Show Ii GROWING APPRECIATION OF THE FORESTS FOREST I r j t. t te e 4 I S 'S s A Fine Example of the Beautiful Sil Silver ver Birch Graceful Birch Graceful and Symmetrical Dy fly GIFFORD PINCHOT 1 This is the time of or awakening I Everywhere new ideas are meeting hospitable treatment and are gaining I ground Little by little the fact that the farm has a larger place In the national national national na na- na- na economy than merely to furnish the raw material of ot food and clothing has come to be recognized among tie us Not less striking than the growing interest in the farm is the growing appreciation of ot the forest and we realize fully rully that not only through the supplying of timber but by Its control control control con con- over streams and winds Its function function rune tion as a preserver of the soil soli against erosion and in many other ways it tt Iea isa la is laa a national necessity When therefore the farm and the forest meet we have havea a question of at the most genuine public importance We are accustomed to think of ot the national forests as enormous in area covering as they do as man many acres neres as all the New England states together with New York New Jersey Pennsylvania Pennsyl Pennsyl- vania vanla Delaware Maryland and Vir ginia Yet the area of forest in farmers farmers farmers' farm larm- ers ers ers' wood lots is larger still while the farmers themselves are the largest class of at direct users of at the forest The wise handling of the wood lot therefore is a matter of ot grave concern concern concern con con- cern to the farmer larmer as well as ae to the tho nation Wood lots differ durer so widely 1 It u uthe the kinds the age and condition of trees of which they are made up that thai it is extremely difficult to lay down definite rules for handling them First of all leave some trees of ot good kinds for seed It Is natural to cut most heavily the best timber limber but the tho result of ot that is always to diminish the number and therefore the seed seed- producing g capacity of at those best trees in the forest We must be careful that the most valuable species of ot trees have a chance to reproduce their kind Second remember in thinning the forest the Important point Is not how closely together the trunks of ot the trees stand but how much they Interfere Inter fere fore with each other In the tops Thinning Thinning Thinning Thin Thin- ning should be done strictly with reference ref ret to the tops of the trees and the location of the trunks with regard to each other may safely be disregarded Third when a tree I la is down If there is young growth on the ground upon which It falls the top should be cut cutup cutup cutup up and the branches piled plied as soon as possible Young trees bent down but bitt soon released recover speedily Young trees long bent over may be permanently permanently perma perma- ruined and the less cutting that is done while leaves are on the trees the better for the future of or the forest |