Silviculture Treatment of Abandoned Pastures. 2^y 



Red Cedar. — This species, on account of its abundance, is the 

 most important of those occurring on old pastures. Its density, 

 depending largely on the former treatment of the pasture, varies 

 very widely. A lightly grazed pasture may have an excellent 

 stand of Cedar and yet be on the poorest soil, and an over-grazed 

 pasture may have only a scattering of worthless bushy trees. 

 Cedar posts, 6 feet long and 4 inches in diameter at the small 

 end, are worth about 20 cents apiece ; they cost from 5 cents to 7 

 cents to cut and haul, and the stumpage value is therefore about 14 

 cents. Owing to the use of Chestnut tops for posts, the use and 

 value of Cedar for posts is decreasing. 



A fully stocked stand (the exception on old pastures) about 

 forty years old will yield a maximum of 400 or 500 posts and 10 

 cords of firewood. The rate of growth of Red Cedar was esti- 

 mated from Prof. Graves' figures in an article in Forestry Quar- 

 ter!, y, Volume 3, page 350. Four hundred and fifty posts, worth 

 about 14 cents stumpage each, and 10 cords of wood, worth $2.00 

 a cord stumpage, give a gross return of about $70.00. If taxes 

 and interest for forty years on the value of the land are sub- 

 tracted from this amount, the net profits compare most unfavor- 

 ably with those of White Pine plantations. Further, it should be 

 carefully noted that Cedar occurs generally in irregular open 

 stands, and that the fully stocked stand, which will produce 400 

 or 500 posts in forty years, is very exceptional. Plainly, Cedar 

 does not commend itself as an investment. 



Cedar will not interfere with the growth of the trees of a plan- 

 tation, except where it occurs in stands of more than .5 density. 

 The rapidly growing trees of the plantation soon push past the 

 Cedars in the more open stands. Stands less than fifteen years 

 old on recently abandoned pastures are seldom of more than .5 

 density, and stands forty years old generally contain a large 

 enough proportion of post trees to permit profitable thinning to 

 that density. The only problem, therefore, offered by Red Cedar, 

 is the treatment of stands of more than .5 density, between the 

 ages of about fifteen and forty years — or from the time the trees 

 are from one to two inches in diameter until they are of post size. 

 Dense Cedar, one or two inches in diameter, can be cut, piled and 

 burned with about 2^ days of labor per acre — or at a cost of about 

 $4.50 per acre. The trees can be cut with a brush hook or axe by 

 a single blow. The expense was determined by clearing one-six- 



