SECOND-GROWTH HARDWOODS IN CONNECTICUT. 



SCOPE OF THE STUDY. 



In dealing with forests among the essential things to know are the 

 rate at which they grow, the value of the standing timber for 

 different uses, and the method of management which will give the 

 maximum yield of most valuable material in the shortest time. To 

 tell these things for the forests of Connecticut, especially for the pre- 

 dominating types — second-growth chestnut, oak, and mixed hard- 

 woods — is the purpose of this bulletin. The results given were derived 

 from field work carried on by the Forest Service during the summer of 

 1910, in cooperation with the Connecticut State forester, Mr. S. N. 

 Spring. As a means of preparing yield tables for second-growth hard- 

 wood stands, which would show the number of cords, ties, poles, or 

 board feet of lumber obtainable from stands of different qualities at 

 the end of any given number of years, more than 250 sample plots, 

 aggregating about 65 acres, were laid out in even-aged stands at 

 various places throughout the State, the trees carefully measured, 

 and the total volumes determined. For determining these last, 

 volume tables for oak and chestnut were prepared from measurements 

 of the actual contents of 400 felled trees, together with 552 similar 

 measurements previously made in adjacent portions of New York by 

 Mr. J. G. Peters, of the Forest Service. Information was also 

 gathered concerning the prevailing market conditions and the costs 

 of logging, from stump to market, for all the principal products of 

 Connecticut woodlots. From this information an attempt has been 

 made to derive reasonable stumpage values, which would prove more 

 just to owner and purchaser alike than the haphazard methods of 

 sale now commonly in use. These values approximate an average for 

 the State, and would not necessarily apply to any specific timberland. 

 No such general calculations could, in fact, take account of all the 

 varying factors which enter into tjie computation of stumpage value 

 in any given instance. They should serve, however, to illustrate a 

 practical method of arriving at the true present market values of 

 forests. 



Data were secured in regard to the effect of thinning to increase the 

 rate of growth, and permanent sample plots were established in which 

 the growth in tliinned and unthinned stands can from time to time 

 be accurately measured and compared. 



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