FORESTRY. 



It tokes 30 years to grow a tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



CHESTNUT FOR WOOD LOTS. 



Throughout the Northeastern States, 

 from Massachusetts to Maryland, and as 

 far West as Indiana, chestnut holds an im- 

 portant place as a timber tree. Commer- 

 cially, it is chiefly in demand for ties, tele- 

 graph and telephone poles, and posts, for 

 all of which purposes, as well as for some 

 constructional uses, it is especially adapted 

 by its peculiar power to resist decay in con- 

 tact with the soil. It is also largely used 

 for fuel and general farm purposes. In 

 Maryland alone, according to the 12th cen- 

 sus, its annual market yield of lumber, rail- 

 road ties and telegraph and telephone poles 

 amounts to over $100,000, besides large sup- 

 plies of material for local consumption. 



It happens that chestnut is especially fit- 

 ted for management in farmers' wood lots. 

 Before scientific forestry began to be heard 

 of in the United States, and when forest 

 preservation was not uncommonly talked 

 about as a sentimental fad, the thrifty own- 

 ers of the small tracts of woodland which 

 cover so much of Southern New England, 

 New York, Pennsylvania and neighboring 

 States had long been cutting successive 

 crops of the hardwoods which sprout rap- 

 idly from the stump, thus practicing more 

 or less rudely what the forester calls the 

 "pure coppice" method of management. 

 The superior market for chestnut, com- 

 bined with its rapid growth, gave it the 

 leading place in the esteem of these wood- 

 lot owners, who by winter cutting were 

 able to turn to good account time for which 

 farm occunations gave no other employment. 

 The results of a study recently conducted 

 and soon to be published by the Bureau of 

 Forestry show strikingly the advantages of 

 chestnut for this kind of management, and 

 at the same time suggest some practical 

 conclusions concerning how the methods 

 ' now in vogue may be improved. Like other 

 trees which reproduce by sprouting, chest- 

 nut loses its vigor when the root svstem be- 

 comes too old. Trees grown from seed 

 increase, both in height and bulk, more 

 slowly for many years than those grown as 

 sprouts from the stump. But by the time 

 the trees are 80 to 100 years old the seed- 

 ling trees will catch up, and eventually 

 reach a larger size than the others. For 

 ordinary uses, however, chestnut is cut long 

 before this age is reached, and coppicing 

 is therefore the best way to raise it; but 

 unless new seedling growth starts in the 

 forest^ along with the sprout growth, the 

 declining vigor of the old root systems will 

 result in smaller and smaller production 



until only a sickly stand of inferior timber 

 is left to draw on. 



Chestnut tends to produce seed abundant- 

 ly, and if the nuts were left to sow them- 

 selves the forest would take care of itself; 

 but crows, squirrels and other animals 

 levy a heavy toll. Far more formidable, 

 however, in well settled regions, are the 

 gatherers of nuts for the market. With 

 chestnuts selling at an average of $2.50 a 

 bushel, there is a premium on the seed crop 

 which makes propagation of the tree 

 through this means a matter of dubious 

 chance. When in addition hogs are per- 

 mitted to range the woods for mast, and 

 cattle to browse the tender shoots as they 

 rise from the ground, the prospect of seed- 

 ling growth is small indeed. 



Chestnut is not exacting in its soil re- 

 quirements. Its roots spread comparatively 

 deep, so that it is not so sensitive to fire or 

 humus destruction from any cause as most 

 species. Its sprouts grow so fast that -a 

 height of 7 or 8 feet at the end of the first 

 season is not uncommon, and its stumps are 

 so vigorous that one will often produce 40 

 to 50 sprouts. Not more than one in 8 or 

 10 of these will mature, but by selecting 

 the most promising the full vigor of the 

 parent stump may be concentrated on them 

 to the great improvement of their rate of 

 growth. The observations made by the 

 Bureau have proved that low stumps pro- 

 duce more vigorous sprouts than high ones, 

 and that winter or spring cutting is fol- 

 lowed by better results than that done in 

 the summer or fall. Telephone poles are 

 grown, in Maryland, from healthy stumps 

 in 35 to 38 years, and ties may profitably be 

 cut in about 29 years. Too early cutting 

 of ties should be discouraged as wasteful 

 in the long run. The practice of permitting 

 contractors to cut unrestrictedly for a given 

 sum is one which works much injury to the 

 permanent productiveness of the woods. 



The Bureau is thus doing excellent prac- 

 tical work for the owners of small tracts of 

 timberland, for whom the employment of a 

 forester is out of the question, but for whom 

 the application of the knowledge furnished 

 by scientific forestry is essential, if they 

 are to reap the full value of their holdings. 

 The largest tree in the world, so far as 

 reported, is supposed to be a chestnut which 

 was recently cut in the vicinity of Mount 

 .ZEtna. It is said to be 212 feet in circum- 

 ference 60 feet from the ground. More re- 

 markable than its huge girth is the point 

 on the trunk at which this measurement is 

 said to have been made. 



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