Marking in Practice. 397 



as that the marking should be done slowly and carefully and not 

 too far in advance of the cutting. Even the Use Book has little 

 to say on this important subject other than that "all trees which 

 are to be cut shall be marked or otherwise unmistakably identi- 

 fied for cutting * * * the Forest officer may instead of 

 marking * * * every tree, blaze and mark the boundaries 

 of the cutting area * * * standing timber must be marked 

 'U. S.' near the ground so that every stump will show the 

 mark. Where snow may conceal the marking from the cutters 

 each tree must also be marked at a point several feet from the 

 ground." 



As a rule, the marking in connection with small sales and in 

 free use timber is done by a ranger without any assistance. Any 

 one who has done much marking will agree that it is the most 

 arduous physical work of any on a National Forest except fight- 

 ing fire. It requires all the force of a woodchopper, besides a 

 considerable amount of skill. If it is carefully done a man can 

 with one blow take off the bark at breasthigh and reversing his 

 marking ax stamp it "U. S." By picking out a projecting root 

 with one downward and one sidewise "swipe" and stamping the 

 "U. S." he marks the base of the tree. It is always well to mark 

 in strips, unless the sale area is very limited or only a small 

 amount of free use timber is being marked. Where marking is 

 done in strips it is well to blaze the trees at breasthigh on a uni- 

 form side, i. e., on the side towards which the marking proceeds. 

 In other words, if the marking is done from north to south, the 

 trees should be blazed on the south side and the marker can then 

 always tell at a glance without going up to a tree whether or not 

 it has been marked. It is especially convenient to mark when 

 there is snow on the ground for the footprints indicate clearly 

 whether or not the tree has been included in the marked strip. 

 In order to be perfectly sure that every tree has been passed 

 upon, it is a good practice when snow is on the ground to actu- 

 ally walk around the seed trees which are left, in order that on 

 the return trip the footprints may show that it had been left on 

 purpose. Where the sale is of large size, the marking should 

 preferably be done by a crew. It is not advisable to have more 

 than six men in one crew. Of these at least two should be men 

 experienced in marking timber, each of these keeping an eye on 

 the work of the green man on either side of him. The work can 



