782 



A^IERICAN FORESTRY 



Oak, basswood and cherry will also be 

 favored. These are the most valuable 

 and rapidly growing species, and all will 

 find a ready market in the near vicinity. 

 There is an especially good market in 

 the neighboring cities for poles, posts, 

 ties, cordwood, and box-boards. The 

 soil and site conditions, moreover, are 

 very favorable for forest growth. The 

 species that will be discriminated 

 against are the hemlock, soft maple, 

 aspen, beech, and ironwood, owing to 

 their slow rate of growth, difficulty of 

 silvicultural treatment and relatively in- 

 ferior quality of wood produced. 



In putting the tract under scientific 

 forest management the first operation 

 was to make a topographic map of the 

 area to ascertain the boundaries and the 

 configuration of the land. Along with 

 this, an estimate was made to determine 

 the character of the forest and to take 

 stock of the amount of cordwood and 

 lumber that is now standing on the 

 tract. 



For the purposes of fire protection, 

 trails three feet wide were cut down to 

 mineral soil on the boundaries, where 

 no protection such as the lake and roads 

 were afiforded, to prevent destructive 

 surface fires either from coming over 

 from adjacent timber land or from 

 spreading from the city forest. An im- 

 provement cutting was next made to 

 clean out all the dead, diseased and 

 insect-infested trees and to discriminate 

 against the inferior in favor of the more 

 desirable species. In this operation, an 

 excellent opportunity was given to dis- 

 play the fine points of the forester's 

 knowledge of the proper handling and 

 improvement of woodlands. In connec- 

 tion with this work four permanent ex- 

 perimental plots were laid out for the 

 purpose of studying the rate of growth 

 of the dififerent species and the efi^ects 

 of dififerent methods of silvicultural 

 treatment. 



Based upon evidences of a rapid rate 

 of growth as a result of unusually fa- 

 vorable soil conditions, the growth is 

 estimated to be at least one cord of 

 wood per acre per annum. With care- 

 ful treatment this rate of increment laid 

 on each year should be materially in- 

 creased. Thinnings made about every 



tenth year should easily pay for them- 

 selves. It is planned, also, to plant up 

 some open waste areas and part of the 

 tract where the forest cover is not suf- 

 ficiently dense with white pine, Norway 

 pine and Scotch pine. The city forest 

 is especially well favored in its location 

 and soil conditions for successful forest 

 plantations, and there is every evidence 

 that these species can be brought to 

 merchantable size in from thirty to fifty 

 years, depending upon the kind of 

 product that is desired on the markets. 

 The portion of the tract to be planted 

 consists largely of stony old pastures 

 and fields once covered with apple 

 orchards. Already young seedlings of' 

 oak, ash, elm and poplar are appearing 

 in them. It will be more desirable and 

 profitable, however, to plant these areas 

 to white, Scotch or Norway pines on 

 account of their rapid growth and high 

 technical quality of the wood product, 

 particularly with the white and Nor- 

 way pines. For permanent forest man- 

 agement, it will undoubtedly be more 

 profitable, in the long run, to introduce 

 these rapidly growing conifers rather 

 than to continue with pure hardwoods. 

 Cicnerally speaking, hardwoods are 

 comparatively slow in growth and do 

 not grow so densely in the forest. This 

 consequently means a greater yield with 

 the conifers in a shorter length of time. 

 In Europe the most splendid exam- 

 ple of successful forestry is found in 

 the Sihlwald, the city forest of Zurich, 

 in northeastern Switzerland. This has 

 yielded an annual income per acre of 

 $7.57. Many municipal forests in Ger- 

 many have yielded a net income of over 

 $5.00 per acre annually, after all ex- 

 penses of administration and protection 

 have been deducted. In comparison 

 with agricultural yields, these figures 

 are not proportionately high. However, 

 when we consider that these forests are 

 occupying soils wholly unsuited and 

 unfit for tillage or more valuable pur- 

 poses, it is an excellent return on the 

 capital invested. In addition, these 

 forests are serving a real purpose in 

 putting otherwise waste lands to profit- 

 able use, in equalizing the stream flow to 

 prevent floods and in providing a cheap 

 and abundant fuel and lumber supply. 



