difficulty. With some sites and cover types, however, 

 reinforcement planting or seedbed-preparation meas- 

 ures may be required to obtain a moderate restocking 

 of the more desirable species, particularly pine and 

 spruce. 



Improvement cuttings and thinnings are needed in 

 all stands, especially at the beginning of a management 

 program. Almost all of the present stands are char- 

 acterized by cull trees left standing after previous 

 logging operations. Early removal of these culls will 

 often speed up growth of the better trees and make 

 space available for the growing stock. 



Poletimber and seedling-and-sapling stands occupy 

 61 percent of the commercial forest land. These are 

 the merchantable stands of the future. Action is 

 needed now to make sure that the yield from these 

 stands will meet future requirements. 



Without widespread acceptance of better cutting 

 practices, the greatest hazard to poletimber stands is 

 premature cutting for box logs and for pulpwood and 

 other cordwood products. It is to the mutual benefit 

 of both the forest owner and the forest industry to pro- 

 tect such stands from unwise harvesting just as they are 

 entering their period of most profitable growth. 



To avoid premature harvesting, however, does not 

 mean to avoid all cutting. Other kinds of cutting — 

 thinning and liberation cutting — are needed. In older 

 poletimber stands, such practices \vill often pay for 

 themselves. But, more important, they serve to con- 

 centrate growth on fewer and better trees, thus bring- 

 ing them to merchantable size more quickly. Rein- 

 forcement planting may be necessary- where softwood 

 composition is inadequate. 



Protect the Forest Resource 



Cooperative measures for protecting forests against 

 fire, insects, and disease might be intensified. Par- 

 ticular attention might be given to controlling destruc- 

 tive forest insects, such as the spruce budworm. and 

 to preventing further losses from white pine blister 

 rust. 



During the budworm epidemic of 1910-19 New 

 Hampshire's losses, though never estimated, were se- 

 vere. There are indications that vulnerability to bud- 

 worm epidemics can be reduced through forest-man- 

 agement measures. These are a system of permanent 

 roads that will make accessible most of the spruce- 

 fir forests, and shorter cutting cycles — 20 years or less 

 in most instances — to pro\ide more vigorous and re- 



sistant stands through partial cutting and early remo\al 

 of mature fir. 



The \vhite pine weevil is probably more destructive 

 in the long run than the budworm. When weevil 

 grubs kill the terminal leader of a young white pine, 

 the li\e branches in the next lower whorl grow up- 

 ward. The tree thus becomes forked or crooked, of 

 poor form for sawlogs. Downgrading of timber as a 

 result of weeviling can be minimized by growing white 

 pine in pine-hardwood mixtures, keeping the young 

 pine under the protection of larger hardwoods until 

 it is one or two logs tall. Pure pine stands, if kept 

 densely stocked, will be weeviled, but there will be 

 some straight trees for the final crop. 



Control of white pine blister. rust has a long history 

 in practice. The rust spreads only where pine and 

 Ribes species (currants and gooseberries) are both 

 present. It is controlled by eradicating the Ribes 

 plants. Continued Federal, State, and town cooper- 

 ation is needed to keep blister-rust losses under control. 



New England's beech is threatened by a bark fungus 

 (Nectria) that attacks trees in combination with an 

 insect (the beech scale). The insect by itself does 

 little damage. Nor is the fungus known to be a serious 

 pest except when associated with heaw infestations of 

 the insect. It is thought, at present, that best control 

 is obtained by measures that keep beech fast growing 

 and thrifty. Earlier removal of beech from mixed 

 hardwood stands will not only improve species com- 

 position but may also help to reduce the damage from 

 these pests. 



Birch dieback has caused much concern among for- 

 esters and hardwood users for many years. The causes 

 of the condition are still unknown. The bronze birch 

 borer is usually present in affected trees. Owners of 

 birch timberland may reduce their losses by using short 

 cutting cycles to hasten removal of affected trees and 

 to encourage growth and seed production bv the more 

 \igorous individuals. 



Encourage Adjustvients in 

 Tiynber Utilization 



Forest industry in New Hampshire has been tradi- 

 tionally dependent upon the softwood species. This 

 dependence can be seen in the distribution of the forest 

 industries. Many sawmills are trying to get along with 

 scarce pine stumpage in the southern counties. Few 

 sawmills are found in the northern counties where the 

 hardwood timber is concentrated. 



26 



Forest Resource Report Xo. 8, L. S. Department of Agricullm 



