Pra•tiryt1 srtyy•stio)/s. have spoken of the wood lot as Nature makes it. By a little thought and effort, the owner may add greatly to its value for his purposes. Nature plays no favorites is satisfied if poplar trees can hold the field against hickories and pines. By the farmer, IH)plars and willows are usually counted as weeds in his wood lot. lie takes them out to give other saplings a hotter chance. If he is short of time, he will girdle the trees, which causes the leaves to fall, and lets the sunlight in. The removal of the dead trees should be attended to as soon as possible. Seed trees should be left standing here and there. A fine hickory will supply the chil dren and the squirrels with nuts, :Ind then have some left with which to plant its neighborhood with little hickories. It is good to let such a tree thus impress itself on the wood lot before it is taken out. It is a useful habit to pick up an acorn or a nut as one passes under the tree and to drop it wherever one would like to see a tree of that kind growing. Ill these seeds are pressed into the leaf mold with the foot they are more likely to miss detection by squirrels, and to grow. Gradually the wood lot may become a grove of hardwood trees, if one is interested and faithful in gathering and scattering seeds. They grow more slowly than the softwood trees, but they have, as a rule, greater value for the farmer's use. When they are introduced by seeds gradually from the first, the waiting tune does not seem so much longer than that for the shorter-lived, quicker-growing sorts.
The thinning of trees as they grow by the cutting out of all but the most promising saplings is a labor that is amply repaid in a small area. The chafing of limbs by two neighboring trees may cost the life of both. The taking out of dead brandies from trees also pays.
So does the gathering of dead wood such as litters the floor of the woods. This may seem at first like unnecessary "clearing up." Yet it is in rubbish of this sort that many insects and fungous diseases destructive to trees harbor and multiply. An occasional bonfire is a good thing in many ways. Much of this litter is not to be despised when converted into stovewood.
The sugar bush. —third maples often add to the annual income of the farm by their yield of maple sugar. The hill maples are said to be the most productive. Each tree should he given ample room. The more thickly branched it is the more sap it has. Another source of income is the fruit. of the various nut tiees,—the hickories, walnuts and chestnuts.
Woods special purposes. — By a little care the wood lot may be made an assembly of most of the native species of trees good for timber. Many are adapted to special purposes. The wood of hop Hornbeam has long been counted the best for levers—the blue beech for fork handles and rake teeth. The different oaks serve various ends—the elms and ashes each have particular suitability to certain definite uses.
The uncommercial side. — Beside these material benefits. the farmer may get from his wood lot. recreation and inspiration and release from cares. Here live the timid wood folk in fur and feathers. Here lurk wild flowers and ferns and mosses unknown in the open fields. The man of sensibilities finds in his •ood lot a wonderful spiritual and :esthetic uplift which comes from association with trees, especially with those that form a natural wildwo(d. To him and to his wife and children the \VuOd lot is at all seasons of the year a place of mystery delight.