands on Farms-Thc Culture OF
Wheat.
The Inhdelity Among Farmers with Refer
ence to Working at "a Prohibition
to Feed Cows, etc.
Woods and Woodlands.

TO Eeed Cows, etc.
Woods and Woodlands.
In no branch of agriculture. perhaps,
do tho people of the United States so
need instruction now rs in all matters
relating to the care and improvement
of the woods and woodlands connected
with farms. The following. printed
| from a recent issue of the Canadian
Horticultnrist, is tull of wise sugges-
| tionS:
alt is generally admitted that the
forests ought not to be pasturcd, and
there may be few lots from which
cattle are excluded; but I have not
heard of anything more being done,
and it would be hard to say what
should be the next advice to farmers
or to forest owners. | notice in the
last report on prize farms, in Ontario,
it is said that on one of the best of them
the wood lot was cleaned up and care
fully seeded to grass, and that, since
the farm has been drained, the black
ash trees are dying. This is q manage
ment which seems contrary to all prin-
ciplcs of forestry, as far as concerns
the growth and life of the trees; for
the first requisite in forest life is to
keep the ground fully shaded - so
much so that grass can not grow-to
keep it moist and free from packing,
or the tracking of cattle, and to en-
courage such n growth that drying
winds may not enter.
''lt seems to me that rs soon as
| wood gets so thin that grass is seen its
effectual growth is done, and it will
pay better to cut off one or more acres
and convert into good meadow land,
and if need be TO plant out an acre of
old field with seedlings from the same
or other forests.
~ do not find in the best forests
more than fifty large trees per acre,
and we know that NAPLES or other
trees at eight feet apart, $50 to the
acre, can be grown till they will make
half cord of wood each: and if they
are thinned judiciously, or, in any case,
| if really in vigorous life, they will in
crease faster than any old forest.
'To preserve wood lot, If the trees
are only of fair size, thick enough,
and few or no dead tops showing, l
think it will answer the purpose if it is
| fenced into one of the ordinary culti-
waited fields; what pasturing with cattle
may occur in a rotation will not like
" injurc it, rs they will not touch
trees if they can get anything else to
| eat.
If very open and exposed to winds
it would be well to inclOse the bush
with fast-growing hedge, and in any
| really open place put in seedlings till
the ground is properly covered. Any
inclosed wood | have seen soon gets
such a growth OF young trees about
the margin that it is hard work to get
into it, and if the main trees are not
too old, will, in time, make heavy
bush.
but have no intention of doing
| this, unless, on Il careful survey, the
| bush turns out better than it appears
ut glance. After counting out the
| large dead tops, the swamp clms, hol-
| low basSwoOds. and short-liyed IRON
| woods and balsamS. there will hardly
| be enough worth saving. and these
woods have been oVerrun with stock
| so long that the underground amounts
| to little. / intend, therefor. 10 close
off the old bush gradually (kceping
| stock out III the meantime) one or more
acres at time, as may be needed for
fuel, etc, and then in proper place for
| forest and shelter, or on the land in
| convenient TO cultivate, begin II new
forest by planting out regularly just
such trees as | want for fuel, manu-
| featuring, or protection. 10 bc ready bv
the time the old forest has been cut
| away.
''lf the growing trees are of Il vaiu-
| able kind and the owner has skill and
Il Il,
cious thinning, any old forest can be
rapidly improved, but | fancy most
proprietors will leave to thoughtless
| employe to do the wood cutting, and
it often happens that to pick out in
| ferior or dying scattered trees will
make the wood dearcr than TO buy it.
and it may do serious injury. find
| it stated in late Ontario report that
| the owner removed the worthless elms
from lot and soon after found that
| he had done too much thinning, for
| the other, and what he thought yalu-
| able trees, ceased growing and soon
| began to fail, and, rs n rule, il will be
safer to depend on the new planting
| for the future forest, ut least on such
small lots rs our farms will retain.
ITO me ii is much more encourage
| ing, for in laying out the forest, the
various trees. the maple for fuel; the
| hickory, ash, and oak for the factory;
| the cherry, Eastwood, and walnut for
indoor use; the pine and cedar for out
side; feel if | were furnishing the
property with IN attraction for myself
and future owners more than by the
biggest castle | could find room for on
the highest hill"
The Cultivation Of Wheat.
have raised thirty-iive bushels of
winter wheat to the acre by the follow
| ing culture, SAYS Col. Curtis in the