82 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



February 



tion of the contract. No trees can be Lumbering, however, as heretofore 

 cut except those previously marked conducted, has had little concern for 

 by a Government official. Under such the effect of its operations on the for- 

 contracts millions of board feet of est. The immediate purpose was lim- 

 lumber are annually being cut from ited to getting out the valuable timber 

 the reserves, to the improvement of quickly, and little or no attention was 



given the damage to young growth, 

 necessarily resulting from reckless tree 

 cutting. Reserve management will 

 stop reckless lumbering. The future 



their condition. 



It is not the Government's purpose 

 to maintain the reserve forests un- 

 touched, but to use and develop them. 

 Proper lumbering is as necessary to a 

 productive forest as protection. Ma- 



welfare of the public forests depends 

 on wise regulation of lumbering un- 



ture or ripe trees should be cut not der such expert control as only the 



only for the same reason that wheat trained forester can exercise. This 



or corn is, to save and utilize the pro- control must prevent injury to young 



duct, but also to promote reproduction, growth from tree felling, must pro- 



Agricultural crops require sowing or 

 planting each year, but forests, prop- 

 erly thinned by cutting, reproduce 

 themselves and furnish a continuous 

 crop. That this work may be effect- 



vide for thinning the forest so as best 

 to assist reproduction, must where 

 necessary resort to tree planting to 

 rebuild the forest, and, most import- 

 ant of all, must prevent or quickly 



ively accomplished there must be pro- suppress all fires. None of these ends 



tection from fires and proper condi- 

 tions for tree growth must be main- 

 tained. Important among these con- 

 ditions is the demand of trees for room 

 and sunlight. The young growth must 

 be neither crowded nor shaded out. 

 Thus, for the best results in reproduc- 

 tion the mature trees should be cut, 

 and the dead and diseased timber 

 should be disposed of as rapidly as 

 possible. 



can be successfully attained while the 

 forests remain public lands under no 

 apparent control. Putting them under 

 reserve is reclaiming them from an 

 unguarded and unproductive state. It 

 is the first step in putting them to 

 their best use, through which lumber- 

 ing and all industries depending on 

 them will most permanently and 

 largely thrive. 



UNIQUE STEAM LOG HAULER 



Now in Use on Former Chippewa 

 Indian Reservation, Minnesota 



BY 



EUGENE S. BRUCE 



Lumberman, Bureau of Forestry 



UK accompanying illustrations 

 will give the interested reader 

 a clear, idea of a steam log hauler used 

 by some of the progressive lumbermen 

 of the Northwest for facilitating the 

 long-distance hauling of logs. It is 

 used in localities where the distance 



which the timber must be transported 

 order to reach desired streams or 



in 



railroads is so great as to prohibit its 

 being hauled by teams profitably. 



The construction of this steam log 

 hauler involves an adaptation of the 

 general principles of the ordinary 



