178 DEPARTMENTAL KEPORTS. 



MINNESOTA. 



One of these working plans was for a tract of 65,000 acres in St. 

 Louis County, Minn. The forest, which is typical^ of much of the 

 remaining pine forest of the Lake States, consists chiefly of white and 

 Norway pines. About two-thirds of the area is pine land, and the 

 remainder hardwood land and swamp. Nearly one-half of the mer- 

 chantable pine forest has been lumbered. The lumbered lands are now 

 totally unproductive, and future crops of timber can not be expected 

 from them within a reasonable time. 



The field work occupied a party of nine men for three months, and 

 included a careful determination of the rate of growth and merchant- 

 able volume of white and Norway pines, and the time required to 

 produce a second crop of merchantable timber under conservative 

 management. It is important in the management of this tract to 

 secure reproduction of white pine.after lumbering. The working plan 

 provides for leaving a sufficient number of seed trees to insure repro- 

 duction without appreciably curtailing the present cut of timber, and 

 outlines a practical system for protecting the logged-ofl' lands from 

 fire, which is essential to the successful management of the tract. 



Two timber tracts in Alabama were selected for the preparation of 

 detailed working plans with special reference to the work which the 

 Bureau is doing in the Southern pine belt. The working plans were 

 completed during the year. The smaller tract covers an area of 30,000 

 acres, and lies in Coosa County. The larger tract comprises 75,000 

 acres, situated mostly in Bibb Count}'. The forest on both tracts, 

 which are owned by the same lumber company, consists almost entirely 

 of longleaf pine, and is virgin timber of excellent quality. The 

 smaller tract is now being lumbered. The timber from the two tracts 

 will be cut at separate mills, and the lumbering will require a period 

 of twenty -five or thirty years. 



The company wishes to leave the basis for a second crop of timber, 

 in order to lumber a second time at the close of present operations. 

 The working plan shows that this result may be accomplished by adopt- 

 ing a diameter limit of IS inches, and cutting no smaller trees. 



The field work on both tracts required the services of nine men for 

 five months, and included the actual measurement of all trees on 5 per 

 cent of the area. One thousand felled trees were measured to deter- 

 mine the rate of growth of longleaf pine and the volume of trees of 

 different diameters. These data afforded the basis for an accurate 

 estimate of the present cut of merchantable timber, as well as of the 

 3'oung trees which will remain on the ground after lumbering and the 

 annual growth of timber on cut-over lands. 



The working plan recommends changes in the present methods of 

 lumbering which will practically prevent the destruction of promising 

 young trees and will increase the quantity and improve the quality of 

 the next crop. It outlines an inexpensive scheme for protecting lum- 

 bered lands against fire, which will insure the successful reproduction 

 of the pine after lumbering, and will provide for a second and suc- 

 cessive crops of timber from the same lands. 



