60 THE COMMERCIAL HICKORIES. 



To place the hickories upon an equal commercial footing with 

 other trees, two measures are imperative. In the first place, a cubic 

 foot log rule should replace the inaccurate and unjust rules now in 

 use. In buying and selling any commodity, a standard of measure- 

 ment is fair only when both parties to the transaction understand 

 just what it means, but the hickory rules now in use confuse even the 

 experienced lumberman, to say nothing of the inexperienced wood- 

 lot owner. The cubic measure, used everywhere in Europe and in 

 some places in this country, is much more accurate and satisfactory 

 for general use than the board foot measure, and it is especially 

 applicable in the case of hickory, because it is not usually cut into 

 boards or planks but into piece stock. The adoption of the rule 

 given in Table 13, which applies especially to the hickories, is therefore 

 strongly urged. 



In the second place, there should be a general advance in prices to 

 permit of higher stumpage values. It is inevitable that such an 

 advance must come, and the sooner the advance begins and the atten- 

 tion of forest owners is drawn to the value of hickory, the less danger 

 there will be of a serious shortage with accompanying high prices and 

 general inconvenience. Higher prices, moreover, will not only 

 encourage the care of the hickory in the forest, but will also be a 

 most effective means of reducing waste and forcing closer utilization. 



SILVICULTURAL MEANS. 



To produce spoke and handle material, which takes more than 

 half the annual cut of hickory, no method seems better than reproduc- 

 tion by sprouts. Sprouts grow faster than seedlings for the first fifty 

 or sixty years, and produce heavier yields per acre; where sprout 

 reproduction is at all successful it is less uncertain than seedling 

 reproduction. 



A simple clear-cutting for coppice growth, which can be used with 

 oak and chestnut, will not, however, apply to hickories as they occur 

 in mixed stands, because faster-growing species invariably outstrip 

 and suppress the hickories so that they appear only on the edges or 

 in the openings of such mixed stands. But there are many old fields 

 and pastures, especially in the Ohio Valley, which are coming up to 

 pure stands of hickory, and there the coppice method could be applied 

 successfully. Since the sprouting capacity falls off very rapidly as 

 the tree grows older, the cutting should begin as soon as the trees are 

 large enough to use, which will be when they are from 8 to 9 inches 

 in diameter and from 40 to 50 years old. The stand may then be cut 

 clear. 



Pure stands, however, are uncommon and it will often be advisable 

 to plant hickory with the idea of ultimately managing it as a sprout 



