FORESTRY IN SOUTHERN NEW ENGLAND 



15 



ness. They are interested, not in growing trees, but in 

 harvesting timber. 



Individual owners will keep control of the better lands 

 and those that lie in smaller areas. Intensive work may 

 be started at once by wealthy owners who can afford the 

 investment, but on the great bulk of individual holdings, 

 such work will only be started when it is able to pay its 

 way. These individuals will remain holding the large 

 part of the forest land. They must have State or Federal 

 fire protection. They must be educated to lengthen the 

 rotation on which their timber is cut and to produce a 

 larger percentage of saw timber. They must be educated 

 to carry on thinnings. Finally the development of fores- 

 try practice on these small individual holdings is going 

 to be greatly stimulated if better and more copious market 

 information can be supplied. 



An arrangement for cutting and marketing forest 

 products co-operatively would be of great value. As 

 yet too little has been done along this line. The States 

 have usually contented themselves with making a wood 

 industry study which listed the names of men in different 

 industries and gave general information about the char- 

 acter of the product and the amount used. This is not 

 sufficient for the purpose of the small individual owner 

 and it is believed that the State has got to go much farther 

 along this line to develop the practice of forestry in south- 

 ern New England. 



On the whole, the outlook for the practice of forestry 

 in this region appears encouraging. It will take time for 

 accomplishment, but as the present young timber matures, 

 and as the larger centers of timber supply are cut out and 

 it becomes more and more expensive to import lumber, 

 the price of local lumber is going up. Southern pine is 

 expected to be practically exhausted in five or ten years 

 and certainly by that time a decided increase in the prices 

 of local lumber may be expected. Price increases will 

 make possible more intensive work and will influence 

 more owners to manage their woodlands as permanent 

 crop producing property. 



A PRECOCIOUS YOUNGSTER 

 Woodbridge Metcalf, Assistant Professor of Forestry, 



University of California. 

 rpHE Big Trees (Sequoia gigantea) of the California 

 * Sierra's have long been known as the oldest living 

 things in the world. The massive proportions to which 

 they attain and the tenacity with which they cling to 

 life for two or three thousand years have made them 

 famous throughout the earth. Here, however, is a 

 youthful member of the ancient family which is not con- 

 tent to allow the grandfatherly ones to carry off all the 

 honors but must do something unusual in its own small 

 way. 



In its fourth year from the seed this small Big Tree 

 produced on its leading shoot a perfectly formed cone. 

 This being infertile has not interfered with the terminal 

 bud activity and the shoot is continuing its vertical 

 growth from the apex of the premature cone. Surely 

 this is an interesting demonstration of the fact that cones 



are simply modified branches, the leaves of which are 

 also changed in shape to form the cone scales. 



Other members of the taxodiaceae family, to which 

 the Big Trees belong, sometimes show similar interest-- 

 ing growth variations which however do not appear so 

 early in life. Trees of the coast Redwood (Sequoia 

 sempevirens) are occasionally found having branchlets 

 and foliage protruding from the apices of several cones. 

 The important Sugi Tree of Japan (Cryptovenia japo- 



THE FREAK BABY BIG TREE 



nica) often produces many such cones while still a young 

 tree. In both redwood and sugi tree, however, such 

 cones are generally found on lateral branches and not 

 on the main stem. 



This young Big Tree and another with a similar 

 growth were pointed out to me by Mr. H. A. Greene of 

 Monterey, where he had them growing in his unique 

 "tin-can" arboretum. Mr. Greene was glad to give me 

 the tree in order that it might be photographed for the 

 information of readers of American Forestry. 



CONSIDER THE WOODLOT TO KEEP 

 IT PRODUCTIVE 



