124 A STUDY OF FOREST CONDITIONS 



Waste in Logging."^ — Waste of timber in logging is at- 

 tributable to many causes, probably the chief of which 

 are the distances from market, labor conditions and methods 

 of purchase. Much waste is unavoidable under present 

 conditions, but where it can be avoided, every care should 

 be taken to do so. 



Waste in logging is of two kinds: (1) the incomplete 

 utilization of the trees cut, and (2) the injury and destruction 

 of reproduction and trees that are left. 



(1) The cutting of high stumps is a common and very 

 wasteful practice, and is inexcuseable except where trees 

 are badly burnt or rotten at the butt. Stumps in the av- 

 erage pine forest could be cut down to 12 or 15 inches, and 

 shoiild rarely be over 18 inches high. 



Much merchantable timber was formerly left in the tops, 

 but owing to better market conditions this waste is becoming 

 less each year. However, young thrifty trees which should 

 be left to grow are being cut down for cross-ties, while 

 knotty logs capable of making excellent ties are left to rot 

 in the woods. 



In many small operations, especially where ties are being 

 cut from old field pine, there is considerable waste in the 

 slab. Instead of getting, as in the hardwood regions far- 

 ther north, an average of 10 board feet of siding per tie, 

 which is usually cut from the best part of the log, all this 

 is often left in the slab and wasted. The absurd conditions 

 of the market, which have placed a ban on 8-foot lumber, 

 are responsible for this waste. There will undoubtedly 

 be a modification in the market requirements within a few 

 years, and timber owners will do well to hold their pine 

 rather than sacrifice it as they are doing now. In selling 

 standard timber, small owners should insist on the least 

 possible amount of waste, not only when they are selling 

 their timber by the thousand board feet, but even when 

 they are selling by the acre or by the boundary. 



* See also extract No. 398 from the Yearbook of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture for 1905, entitled, "Waste in Logging 

 Southern Yellow Pine," which can be had on application to the 

 Forest Service. 



