ROTATION TN FORESTRY lOQ 



1. In Loblolly or in Lodge Pole enterprises for hewn railway 

 ties the diameters preferred are 12", 13", and 14". If this is the 

 only use for which the timber is grown, and we get as many ties 

 from the 14" tree as from the 17", it is obviously useless to allow 

 the tree to grow to 16" and waste time and use of land for perhaps 

 twenty years (Lodge Pole) or more. This case, especially in slow 

 growing Lodge Pole, illustrates the importance of careful determin- 

 ation of Rotation. If a stand of Lodgepole produces practically as 

 many satisfactory ties at 150 years as at 180 years, to leave this 

 material the extra thirty years would be a loss which, in large 

 operations, would run into a considerable sum. On the other hand, 

 if 150 years are required to produce tie timber, then it is useless to 

 discuss shorter Rotations unless it is reasonably certain that other 

 uses may be expected to change the market. 



This also illustrates the uncertainty in this determination of 

 Rotation, especially in new countries where market is rapidly chang- 

 ing its requirements and prices. 



2. Generally the upper limit is less rigidly fixed, larger timber 

 means a greater number of uses, but the lower limit is fixed. 



In spite of all the changes of the past TOO years, a few funda- 

 mental facts remain valid today. The consideration of a few 

 principal uses may illustrate this : 



a. Fuel wood, though used in enormous quantities must be 

 cheap and have local market ; it competes with coal, is almost 

 excluded from many districts, does not pay for long distance trans- 

 portation (unless by water) ; can be supplied from thinnings, etc. 

 Even fifty years ago it was a factor in Forest Regulation, called for 

 a Rotation of maximum volume, and was regularly transported 

 especially by water to larger towns of Europe. Today it has 

 generally disappeared from consideration of the rotation. 



b. Pulp wood requires reasonable proximity of, usually, large 

 and costly mills ; it favors conifers and of these the Spruce. So far 

 it pays well, competes with lumber in purchase of stumpage. The 

 use of other species is 'growing, and like fuel wood, pulp wood may 

 largely be cut from thinnings in the future. 



So far Pulp wood has not attained an importance to control 

 Rotations, but has afrected the practice of thinning, and indirectly 

 it is leading in the direction of shorter rotations. In the United 



