Growing Better Timber 



205 



To SUMMARIZE : The owner or man- 

 ager of a tract of young timber can do 

 certain things to improve its value and 

 usefulness when merchantable, but 

 obviously it is not practical to culti- 

 vate, fertilize, irrigate, and graft for- 

 est trees, as is done with horticultural 

 and agricultural crops. 



A forester can control several fac- 

 tors, by means of which he can 

 straighten out his forest so that it will 

 produce greater returns than if left 

 alone. 



The more important of these factors 

 are: 



1 . Choice of species. The growth of 

 the more desirable species can be en- 

 couraged by planting them and elimi- 

 nating the less desirable ones. The 

 choice must be based on what will 

 grow well in the area concerned and 

 what the probable future value will 

 be for the kind, quantity, and quality 

 of timber he expects to produce. The 

 usefulness of a species should not be 

 based entirely on the reputation of 

 the old-growth timber, because second- 

 growth may be materially different in 

 some respects. 



2. Density of stand. By maintaining 

 fully stocked stands as far as possible, 

 the maximum volume of wood will be 

 produced on an acre each year, but 

 the forester still has some leeway in 

 the matter. In a moderately dense 



stand, there will be fewer trees to the 

 acre, but the trees will grow faster and 

 mature earlier than in a dense stand. 

 The wood, however, may be of poorer 

 or better quality, depending on the 

 kind and the purpose for which it is to 

 be used. Ash wood grown for handles, 

 for example, will be stronger the more 

 open the stand, but oak grown for fur- 

 niture will be softer and more stable in 

 the denser stands. 



3. Improvement cutting. The poor 

 and defective trees should be cut as 

 soon as they interfere with the growth 

 of trees of better form and values. 



4. Tree injuries. Injuries to trees by 

 fire, disease, insects, man, and beast 

 should be kept at a minimum. 



5. Pruning. The crop trees should be 

 pruned while young. 



As the old-growth timber becomes 

 scarcer and the second-growth occu- 

 pies more and more land and as people 

 invest more money in forest land with 

 the expectation of reaping profits some 

 years hence, the incentive to grow bet- 

 ter timber will increase. It is too bad 

 that so little is known as yet as to the 

 effect different sites and different types 

 of forest management have on the 

 quality of the wood in different species. 

 But some progress is being made. Un- 

 like agricultural crops, it often takes 

 many years to get usable results in ex- 

 perimenting with forest trees. Foresters 

 are asking for information we should 

 have started 20 years ago to get. 



One thing is sure : The best kind of 

 timber that it is economically practical 

 to produce in second-growth stands 

 will not be had unless man tends the 

 forests properly, just as he has learned 

 to do with his fields and gardens. 



ARTHUR KOEHLER was graduated 

 from the University of Michigan for- 

 estry school in 1911. He has the master 

 of science degree from the University 

 of Wisconsin. He has carried on re- 

 search in wood structure and identifi- 

 cation of wood at the Forest Products 

 Laboratory since 1911, and was in 

 charge of the Division of Silvicultural 

 Relations from 1927 to 1948. 



