30 FOEEST CONDITIONS IN LOUISIANA. 



24 inches and over, the greater number are vigorous sap trees. These 

 are developing slowly beneath the larger timber, and, if healthy and 

 full crowned, will make rapid growth after the overtopping trees are 

 removed. 



To determine the amount of pine timber which could be reserved 

 for a second crop without materially reducing the present cut, 

 measurements were made on 400 acres, divided into 10-acre plots, in 

 T3der County, Tex. Trees intended for removal were blazed, and 

 on certain areas where the timber was practically all mature a few 

 wind-firm trees were reserved for seed. Xo attempt was made to 

 establish a uniform diameter limit. The timber marked for removal 

 consisted of most of that over 14 inches in diameter and those trees 

 less than 14 inches which gave little promise of increase in growth. 

 Under this system of cutting about 1,700 feet of timber would be 

 left on each acre. Based on the growth during the last 20 years, and 

 without allowance for accelerated growth after logging, the stand, 

 including timber at present too small to be cut, would amount at the 

 end of 20 years to 3,400 feet per acre. Lands logged in this way, if 

 protected from fire, would readily become restocked with pine seed- 

 lings to form the basis for a third cut, if the land were not needed 

 for agriculture. 



In the longleaf-pine hills in Caldwell Parish rough counts of trees 

 left after logging showed that over large areas an average of at least 

 10 trees per acre may be expected to mature during the next 20 years, 

 under the present system of cutting. Measurements of about 200 

 trees in LaSalle Parish showed an accelerated growth after the 

 mature trees had been removed of from 12 to 20 per cent a year. 

 "While the conditions described are not general over the pine regions, 

 especially where logging operations have entirely destroyed young 

 growth, they represent the possibility of a second cut on lands logged 

 over in the usual manner. Under such conditions, where from 400 

 to 500 board feet are left after the first logging, it is not unreason- 

 able to expect a yield at the end of 20 years of from 2,000 to 2.800 

 feet per acre. If care were taken during lumbering operations to 

 reserve all vigorous trees below 12 inches in diameter, the yield in 

 the same length of time would often be as high as 3,000 or 3,400 

 feet. At the probable stumpage prices 20 years from now the value 

 of the second crop of timber would certainly justify a slight increase 

 in the present cost of logging. 



The value of reproduction on cut-over lands is difficult to deter- 

 mine. Land well covered with young pine, however, is certainly 

 more valuable than the desolate cut-over areas at present so common. 

 Except on the longleaf flats, shortleaf and loblolly pine make up the 

 greater part of the reproduction on longleaf land. Longleaf pine 

 produces less seed than shortleaf and loblolly, and moreover the 



