﻿COTTONWOOD IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 39 



tops. Where the size of logging operations does not warrant setting- 

 up such secondary plants, it will often be possible to barge the logs 

 or bolts of the inferior species to hoop mills, excelsior factories, or 

 cooperage plants located in the principal cities along the river. Even 

 though the price received no more than covers the woods and trans- 

 portation cost, the importance of encouraging cottonwood reproduc- 

 tion will often justify such a disposal. 



Charcoal burning and wood distillation is another industry Avhich, 

 if it could be profitably conducted in these bottoms, would aid 

 materially in close utilization. Practically every species could be 

 utilized down to a diameter of 2 or 3 inches, including tops and 

 limbs of felled trees. Maple, elm, sycamore, willow, birch, and hack- 

 berry should produce a good grade of charcoal, and be delivered at 

 the pit for $2 per cord. The development of a market for small- 

 sized material would have the additional advantage of making thin- 

 nings from young stands of cottonwood practicable. In many in- 

 stances, however, the utilization of the poorer species will obviously 

 be out of the question. A choice must then be made between leaving 

 them until a market develops or deadening them. 



THINNINGS. 



The removal of a portion of the trees from a stand not fully 

 mature is termed a thinning. Thinnings, if properly done at the 

 right time, will result in accelerating the growth of the trees left, 

 and at the same time utilize many of the smaller trees which would 

 otherwise die from supression. A thinning will frequently pay for 

 itself. Cottonwood responds in a marked degree to increased light. 

 Its pronounced light requirement is in itself an unmistakable indica- 

 tion that thinnings will be beneficial. It is evident, further, that in 

 cottonwood stands where in the course of natural development the 

 r.verage number of trees per acre falls from 700 to 50 between the 

 ages of 10 and 40 years there must be great loss in growth rate due 

 to competition. 



Unfortunately, no example of systematic thinning in young cot- 

 tonwood stands was found in the present study. On one plot, how- 

 ever, a good many of the trees had been removed in a rather hap- 

 hazard and unsystematic manner, most of them apparently of the 

 smaller sizes. The beneficial results of this chance opening up 

 were, however, quite apparent. This particular stand was in south- 

 eastern Arkansas, and occupied good bottomland soil near the 

 present course of the river. Its age was 17 years. It was stated that 

 rivermen had been in the habit of drawing upon this stand from 

 time to time for ship poles, barge braces, and the like. Cuttings 

 were said to have been made for quite a number of years, although 

 apparently none had been made very recently. Over most of the 



