"r4- % 



4jfc*k 



Figure 34. — Two men with a farm tractor and mechanical tree planter can set 5 to 8 acres to pine in a day. (Tenn. Conservation Dept. photo.) 



Efficient manufacture of timber products can also 

 reduce wood waste. The most pressing need along 

 this avenue is improving the operating efficiency of 

 the several thousand circular sawmills that process 

 the bulk of Tennessee's timber. The Division of 

 Forestry Relations of the Tennessee Valley Authority 

 has done much educational work to help sawmill 

 operators reduce both the mis-manufacture of lumber 

 and the costs of mill operation. The keen interest in 

 this program shown by sawmill operators is encourag- 

 ing. Continued efforts are needed, however. 



Intensified Forest Management 



While protection, cull hardwood removal, and 

 planting are important components of management, 

 it is also essential that timber harvesting be carried 

 out so as to leave the forest in condition for high, con- 

 tinuous yields of timber (figs. 35, 36). The common 

 practice in Tennessee of selling unmarked timber by 

 the boundary and accepting a lump-sum payment is 



hardly conducive to improved management, since it 

 leaves the buyer (generally a small sawmill operator) 

 free to cut what he pleases from a given acreage of 

 timber. 



In a State characterized by a multiplicity of small 

 ownerships, improving the level of harvesting methods 

 is not easy. About 85 percent of the private forest 

 acreage in Tennessee is held by 180,000 owners in 

 holdings of less than 5,000 acres; the bulk of the re- 

 maining acreage is in holdings of less than 50,000 

 acres. Increasing numbers of forest landowners are 

 placing their forest lands under management. But 

 most individuals are uninterested or unable to prac- 

 tice forestry or are uninformed as to the techniques 

 for most profitably managing their timber. Free 

 technical assistance from both public and industrial 

 foresters is available on a limited scale to interested 

 landowners. But the demand for management assist- 

 ance to inform and aid forest landowners is greater 

 than can be supplied with the available forestry 

 personnel. 



36 



Forest Resource Report No. 9, U. S. Department of Agriculture 



