152 . LOBLOLLY OK NOKTH CAKOLINA PINE. 



of 12.5 inclies, an average Yolume of 128 board feet, or a total yield per 

 acre of 19,200 board feet. Since, bowever, tbe value of tbe timber of 

 tbe intermediate trees will be greater than that of the dominant trees 

 of the same diameter, they will have an approximate value of $17.50 or 

 $18.00 per 1,000 board feet at Norfolk, and a stumpage value of 55 

 cents each, under an operating cost of $13, or a total stumpage value of 

 $82.50 per acre. This amount represents the accumulated compound in- 

 terest for 15 years on the trees left for growth, plus the original invest- 

 ment in these trees of $18.06. The original investment has thus yielded 

 10.7 per cent compound interest as against 8.6 which would have been 

 obtained by cutting clear at 40 years. Moreover, the average size log 

 under gradual felling is much larger. By cutting clean at 40 years the 

 average log is 34 feet. By making two fellings the average log of the 

 first cutting is 89 feet; that of the second felling 40 feet. The average 

 annual yield per acre by clean felling at 40 years is 669 board feet; by 

 removing the timber in two cuts it is 775 board feet. In this calculation 

 only the trees which were 6 inches and over in diameter at the time of 

 tfee first cutting are considered. In addition there are many suppressed 

 trees, which were less than 6 inches in diameter at the time of the first 

 cutting. Many of these will have diameters of fi'om 7 to 9 inches at the 

 time of the second cut and will be merchantable in a third cutting. 

 Since the crown cover of the stand will be only about one-half complete, 

 even up to the time when the second felling is made, a thorough re- 

 stocking will have taken place. Within 15 years after the felling the 

 young stand which will have appeared should be from 30 to 50 feet in 

 height, the two age-classes resembling a two-storied stand. In the sec- 

 ond felling it is often possible to remove some of the largest trees in 

 the young stand — those with coarse knots. The second felling in the 

 old stand will have the same effect upon the young growth as that of a 

 heavy irregular thinning and improvement cutting. 



The successive removal of the larger trees was in vogue in cutting 

 loblolly pine in eastern Virginia and North Carolina until after 1900. 

 It was customary up to that date to cut to a stump diameter of from 14 

 to 16 inches, which removed in the first cutting chiefly the dominant 

 trees. After 1900 this method was superseded either by clean cutting, 

 where the conditions justified it, or by reducing the diameter limit to 8 

 or 10 inch on the stump. Gradual felling under present market con- 

 ditions and methods of logging, seems best suited to pure stands of 

 loblolly pine on good sites. In place, however, of merely cutting 

 to a diameter limit or of removing only the dominant trees as was 

 the .custom and as was the method used in the example, only large trees, 

 whose increment has begun to decline, should be removed in the first 

 cutting. The amount of the first cut should be so adjusted as to equalize 

 the two cuts, either in volume or in value, taking interest into consid- 

 eration. It should l>e possible to obtain at the second cutting a large 



