The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1904-10-14

AssA o~ 9~PHAAS0 VI AAAs~S~A A~sA ava AO0s"~ W.
sumption.
It happens that chestnut is especially
fitted for management in farmers wood
lots. Before scientific forestry began to
be heard of in the United States, and
when forest preservation was not I'M
commonly talked about as sentimental
fad, the thrifty owners of the small
tracts of woodland which cover so much
of southern New England, New York,
Pennsylvania, and neighboring states
had long been cutting successive crops
of the hardwoods which sprout rapidly
from the stump, thus practicing more or
less rudely what the forester calls the
pure coppice" method of management
The superior market for chestnut, COM
bined with it's rapid growth, gave it, on
the whole, the leading place in the es-
TEEN of these wo0dlOt owners, who by
winter cutting were able to turn to good
account time for which farm occupa-
lions gave no other employment.
The results of study recently con-
Quoted and soon to be published by the
bureau of forestry show strikingly the
advantages of chestnut for this kind Of
management, and at the same time sug-
gest some very practical conclusions
concerning how the methods now in
vogue may be improved. Like other
trees which reproduce by sprouting,
chestnut loses it's vigor when the root
system becomes too old. Trees grown
from seed increase, both in height and
bulk, more slowly for many years than
those grown as sprouts from the stump.
But by the time the trees are from 80 to
100 years old the Seeding trees will catch
up, and eventually reach larger size
than. the Others. For ordinary --nses,
however, chestnut is cut long before this
age is reached, and coppicing is there
fore the best way to raise it. But unless
new seeding growth starts in the forest
along with the sprout growth, the de-
clining vigor of the old root systems
will result in smaller and smaller pro-
duction until only a sickly stand of
inferior timber is left to draw on.
Chestnut tends to prduce seed abun-
dainty, and if the nuts were left to SOW
themselves the forest would take care
of itself very we'll. But crows and squir-
rels and other animals levy heavy toll.
Far more formidable, however, in we'll
settled regions, are the gatherers of nuts
for the market. With chestnuts selling
at an average of $3.50 bushel there is
a premium on the seed crop which
makes propagation of the tree through
this means a matter of dubious chance.
When in addition the hogs are permit
ted to range the woods for mast. and
cattle to browse the tender shoots as
they rise from the ground, the prospect
of Seeding growth is small indeed.
Chestnut is not exacting in it's soil re-
quirements. It's roots spread COMPARE
lively deep, so that it is not so sensitive
to fire or humus destruction from any
cause as most species. It's sprouts grow
so fast that height of seven or eight
feet at the end of the first season is not
uncommon, and its stumps are so Wig
orous that one will often produce 40 to
SO sprouts. Not more than one in eight
or ten of these will mature, but by Sc
lecting the most promising the full yigor
of the parent stump may be concen-
trated on them to the great improve
ment of their rate of growth. The co.
servations made by the bureau have
proved that low stumps produce more
vigorous sprouts than high ones, and
that winter or spring cutting is fol-
lowed by better results than that done
in the summer or fall. Telephone poles
are grown, in Maryland, from healthy
stumps in from IS to 80 years, and ties
may proftably be cut in about 20 years.
Too early cutting of ties should be dis
couraged as wasteful in the long run.
The practice of permitting contractors
to cut unrestrictedly for given sum is
one which works much injury to the
permanent productiveness Of the woods.