FORESTS 



FORESTS 



333 



to surrounding crowns are of special importance. 

 The processes of respiration and assimilation are 

 eflfected in the foliage which composes the crown 

 of the tree. The crown of a tree is its lungs and 

 stomach, so that the development and health of the 

 crown are closely related to the growth and health 

 of the tree ; and when a decision is to be made, 

 the position, shape and health of the crown should 

 be given great weight. 



In addition to the above considerations, which 

 should be studied in determining the extent to 

 which a thinning should be carried, another 

 method, though a rough one, may be found useful. 

 The amount of wood standitig on the area to be 

 thinned is estimated, and a percentage of the vol- 

 ume of the stand is removed. For example, a 

 given stand would run twenty-six cords to i,he 

 acre ; about four cords an acre, or 15 per cent of 

 the volume of the stand, would be removed in a 

 moderate thinning. 



One of the advantages of thinning that has not 

 been mentioned, and which should not be over- 

 looked, is that it may be combined with other 

 operations in practice, although in theory quite 

 distinct. As an example of this, an improvement 

 thinning may sometimes be combined with har- 

 vesting a part of the final crop. 



How to treat a mismanaged woodlot. 



There is no better way to outline the treatment 

 of mismanaged woodlots than to describe the work 

 done in a few concrete cases. 



A burned-over stand of hard-woods may be taken 

 as an example. The species represented in the 

 stand were chestnut, red, white and yellow oak, 

 with scattering white-wood, white ash, sweet birch 

 and beech. Most of the trees were of sprout origin. 

 The stand ran about eighteen cords to the acre. 

 Fire had been allowed to run through the lot a few 

 seasons before. Many of the chestnuts were badly 

 scorched about the base, and were dying back in 

 the crown. The other trees had also suffered to a 

 considerable extent. There was very little seedling 

 reproduction on the ground. It was evidently im- 

 possible to do anything with any but the best of 

 the existing trees ; it would have been a waste of 

 land to allow the others to cumber it. The stand, 

 therefore, was severely thinned, about one-third of 

 the volume being removed. The thinning was done 

 in the winter ; as spring came on, the tops and 

 larger limbs were piled and burned, in order to 

 prepare the ground for planting. Then the whole 

 was underplanted to white pine. Two-year-old 

 seedling stock was used, the distance being six feet 

 each way. The planting cost about six dollars an 

 acre. Ninety-seven per cent of the plants were 

 alive the following spring. The wood was sold the 

 winter following for three dollars a cord on the 

 pile, which insured a net profit of over a dollar a 

 cord on the thinning operation. It was removed 

 while the snow was on the ground, and hence there 

 was no injury to the young pines. The result of 

 this treatment will be a pine stand with a mixture 

 of hard-woods. A part of the hard-woods will be 

 removed when the pine is thinned, but the re- 



mainder will remain until the final crop is 

 gathered. 



Another example is a stand of old-field white 

 pine. When taken in hand the main body of the 

 stand was about fifty years old, with scattering 

 trees that were older. The older ones, or wolf trees, 

 had a start over the others and had developed 

 large side limbs ; they were not fit for anything 

 except the cheapest kind of lumber. The main 

 body of the stand was too dense, and, with the help 

 of the large wolf trees, was beginning to choke 

 itself into a stunted condition. The stand ran 

 about thirty-five cords to the acre. It was thinned 

 moderately, by removing some of the intermediate 

 and suppressed trees. Where the large wolf trees 

 could be thrown without injury to the better 

 growth, or without leaving too large an opening, 

 they were taken out. Six cords of firewood and 

 over a thousand feet of boxboards per acre were 

 secured from the thinning. The stand may be let 

 alone for some ten years, when it can be decided 

 whether to cut the crop or treat it to another 

 thinning, and allow it to grow a while longer. 



Another example of a mismanaged woodlot may 

 be cited as illustrating very diiferent conditions. 

 The stand was composed in part of very old chest- 

 nuts and oaks, some, of them three or four feet 

 through ; and under these there was a more or 

 less complete under-stand of chestnut, oak, birch, 

 maple and hemlock. The party who controlled the 

 property had been making the mistake of refusing 

 to allow any trees to be cut ; and the result 

 was that the large trees were deteriorating and 

 the younger ones were much too crowded. The 

 lot was gone over carefully, and a part of the 

 large trees removed, and at the same time a 

 very moderate thinning was executed in the 

 smaller growth. Care was exercised in throwing 

 the large trees, and the smaller ones were not 

 broken to any great extent. As reproduction 

 was abundant in the places where no under-stand 

 existed, it was not necessary to resort to planting. 

 The treatment was successful financially as well 

 as silviculturally. 



Literature. 



Schlich, A Manual of Forestry, Vol. II, Part III, 

 London, Bradbury, Agnew & Co.; The Woodlot, 

 Graves & Fisher, Washington, United States Forest 

 Service ; Alfred Akerman, Forest Thinning, Boston, 

 Massachusetts State Forest Service. 



Harvesting and Marketing the Timber Crop. 



By E. E. Bogue. 



Perhaps the most important step in the manage- 

 ment of a timber crop is the harvesting, as on it 

 depends the future existence and usefulness of the 

 crop. This is strikingly true of the farm woodlot, 

 in which every care must be exercised to perpetu- 

 ate the crop in its most productive condition, to 

 meet the annual requirements of the owner, and at 

 the same time to be a source of income. The prac- 

 tices employed in harvesting the woodlot and the 

 forest crop have mg,ny points of difference, and at 



