May 20, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



203 



mixed with the Pine, on a warm, loamy soil, in a growth of 

 from thirty to thirty-five years, one hundred thousand feet of 

 box-boards may be obtained ; but on an average soil the usual 

 thirty years' growth has been found to be about fifty thousand 

 feet, when but little other wood is mixed with it. The expense 

 of cutting, drawing, sawing and drying is from $5.00 to $6.00 

 per thousand feet, which, at the present price of box-boards, 

 would leave the owner of the land about $2.50 per thousand 

 on the stump, or $125.00 per acre. This sum would pay a 

 good interest on the investment if the land had cost not more 

 than $15.00 per acre when the Pines first started to grow. 



Supposedly, the writer, when speaking of feet, does not 

 refer to the usual unit of board measure, but to the super- 

 ficial foot with a five-eighth-inch thickness to which 

 box-boards are usually cut. Translating his measure, 

 therefore, to the generally accepted board measure, the 

 100,000 and 50,000 feet represent 62,000 and 31,000 feet, 

 B. M., respectively. These amounts he claims can be 

 grown in thirty to thirty-five years. 



To simplify further, we may translate this measure into 

 cubic feet of forest-grown material. It is well known that 

 in sawing there is a necessary waste in sawdust and slab 

 amounting, according to the diameter of the log, to from 

 twenty to seventy-five per cent. — the smaller loss on large, 

 the larger loss on small logs. A straight log ten inches 

 across at the smaller end and ten feet long will waste sixty- 

 five per cent, in common mill practice — that is to say, of 

 the 5.4 cubic feet of wood in the log 3.5 feet are lost, and 

 only 1.9 cubic feet reappear in the boards as they fall from 

 the saw. In other words, to produce one thousand feet, 

 B. M., one needs to have, not eighty-three (that is 1,000-^12) 

 cubic feet of log, but 240 cubic feet. 



Since in growths of from thirty to sixty years the amount 

 of ten-inch log material forms only a small part, the wast- 

 age on the average would be considerably greater. Yet, to 

 throw the advantage altogether to the other side, we will not 

 only admit no larger wastage, but in addition assume that all 

 the wood from base to top can be utilized, although the 

 useless tops will in reality average, according to size, from 

 ten to fifty per cent, and more of the total growth of wood 

 per acre. We would then require for Mr. Hersey's claim 

 7,400 cubic feet of wood on the acre for the smaller and 

 twice that amount for the larger output, claimed by him as 

 possible, at from thirty to thirty-five years of age. Although 

 the White Pine is among our best producers, both these 

 figures are absurdities, into which the writer has probably 

 fallen by underestimating the age of the growths which he 

 measured. The Division of Forestry has during the last 

 two years made careful and accurate measurements of 

 many acres and some five hundred sample trees of varying 

 age from various conditions, which go to show that these 

 estimates are from fifty to a hundred per cent, too great. 

 Unfortunately, not a sufficient number of acre yields of the 

 age of thirty to thirty-five years has been measured to per- 

 mit their use for argument, but it will suffice to show that 

 groves of forty and fifty years of age do not produce the 

 amounts claimed, and that it would require a good stand 

 of sixty to seventy years' growth and more to produce any- 

 thing like the larger figure of 14,800 cubic feet. 



It so happens that among the acres measured there were 

 three from three localities in Plymouth County, Massachu- 

 setts, the very region to which Mr. Hersey refers. Their 

 record is as follows : 







All the trees over 



All the trees over 



All the trees over 







3 inches. 



6 inches. 



10 inches. 



No. 



Age. 



Number. 



Volume. 



Number. 



Volume. 



Number. 



Volume. 



I 



52 



328 



6,559 



313 



6,517 



1S2 



5,064 



2 



5° 



415 



5.479 



346 



s, 2 79 



116 



2,681 



3 



45 



475 



5,831 



376 



5,545 



136 



3,i" 



All three stands were considered well stocked. The last 

 one is of special interest, as it originated by sowing a piece 

 of pasture (seventeen acres) to Pine just forty-five years 

 before it was measured, and was considered specially well 



stocked ; the owner claimed to have cut fifty cords to the 

 acre, which he calculated equal to 30,000 feet, board meas- 

 ure, a rather incredible result, even when the total volume 

 of the trees over six inches is supposed to yield box-boards. 

 Even if we admit the entire wood production of trees 

 over three inches in diameter on the best acre given above 

 amounting to 6,559 cubic feet to cut box-boards, this would 

 fall short by twelve per cent, of Mr. Hersey's figure, 

 although the trees were twenty years older. In reality, 

 only the trees over ten inches, or eight at best, could be cut 

 even into box-boards. The best average production of 

 wood per year per acre (all included) during the first fifty 

 years appears to be round 150 cubic feet, which for the age 

 of thirty-five years would make the yield 5,250, of which 

 less than one-half might be fit even for box-boards, and 

 15,000 feet, board measure, would be quite a remarkable 

 result. The acres of thirty to thirty-five years measured, 

 which, however, we do not consider good, cut fifty per 

 cent. less. 



In growths forty years old, of which we have a number 

 measured, there will be 400 to 500 trees, in the average 

 about 425 to the acre. According to the greater or less 

 number the diameter classes vary ; no trees will have 

 reached a diameter over eighteen inches, and only few, not 

 more than twenty-five to thirty at best, over fourteen inches, 

 the majority falling in the diameter class of six to ten 

 inches, and the number between ten and fourteen inches is 

 rarely over 150, the total volume varying between 4,000 

 and 6,000 feet per acre. At best 20,000 feet, board measure, 

 may be cut, more likely much less. 



There is no doubt that by judicious thinning at the right 

 time and in the proper manner the yield could be increased, 

 but not even with the best practice would this increase 

 amount to more than twenty-five or thirty per cent., indi- 

 vidual development rather than increase of total yield in 

 the final harvest being the object of the thinnings. 



Mr. J. D. Lyman, of New Hampshire, has a growth of 

 White Pine two-thirds of an acre in extent, fifty to fifty-five 

 years of age, which he has thinned so that in 1894 only 

 146 trees remained, or 223 to the acre. As a result a very- 

 considerable development of the individual trees is notice- 

 able, but not much in the total volume per acre. Most of 

 his trees are over ten inches in diameter, at least sixteen of 

 them are over fourteen inches, and the best measured 22.2 

 inches, the height being seventy to eighty feet. The cal- 

 culated volume corresponds to a production of 7,185 cubic 

 feet of wood an acre, which under very careful practice 

 might cut 30,000 feet, board measure. The best forest- 

 grown tree, fifty-four years of age, which we have found 

 standing on this ground was eighty feet high, with a 

 diameter at base of eighteen inches, and a diameter of four 

 inches at sixty-five feet, containing altogether seventy-two 

 cubic feet of wood, sixty-five of which were capable of 

 being cut into lumber. This tree at thirty years of age 

 was only 10.8 inches in diameter ; at forty years fourteen 

 inches, and the four-inch top diameter was then at about 

 fifty-five and sixty feet respectively. If we assumed it 

 possible to have 300 such trees standing on an acre, which 

 would be twelve feet each way, the total amount of wood 

 at fifty-four years would be 21,600 cubic feet, of which 

 19,500 would make lumber cutting, say, round 100,000 

 feet, board measure. This would be an ideal stand, which 

 general practice can hardly hope to attain. 



In all the above calculations it must not be overlooked 

 that we have made reference only to box-boards — that is, 

 the lowest quality of boards, extremely knotty. If the 

 object were to grow saw-timber with the largest amount 

 of clear material the results would be entirely different, 

 since that would require the growing of a much larger 

 number of trees per acre until the twenty-fifth or thirtieth 

 year, when the individuals would develop in length and 

 by the close stand clear each other of branches, but the 

 diameter development would suffer. Then they should be 

 thinned to develop diameter, but it would be necessary to 

 give considerable time before good sizes are developed ; 



