92 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



size. However, as long as fire, wind, insects, etc., cause ex- 

 tensive injury in the forests, damage cuttings are demanded 

 as a regular part of management, to make the best of a bad 

 situation. 



When promptly made, before decay has progressed far, dam- 

 age cuttings usually yield material of merchantable size. Where 

 the returns from material taken out will not pay the expenses of 

 removal, damage cuttings are not ordinarily recommended. 



Fig. 38. — A damage cutting. Note the undergrowth of grass and weeds which has started 

 as a result of the heavy cutting. To avoid such undergrowth improvement cuttings 

 should be made as light as possible. The fallen tree, weakened at the base by fire and 

 fungi, has been broken off by the wind. 



Schedule of Improvement Cuttings. — In order to illustrate the 

 relative time at which the different kinds of improvement 

 cuttings are made, the following table has been drawn up for 

 a planted stand of white pine, this particular type of forest 

 serving as a good example for even-aged stands of other species. 

 The rotation has been set at sixty years. If it was intended to 

 reproduce the stand naturally, a reproduction cutting would be 

 substituted for the last thinning. 



