28 BULLETIN 1494, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
before new crops of pine can be grown management will be suffi- 
ciently intensive to prevent any serious losses from this source. 
PRACTICABILITY OF GROWING WHITE PINE TIMBER 
-There is in north Idaho and western Montana at the present time 
a vast amount of second-growth young timber in individual and com- 
pany ownership. A large proportion of it is in yellow pine or larch 
and Douglas fir. A smaller portion includes a fair percentage of the 
more valuable white pine and cedar. Part of this young growth has 
followed past forest fires; some of it has come in on cut-over land 
following logging operations. The more recently cut-over land has 
been much more severely burned and carries less young growth than 
most of the older cuttings. 
This young growth covers in the aggregate a very large area, which 
if reasonable protection from fire is given will in time bear mer- 
chantable timber and become valuable. Probably the first steps in 
timber growing in this region will be the recognition of the potential 
value of reproduction already established and its protection from 
fire until it becomes of merchantable size. A good many lumber 
companies own considerable tracts of young growth acquired more 
or less incidentally with timberlands. A good deal came in after 
the great 1889 forest fires and is now about 35 years old. On many 
of the better sites in the western white pine type this will begin to 
attain merchantable size in about 25 to 35 years. It will then have a 
definite value which can be seen and measured. In 50 to 60 years 
it should be worth several hundred dollars an acre. Even with 
present tax rates and fire-protection costs the holding and protection 
of this class of forest property seems to offer sufficiently definite and 
tangible returns to make it a reasonable business proposition. 7 
Second-growth eastern white pine has proved an unexpected 
bonanza to many New England farmers. Although the rate of 
growth of white pine in Idaho is probably somewhat lower than 
that of white pine in the East, there is no doubt that north Idaho 
farmers who own tracts of second-growth pine and cedar have a 
valuable asset which should be looked after. In many instances it 
will doubtless be possible to derive some preliminary revenue from 
such tracts by thinning out white fir and hemlock for pulp wood to 
the benefit of the remaining white pine and cedar. | 
Another step in timber growing that is easily taken is the holding 
and protection of low-value species left after logging white pine. 
Under present practice many operators are leaving all or nearly all 
of the white fir, hemlock, larch, and Douglas fir, for it does not now 
pay to take it out except under favorable logging conditions. Much 
of this class of material has been burned up in slash fires. The stand 
thus left, however, frequently amounts to 10,000 to 20,000 feet to the: 
acre, and no one doubts that these species will increase in value as 
timber becomes scarcer. Assuming that the slash from the white 
pine cut has been carefully disposed of by piling and burning, so 
that protection from fire is possible, there is an excellent chance for a 
good return in holding these low-value species for an increase. 
Many uneven-aged white pine stands contain a considerable num- 
ber of small white pine trees 8 to 12 inches in diameter, not now 
merchantable, and often large numbers of small cedar poles. Such 
