1460 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The stand left contained 41 trees per acre between 12 and 22 inches 

 in diameter, and it is estimated that another cut of similar volume 

 and value will be feasible in perhaps 20 years. In that case the aver- 

 age annual return per acre, not including interest and other carrying 

 charges, will be about $2.50 per year. 



Recent studies reveal very strikingly the economic advantages of 

 selective cutting in types where it formerly was not thought practi- 

 cable. It is the most practicable and effective way of converting 

 nongrowing mature forests immediately into stands with a realizable 

 net increment. In certain types where clear cutting has been in vogue, 

 as in the Pacific coast spruce-hemlock, in redwood, in some Douglas 

 fir types, in western white pine of Idaho, and in the southern pineries, 

 a change to some form of selective cutting would have a profound 

 effect in increasing regional growth. In the spruce-hemlock type of 

 the Pacific coast a recent study showed that selective cutting, with a 

 modification of logging methods, gives an average net return higher 

 by $1.26 per 1,000 board feet than that obtained by the conventional 

 clear cutting, and that when the entire property involved has been 

 cut over the stand left by selective cutting will be ready for another 

 cut. For a given volume of cut, obviously, selective cutting must 

 extend over a larger area than clear cutting, but it tends to transform 

 the stagnant old forest to growing condition more rapidly and elimi- 

 nates much of the uncertainty as to prompt regeneration that clear 

 cutting involves. 



Under all conditions selective cutting adds much less to the fire 

 hazard, which in all regions is very intense for a few years after logging 

 on clear-cut areas. Careful measurement of moisture conditions and 

 fire hazard in several forest types has shown that even a light canopy 

 greatly reduces the period of extreme fire danger. In zones of especial 

 hazard this factor may be the most important consideration in selec- 

 tive cutting. The reduction of fire hazard on selectively cut areas is a 

 form of insurance which may well justify on its own account whatever 

 extra investment the process involves. 



REFRAINING FROM CUTTING 



The ax is the chief tool of the silviculturist for increasing forest 

 production, but there are cases where the most imperative forest 

 practice is to refrain from cutting. Forest owners, eager to reap any 

 possible returns from their properties, are disposed to cut young tim- 

 ber when it is still at the zenith of its rapid growth and before it has 

 reached the best of its quality production. This not only depletes 

 forest capital and prevents realization of the maximum periodic 

 increment but may result in idle land, for such young stands may not 

 have begun to bear much seed and so may not be capable of natural 

 reproduction. Owing to premature cutting of young stands there is 

 a dearth of large saw timber in the Eastern States. The forest area 

 has a growing preponderance of small trees and brush, and lacks a 

 normal distribution of age and size classes suitable for giving a sus- 

 tained yield of saw timber. When it is no longer so easy to import 

 saw timber of good size from the virgin timber regions of the West, 

 the deficiency of larger timber in the eastern forests will be keenly 

 felt by the eastern consumer. 



In parts of the South particularly there is a growing practice of 

 going back on the older logged lands and cutting the infrequent small 



