24 THE WOODLOT. 



cheaply as the clear cutting methods. The trees which are to be cut 

 must be marked individually, the average cost of which is 10 cents per 

 cord when men are hired to do the marking. In many cases the cost 

 of cutting and piling is 25 cents per cord greater than where the woods 

 are cleared. However, the writers have carried out this method on 

 several estates without any extra cost for cutting and piling. Thus 

 on a tract in southern New York the wood was cut and piled b}" con- 

 tract for To cents per cord, the usual price in that section when the 

 woods are cut clean. On a tract near New Haven, where the amount 

 cut was only 6 to 7 cords per acre, the cost of cutting was ^1.15 per 

 cord as against a custgmarj^ price of 85 cents to ^1. When, later on, 

 the trees left at the first cutting are cleared ofi", the price of cutting 

 and piling will still be slightly above the ordinary, because of the care 

 that must be takers to protect the small growth. 



The extra cost of the Selection Method is chargeable to the care 

 which must be exercised in felling and hauling out the selected trees 

 so as not to injure valuable young trees, and in marking the trees to 

 be cut when this is necessary. 



The Sprout Method, carried out as recommended, would sometimes 

 involve the extra cost of supervision to guarantee the cutting of low 

 and smooth stumps, and of higher wages for this kind of careful work. 



Improvement cuttings must be looked upon as necessar}^ work of 

 improvement, even if there is no immediate profit. They should 

 always be made if the sale of the wood will pay for their cost. 

 Improvement cuttings, even when they do not pay for themselves, are 

 desirable, and should be made whenever an owner can make them 

 himself or can afford to hire the work done. They cost about $3 per 

 acre in stands 10 to 20 years old. Just what the increased value in 

 the future will be as the result of them can not be deduced from ac- 

 tual tests. In case of sprout growth, however, it is certain that the 

 number of straight trees will be several times greater than if there 

 were no thinning. The greater value of the trees for poles and ties 

 would full}" pay for the cost of thinning. In the same way the 

 increased rapidity of growth after thinning has not jet been deter- 

 mined accurately. The writers have, however, measured single hard- 

 wood trees which have grown in diameter after thinning more than 

 twice as fast as before. While the average growth of all trees would, 

 perhaps, not equal that of the few which were measured, nearly all 

 would grow considerably faster as the result of thinnings. This 

 increase in the rapidity of growth, taken together with the higher 

 quality of wood resulting from the improvement cuttings, fully war- 

 rants an expenditure as great as |3 per acre. 



In all these kinds of cutting the choppers must take more than ordi- 

 nary care. Commonly they do not consider anything a tree unless it 

 is big enough for cord wood. Consequently they break down or clear 



