248 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



May 



slope into the valleys below. The ele- 

 vation of the land is from 800 to 1,900 

 feet above sea-level. 



Two types of forest grow at Sewanee, 

 one confined to the plateau, the other 

 to the coves. Although $3,000 for all 

 of the timber was considered a fair offer 

 by the university in 1899, yet under the 

 plan of management of the Bureau of 

 Forestry the university made in 1900- 

 1901 a net profit out of its cove timber 

 alone of about $1,500 and the following 

 year of about $1,200. The forest on 

 the plateau had been burned and grazed 

 so long that its improvement in quality 

 and composition was the urgent prob- 

 lem. A plan of treatment was made 

 whereby the labor expended on the im- 

 provement of the plateau forest would 

 be paid by the returns it would yield. 

 Although the work of imorovement 

 done on the plateau was required to be 

 self-supporting only, it yielded a net 

 profit of about $500. 



Four more years of lumbering remain 

 to be done, and for three years at least 

 there is an assured annual profit of 

 $1,500, or half of what the university 

 was formerly willing to accept for all of 



the timber. In a word, timber formerly 

 valued at $3,000 will have been made to 

 yield a profit of about $7,000. 



The high profits were made possible 

 through the careful planning of the lum- 

 bering in order to prevent waste and to 

 secure the largest returns from the mer- 

 chantable trees. In the cutting provis- 

 ion was made that the land should again 

 produce valuable timber. 



The working plan for the Sewanee 

 forest does not furnish such specific in- 

 structions for the management of timber 

 lands of a similar kind that it can be 

 applied to them without modification 

 and expert assistance. It illustrates, 

 however, what may be done with such 

 timber lands; and especially does it em- 

 phasize that lumbering and forestry may 

 be practiced together in the South, as 

 elsewhere, with profit. 



The work of preparing the working 

 plan for the Sewanee forest was carried 

 on under the direction of John Foley, 

 field assistant in the Bureau of Forestry. 



A logging contract for the coves was 

 made, which required that the following 

 rules be observed : 



i. Only marked trees shall be cut. 



VIK\V OF A COVE ON DOMAIN OF UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH, AT SEWANEE, TENN. 



