310 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



the degree to which noxious plants require to be cleared away, it must 

 be remembered that in moderation they may act beneficially by shelter- 

 ing the very young trees ; hence, interference is not called for until they 

 actually become noxious. 



FOREST CONVERSION EXPERIMENT III 



The previous experiments concerned themselves with the removal or 

 overcoming of a growth which was not marketable. Experiments have 

 also been conducted in large-sized material. In 1911 a plantation of 

 34,000 white pine and 8.000 Scotch pine, covering an area of 30.8 acres, 

 was established on the Chatham State Forest, located in Tioga County 

 near the northern boundary of the State. The area at the time of 

 planting, was preoccupied by a scattered growth of sweet birch, paper 

 birch, trembling aspen, and large-toothed aspen. This natural advance 

 growth formed an excellent shelter for the young seedlings. Nature 

 supplied a protective cover gratuitously for the young trees, in many 

 respects similar to that which European foresters develop artificially 

 at a considerable expense. 



At the end of the 19 15 growing season the planted trees had attained 

 a height of 3 to 4 feet. It then became apparent that the shelter growth 

 which heretofore was a benefit to the planted trees was now becoming 

 a hindrance to their development. The reduced height growth and the 

 suffering appearance of the trees convinced Thomas Harbeson, the for- 

 ester in charge, that they needed immediate assistance. The major 

 question involved, however, was how to furnish this needed help with- 

 out an excessive expenditure of money, which was neither available 

 nor recommendable to use, if available. The trees comprising the ad- 

 vance growth had now reached a diameter of about 6 inches, and no 

 market existed for the products of the contemplated cutting operation. 

 What, then, was the forester to do? A number of possibilities suggested 

 themselves, but only one of them was feasible enough to be worth fol- 

 lowing up. This one implied the creation of a market. Following up 

 this lead, the forester made a provisional survey of the wood-using 

 industries of the region, and while thus engaged learned of a farmer 

 who was familiar with the distillation of birch oil, having been engaged 

 in the business during his boyhood days. A conference between the 

 two men, a study of the market for birch oil, and an inspection of the 

 working field resulted in a contract in which the man agreed to remove 

 the sweet birch and pay 50 cents stumpage per still of 216 cubic feet 

 for all material removed. Operations began early in autumn and by 



