rdly be made to pay on a small lot with hired labor
or hired teams, and you must not pay much for your wood lot, else
interest and taxes will eat up the returns.

To be of high quality, timber must be, to a considerable proportion
of its height, free of limbs, which are the cause of knots; it must
be tall; and it must not decrease rapidly in diameter from the butt
to the top of the last log. In a dense stand of timber there is very
great competition for sunlight among the individual trees, with the
result that height growth is increased. Trees in crowded stands are
taller than those in uncrowded stands of the same age. When the
trees are crowded so that sunlight does not reach the lower
branches, these soon die and become brittle they then fall off or
are broken off by the wind, snow, or other agencies. By this process
trunks are formed which are free from limbs, and hence of high
quality.

It is evident, therefore, that trees in the wood lot should be so
crowded that the crown or top of each individual tree may be in
contact with those of its nearest neighbors. A crowded stand of
trees produces not only a larger number but also a greater
proportion of high quality sawlogs than an uncrowded stand. So vital
a matter is their forest shade that it does not do to set out young
trees which have grown in the forest. Ordinarily, the exposure to
the sunlight stunts them and often kills them. Nursery trees are
best; the next best are trees that have grown at the edge of the
woods.

The actual value of woodland as pasture is small. One dollar per
acre per year is probably a liberal estimate of the value of its
forage. Thrifty fully stocked stands of timber will grow at the rate
of 250 or more board feet of lumber per year. Adopting only 250
board feet as the growth and assuming the value of the standing
timber to be from $5 to $8 per 1000 feet board measure, the value of
the timber growth is from $1.25 to $2 per acre per year.

If the timber is given good care, moreover, the growth should be as
much as 500 board feet per acre per year. The larger value of the
wood lot for growing timber, as compared to the value of its forage
only, is therefore apparent.

It must not be thought possible to secure this growth of timber and
utilize the wood lot for pasture at the same time, because the stock
eat the seedlings and damage the trees.

If shade, however, rather than forage is the wood lot's chief value
to stock, it can doubtle