Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



minimum required delivery by the 

 middle of February. Hauling started 

 as soon as the ground was frozen solid. 

 The product was delivered in 100-inch 

 and 200-inch lengths. 



The long lengths were recut to 100 

 inches, and the bolts went up the bull 

 chain through a circular saw, which 

 split the logs in half. The halves were 

 then sent through a horizontal band 

 saw, which took off a board from the 

 flat side. The slab was returned by mov- 

 ing chains for additional runs through 

 the band. The mill procedure is men- 

 tioned because it is said to be the first 

 mill built on that principle. 



The sale of aspen opened a new 

 market for a previously unused species 

 that forest devastation and fire had 

 made available in large volume 

 throughout the Lake States. The sale 

 also seemed to mark the transition 

 point from a custodial and protective 

 job to one of active management of the 

 resource, extensive at first but gradu- 

 ally moving forward to a high degree 

 of intensity. The logging operation 

 continued throughout the depression, 

 and, when the Gloquet sawmill closed 

 because of timber exhaustion, the main 

 box plant was moved to Cass Lake to 

 augment facilities there. The mill now 

 uses other species as well as aspen. 



Although the use of aspen for box 

 lumber augured well for the future, it 

 was not possible to extend sales ap- 

 preciably during the depression. Only 

 low-value material was available, and 

 most of it was relatively inaccessible. 

 Markets and accessibility control the 

 intensity of management which may 

 be given a forest stand. Extensive man- 

 agement could be applied only on the 

 areas where sales could be made. 



Plans for the future could be devel- 

 oped, however. Timber surveys were 

 made, and preliminary plans were de- 

 veloped for the management of the 

 timber stand, particularly the hard- 

 woods, aspen, and matured jack pine. 

 Two experimental forests, the Pike 

 Bay and Cut Foot, were established in 

 the early 1930's for use by the Lake 

 States Forest Experiment Station, and 



a resident forester was appointed to 

 conduct research into the problems of 

 silvicultural management in the forest. 

 The causes of failure of the planting 

 efforts were worked out, and silvicul- 

 tural research was intensified. 



Guiding data were thus at hand 

 when the Civilian Conservation Corps 

 was created in 1933 and when other 

 emergency relief programs were in- 

 augurated. There were seven 200-man 

 CCC camps located in strategic work 

 areas. The camps were primarily for 

 the employment of young men, but 

 because of widespread unemployment 

 and the need of trained strawbosses, 

 up to 10 percent of the enrollment was 

 recruited from local people who had 

 worked on various forest operations. 

 The program enabled the foresters in 

 charge to give cultural treatment to 

 young stands and to develop physical 

 improvements on the forest far beyond 

 their hopes and anticipations. 



Because of the studies that had been 

 made in handling young stands, the 

 CCC boys were put to work on stand 

 improvement earlier and with greater 

 assurance than elsewhere in the region. 

 The continuance of the CCC's from 

 1933 to 1942, together with labor as- 

 signed from other relief programs, en- 

 abled foresters in charge to accomplish 

 nearly all the noncommercial stand- 

 improvement work that needed atten- 

 tion at the time. Seedling and sapling 

 stands were given release from over- 

 topping brush, aspen, and other low- 

 value species. Dense stands of saplings 

 were thinned, and about 300 potential 

 final-crop trees an acre were given 

 their first pruning. To a limited ex- 

 tent, some older stands that were ap- 

 proaching minimum commercial size 

 were also given treatment by cutting 

 out suppressed trees and trees of poor 

 form. This left a stand of thrifty, well- 

 formed trees with more room to grow. 

 Fuel wood was salvaged for use in the 

 camps, and some was sold in an ex- 

 tremely limited market. Young plan- 

 tations were combed over to find the 

 weak trees still living but suppressed 

 by the heavy growth of brush; they 



