ss be provided by allowing the stock to
range in only a portion of the lot. The remainder can more
profitably be devoted to the production of wood.

Owners are doubtless in some instances indifferent about fires in
their wood lots, because they do not realize that these may do great
harm without giving striking evidence of the fact. They burn the
fallen leaves and accumulated litter of several years, thus
destroying the material with which trees enrich their own soil. The
soil becomes exposed, evaporation is greater, and more of the rain
and melted snow runs off the surface. The roots may also be exposed
and burned. The vitality of the trees is weakened and their rate of
growth decreased. Don't burn leaves or waste growth: it is dangerous
and they are valuable for mulch and for manure.

It has been found in the prairie region that through the protection
afforded by the most efficient grove windbreaks, the yield in farm
crops is increased to the extent of a crop as large as could be
grown on a strip three times as wide as the height of the trees.

At present the following states maintain nurseries and distribute
young trees either free or practically at cost to planters within
the state: Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Dakota, and Kansas.

The names of nurseries which handle stock of certain trees and their
quoted prices for all the more important species can be secured from
the Forest Service, Washington, D. C.

Whether your wood lot pays a profit or not, like the profit from the
rest of your land, depends largely on how it is taxed. The higher it
is taxed the harder it is to make it pay. In most states timberland
is assessed on the basis of its value, timber and land together.
Woodland assessed on this basis is overtaxed as compared with land
assessed on the basis of what it produces each year. The value of
plowland for farm purposes is established by what it will earn. If
the owner can make $10 an acre a year over all expenses by growing
say wheat, corn, cotton or alfalfa on it, his land will have a value
of perhaps $150 an acre. If it took two years to grow a crop, the
land would be worth only half as much. Its owner in that case would
kick vigorously if he could not get his assessment lowered. He would
kick still more vigorously if he had to pay a tax also on the value
of the standing crop, after having to pay too much on the land. "The
Lord loveth a cheer