FORESTS 



FORESTS 



323 



or managing his forest as sprouts which possess at 

 an early age a capacity for more rapid growth 

 than trees started from seed. The fact, however, 

 that the woodlot, as a rule, is not an independent 

 enterprise, but an adjunct to farming or some other 

 business, enables its owner to manage it not on a 

 strictly financial basis, because of the many bene- 

 fits which he derives from it indirectly, in the form 

 of windbreak or shelter to his cattle, in addition 

 to the products raised for his own home con- 

 sumption. 



There are also purely technical reasons which 

 make extensive forest tracts better adapted for 

 raising timber crops than small woodlots would 

 be. In a large forest the proper distribution of 

 trees of various ages, which is so essential to con- 

 tinuous wood-cropping, can be more easily attained; 

 on a large tract the main body of forest, being 

 well protected by the outer rows of trees on the 

 edge of the forest, suffers less from wind than 

 small woodlots, which are frequently exposed to 

 the sweep of gales; in a large forest there are 

 always more seed trees and more seed on hand, and 

 the conditions for starting a new crop are generally 

 more favorable than on small tracts. 



Timber crops, unlike farm crops, can not be 

 managed very intensively. Intensive industries are 

 characterized by their capacity for absorbing a 

 considerable amount of labor ; and forestry, with 

 the exception of harvesting timber crops, offers, as 

 has already been pointed out, but little opportunity 

 for the application of labor. Besides, forests grow, 

 as a rule, on the poorest soils and roughest situa- 

 tions, which makes any intensive management 

 financially unprofitable because of the expenditure 

 being out of proportion to the possible gain in net 

 returns. If to this be added the fact that it takes 

 100 to 150 years for trees to reach large dimen- 

 sions, and therefore only t^ or xirr of the total 

 forest area can be cut over every year, if annual 

 sustained yields of large timber are desired, the 

 need of vast forest areas for continuous wood-pro- 

 duction becomes self-evident. 



All this taken together emphasizes the impor- 

 tance of capital as a factor in the production of 

 wood crops, and has even led to designating for- 

 estry as a " capital intensive " industry in distinc- 

 tion from agriculture which requires a relatively 

 smaller fixed capital but a larger amount of labor. 



The three main factors of forest production may 

 be thus arranged in the order of their importance : 

 Nature, capital and labor. 



Literature. 



B. B. Fernow, Economics of Forestry, Thomas Y. 

 Crowell & Co., 1902 ; John Nisbet, The Forester, 

 Vol. I, William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh and 

 London, 1905 ; Gifford Pinchot, A Primer of Fores- 

 try, Parts I and 11, Bulletin 24, Forest Service, 

 United States Department of Agriculture ; William 

 Schlich, A Manual of Forestry, Vol. I, Introduction 

 to Forestry, London, Bradbury, Agnew & Co., 1896 ; 

 "Forsten," by M. Enders in " Handworterbuch der 

 Staatswissenschaften," edited by Conrad, Elster, 

 Lexis and Loenig, Jena, 1900. 



Fig. 458. 



Redwood {SeQuoia 



setnpervirens). 



Raising the Timber Crop. 

 By Samuel B. Green. 



Trees may be divided into two classes : (1) 

 Those that are called shade-enduring or tolerant, 

 and (2) those that are light-de- 

 manding or intolerant. These 

 characteristics of trees are of 

 great importance in considering 

 the subject of the renewal of 

 growth on forest lands, or even 

 in the matter of planting land 

 that is not yet in forest. While 

 it is not an absolute rule that 

 tolerant trees have a thick mass 

 of foliage, and intolerant 

 have open foliage, yet this 

 statement is so generally true 

 that when this characteristic 

 is known it serves as a very 

 reliable indication. Among 

 our tolerant trees may be 

 mentioned the spruce, balsam, 

 white cedar, red cedar, oak, 

 hornbeam and hard maple. 

 Among our intolerant species 

 are the poplar, cottonwood, 

 willow, soft maple, birch and 

 jack and red pine. 



The ideal forest is one that 

 might be called a two-storied 

 affair, that is, having an in- 

 tolerant species above and a 

 tolerant species below, much 

 the same as in a crop of corn, 

 where we may have pumpkins 

 growing under the shade of 

 the corn. Trees protect one an- 

 other and are mutually helpful, 

 and as a rule are most hardy 

 when grown in groups. Trees 

 also interfere with one another, 

 and in their struggle for light 

 and soil privileges the weaker 

 trees are often suppressed and per- 

 haps all of them are injured. On 

 the other hand, crowding forces 

 them to take on an upward 

 growth and kills out the lower 

 branches, which is necessary for 

 the production of good timber. 

 Trees that grow in the open have 

 side branches and make inferior 

 lumber that is full of knots. 



Fig. 459. 



Wliite pine {Finua 



Strobus). 



Fig. 460. 



Red or Norway pine 



{Pinua resinosa). 



Fig. 461. 



Scotch pine (Pinus 



aylvestris) . 



The forest rotation. 



There is a popular fancy 

 that a natural rotation of 

 trees exists, and where soft 

 woods are cut hard-woods 

 naturally follow, and the 

 reverse. In reality, there is 5 

 little to justify this notion. " . 



Under natural conditions, gjey or jack 'pine'(Pi»«3 



sometimes hard-wood will 



divarieata). 



