Another example is a stand of old-field white pine. When taken in hand the main body of the stand was about fifty years old, with scattering trees that were older. The older ones, or wolf trees, had a start over the others and had developed large side limbs ; they were not fit for anything except the cheapest kind of lumber. The main body of the stand was too dense, and, with the help of the large wolf trees, was beginning to choke itself into a stunted condition. The stand ran about thirty-five cords to the acre. It was thinned moderately, by removing some of the intermediate and suppressed trees. Where the large wolf trees could be thrown without injury to the better growth, or without leaving too large an opening, they were taken out. Six cords of firewood and over a thousand feet of boxboards per acre were secured from the thinning. The stand may be let alone for some ten years, when it can be decided whether to cut the crop or treat it to another thinning, and allow it to grow a while longer.
Another example of a mismanaged woodlot may be cited as illustrating very different conditions. The stand was composed in part of very old chest nuts and oaks, some of them three or four feet through ; and under these there was a more or less complete under-stand of chestnut, oak, birch, maple and hemlock. The party who controlled the property had been making the mistake of refusing to allow any trees to be cut ; and the result was that the large trees were deteriorating and the younger ones were much too crowded. The lot was gone over carefully, and a part of the large trees removed, and at the same time a very moderate thinning was executed in the smaller growth. Care was exercised in throwing the large trees, and the smaller ones were not broken to any great extent. As reproduction was abundant in the places where no under-stand existed, it was not necessary to resort to planting. The treatment was successful financially as well as silviculturally.
Literature.
Schlich, A Manual of Forestry, Vol. II, Part HI, London, Bradbury, Agnew & Co.; The Woodlot, Graves & Fisher, Washington, United States Forest Service ; Alfred Akerman, Forest Thinning, Boston, Massachusetts State Forest Service.
Harvesting and Marketing the Timber Crop.
Perhaps the most important step in the manage ment of a timber crop is the harvesting, as on it depends the future existence and usefulness of the crop. This is strikingly true of the farm woodlot, in which every care must be exercised to perpetu ate the crop in its most productive condition, to meet the annual requirements of the owner, and at the same time to be a source of income. The prac
tices employed in harvesting the woodlot and the forest crop have many points of difference, and at the same time have much in common. A discus sion of the practices employed in harvesting tim ber on a large scale will be suggestive to the thoughtful reader, and will enable him better to direct his efforts in a small way; and the few points regarding the harvesting of the farm wood lot that need especially to be noticed will be more easily comprehended.
-11,thods of harvesting.
There are two distinct methods of harvesting forest crops practiced in the United States,—clean cutting and selection cutting. Each has its ad vantages and advocates.
(lean cutting has been practiced more exten sively in the past, and it is still in vogue where timber is plentiful. It has the advantage of free dom of action, little or no attention being given to saving young trees for future crops ; the ground is gone over but once to secure the marketable ma terial ; and economy of logging and milling opera tions is effected. Clean cutting is the most prac tical method where the trees are even-aged or are of nearly the same size, all having reached a stage when growth is slow or has nearly ceased, and practically all are ready for the harvest. This is frequently the best method in coniferous forests, where there is often but little undergrowth. Some lumbermen who have had wide experience in cut ting hard-woods, including broad-leaf trees, in sist that this is the most practical method even under those conditions. In the case of clear plant ings that have reached the proper stage, clean cutting is used for final harvest, thinnings having been removed from time to time.
When this method is to be employed, in order to know approximately the quantity of timber, it is customary to engage a timber- cruiser, who passes through the timber along more or less definite lines making careful observation to the right and left, estimating the quantity of tim ber of each kind as he passes. Record is made of the estimate of each part of a section, and at the end the estimates are summarized. It requires a man of much experience in a particular kind of timber to be of any value as a cruiser. A man habituated to the timber in the lake or gulf states would be at a loss among the redwoods and sugar pines of the West.