the co-operation of one’s neighbors in protecting the adjoining woodlands, because the dangers from insects, disease and fire threatening one bit of woodland area are more or less dependent upon the conditions in the adjoining woodland.

[Illustration:  FIG. 143.—­Poster Suitable for Private Woodlands and Forest Parks.  The translations in Italian and Polish have been used by the writer in this particular instance to meet the local needs.]

As to other forms of protection, passing mention may be made of the importance of keeping out cattle, sheep and hogs from the woods, of eliminating all insects and disease, of keeping the ground free from brush and other inflammable material, of retaining on the ground all fallen leaves and keeping the forest well stocked with little trees and shrubs.

Forest lands may be exempted from taxation:  In New York and other States
    there exists a State law providing for exemption or reduction in
    taxes upon lands which are planted with forest trees or maintained
    as wooded areas.  The object of the law is to encourage home forestry
    and to establish fairness in the agricultural land-tax law by
    placing forest lands in the same category with other crop-producing
    lands.  For detailed information and a copy of the law, one should
    address the local State Forestry Commission.

CHAPTER VIII

OUR COMMON WOODS:  THEIR IDENTIFICATION, PROPERTIES AND USES

Woods have different values for various practical purposes because of their peculiarities in structure.  A knowledge of the structural parts of wood is therefore necessary as a means of recognizing the wood and of determining why one piece is stronger, heavier, tougher, or better adapted for a given service than another.

Structure of wood:  If one examines a cross-section of the bole of a
    tree, he will note that it is composed of several distinct parts, as
    shown in Fig. 145.  At the very center is a small core of soft tissue
    known as the pith.  It is of much the same structure as the pith of
    cornstalk or elder, with which all are familiar.  At the outside is
    the bark, which forms a protective covering over the entire woody
    system.  In any but the younger stems, the bark is composed of an
    inner, live layer, and an outer or dead portion.

Between the pith at the center and the bark at the outside is the wood.  It will be noted that the portion next to the bark is white or yellowish in color.  This is the sapwood.  It is principally through the sapwood that the water taken in by the roots is carried up to the leaves.  In some cases the sapwood is very thin and in others it is very thick, depending partly on the kind of tree, and partly on its age and vigor.  The more leaves on a tree the more sapwood it must have to supply them with moisture.

[Illustration:  FIG. 144.—­Pine Wood. (Magnified 30 times.)]