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BUREAU OF FOKESTRY. 505 



beauty was carefully studied. The working plan contains detailed 

 instnictions for the location and execution of cuttings, so planned as 

 not to injure standing trees and young growth, and to provide for 

 reproduction. 



LONGLEAF PINE IN TEXAS. 



During the past year the study for a working plan for the forest 

 lands of the Houston Oil Company in southeastern Texas was begun, 

 and field work upon the holdings of the company in Jasper and New- 

 ton counties, comprising an area of about 300,000 acres, was brought 

 near to completion. Longleaf Pine is here the tree of chief commercial 

 importance. Lumbering has been in progress uninterruptedly for 

 twenty years, and about 25 per cent of the entire tract has been cut 

 over. During recent years the use of railroads instead of streams in 

 transporting logs to the mills has had a marked effect upon the char- 

 acter of the logging. The problem of conservative management upon 

 the forest lands of the Houston Oil Company falls, therefore, under 

 three heads : 



Management of virgin forest. 



Management of forest lands lumbered before the construction 

 of the railroads, which have merely been culled of the largest trees 

 and which now contain a fair stand of merchantable timber. 



(3) Management of forest lands lumbered since the railroads were 

 completed, in which the cutting has been comparatively close. Here 

 Loblolly and Sliortleaf pines were lumbered as well as the Longleaf, 

 and in addition to the logging for lumber, piles and railroad ties 

 were cut to a considerable extent from small trees. 



The field work for this working plan has already required the serv- 

 ices of 35 men for four months. Much information of general applica- 

 tion was collected upon which to base the working plan for the entire 

 tract. Careful measurements were made of 8,000 felled trees in order 

 to determine the volume and rate of growth of Longleaf Pine, and a 

 detailed study was made of present methods of logging. The timber 

 was measured upon 8,432 acres. 



The chief object of the working plan is to devise practical modifica- 

 tions of present methods of lumbering which will hasten the produc- 

 tion and heighten the quality of the second crop. Study of the forest 

 shows that it contains a large number of small trees which, under 

 present market conditions, can be lumbered more profitably when 

 they reach larger size. Since the proportion of small trees varies 

 greatly in different localities, a map of the forest has been made, 

 based upon its composition and dividing it into types and blocks for 

 lumbering. The working plan fixes the d iameter to which trees should 

 be cut in each of these types and blocks, recommends practical meas- 

 ures to limit the waste in lumbering and to provide for satisfactory 

 second growth upon cut-over lands, and outlines a simple and effect- 

 ive means of protecting the forest from fire. 



SPRUCE IN MAINE. 



The fifth tract upon which the Bureau completed field work during 

 the past year includes 125,000 acres of the 275,000-acre tract of the 

 Great Northern Paper Company in northwestern Maine. The field 

 work upon 150,000 acres was completed last year, and the study for 

 a working plan for the whole tract is therefore completed. The field 

 work, which occiipied a party of 32 men for three and a half months, 

 was continued along the lines of the preceding year. The men were 



