26 BULLETIN 1491, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 
interfere with the growth of the latter, the large trees should be 
left standing. To fell and skid them out would mean an unwar- 
rented amount of damage to the poles. If the larger trees are 
branched low down, they should be cut out with the least possible 
damage to the poles. If allowed to remain they will do approxi- 
mately as much damage in obstructing the development of the poles 
as may result from their removal. 
The retaining of the younger trees is advisable not only in order 
to have proportionately more timber to cut in later years, but also 
because there is ordinarily not much profit either to the owner in 
selling them or to the operator who logs and saws them into lumber. 
Small timber sold by the thousand feet and measured by the log 
scale in common use in the region will scale only 50 to 75 per cent 
of the quantity of lumber actually sawed out at the mill. The owner 
is accordingly the loser. Furthermore, the small trees are so ex- 
pensive to log and mill that timber buyers can not afford to pay 
much for them. Some investigations have indicated that timber 
operators logging to a sawmill sometimes make little or nothing 
on small logs and would at least be just as well off if they did not 
cut the small trees. It seems to be far better policy, accordingly, 
for the timber owner to hold young growth for larger sizes, better 
quality, and correspondingly higher stumpage prices, although there 
may of course be circumstances under which this policy would not 
hold true. 
Investigations made by Ashe 5 led him to the conclusion that: 
The cost of operating hardwood trees below 16 inches in diameter is out of all 
proportion to the value of the lumber which they yield. 
The cost per thousand feet of felling, bucking, and mill-sawing trees between 
14 and 15 inches in diameter is more than double that for trees of 20 inches or 
more in diameter. 
The cost of skidding is more than treble. 
For trees smaller than 12 inches, the relative cost per thousand feet is even 
higher, being about five times as high as for trees 20 inches and over in 
diameter. 
In most operations in virgin stands, where clean cuttings are practiced, the 
larger timber is paying in large part for the cost of operating the smaller. 
Much of the small timber is cut at a loss, notwithstanding that it contributes 
proportionately to reducing the charges per thousand due to mill construction, 
transportation construction, and overhead. 
In considering small trees, however, the distinction needs to be 
made between young small trees and old small trees. Some small 
trees may be just as old as their very large neighbors, having been 
dwarfed through some cause or other, usually because of too much 
crowding. They will probably never amount to anything even after 
the competing trees are cut from around them but will simply take up 
room that the future crop of younger trees should occupy. The 
woods owner should cut out such trees during logging operations, 
even at a financial sacrifice. 
Another principle which seems to hold in general is that it is not 
good practice for the owner of timber to sell from his woods single 
specimens of certain much-sought and especially valuable species 
such as ash, hickory, basswood, yellow poplar, red gum, white oak, 
and black walnut. These are the most valuable trees in the woods. 
5 Ashe. W. W. the forests of the future — secoxd growth. Southern Lumberman, 
Aug. 5. 1916. 
