4 BULLETIN 191 



I. FINANCIAL LOSSES 



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According to the 1910 census report, reviewed by the United States 

 Forest , Service in Vermont Forestry Publication No. 11, "Wood 

 Using Industries of Vermont," Vermont produces lumber, lath 

 and shingles from pine, spruce, hemlock, tamarack and fir, totaling 

 194,273,000 board feet. Were this all sound timber, free from red 

 rot and other defects, it would average at the mill $20 per thousand 

 square edged. As a result of the writer's inspection of lumber in 

 twenty mills and yards in various parts of Vermont in the spring of 

 1913, it is estimated that on account of the red rot nine percent of this 

 total is reduced to a grade worth approximately $10 per thousand. In 

 other words, on a total of 17,484,570 board feet of timber affected by 

 red rot, there is an annual loss of $174,845. 



But this is not all. These figures are taken at the mills and ship- 

 ping points and do not represent the lumber before it is marketed. 

 Much of the timber calculated, from observation in the woods and 

 estimates by lumbermen, at 2 percent of the actual cut in the woods 

 is so badly diseased with red rot as to be entirely useless. This, of 

 course, never is hauled from the stump. Basing the calculation on the 

 census figures and for the total output, this absolute loss of 2 percent 

 totals 3,885,460 board feet. Sound logs to this amount would be 

 worth in the woods approximately $25,000. In addition to these losses 

 there is the great loss to trees which become diseased and are dying 

 constantly in the forests, eventually falling to the ground and rotting. 

 The total annual loss to Vermont timber owners due to the red rot 

 disease, therefore, may be placed approximately at a quarter of a mil- 

 lion dollars. 



The percentages used in this calculation were averages taken from 

 data collected in person by the writer from actual mill tallies, observa- 

 tions and quarter-acre circle tallies made in the woods, and from figures 

 and estimates furnished by mill owners and operators throughout 

 northern Vermont. 



Investigations made by the writer indicate that in white pine lots 

 there was a loss of 8 percent of value due to the disease; in pure 

 spruce 3.5 percent; and in mixed conifers, 5 percent. 



II. EXTERNAL EVIDENCES 



To the lumberman or wood-chopper the evidence of the presence 

 of red rot in a standing tree in the forest is unmistakable. If a glance 



