Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-08-21
THE CARE OF TREES
What is Being Done by Owners Of
Land.
TRUE PRINCIPLES OF FORESTRY
Waste Places Being Planted by
armers.
AGAINST FIRES

lie report OIL the SECRETARY Oi ASTlCul-
ture for 1888 contained a suggestion of the
propriety of having the next year book
contain resume of the achievements of
the United States in every branch of science
as related to agriculture during the nine
teenth century for distribution at the Paris
exposition The Secretary has since deter
mined to carry out this plan, and among
the articles will be one giving account
OF the efforts of private land owners to
apply tie principles of forestry
Referring to this matter Clifford Pinchot
forester. In recent statement, said:
AN impression widely prevails abroad
that little or nothing has been done in
the United States in the way of forestry
The year book ought to remove that i'm
preston. Though it cannot be held that
any considerable amount of work has been
done under the supervision of experts
trained in technical forestry, there is
nevertheless abundant evidence to show
that owners of woodlands have frequent
~ employed conservative methods in han
ding their wood crops and have otherwise
shown the desire and the ability to pre-
serve the forest without ceasing to use it:
and that farmers in the treeiess districts
and others, have greatly improved the
agricultural resources of their lands by
tree planting.
Aim of Forestry.
wherever private owners have made the
effort to utilize the merchantable timber
on their woodland without injuring it's
productive power, and to establish new
forests, there has been the intention of
true forestry. The methods used may have
been imperfect but they have tended
toward economic forest management so far
as their object was the continued use of
the land for producing forests. Usually
there are details in which these methods
could have been improved. yet in many
cases the systems of the trained forester
would be but notifications Of those al
ready used by the lumb arman or the
farmer. The same Is true of tree plant
Ing. Wherever the planter has chosen his
trees with intelligence and SO succeeded in
producing a useful plantation. there has
been the real spirit of forestry.
In the spruce lands of the northeast
for example, many lumbermen have come
to see that by leaving the small trees
standing they can return for a second
crop earlier than would otherwise be pos
sihle. and that this plan pays. In many
cases they are leaving the spruce which
measures less than ten inches in diameter
and in others that which measures less
than twelve inches. because the trees
der these sizes can be harvested with
greater profit if they left few years
to gain a larger growth. Similar work has
been done in other sections of the United
States. as, for instance. in the southern
pine belt, where repeated crops of long
leaf pine have been cut from the same
tract
Practices of Farmers.
by far the greater amount of such
work has, however, been done by farmers
and other owners of small tracts of wood
land. Very many farmers have made a
practice of thinning their wood lots with
care. first removing the dead. dying or I'M
promising trees, and then letting the
mainder stand. in order to utilize the
growth of the trees and to obtain continu-
ally from the wood lot firewood and other
material for the farm, and, occasionally, a
crop of larger trees for the market. Other
farmers, again. devote number of acres
to the production of hardwood sprouts for
fuel. They cut over the land every TWEEN
ty-five or thirty years, and calculate that
from One-half to one cord of wood is pro-
duced annually by this system Of forestry.
Tree planting on waste places on the farm
is yet another kind of forestry which has
been practiced. Work Of this character is
now widespread. and so much of 1t has
been accomplished that material for a thor
ough treatment of the subject is fast ac-
cumulatins In New England there are
numerous instances of planting white pine
on waste places with excellent results and
In Massachusetts the planting of larch has
proved highly satisfactory Many farmers
have found 1t profitable to plant locust and
red cedar for fence posts and in more than
one case the cultivation of black walnut
has brought large returns. In the central
west the fast-growing catalpa and the
ailanthus have produced remarkable re-
suits in short periods in the hands of pri-
vate growers.
Planting Trees in the West.
"a distinct branch of tree planting is
that practiced in the treeiess 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 wind breaks.
In these cases the best results have gen.
orally been obtained from the Usage orange,
catalpa. maple, elm. box elder, Norway
spruce. Scotch pine and others, according
to differing local conditions.
There is yet another to which tree
planting has been put. Along the banks of
streams trees have been set to fix the fast
eroding soil and to prevent the increasing
foods: and on cultivated hillsdes which
have begun to gully from the washing of
rain trees have been made to do good ser
vice in checking the excessive surface
drainage and saving the fertile soil
Protection From Fire.