1899. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



135 



realizes perfectly that cutting in all cases 

 to 14 inches is by no means the best 

 policy, but it is far better than stripping 

 the land, and was adopted only as a 

 temporary measure until men could be 

 trained to mark the timber which should 

 <be cut. This working plan was submit- 

 ted to Mr. Burbank, who thought favor- 

 .ably of it, and ordered that in all new 

 contracts the cutting of Spruce should 

 be limited to 14 inches. 



At the same time Mr. Burbank, after 

 consulting with Mr. Gifford Pinchot, 

 Chief of the Division of Forestry, made 

 application to the division for detailed 

 Avorking plans for over 300,000 acres of 

 timber land. Thus two very important 

 points were gained. 



The first detailed working plan is be- 

 ing completed for a very fine tract of 

 about 24,000 acres. A forest ranger will 

 be employed to mark all the trees which 

 are to be cut, superintend the work of 

 the contractor, see that the cutting is 

 carefully done, that all the conditions of 

 the contract are fulfilled, and in the dry 

 season to guard against fire. 



The mature and dying Spruce will be 

 cut first wherever possible, and the Fir 

 in all cases to 5 inches, which is the 

 smallest size the mills can well handle. 

 The object in cutting the Fir to 5 inches 

 as to remove the seed trees as soon as 

 possible, and thus guard against its won- 

 derful power of regeneration, as in many 

 cases it would crowd out the Spruce. 



Fir alone will not make good pulp, 

 and gives satisfactory results only when 

 united with Spruce, 15 per per cent of 

 Fir being the usual allowance. 



In New Hampshire, the Spruce grow- 

 ing well up on the sides of the moun- 

 tains must be clean cut, for any timber 

 which is left blows down and is a dead 

 loss. But in Maine, New York and Ver- 

 mont this will not always be a necessity, 

 as the mountains are not so steep, and 

 the Spruce secures a firmer hold on the 

 -soil. A few mills use a small per cent of 

 Hemlock in mixture with Spruce, but 

 generally it is never cut. No other wood 

 is used for pulp to any extent, so the 

 supply of Spruce must be depended 

 upon. 



The hardwoods, with the exception of 

 in a few localities, have no value at 

 present. The Spruce, in a mixed growth 

 of hardwood, is always of a superior 

 quality, has a fairly favorable seed bed 

 and is protected from heavy winds. If 

 the stand of hardwood is not too dense 

 it is allowed to remain, but if it is sup- 

 pressing the Spruce and preventing re- 

 generation the stumpage is sold. 



In land where a heavy stand of Spruce 

 has been clean cut, White Birch is now 

 coming up. This has a ready sale in 

 many sections for bobbin and peg wood, 

 and may be utilized in future years by 

 the paper mills. 



The waste of good pulp wood through 

 present methods of lumbering is enor- 

 mous. Lumbermen have been accus- 

 tomed for many years to get out saw 

 logs alone, and are very slow to change 

 their system of cutting and learn that a 

 paper mill can use a great deal of wood 

 which a sawmill would not accept. So 

 they continue to top the logs at 7 or 8 

 inches, thereby losing an average of 18 

 feet, B. M., per tree, which they could 

 have saved by running the top up to 5 

 inches. They also chop the stumps 

 about 2 feet above where they could be 

 sawed, thus wasting 20 feet, B. M., per 

 tree. 



To guard against this waste our con- 

 tracts will specify that the timber shall 

 be run up to 5 inches in the tops, and 

 the stumps sawed as close to the ground 

 as possible. 



The aim of the company is to have 

 woodlands tributary to each mill with a 

 sufficient stand of Spruce to furnish its 

 annual supply of logs or pulp wood for 

 all time, cutting to 10, 12 or 14 inches, 

 as the case may be, and on a fixed rota- 

 tion. The International Paper Company 

 owns or controls at present about 

 1,000,000 acres of Spruce land, which 

 will be operated eventually under this 

 system, thus setting a good example to 

 other owners of Spruce land, by adopt- 

 ing forestry methods in the management 

 of their own woodlands. 



E. M. Griffith, 

 Forester for the Internationa! Paper Com- 

 pany. 



