398 Forestry Quarterly. 



then be done very rapidly. Where the country is sectionized, the 

 marking is usually by land lines. Where the area is unsurveyed 

 the topography governs, as it may also govern in very rough 

 country even though it is surveyed. Marking is best done up 

 and down the slope. When a strip is finished the group of men 

 should "wheel" so that the inside man becomes the outside one 

 on the return trip. It is also well to mark "en echelon," that is 

 the inside man being a little ahead of his partner and so on. 



The advantage of this is that the inside man can watch the 

 previous marking and is sure to omit no trees, and each man 

 can watch the marking of the man in front. Care should, of 

 course, be taken not to go too fast and to have each man observe 

 his own strip. It is very necessary to have a sense of direction. 

 Each man's strip should usually not exceed 150 feet in width, 

 although this must vary greatly with the density of the timber. 

 Where the strip adjacent to a section line is being marked the 

 inside man may find it well to do no marking at all but to follow 

 the line by the aid of a compass. 



Perhaps the most important thing in marking is to do it slowly 

 and carefully and to study every tree before it is marked. It is 

 very popr policy to walk up to the base of a tree and then decide 

 whether you want to mark it or not. It is far preferable to watch 

 the trees in advance and to pick them out as you approach them 

 (This is well illustrated in Photograph No. 3, where the illustra- 

 tion shows the Forest officer carefully looking over the timber 

 before marking any.) If a man is inexperienced in marking it is 

 well for him to tally the trees which he cuts and those which he 

 leaves, making a rough estimate of their contents in board feet. 

 In this way he gets a check on the amount and percentage of the 

 total stand left and can be assured that he has not exceeded the 

 two-thirds of the total stand allowed to be cut under the general 

 marking rules. Cuts 3 and 4 illustrate two different conditions of 

 stands, frequently met in the yellow pine forests of the Southwest. 

 Cut 3 shows an overmature stand with practically no "black 

 jacks." In this case, all the spike top trees in the foreground were 

 marked for cutting and the large tree next to the Forest officer 

 and also the one in the right hand margin of the picture were left 

 not only as seed trees, but also on account of their scenic value, 

 being close to the wagon road. In cut No. 4, the conditions are 

 entirely opposite. The timber is all young and there is a charac- 



