FOREST SERVICE. 213 



new uses and substitutions, the nicarket supplied, and land and stump- 

 age values. Special attention was paid also to the cost and methods 

 of logging and milling, and to current grades and specifications. 

 Sixteen localities, believed to be typical of the forests of the region, 

 were then selected for detailed studies of silvics and lumbering. In 

 addition, four other typical localities were studied by special parties, 

 two m connection with the second-growth problem and two for the 

 cooperage industry. Careful studies were made of the characteris- 

 tics of the forest, the individual habits and requirements of each 

 species, the effects of fire and grazing, and the methods and effects of 

 lumbering upon the forests, more especially as regards waste in 

 logging and means of preventing this waste. Upon these various 

 studies are based plans for conservative forest management under 

 varying forest conditions. 



The report upon this great hard-wood region, which is now nearing 

 completion, will contain a large amount of information concerning 

 commercial and forest conditions and their relation to the lumber, 

 cross-tie, tight and slack cooperage, mining, timber, tan-bark, and 

 chestnut extract wood industries. Based upon this information, defi- 

 nite suggestions will be given as to methods of utilizing the forest 

 products to better advantage and as to practical means of managing 

 forest properties more conservatively. 



COTTONWOOD AND ASH. 



During the winter the Forest Service carried on a study of 

 Cottonwood and ash in the South. This study was supplementary in 

 part to the study made the preceding year of the red gum, and com- 

 bined with this, furnishes a complete basis for the forest management 

 of hard-wood bottom lands in this region. 



Nowhere is forest mainagement more promising than on these 

 hard-wood bottom lands. The growth of all species, i^articularly the 

 Cottonwood and ash, is here extremely rapid, and nearly all the spe- 

 cies are now easily merchantable. The measurements taken on the 

 Cottonwood show it to be one of the fastest growing trees native to 

 the United States. Ash, while not so fast in growth as either cotton- 

 wood or red gum, will make saw logs in about fifty years, and can be 

 used when much smaller for many purposes. The chief obstacle to 

 be overcome is, in many localities, the dense growth of canebrake, 

 which often renders reproduction difficult, if not altogether impos- 

 sible. Burning will undoubtedly prove the most efficient means of 

 destroying this growth. 



LODGEPOLE PINE. 



A study of the lodgepole pine in Montana, Utah, and Wyoming 

 was carried on during the summer and fall. , The object was to 

 collect exact information with regard to silvics, commercial status, 

 and methods of lumbering, which information, combined with the 

 large number of growth and volume measurements obtained by the 

 Service during the past four years, will furnish a basis for the correct 

 forest management of this species. 



At present lodgepole pine, despite its wide geographical distribu- 

 tion and the fact that it forms four-fifths of the forests of the Rocky 

 Mountain region, is not commercially a well-known tree. It is, 



