1450 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



railroads, roads, around sawmills, etc. Because hardwood slash 

 decays much more rapidly than softwood slash, high risks are decidedly 

 rare. Partial disposal was described in connection with pure soft- 

 wood stands, earlier in this discussion of "Other Eastern Types." 



GRAZING 



Protection against overgrazing of all hardwood land to be kept 

 permanently in forest, is necessary for a period of about 10 years 

 before and after any extensive cutting. 



COSTS 



It would be difficult to calculate the cost of postponing final cutting 

 in a stand until the trees reach seed-bearing size. In general it may 

 be said that hardwood forests promise a greater net profit if managed 

 for the production of a main crop of saw timber or other large-sized 

 material than if clear cut at short intervals for pulpwood, distillation 

 wood, or similar small material. This is shown by the cutting policies 

 adopted by public owners of forest land, and such private owners as 

 look forward to permanent or long-term ownership. It should be 

 remembered that the prohibition against final cuttings does not pre- 

 vent either thinning out of small or poor trees, the absence of which 

 will not appreciably lessen the prospects for seed production in the 

 stand, or light cuttings to stimulate the remaining trees to produce 

 seed. 



Seed trees may often be below the economic limit for saw timber, 

 and have no positive realization value for any purpose. The cost of 

 leaving them under other circumstances may run up to $2 or $3 an 

 acre, where trees well above the minimum diameter of 10 inches at 

 breast height are the only ones available. On long-lived operations 

 most of the seed trees wUl be cut in operations 10 to 25 years later, 

 provided they have meanwhile produced a valuable young seedling 

 stand. Their value can then be recovered, generally with substantial 

 interest in the form of growth. 



Close cutting of trees which have even a little realization value will 

 of course add nothing to regular logging costs. In the rare instances 

 where girdling or felling of unmerchantable trees is necessary merely 

 to prevent serious deterioration, the cost would be from 50 cents to 

 $1 an acre, assuming that not over 3 or 4 trees to the acre need be 

 treated. 



Cleaning up of slash along roads, railroads, and in other zones of 

 special risk will vary greatly in cost, depending both on the type of 

 forest and the degree of fire risk. In the southern Appalachians burn- 

 ing the slash and debris on a strip 66 feet wide along a logging railroad 

 has been estimated to cost not more than $80 a mile, or $10 an acre 

 of ground actually burned over. If railroads, roads, etc. were suffi- 

 ciently numerous to require the similar clean-up or slash on one 

 twentieth of a newly cut-over area, the cost here would be about 50 

 cents an acre for the entire operation. In the Lake States piling and 

 burning, or progressive burning, of slash in zones of special fire risk 

 is estimated to cost 25 to 40 cents a thousand board feet, distributed 

 over the entire cut from a considerable area. The cost per acre might 

 then be $1 to $2 an acre on hardwood saw-timber operations, and up 

 to $6 on softwood. 



