USING BLIGHTED CHESTNUT 



HOW chestnut timber that has 

 been killed by the bark disease 

 can be utilized to bring the 

 most profit is told by the De- 

 partment of Agriculture in a bulletin 

 just issued for the benefit of farmers 

 and other timberland owners in the 

 States where the blight has appeared. 

 Most of the chestnut timber north of the 

 T'otomac River has been attacked and 

 much of it killed by the disease, which 

 is now spreading to Virginia and West 

 \'irginia. 



Sound wood from dead chestnut 

 trees is fully as strong as wood from 

 healthy trees, and is suitable for poles, 

 lumber, ties, slack cooperage, mine tim- 

 bers, tannin extract wood, shingles, 

 fence posts and rails, piles, veneer, and 

 fuel. It can not be used profitably for 

 tight cooperage, for wood distillation, 

 or for excelsior. 



Disease-killed chestnut does not be- 

 gin to deteriorate until two years after 

 death, and in most cases it has been 

 found that trees up to 10 inches in di- 

 ameter can be sawed into merchantable 

 products after they have been dead four 

 years, trees from 10 to 18 inches in di- 

 ameter after thev have been dead five 



years, while trees above 18 inches in di- 

 ameter are merchantable six years after 

 death. It is best, however, to cut and 

 utilize infected trees as soon as possible 

 after they are attacked. Diseased tim- 

 ber is still live timber, and can be sold 

 such, while dead timber, even 



as 



though sound, always presents difficul- 

 ties in felling, manufacturing, and mar- 

 keting. 



In deciding what product to manu- 

 facture from his stand the farmer, or 

 other timberland owner, should first 

 consider his own needs for fuel, fence 

 posts and rails, split shingles, construc- 

 tion material for barns and sheds, or 

 even interior finish for a new house. If 

 a woodlot owner has more dead timber 

 than he can use himself or dispose of to 

 his neighbors, he should consider mak- 

 ing one or more of the following prod- 

 ucts to be sold to dealers, railroads, or 

 manufacturing plants : Poles, sawlogs, 

 hewn ties, slack cooperage bolts, tannin 

 extract cordwood. mine timbers, and 

 cordwood for brickyards, lime kilns, 

 brass factories, iron foundries, etc. Any 

 of these products can be made with the 

 tools kept on every farm. 



Planting Three Million. 



Nearly three million young trees are being set out this spring on the national forests of 

 northern Idaho and Montana. On the St. Joe National Forest in Idaho three thousand 

 acres will be planted. 



Students at the Forest jVursery. 



Students of the Oregon Agricultural College are working at the forest nursery on the 

 Siuslaw forest. The arrangement is said.to be mutually satisfactory, since the students gain 

 experience in forest nursery practice and their assistance lowers the cost of nursery work. 



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