40 Transactions Tennessee Academy of Science 



millions of dollars have been saved on our national forests in tim- 

 ber preservation over and above the cost of running this system. In 

 Connecticut and New Hampshire, a State system very similar to this 

 forest service method is employed with success. 



Conservation of our forests does not necessarily mean that we 

 should keep all our forested lands in timber. Lands that are better 

 for agriculture and which can be maintained for agricultural land 

 should be turned over to agriculture. Much land on national for- 

 ests today has been classified by men in the service as agricultural 

 land and therefore opened to entry, and the land that is considered 

 naturally more valuable for forests than agriculture is reserved for 

 forested areas. 



In the management of the forested lands an effort is made if pos- 

 sible to secure a revenue from the timber. This is accomplished by 

 selling timber off certain areas to private companies. The forest 

 officers retain the right to mark the timber that shall be cut. The 

 principle of cutting, in brief, is this: to remove the mature and deca- 

 dent timber, which has reached its greatest value, so as to give the 

 young and thrifty trees a chance to mature, and for the open places 

 made by the removal of trees to be restocked by seedlings. In the 

 removal of the timber there is one object kept steadily in view, viz., 

 to preserve and perpetuate the species which is considered best 

 suited to that area. In cutting trees, forest service men insist that 

 the lumbermen cut the stumps low. At first glance, this would ap- 

 pear a small consideration. As a matter of fact, it has been care- 

 fully figured that the money saved to the lumberman by cutting low 

 stumps pays him for the expense of felling the timber. 



In this way, the United States attempts to secure a revenue from 

 her forests and at the same time she preserves her young and thrifty 

 trees for a constant forest cover. 



On some of these forests grazing is permitted under certain con- 

 ditions, but wherever stock proves to be a detriment, either to young 

 trees or to the soil through tramping it, it is forbidden. 



Both in national forests and in Slate work, experimentation is car- 

 ried on extensively; the growing of nursery stock and experiments 

 in tree growth on different soils under different conditions are tried 

 out. An effort to establish new, good species of trees in a State is 

 made. 



It is not to be understood that all the hinds on national and State 

 forests are timbered. Frequently thousands of acres with no tree 



