30 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE BULLETIN NO. 484. 



cord on the lot. The cost of cutting should not exceed $1.25 per cord. 

 The planting, including stock, will cost from $12 to $15 per acre. 



The cost of a cleaning made the first year after cutting will be less 

 than one made the second year, because of the great difference in 

 the size of the sprouts. If made the first year it will require seven or 

 eight hours' labor of one man. If made the second or third year, it 

 may well take 10 or 11 hours. Great care must be used to avoid 

 damage to the small planted pines. 



Removing sprouts by mowing is especially dangerous to young 

 growth, wild or planted, which it is desired to retain, and any form 

 of cutting is less effective and must be repeated more often than 

 breaking or pulling the sprouts from the stump. Pounding them off 

 with the poll (back) of an ax is especially desirable, and the first 

 year after trees are cut sprouts may be removed by trampling around 

 the stump. This method is especially successful with oak sprouts 

 and is not very hard on the feet if heavy shoes are worn. 



The time of year when trees are cut has an important bearing on 

 the number and vigor of sprouts which follow, and the same is true 

 of removing sprouts. The best time undoubtedly varies with the 

 species and locality, even in an area as small as New England, but 

 no precise information on this subject is available. Speaking gen- 

 erally, it may be said that trees cut in the summer have less vigorous 

 sprouts than those cut in May or June. The same conditions apply 

 to sprouts. If these are removed in July or August those which 

 follow are smaller and more tender than those which follow sprouts 

 removed earlier in the season and are likely to be killed or damaged 

 by frost. The result of clear cutting, planting, and cleaning in this 

 stand, if fires are excluded, would be a pure stand of young pine on 

 good soil, which should grow rapidly, yield a high return, and be 

 secure against gipsy-moth attack. 



The owner of this stand, like many others in the infested region, 

 was unwilling to make a clear cutting but very anxious to control the 

 gipsy moth. In such cases the plan offering the best chance of 

 eventually controlling the gipsy moth is to begin the gradual con- 

 version of the stand from hardwoods to pine by successive cuttings. 



Successive cuttings. — The first cutting, to be made at once, should 

 remove all dead, dying, defective, or suppressed trees. All Class I 

 trees (most favored food of the caterpillar) should be cut as heavily 

 as is possible without exposing the ground too much. Many trees of 

 this class must be left, but they should be, as far as possible, thrifty 

 trees of seedling origin, and a particular effort should be made to 

 reduce the number of white oaks. 



The Class II trees (favored food after the earlier larval stages) 

 will be favored in this cutting. On this lot they were white pines 

 large enough for seed trees and so especially desirable. 



