48 YELLOW POPLAR IN TENNESSEE. 



TABLE 17. Second-growth on coaled-over land, the stand composed of 

 poplar and locust seedlings, chestnut sprouts, and oak seedlings and 

 seedling-sprouts. Site as good for poplar as for chestnut. Age of 

 stand 54 years. One acre. Carter County. 

 Diameter 

 breast-high Poplar Chestnut Oak Locust Others 



13 8 12 . . . . 56 



69 12 28 8 4 



1012 24 36 



1315 20 32 



1618 8 20 .. 4 



72 128 8 8 56 



Total per acre above 9 inches .54 88 . . 4 



The poplars above 12 inches in diameter are 115 feet high; the chestnut 

 of the same sizes are from 108 to 110 feet high. Such a site is well 

 suited for the production of large sized poplar timber, and the crowns of 

 the poplars, which are still being crowded by the chestnut, should be freed 

 by cutting the latter. This would be a combined thinning and elimina- 

 tion cutting. Had some of the chestnut been removed in successive ear- 

 lier thinnings, it would have been possible to have forced all of the poplar 

 to diameters above 14 inches. The chestnuts can now be removed for 

 poles, the most profitable form in which they can be marketed, and the 

 locust should be cut, but the poplar should be held until the accelerated 

 growth which followed the thinning begins to decline. (See Figs. 1 and 3.) 



BETTER UTILIZATION. 



Reduction of waste. Since the most valuable timber in the trees is in 

 the butt log, stumps of sound trees should be cut just as low as possible. 

 In the case of crooked trees, log lengths should be varied so that there 

 will be no crooked logs or so that the crooks will be near the end of the 

 logs. Sound timber in the top should be used whenever the selling price 

 of the lumber in it, less the discount, exceeds the value of the labor in 

 converting it. This secures the removal of tops which may be a fire men- 

 ace, without materially reducing profits or stumpage value. As soon, 

 however, as the value of the lumber in a log is less than the cost of the 

 labor to convert it, its removal results in a reduction in the value of the 

 remaining logs of a tree. Consequently, very limby and knotty top logs 

 which will yield not to exceed 25 per cent, of No. 2 Common or better, 

 and the lumber from which would have a net value of $10 per 1,000 feet, 

 after deducting overhead charges, stumpage and trade discounts, should 



