CONTROL THROUGH MARKING OF THE TREES 205 



Control through Marking of the Trees. — This is accom- 

 pKshed by designation (usually marking) of either the trees 

 to be cut or of those to be left. The operator is responsible 

 only for the work of removing the designated trees with due 

 care for those left standing, their selection falling under the 

 province of the silvicu'lturist. Satisfactory silvicultural re- 

 sults are more likely to follow than when dependence is 

 placed upon inspection alone. Woolsey^ states that "the 

 actual selection of individual trees can lose or save many hun- 

 dreds of dollars in each million feet marked." The method 

 of marking should be employed wherever there is any doubt 

 about securing satisfactory results through the control by 

 inspection. The necessity for care to avoid unnecessary dam- 

 age to standing trees on the part of the logger still exists. In 

 fact his attitude must be one of sympathetic cooperation in 

 the silvicultural plan if the best results are to be attained. 

 There is less opportunity allowed him for seriously interfering 

 with the style of cutting. As operators gain experience in 

 making cuttings in the practice of silviculture the tendency 

 will be for them to prefer the method of marking rather than 

 control by inspection alone, because of the fact that the 

 marking method reheves them of considerable responsibility 

 and allows their attention to be centered upon the logging 

 end of the work. Inspection is necessary imder the marking 

 method to see that the cutting is properly executed, but the 

 whole success of the method does not so vitally depend upon 

 frequent and close inspection as under the first method. 



Either the trees to be cut or those which are to remain 

 may be marked. The relative number of trees to be cut or 

 left is instrumental in determining which of the two classes 

 should be marked. When relatively few trees are to be cut 

 it is cheaper to mark the trees to come out, while if this condi- 

 tion is reversed, the trees to remain are marked. Where an 



