GENERAL RULES FOR THINNING 133 



States, the South, southern Appalachians, and the Northeast. Con- 

 siderable work has also been done in State Forests. Girdling of hard- 

 woods to free spruce and white pine has been done in the Northeast. 

 In the pine and hardwood forests of the South, pine is often freed by 

 thinnings and cuttings from old and inferior hardwoods. In Arkansas 

 hardwoods, white oak is freed from inferior hardwoods as white oak 

 stumpage is commanding prices up to $23 per m.b.f. In Florida and 

 elsewhere scrub oak is cut to free southern pine reproduction. Over- 

 crowded lodgepole pine reproduction has been heavily thinned in 

 Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho, and Montana. Liberation cuttings have 

 been widely used in ponderosa pine in the West and throughout the 

 hardwoods in the East on federal and state properties. In the South- 

 west, young stands of ponderosa pine are pruned to a height of about 

 17 feet. 



4. GENERAL RULES FOR THINNING* 



According to Heiberg, the following rules should be followed in 

 making thinnings for the improvement of the growing conditions of 

 any forest. 



1. Mark the stand carefully before starting to cut. Do not make 

 marking and cutting one job. 



2. Mark all trees to be cut in such a way that the marks may be 

 seen most easily by the loggers or cutters. 



3. Aim in marking for the best development of the most prom- 

 ising trees rather than the removal of the poor trees. 



4. Look up rather than down when marking. Remember that it is 

 the size, shape, and spacing of the crowns which count rather than 

 the spacing of the stems. 



5. Do not mark trees if they cannot profitably be marketed or if 

 no beneficial purpose is served by their removal. 



6. Always mark "whips" but do not always mark "wolf trees." 

 Removing them may sometimes cause more harm than good to the 

 stand. 



7. Thrifty stands are better objects for thinning than stagnating 

 stands. A stand which has stagnated for several years is difficult, 

 often impossible, to improve successfully by thinning. 



8. Concentrate thinnings on areas to which one can easily return 



* For further reading see "Measures for Stand Improvement in the Southern 

 Appalachian Forests," 1933, and "Eastern Forest Tree Diseases in Relation to 

 Stand Improvement," by G. H. Hepting, 1934, both published by Emergency 

 Conservation Work, Washington, D. C.; also other government publications on 

 the subject. 



