FOKEST PBOBLEMS OF THE STATE. 29 



In turpentine operations the practice is to tap small trees, and as 

 a result these are inevitably thrown by wind or destroyed by fire 

 before they can be used for lumber. 



Conservative methods of logging must vary with individual tracts. 

 A fixed minimum diameter limit is not practicable in most of the 

 yellow-pine stands. While this method is often used in regions where 

 the forests are composed of trees of many different ages, it is unsatis- 

 factory in the yellow-pine forests, most of which are even aged. 

 Instead of cutting to a fixed diameter, three or four well-rooted, large- 

 crowned seed trees should be left on each acre. These need not be 

 trees which would cut the best lumber, and may be crooked or even 

 affected with red-heart. If the stand consists largely of trees between 

 10 and 12 inches in diameter seed trees may be unnecessary. In 

 general, where the trees in the stand are uniformly large, a second 

 crop should be provided for by leaving scattered seed trees on the 

 logged area, and where the stand is composed of old trees and sap- 

 lings by removing only those trees which can be manufactured profit- 

 ably into lumber, leaving the young ones for a later cut. 



Another desirable method of logging would be to remove the tim- 

 ber in two cuts. The first cutting should usually include the older 

 and larger trees, all decayed and injured trees, and some of the 

 smaller ones from younger, even-aged groups. Perhaps 60 per cent 

 of the stand would be removed in this cutting. There should be 

 some care taken to provide for the even distribution of the trees left, 

 in order to facilitate reproduction. Fifteen or 20 years later a 

 second cutting should be made. In this, all of the stand left after the 

 first cutting would be removed. The reproduction which would 

 have come in in the meantime should be ample to restock the area. 

 Fires must be guarded against, of course, if adequate reproduction is 

 to be obtained. 



Few lumbermen consider the possibility of a second crop of pine 

 on their lands, yet by those who plan to operate their mills for from 

 15 to 20 years the idea should receive careful consideration. It is 

 more than probable, in fact, that the increase in stumpage values dur- 

 ing the period the mills are cutting present stands will more than 

 justify the care of young growth. 



In many longleaf-pine forests fully one-fourth of the area is 

 covered by thrifty young timber under 14 inches in diameter. Much 

 of this, as has been said, is destroyed in logging, especially where 

 steam skidders are used. Measurements made on sixteen 40-acre 

 plots in Tyler County, Tex., where conditions are similar to those in 

 western Louisiana, in stands averaging 9,500 feet per acre, showed 

 an average of from 19 to 28 per cent of the area, or about 10 acres 

 in every 40, well stocked with young pine. While some trees below 

 12 and 14 inches are as old and mature as those with a diameter of 



