THE PENN STATE DEMONSTRATION FOREST 



BY J. A. FERGUSON 



IT'EW if any forest schools in the country are so located 

 ' that students can be taken to the woods to see car- 

 ried out practically or ideally the various methods of cut- 

 ting forests to secure reproduction. Photographs and 

 lantern slides of forests managed by different silvicultural 

 methods are of value in instructing students, but often 

 fail to present the methods clearly. 



The author has felt for some time the need of a me- 

 chanical demonstration forest by which the differeirt 

 methods of cutting could be shown to students. Such 

 a forest has been devised and has proven workable. As 

 shown by the photographs the apparatus consists of a 

 heavy table perforated with holes through which dowe 

 sticks with sponges representing trees are able to move 

 freely. This table with its back and sides in box 

 form can be moved up and down over a similar three- 

 sided box form, inverted. On the sides of this lat- 

 ter form, cleats are nailed on which shelves can be 

 placed. When the table is lifted the trees are lifted by 

 the sponges. When high enough a solid shelf can be placed 

 on the top cleats. When the table is then lowered the 

 trees will strike this shelf and rise through the table, pre- 

 senting the even-aged forest shown by the photograph. 



A second shelf through which holes have been properly 

 bored can now be placed on a lower shelf. When the top 

 solid shelf is withdrawn the trees will fall to the second 

 shelf, some of them passing through the holes. If holes 

 are bored to represent an alternate strip method of cutting 

 the result is illustrated- by photograph. Other shelves can 

 be used to show the different methods of cutting forests. 

 By means of a series of shelves arranged at different 

 elevations an uneven-aged forest can be developed. The 

 demonstration forest can also be used to show methods 

 of thinning forests by using shelves having holes closed 

 by cardboard oi^ metal disks which can be controlled, al- 

 lowing the trees to be thinned out to fall through. The 

 normal forest can also be shown by means of a series of 

 shelves with properly located openings. 



KVEN .VGED FOREST 



rNKVENAGED FOREST 



ALTERNATE STRIP CUTTING 



FORESTS OF LITHUANIA 



TVTITHIN its present borders, Lithuania has nearly 

 " two million acres of forest land of which 46 per 

 cent is the property of the state, says the Bureau of 

 Foreign and Domestic Commerce in a recent consular 

 report. The principal woods are pine and fir. About 

 60 per cent of the production of the State forests is con- 

 sumed in the country and 40 per cent is available for 

 export. In general, Lithuanian timber is considered a 

 high quality. Many of the forests consist of trees of 

 comparatively great age pines 120 years old, firs 100 

 years old and oaks that have stood from 150 to 400 

 years. About one-half of the 6,750,000 acres of forest 

 within the former boundaries of Lithuania belonged to 

 the estates, and nearly all the rest to the Russian crown. 



