324 



Yearbook^ of Agriculture 1949 



stabilized, and each year a sizable acre- 

 age is thinned by the post operators. 

 The largest of these operators has a 

 pressure-treating plant at Deadwood, 

 which peels, treats, and ships up to 50 

 cars of treated posts monthly. Some 

 thinning also is done annually on tim- 

 ber-sale areas under provisions of the 

 Knutson-Vandenberg Law. Still, areas 

 of natural reproduction will always 

 exist and they will have to be thinned 

 at the right time so that supply of post 

 material will be assured. Research 

 work is in progress to determine the 

 allowable annual cut for post-timber 

 stands. 



WHEN UTILIZATION of the timber in 

 the Black Hills was started, the only 

 method of hauling and skidding was by 

 horse and oxen. Roads were poor and 

 poorly drained. They deteriorated rap- 

 idly when maintenance was discontin- 

 ued; the sections that were on steep 

 grades soon became unusable. 



When it was necessary to go farther 

 back into the woods, railroads were 

 built to haul logs and lumber. Then 

 came motortrucks. The Homestake 

 Mining Company used trucks that 

 pulled two trailers; this combination 

 could haul average loads of 14 thou- 

 sand board feet of logs from the woods 

 to the mill. The industry improved its 

 transportation system as rapidly as the 

 manufacturers of vehicles developed 

 better trucks and tractors. All logs now 

 are transported on trucks, and most of 

 the skidding is done by tractors. The 

 size of the trucks varies from l l /z tons 

 to capacities of 7,000 board feet. 

 Truck hauling is so efficient that it has 

 entirely replaced railroad logging. 



Better roads on the forest are nec- 

 essary. Because the trend in manage- 

 ment plans is to provide for shorter 

 cutting cycles, more permanent roads 

 are needed so that plans can be for- 

 mulated for timber cutting on areas 

 where cutting has to be done or where 

 cutting should be done to salvage in- 

 sect-infested or the windthrown trees. 

 Also, it is more economical to have 

 roads of a permanent type : They save 



cost of rebuilding each time an area 

 is logged and make possible the haul- 

 ing of larger loads or the use of smaller 

 trucks. 



The degree of utilization of timber 

 that has been cut on the forest has 

 varied usually with the general changes 

 in economic conditions. In the early 

 days there was close utilization because 

 of the need for lumber, mine timbers, 

 and fuel; later, the selling price of 

 timber products determined largely 

 how much of the tree could be used. 

 Because there is such a large percent- 

 age of defect in the Black Hills timber 

 and because the allowable cut has been 

 less than the demand much of the 

 time, foresters and efficient operators 

 alike have concentrated on developing 

 markets and uses for low-grade lumber 

 and on methods for getting more out 

 of each log. The necessary length of 

 haul from the woods to the market 

 caused costs of operation to go up; so, 

 it became necessary either to leave 

 more of the tree in the woods or to 

 find a way to make a profit from all 

 that was hauled to the market. 



One way that the yield of the log 

 was increased was by the use of resaws, 

 which enabled the mills to get mer- 

 chantable material from most of the 

 slab. Markets were developed for short 

 and narrow boards, which were glued 

 together to make table tops. It be- 

 came possible to dispose of small pieces 

 for use in making boxes and crates, 

 and a market was found for short- 

 length moldings. There is still a good 

 market for fuel, so little material now 

 goes to the refuse burner. 



The demand for Black Hills timber 

 will apparently always be larger than 

 the allowable cut. Unless future costs 

 become excessive, even more intensive 

 utilization than is obtained at present 

 should be in order. 



INTENSIVE FORESTRY in the Black 

 Hills depends directly on the protec- 

 tion that can be given the forest. 



It has suffered much damage from 

 fires, four of which have burned over 

 80,000 acres. Damage by insects has 



