30 BULLETIN 426, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
fir-sugar pine types of which this species forms a part. They were 
prepared from data collected on the Plumas Forest (Plumas County, 
Cal.) during 1912 and represent results on areas of average pro- 
ductiveness,} 
These tables indicate that the maximum volume is produced at 
300 years in the yellow-pine type and at 460 years in the fir-sugar 
pine type. The highest rate of volume production, however, occurs 
at 180 years in the former type and at 280 years in the latter. 
MANAGEMENT. 
The manner in which any tract of forest land is handled depends, 
of course, entirely upon the wishes or necessities of its owner. If 
present financial considerations demand it, clear cutting of all mer- 
chantable trees must be practiced. Some lumbermen, by following 
this policy, jeopardize the future of the forest, encourage species 
of low value, and postpone a second cut for at least a century. If 
esthetic considerations govern, then expenditures may be made 
which will never yield a direct monetary return. If, however, the 
owner desires to make his manutacturing business permanent and is 
willing partially to subordinate present to future returns, he must 
determine what classes of trees can be most profitably left to furnish 
seed, shade, and asecond cut; what protective measures are necessary 
and practicable to prevent the destruction of the trees left, both 
during logging and later; and what amount he can spend annually 
or periodically in artificial reforestation or thinnings if necessary. 
There is a marked tendency now toward close utilization of all pines 
cut, toward leaving trees that are evidently immature, and toward 
protecting the remaining stand from fire and insects. 
High taxes tend to prevent the practice of management on private 
lands. Naturally lumbermen can not afford to hold land for a second 
cut when taxes and other carrying charges will in the meantine 
amount to more than the possible prospective profit. With low 
taxes and carrying charges operators can afford to leave and to 
protect young trees and trees of inferior species until they become 
more valuable. Since lands in Federal ownership are not burdened 
with as heavy carrying charges as private holdings, and since it is the 
evident duty of the Government to experiment and lead in the field 
of forestry, the cuttings on the National Forests are naturally the best 
examples of present-day forest-management methods, 
NATIONAL FOREST METHODS. 
The following principles govern cutting in the sugar-pine type on 
National Forests: 
It is the general aim to improve the forest by cutting so as to put 
if in condition to produce a sustained yield in future years when that 
becomes necessary. 
' See Appendix to Plumas Working Plan, by Barrington Moore, forest assistant, February, 1913. 
