VARIATION IN YR 41 



c. The value of the final cut. Yr is greater for spruce than for 

 pine, greater for pine than beech, etc. The following German fig- 

 ures for site II, age one hundred years, ilnstrate this : 



Spruce $1563 per acre 



Pine 627 per acre 



Oak 377 per acre 



Beech .' 347 per acre 



While this comparison is not quite fair, since oak does not really 

 develop quality until after one hundred years, yet it bears out the 

 general experience that the hardwoods do not make the values like 

 conifers, and that tolerant conifers produce more value per acre than 

 intolerants. When it is remembered that the land producing pine is 

 generally poor sand, while oak land is good loam or clay, commonly 

 fair agricultural land, the above comparison is even more impressive. 



d. The final cut depends on the methods of silviculture. A 

 slow, long drawn out, natural restocking of the land wastes time 

 and can not possibly produce the same volume and value of Yr which 

 a good prompt reproduction does. Defective or imperfect cover at 

 time of reproduction wastes space and leads to irregular stands 

 where some trees have too much, others too little room and light. 

 Very dense natural reproduction leads to dense stands, great com- 

 petition, and if no thinning is practicable, leads to great loss of 

 material by death and decay, loss of growth, and, besides producing 1 

 less healthy and safe conditions, it leads to smaller timber, small 

 volume and value of Yr. 



A good planting practice assures prompt reproduction, proper 

 spacing, healthy growth, safe conditions, and with these, larger and 

 better timber and larger Yr. A saving of five years in the rotation 

 or what amounts to the same, a Yr five years better in size, volume 

 and value may be secured by good planting. 



Mixed stands have often been claimed to produce a larger cut 

 per acre. The proof has never been furnished; the practice abroad 

 does not believe it, the pure stand is gaining and not losing ground. 

 Mayr was right in pointing out the poorer development of crown 

 and waste of space on the line of contact between different species 

 such as beech and spruce, etc. 



Clear cutting methods save in logging and so increase Yr. On 

 good ground with proper improvements, roads, etc., the skidding 

 is saved and buyers haul directly from the area. In parts of Ger- 

 many this item alone offsets the cost of planting. Methods like the 

 coppice produce small, cheap stuff, often difficult to market. The 



