oils JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



Civil War. In 1865, 139,000 trees were being tapped and at least one- 

 fifth the number were being tapped to death. The results of this 

 tapping proved conclusively that the turpentine and other extracts 

 were of a higher quality than from the maritime pine in France proper, 

 and the yield amounted to 1^ kilograms per tree per year. 



From the financial standpoint the operations were successful, but the 

 results from the silviculture standpoint were not satisfactory. It dam- 

 aged the quality of the saw timber, increased the fire danger, decreased 

 growth and increased damage from fungus. Therefore, the U. S. 

 Forest Service should proceed with caution in developing turpentine 

 operations in western yellow pine. 



Another interesting point brought out by De Lapasse is in regard to 

 the best system of management for the Corsican pine, a conclusion 

 which has a direct bearing on the management of western yellow pine 

 in the United States. To-day the treatment applied is selection or 

 group selection following the failure of the shelterwood system. For- 

 merly the rotations were 120, 160 and 180 years at most, whereas to-day 

 the rotations adopted are 300 to 360 years. The adoption of short 

 rotations impoverished the forests and in many cases resulted in a sus- 

 pension of fellings. 



The shelterwood system was abandoned because the resulting even 

 aged stands presented an extreme fire risk and resulted in great loss. 

 According to De Lapasse : 



"It was in 1886 that the first working plan for selection forests was 

 decreed in Corsica. . . . Since then almost every old working 

 plan for regular high forests has been revised and replaced by the se- 

 lection system, a selection system by groups. The cultural advantage 

 of the selection system over the shelterwood system in a country 

 where one must always count upon fires, is in leaving standing (over 

 the whole extent of the forest, mature trees which are seed producers 

 and because of the thickness of their bark, can resist fire without 

 suffering too much damage. Young trees killed by fire can thus be 

 replaced at any stage of the life of the forest by nature alone. This 

 consideration has been the determining factor in Corsica for com- 

 pletely abandoning (and for all species) the treatment in regular 

 high forests." 



The lesson taught by the results of forestry in Corsica cannot be 

 overlooked, and those who advocate tapping western yellow pine for 

 resin, especially in Arizona and New Mexico, where the climatic con- 

 ditions are unfavorable, and those who advocate the shelterwood sys- 

 tem for western yellow pine where there is great risk of fire, would 

 do well to heed the lesson from Corsica. 



T. S. W., Jr. 

 Revue des Eaux et Forets. R. de Lapasse. June 1, ]913. 



