SILVICULTURE OF WESTERN YELLOW PINE 879 



to 74 per cent were over 13 inches at breast height. These figures 

 show very strikingly a relation exactly the reverse of that in a true 

 selection forest where the young trees greatly outnumber the old ones. 



This sort of overwood with a fairly abundant ground cover of small 

 advance reproduction is the kind of yellow pine forest the forester has 

 to deal with in Oregon and Washington. From the figures just given 

 showing the scarcity of young trees, it can be easily understood why 

 after selection cutting on timber sales only a rather meager remaining 

 stand is to be found. Representative cruises on the large timber sale 

 cuttings of the Whitman Forest show that the average amount left is 

 IT per cent by volume of the original stand, or 11 trees per acre 12 

 inches and over, and 13 trefes between 4 and 11 inches, inclusive. 



It is important now to consider what sort of a forest this remaining 

 stand after selection cutting will develop into and how the proposed 

 periodic cuts at 60-year intervals will afifect it. From old private cut- 

 tings, a few of v.'hich are already 50 years old, it is possible to get a 

 very good idea what the development will be. The private areas cut- 

 over previous to 30 years ago had practiced upon them a partial cutting 

 method similar as far as the number of trees left per acre is concerned, 

 to the present selection method on timber sales. Thus the old logger's 

 cutting and the present timber sale cutting are comparable in effect. 

 On these old cut-over areas — and there are many thousands of acres of 

 them — there are uniformly dense stands of yellow pine second growth 

 which are practically even-aged. The advance reproduction, in most 

 cases sufficient in itself as a groimd cover, has everywhere been filled in 

 with new reproduction, making the cover complete. The cuttings 30 

 to 35 years old are most extensive, particularly those in the Sumpter 

 Valley near Baker, Oregon, where there are large unbroken areas of 

 thrifty sapling growth about 30 feet tall. The older cuttings closer to 

 Baker contain sapling stands 25 to 30 feet tall and some of these with 

 their remaining trees make the appearance of a managed forest of even- 

 aged second growth with standards. Here and there in the vicinity of 

 Baker, also, are the oldest cuttings in the region, those made by placer 

 miners 50 to 55 years ago. Near Galena, on the Whitman Forest, is 

 an excellent cutting of this sort containing a fine body of even-aged 

 second-growth 50 years old. This is a thrifty stand of small poles 

 having a height of 35 to 40 feet, a maximum breast-height diameter of 

 13 inches and an average of .") inches. 



