476 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



October 



They contain many kinds of trees, va- 

 rying widely in habit and also in mer- 

 chantable value, and the forest type 

 is constantly changing with their dif- 

 ferences in elevation, gradient, and 

 soil. Their best management is diffi- 

 cult, because the lack of uniformity in 

 the forest renders it necessary con- 

 stantly to vary the severity of the cut- 

 ting and to discriminate in the kinds 

 of trees which are cut, instead of fol- 

 lowing only those general rules which 

 suffice where there are fewer species 

 represented and the forest conforms 

 more closely to a single type. 



In order to reproduce these forests 

 successfully and to minimize the dam- 

 age done by lumbering, first of all it 

 will be necessary to have a radical im- 

 provement in the fellings. Such an 

 improvement is entirely practicable 

 without additional cost per 1,000 feet 

 B. M. of timber felled. It often re- 

 quires no more labor to fell a tree up 

 a slope than down it, or upon an open 

 space rather than into a clump of 

 young growth; and it is in just such 

 cases as these that unreasoning disre- 

 gard for the future of the forest is 

 commonly manifested in the Southern 

 Appalachians. 



In the selection of trees to be felled 

 the small farmers, who for a long time 



were the only lumbermen in the South- 

 ern Appalachians, have been governed 

 by the same considerations that govern 

 lumbermen elsewhere. They have tak- 

 en the best trees and left uncut those 

 of doubtful value rather than run the 

 risk of loss in felling them. Further- 

 more, the fact that they have lumbered 

 generally on a very small scale and 

 have often had great difficulties with 

 which to contend in the transport of 

 logs has led to extremes in this re- 

 spect. The result is that they have 

 reduced the general quality of the 

 forests in a measure entirely dispro- 

 portionate to the amount of timber 

 cut. As a rule, only prime trees have 

 been taken, and those showing even 

 slight unsoundness have been left un- 

 cut, except where the stand of first- 

 class timber was insufficient. Diseased 

 and deteriorating trees remain to off- 

 set the growth of the forest by their 

 decay and to reduce its productive ca- 

 pacity still further by suppressing the 

 younger trees beneath them, while in 

 the blanks made by the lumbering, 

 worthless species often contend with 

 the young growth of the valuable 

 kinds. In other words, the lumbering 

 has closely followed the selection sys- 

 tem, but the principles governing the 

 selection have usually been at vari- 

 ance with the needs of the forest. 





VALUE OF MINNESOTA FOREST RE- 

 SERVE LANDS FOR SETTLEMENT 



BY 

 HERMAN H. CHAPMAN 



U. S. Forest Service 



"* HE creation of the forest reserve 

 by act of Congress, from the 

 lands lying within the Chippewa In- 

 dian Reservation, in Minnesota, came 

 as the result of a compromise between 

 interests favoring the relinquishment 

 f the entire reserve to settlement, and 

 those desiring the creation of an im- 

 mense national park. Neither of these 



extreme views represented the best in- 

 terests of the public concerned ; and 

 in this case, at least, the compromise 

 action taken was far better than either 

 extreme. The elements of a park are 

 as well preserved and the public as 

 amply benefited by the setting aside 

 of the ten sections of virgin Norway 

 pine along the shores of Cass Lake, as 



