50G JOURNAL OF FORKSTRV 



expense of pine ; hence the comiDarative scarcity of the latter species. 

 Assuming, therefore, that two weeding operations carried out before 

 the seventh year will produce in an equally abundant reproduction an 

 even higher yield than that produced by improvement cutting at twenty 

 years, as shown in Plot II, it is safe to count on 35,000 feet of saw 

 timber to the acre at a rotation of sixty years. Giving this a value on the 

 stump of $12 a thousand, the crop will be worth $420. If the quality 

 of this timber is better than average as regards only 10 per cent of the 

 volume, it would increase the total selling price in the present market 

 by from $50 to $75, so that it is safe to put the final return from the 

 crop at at least $500. Compare this figure with the final value of the 

 stand considered in Plot III, which stood on the same quality of site 

 and contained at the start very much the same representation of species 

 in the reproduction. The final value of the stand on this plot, left with- 

 out improvement, amounts in round figures to $175 per acre. Thus, by 

 applying two weedings at a combined cost of approximately $10 per 

 acre, the actual final return from an acre of mixed volunteer reproduc- 

 tion can be increased by $325. 



Naturally, such results as these can only be expected in case of a 

 well-stocked reproduction containing an abundant element of white 

 pine. Nevertheless, it is the fact that from a fifth to a quarter of the 

 areas cut over in central New England do reproduce fairly well to pine, 

 and a much larger proportion are well stocked with valuable hard- 

 woods, many of which are now almost as valuable as timber trees. 

 When one considers that this region possesses unusually good local 

 markets for practically every kind of lumber, and that these markets 

 are constantly improving, it seems clear that no silvicultural process 

 can more favorably afifect both financial returns and forest production 

 in general than early and systematic weeding. 



