215 



pany cuts the land practically clear, using all timber down to five or 

 six inches in diameter, including big limbs which are suitable for 

 staves or heading. The hardwoods are cut into various kinds of lumber 

 and handles, while the softwoods are cut into staves, heading, and 

 hoops. Durable species are made into fence posts, while the tops and 

 other slash are cut into cordwood and sold in the cities. They are 

 enabled to use hollow-butted logs and small wood, since they transport 

 all their timber to the mill on barges. Where rafts are used, this is 

 not possible, but the saving in waste would be likely to more than make 

 up for the higher cost of transportation by barge. Some large mills 

 cut both hardwoods and softwoods into lumber. 



In another locality the hardwoods and all softwoods below a 

 certain diameter limit are owned by one company, and the softwoods 

 above this diameter by another. In this case the hardwoods were 

 barged, but the softwoods were rafted to the mills. The small hard- 

 woods and softwoods were later cut into ties or wagon stock by small 

 portable mills. While this system should result in close utilization, the 

 lack of good organization caused considerable waste. Several cuttings 

 over one area resulted in logs and merchantable trees being left in the 

 woods, and the timber was not used for the highest possible grade of 

 products. Then, too, there was considerable loss of time and labor. 

 Rafting meant the leaving of many unfloatable logs, and some which 

 floated at first sunk before they reached their destination. The market 

 for cordwood was not good, and no attempt was made to utilize such 

 material. Tops fit for ties were left because hard to cut. 



Large mills seldom care about the condition in which they leave the 

 forest, since they either do not own the land or are not permanent 

 owners. After getting their profit from the timber, they expect to sell 

 the cut-over land for what it will bring. 



Fortunately, a greater part of the land controlled by the mill owners 

 is not permanent forest land, and is either now available for agricul- 

 tural purposes or will be in the future when improvements for con- 

 trolling and preventing floods are completed. Although there are areas 

 where the curtailment of the present cut would allow of a second profit- 

 able operation in ten to twenty years, most of the mills can not wait 

 so long, lacking a sufficient supply to tide them over the interval. In 

 this case, forest management of such lands is impossible, and all efforts 

 in the line of forestry should be directed to obtaining closer utilization. 



The amount of timber sawed during 1909 in the counties covered 

 in this investigation, is shown in Table VII. Material brought in from 

 other states is excluded. These figures are compiled from reports 

 secured by the Forest Service in cooperation with the Bureau of the 

 Census. 



