LOGGING PRACTICE IN THE LAKE STATES 45 
grown again, at least by private owners, because of the long time 
involved. Yet the utilization of this timber is still wasteful. Old 
white and Norway pine logs are now taken only to 6 inches in 
diameter at the top. Where hardwoods are being utilized for chemi- 
cal wood the tops find a market, but in many operations where there — 
is no demand for chemical wood and the timber is utilized solely for 
lumber large tops remain in the woods. 
As this old timber disappears the stumpage value is undoubtedly 
going to increase. Owners of large saw-log timber in 10 to 15 years 
from now will, therefore, be able to command prices that justify 
conservative handling at the present time. 
For the owner still having a fairly large supply the old timber may 
help to bridge the gap until the younger timber reaches maturity, and 
in this way may enable the operator to carry on his operations indefi- 
nitely. Prolonging the life of the old timber by partial cutting, 
opening up the forest, and allowing the smaller trees to reach larger 
sizes will prolong the life of the industry based on this old timber. 
It will mean diminishing the depreciation of the sawmills, for these 
will be able to run longer as the timber cut is prolonged, thus reduc- 
ing the overhead charges. The only drawback is that such a forest 
may still be taxed as a virgin forest in spite of the fact that the 
amount of merchantable timber has been reduced by one-third. 
For all these reasons partial cutting under conditions existing 
in the Lake States promises the greatest economic advantages and 
at the same time it is the safest and cheapest way of securing natural 
reproduction. Where the stand of northern hardwoods—birch, beech, 
maple—and hemlock runs from 10,000 to 14,000 board feet to the 
acre and is made up of trees of different diameters from the smallest 
to the largest, partial or “selective” cutting is advisable from both 
the economic and the forestry standpoints. How much should be 
removed in each cutting and at what intervals successive loggings 
may take place will depend on the character of the forests, the 
wishes of the owner, and economic considerations. 
An actual selective cutting in Wisconsin may be cited as an illus- 
tration of the applicability of partial cutting in such stands. The 
stand is made up principally of birch, beech, maple, hemlock, and 
some white pine, characteristic of northern Wisconsin. Originally 
there was a considerable amount of white pine, for which the soil 
is well adapted. About 27 years ago most of the white pine was 
cut out, but the forest to-day is just as dense as it was then, although 
the proportion of white pine is much smaller. The stand on 1,800 
acres averages a little over 14,000 board feet to the acre. Trees of 
all diameters are found. 
There are on an average about 225 trees to the acre, ranging from 
2 to 36 inches in diameter breast high. Of these, 65 trees are hard- 
woods and 160 conifers. About 94 per cent of both conifers and 
hardwoods are of diameters ranging between 2 and 17 inches breast 
high, and only 6 per cent of all the trees are 18 inches and over in 
diameter. 
Close to 90 acres of this forest was logged during the winter of 
1924-25 and a total of 350,000 board feet cut out, or an average of 
about 4,000 feet to the acre, which is approximately one-third of the 
volume of the merchantable stand. This roughly coincided with a 
