316 



FORESTS 



FORESTS 



Fig. 429. 

 American larch (Larix 



Fig. 430. 



Arborvitze {Thm/a 



occidentalis). 



This windbreak benefit, as well as that of regu- 

 lating water and soil conditions, is secured by 

 proper location of forest areas. While, therefore, 

 in the first place, soils and situations unfit for farm 

 purposes are to be selected for 

 the woodlot, to secure its bene- 

 ficial influences may make other 

 disposition desirable. 



Factors in woodlot maTiagement. 



Choice of species. — While we 

 speak of a timber crop as one, 

 there is quite as much variety 

 possible in timber crops as in 

 farm crops. Not only are there many different 

 kinds of wood, each possessing distinct qualities 

 and fit for distinct emplojTnent, but there are dif- 

 ferences of treatment which pro- 

 duce differences of result. . There 

 are the conifers, — pines, spruces, 

 hemlocks, firs, larch, cedar and the 

 like, — which furnish building ma- 

 terials and grow from seed only 

 (with few exceptions), requiring a 

 long time to make suitable size for 

 the purpose for which they are best fitted ; and 

 there are the broad-leaf trees of great variety, 

 hard and soft woods, fit for a variety of purposes, 

 and often becoming available 

 for use sooner than the con- 

 ifers, capable of reproduction 

 by sprouting from the stump 

 (coppice) as well as by seed. 

 Whether it be in the man- 

 agement of an established 

 woodlot or the starting of a 

 new plantation, a choice of 

 species and method of treat- 

 ment must be made from the 

 first, with the object clearly in view that the crop 

 is to serve. 

 Limitations as to output. — We have started to 

 consider the woodlot as destined, 

 in the first place, to supply domes- 

 tic needs of fuel and small-dimen- 

 sion material ; but the question 

 may arise whether it could not be 

 managed with a view to supplying 

 the general market. By general 

 market we mean the requirements 

 of sawmills and lumber-yards. 

 Excepting special cases, the far- 

 mers' woodlot is not well fitted for the practice of 

 commercial forestry, — the growing of timber for 

 the general market. The reasons for this inapti- 

 tude are partly economic, partly 

 based on the natural history of 

 forest-growth, and on silvicultural 

 peculiarities. 



Wood is a crop which, unlike 

 other farm crops, does not have a 

 physical maturity indicating the 

 harvest time. This time is a ques- 

 Butwu/«ff- tion of decision by the harvester, 

 lans einerea). based on financial considerations, 



Fig. 431. 



Bald cypress (Taxodium 



distickwm). 



Fig. 432. 



Black walnut 



{Juglans nigra) 



or on considerations of size. Size is ultimately the 

 basis of financial considerations also, for with 

 increasing size the usefulness and value of the tree 

 increases ; and size is, of course, a question of time. 

 Therefore, by the accretion in diameter and height, 

 the timber crop not only grows in volume annually, 

 but in value' also. Practically valueless until, say 

 ten years, it then may begin to be fit for hop-poles, 

 hoop-poles, bean-poles and the like ; at twenty 

 years, not only a larger amount of good fuel wood, 

 but posts and fence-rails may be cut ; at thirty 

 years, in addition, telegraph poles and railroad ties 

 and perhaps some other small-dimension material 

 may be secured ; but to grow logs for mill use we 

 should have to waij; twice that time. It would be 

 rare to get satisfactory log sizes before sixty to 

 seventy years, for the sawing of logs of small 

 dimension is wasteful and unprofitable ; for ex- 

 ample, the loss in slabs and saw-kerf with logs 

 twelve inches in diameter, under best practice is 

 still over 30 per cent, and of logs eight inches in 

 diameter may be over 60 per cent. And since with , 

 most species, on the poorer soils which are to be 

 devoted to the timber crop, even these sizes are 

 not plentiful, though the crop is well tended, the 

 long-time element involved would, in most cases, 

 deter the farmer from engaging in growing saw- 

 timber. 



There are also reasons against such a proposi- 

 tion, which lie in the nature of forest development 

 and the limitations of the woodlot. If size of the 

 tree is of importance in determining its value and 

 harvest time, size of the area on which forestry is 

 to be practiced is of importance in determining the 

 purpose and method of management. The limited 

 size of the woodlot, say fifty acres at most, if a 

 continuous business with annual harvests of sixty- 

 year-old timber were contemplated, would make 

 the annual harvest so small as to appear impracti- 

 cable except under special conditions, while an 

 intermittent management, under which larger 

 areas or quantities from period to period are har- 

 vested, may find equal objection because of the 

 requirement of the sawmills for assured amounts 

 of annual supply. The growing of log timber in 

 the woodlot, therefore, in most cases will' be found 

 impracticable as a business proposition. In addi- 

 tion, the usually isolated position of the 'wood-lot 

 in small patches is inimical to timber-growing. 

 Exposed on all sides to the drying winds, the soil 

 under the older trees standing more open is likely 

 to deteriorate, and not only thereby is the incre- 

 ment on the standing timber reduced, but natural 

 regeneration is impeded, and other silvicultural 

 practices are rendered more difficult, unless special 

 pains are taken to preserve a " wind mantle" on the 

 outskirts. Altogether, it will be found in most 

 places impracticable to devote the woodlot to any 

 other purpose than the production of home supplies 

 of fuel and small-dimension material. 



Cooperative management. — The difficulties men- 

 tioned, however, could be overcome and the far- 

 mers' woodlands profitably devoted to log-timber 

 production, if they were located together and man- 

 aged cooperatively under one plan. Such coopera- 



