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FORESTRY INVESTIGATIONS IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



timber forest (90 per cent of all State forests), the age of the timber is as follows: On 13 per cent 

 of the area, over 100 years old; on 13 per cent, 81 to 100 years old; on 14 per cent, Cl to 80 years 

 old; on 18 per cent, 41 to 60 years old; on 19 per cent, 21 to 40 years old; on 19 per cent, 

 1 to 20 years old, and about 4 per cent are clearings, where the timber has been cut lately. In all 

 forests the ground is at once reforested, if cut clean, or else the cut is so arranged that a natural 

 seeding goes on as the harvest progresses, this latter consisting of several fellings, separated by a 

 number of years. 



EXPLOITATION. 



The cutting in all State forests is generally done by the cord or by the cubic foot (really by 

 the stere, festmeter, or cubic meter). In rare cases the timber is cut and moved by the purchaser; 

 nearly always it is cut and moved by the forest authorities and sold and delivered at the main 

 roads. The logs are not cut to uniform lengths, but care is had in the forest to cut to best advan- 

 tage. Long, straight timbers are left long, if possible, and sold as long, round, or sometimes hewn 

 pieces; saw timber is cut in even lengths; poles are cut to suit local markets; wagon and coopers' 

 stock, etc., are cut to suit, or left in round timbers, while pulp wood, cord wood, and branches, and 

 sometimes even stumps, are worked up in customary manner, graded, and sold by the cord 

 (really " stere" or " raummeter "). 



In the conversion of the logs into lumber there are more complications in dimensions than 

 with us. The measure is generally the meter and centimeter; edging is not done by even numbers. 

 Lumber is sold by cubic measure, and the handling is thus generally not so simple as in America. 



As far as practical means and methods in felling a-nd logging operations go we can learn but 

 little from Germany, except that more care in the utilization of the timber would be profitable 

 here as it is abroad. Yet it may be of interest, and not entirely devoid of suggestive value, to 

 briefly recite the practices followed in most Government forests. 



The location of fellings for the year having been determined with due consideration, the 

 rangers engage and control, under supervision of the district manager, the crew of wood choppers 

 under a foreman, who are mostly men living in the neighborhood of the range or district and 

 accustomed to all kinds of forest work. 1 A contract, which contains conditions, regulations, and 

 a scale of prices, is made with them, which they sign. The men are paid by the job, the prices 

 per unit differing, of course, in different localities and being graded according to the kinds of 

 timber, size, etc. 



To cite one example we may take the schedule prices paid at the forest belonging to the city 

 of Goslar, as this will interest us further on. There are 40 men nearly permanently employed 

 either in wood chopping, planting, or otherwise, and their average earnings during three years 

 have been about 80 cents per working day. The prices for cutting spruce, including moving to 

 roads and barking, and the average prices obtained for ten years were as follows: 



lu Prussia the average cost of lumbering (wood cutting and bringing to roads) for all kinds 

 and dimensions is (j5 cents per 100 cubic feet; that is to say, the wood-choppers' bill on the 

 300,000,000 solid cubic feet of wood harvested annually in the Prussian Government forests 

 amounts to $1,950,000. It will appear from the prices for wood cited that often the harvesting is 

 more expensive than the price obtained, as, for instance, for brushwood, which will hardly sell for 

 half the cost of cutting, but its removal is necessary from cultural considerations. The wood 

 choppers are also sometimes expected to move the cord wood at least to the neighboring roads, so 

 as to obviate the driving of teams through the woods or young growth. 



1 In the census of Germany for 1881-82 there were reported as eiiggo<l in forestry, hnntiDg, and lishing 3X4,637 

 persons. Unfortunately, no division of the three occupations was made. 



