CHESTNUT IN TENNESSEE. 15 



complete utilization. The wood is extensively cut for special uses. 

 Under such a great variety of conditions it is impossible to apply a 

 uniform system of management, and a special system must be de- 

 veloped for each class of forest, if the best results are to be ob- 

 tained. 



The important classes of chestnut forests in Tennessee are : 



(1) Uneven-aged stands, consisting mainly of old timber, in 

 which large-sized, overmature, and defective trees often predomi- 

 nate. Most of the old timber is in mixed stands, though there are 

 some pure stands. 



(2) Even-aged, second-growth stands, either pure or mixed. 

 These classes can again be classified according to accessibility; 



some tracts are near railroads, or connected with farms, or other- 

 wise so situated that close utilization and intensive management is 

 possible; others are distant from shipping points, or cover large 

 areas of rough land, where close utilization at present is not pos- 

 sible. 



Forest management of the chestnut in the forests of Tennessee 

 .should aim : 



(1) To foster chestnut and pine in the mixed stands on the 

 poorer sites at the expense of the slower-growing chestnut oak and 

 white oak. 



(2) To get more seedlings of ash, poplar, and red oak in the 

 mixed stands in the hollows, since these species sprout only spar- 

 ingly, while chestnut will do so abundantly. White pine, also, should 

 be encouraged where it is present. Seedling reproduction of chest- 

 nut should be encouraged in the hollows, smce seedlings make larger 

 trees than sprouts do. 



(3) To maintain on chestnut soils pure sprout stands of chest- 

 nut reinforced by seedlings of this species, together with chestnut 

 oak and red oak. 



This scheme is based on the supposition that the destructive 

 chestnut bark disease will not reach Tennessee. In the event that 

 it does, cutt'ngs should be made so as to increase the amount of 

 white pine and poplar in the cove type, and the amount of pine on 

 chestnut lands having southern exposures. If the pure chestnut 

 forests are destroyed by this disease, it will be necessary either to 

 plant other species in order to re-establish remunerative forests, or 

 to rely on the slower means of natural reforestation to establish a 

 new growth of other species. 



