346 Forestry Quarterly 



"The later tendency to more sketchy field work and the sub- 

 stitution of linear values for fixed sample areas has, in my 

 opinion, greatly reduced the value of the later working plans. 

 One of the chief causes of inaccuracy in the past was faulty 

 classification of sound and unsound trees." 



Another fault in the early working plans was that they did not 

 consider the relative accessibility and condition of the reproduc- 

 tion and too frequently the richest compartments were cut over 

 first, even if no reproduction had started ; the girdling of inferior 

 species was not based upon the benefits to be derived. Often the 

 recommendations were impracticable and the prescriptions for 

 cutting species other than teak were vague or of little value. 

 After analyzing the faults of past working plans, Watson gives 

 in considerable detail recommendations regarding future plans 

 which are well worth study. T. S. W., Jr. 



The Indian Forester, January, 1916, pp. 4-17. 



UTILIZATION, MARKET AND TECHNOLOGY 



A Wisconsin hardwood lumbering com- 

 Utilization pany had been cutting its birch to 8 inches 



of Waste "clear surface" and its maple to 10 inches. 



from Hardwoods The stumpage value had gone up over $5 



per M feet, and the company thought it 

 might lower its log specifications to 7 inches for birch and 8 inches 

 for maple. This was tried and the lowered specifications in- 

 creased the cost of logging, per M feet, by $1 to $8, log scale. 

 The smaller and rougher logs decreased the mill output by about 

 20 per cent with a consequent increase in the cost of milling 

 of the same amount. The lowered average grade of lumber low- 

 ered the mill-run value so that the net result was to increase the 

 cost of production by about $5 per M, "and, if we had any means 

 of determining the cost of manufacturing the poorer logs due 

 to lumber, it would probably amount to four or five times the 

 value of the product obtained." The old diameter limits were 

 therefore accepted as "the limits of economy." 



But these log specifications remove only about 65 to 70 per cent 

 of the weight of standing timber, the balance being left as 

 economically worthless. In addition there is the mill waste in 

 kerf and slab (20% with circular and 8% with band saws). This 

 mill waste, when reduced to its economic limit by rehandling slabs 



