Harvesting the woodlot.
Much of what has been said applies to the farm woodlot. A few facts of special significance to the woodlot, however, should be pointed out. The farmer very frequently finds himself with a poor, thin wood crop. The best species have been removed, and the crooked and im perfect trees have been left ; and this, too, without any justification. The main demand on the woodlot is for firewood, posts and poles, and, occasionally, a little dimension stuff. ' This can all be had to the improve ment of the woodlot, when the har vesting is done judiciously. The point to keep in mind in handling the farm woodlot is to perpetuate it and make it a constant source of income. The method of harvesting will finally be determined by the purpose for which the product is desired.
Clean cutting is admissable only when there are a number of mature, valuable trees, with little or no undergrowth, and when the protection afforded by the woods is not important. If the area is to be con tinued as a woodland, then replanting by seed or seedlings is resorted to.
Under other conditions, selection cutting should be employed. For firewood, posts, poles and similar requirements, the dead or dying, slower-growing, undesirable species and forest weeds should be removed. For dimension stuff, only the mature trees should be taken. Care must be exercised in the selection of the cutting, in order that the conditions for the best growth of the remain ing trees and the re-occupancy of the opened spaces may be promoted. It is important that the open spaces be filled either by nat ural growth or by planted seedlings. Judg ment is required in the felling of the trees to avoid damage to the surrounding trees and to the undergrowth. The logs must be snaked out where they will least harm the seedlings.
When considerable di mension stuff is removed, a portable sawmill may be employed and placed in or near the woodlot.
Frequently the logs are sledded to the local saw mill.
In colder regions the time for this work will be in winter when other farm work is not so pres sing and when the logs and lumber can be moved on sleighs. Whether in summer or winter, a pair of skidding tongs will be found useful for rolling up logs, where they can he handled with a chain or for dragging them out of inconvenient places. A cant-hook is a convenience that one can not afford to be without.
Roads should be made with sore care because nearly all young stuff is killed by driving over it a few times, and new growth does not come in for many years. Frequently a little drainage of wet places will prove very profitable.
The details of handling team, chain, sleighs and trucks can best be learned by experience.
Marketing limber crops.
The marketing of timber crops differs from that of any other farm product in several particulars.
Meats are sold by the pound, eggs by the dozen, coal by the ton, grain by measure or weight, each hav ing its standard of denomination. Timber crops are sold by the tree, acre, thousand-feet board measure, cubic foot. pound and even by the sack. The stand ard cord is 12S cubic feet, or a pile 8 x 4 x 4 feet ; but in different localities the cord varies according to the uniform length of pieces composing it. Logs that will scale a thousand feet will generally make a little more than a standard cord of wood.
A timber crop is an accumulation of annual growths, the nature of the plant making it impos sible to market the annual growth each year. If the market conditions are not right one year, the crop may wait for even a score or more of years, or until such time as seems most favorable. The market for the crop has its ups and downs, but not nearly to the same extent as that of a perishable crop. The time and method of marketing will vary with the character of the crop itself, which varies in volume from the small willow whips only two feet in length, to the massive sequoias, the greatest of nature's organized products.
It is to the interest of the purchasing agent to buy lumber at the lowest possible price, for a thing well bought is half sold. He therefore tries to per suade the owner that his timber is not growing very fast, that some trees show evidence of decay and death, and that substitutes are on the increase, all of which may be true enough and yet not be sufficient reasons for making immediate sale. The growing rate of timber can be determined as well by the owner as by the purchaser. The area of the stump of a tree in square feet multiplied by one half the height gives the approximate number of cubic feet in the tree. If, now, the thickness of the ten outer rings be determined, and the diameter be reduced by double this amount, we can estimate the volume of the tree ten years ago. Since the height of nearly or quite mature stands varies but little, the same height-factor may be repeatedly used. About eighty-five of the cubic feet thus de termined, when cut, will make a standard cord of wood and other lengths in proportion. The increase in volume of saw timber can best be determined by cutting some of the most typical average trees into logs, and with Scribner's, Doyle's, Bauman's, or some other log book in hand, figure the board feet at present, and then by reducing the diameter by double the thickness of the ten outer rings it will give the board feet ten years before. The Wood man's Handbook, Part I, Bulletin No. 36, Forest Service of the United States Depart ment of Agriculture, contains over forty log rules, besides •much other information valuable to the man who handles timber.