aspect of the farm-and there are few farms without these -a few trees, a small grove, will add to the thrifty appearance of the farm, make useful the otherwise waste spots, and serve as shelter to grazing cattle, etc.

Altogether, the farmer should realize that husbandry of soil and water is the secret of future success, and that successful water management is best attained by the maintenance of properly located and well-managed forest areas. There is much extravagant talk about the influence of forests on climate and on rainfall especially. We have but little definite knowledge on these subjects, but it takes no expert, only a little observation, to appreciate the effects of a wind-breaking timber belt on one's own feeling, and it takes but little reasoning to appreciate that the field crop in the shelter of the timber belt participates in this feeling. The dry winds are the great bane of field crops in the West, because they dissipate the moisture; a timber belt breaks their force and reduces thereby their evaporating power.

Just so it takes no great philosopher to see that when rain falls on naked ground it compacts that ground and by and by prevents itself from penetrating; the water is forced to drain up superficially and rapidly, instead of sinking into the ground and remaining there for the use of field crops. And that the washing and gullying of the soil is also a result of this rushing off of surface-waters, due to the clearing away of its plant-cover, requires no wise man to point out; every farmer experiences it more or less every year.

That any one farmer's neglect or the devastation of any small part of the forest growth should have an influence on the rainfall or climate of the whole country nobody should claim; but the conditions surrounding each particular farm, its local climate, soil, and water conditions, are changed, and finally the aggregate changes make themselves felt over the whole state.

Now as to the management of the wood-lot a few hints may be acceptable. The farmer may not necessarily employ the finer methods of managing the wood-crop, but by the mere application of common sense and a little knowledge of tree-life he may do better than he does at present.

He should at least observe the following rules:

I. Fire should be carefully kept out of the wood-lot, for it has in no way a beneficial effect. It kills not only the undergrowth, which is desirable because it helps to shade the soil, and injures, if it does not kill, the young tree growth, which is to take the place of the older growth, but the worst effect is that it consumes the vegetable mould which has accumulated by the fall and decay of leaves, twigs, and other vegetation, and which forms the manure, the fertility, of the soil. Fire is to be used only when through bad management or otherwise a dense undesirable undergrowth has come in, which it is too expensive to remove in other ways when the time for natural reproduction has come or planting is to be done. It must then be used with caution in early spring or late fall, before the brush is too dry, when the fire will smoulder rather than burn fiercely and can be kept within bounds.

2. Cattle must be kept out where young forest growth is to be fostered. Sheep and goats especially are of no benefit to wood-crops, but horses and cattle may be allowed to browse through the wood-lot where the young growth has passed out of their reach. Pigs are a benefit by working over the ground and thereby burying seeds, especially acorns but after the seed is so brought under ground where a young crop is expected to be reared next year they must be kept out. Altogether, the cattle and farm animals should be kept where you want them, and not where you. do not want them. Sometimes, however, the roaming of cattle may be beneficial by keeping down too dense impenetrable underbrush in young sapling growth.

It is better to so cut and manage the old timber that a desirable new growth will spring up than to cut clean and replant. Planting should be done only where there is no desirable natural tree growth. Hence where there is a wellestablished wood-lot, the whole management of the crop consists in proper cutting..

How this is best done cannot be described readily within the short space of this article, but every farmer who is interested in learning the principles of using the axe to

advantage in reproducing a wood crop or how to establish a wood-lot can obtain from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, free of charge, a pamphlet entitled "Forestry for Farmers," in which in plain language is discussed in detail how trees and forests grow, how to start a wood-crop, and how to manage the wood-lot.

It does not exhaust the subject, but merely teaches the first steps, and the thinking farmer will find his way of stepping farther.

NUMBER OF TREES ON AN ACRE.

(EGLESTON.)

The number of trees needed to plant an acre of ground,

at various distances apart, is as follows:

2 ft. apart each way 10,890 12 ft. apart each way... 302

Rows six feet apart, and trees one foot apart in the row,

7260 trees per acre.

Rows eight feet apart, and one foot apart in the row, 5445 trees per acre.

Rows ten feet apart, and one foot apart in the row, 4356 trees per acre.

One mile of wind-breaks or shelter-belt requires 528c trees, or cuttings for a single row one foot apart in the row.