﻿BULLETIN OF THE 



No. 13 



Contribution from the Forest Service, Henry S. Graves, Forester 

 February 24, 1914. 



WHITE PINE UNDER FOREST MANAGEMENT. 



By E. H. Frothingham, Forest Examiner. 

 SUITABILITY OF WHITE PINE FOR MANAGEMENT. 



Of all the trees of eastern North America white pine best combines 

 the qualities of utility, rapid growth, heavy yield, and ease of man- 

 agement. Its former abundance and the cheapness and varied 

 usefulness of its lumber made it an important factor in the develop- 

 ment of the States in which it grew and even of regions far outside 

 of its natural range. After an enormous and for a long time unap- 

 proached exploitation the original forests are now approaching 

 exhaustion, and the large-size high-grade white pine lumber, once 

 abundant on the market, has become scarce and expensive. With 

 its decline, lower grades have come into existence and have found a 

 ready market where large size and high quality are not essential. 



The demand for low-grade white-pine lumber has made it possible, 

 from a business standpoint, to cut and market second-growth white 

 pine when comparatively small and young. For many years the 

 pine output of the Northeastern States has consisted almost wholly 

 of second growth, most of it cut in limited tracts or woodlots by 

 small portable mills. Thousands of such stands exist on abandoned 

 farms or pastures in New England. In other regions white pine has 

 sprung up in abundance after lumbering and needs only time and 

 protection from fire to develop into thrifty, valuable stands. Had 

 fires not been allowed to run repeatedly over the slash left in logging 

 the original stands, a large part of northern Michigan and other 

 noted white-pine regions would probably now be covered with pine 

 second growth, much of it already of merchantable value. 



Because of the success with which white pine lends itself to man- 

 agement, the relatively steady market, and the small amount of 

 waste in lumbering, there is no doubt that under widely varying 

 conditions of quality and accessibility, and with the prevailing tax 

 rates, market value, and wages, the raising of white pine to ages of 

 from 35 to 70 years is a profitable undertaking at 4, 5, 6, and 

 sometimes 10 per cent compound interest. 

 6738°— Bull. 13—14 1 



