42 BULLETIN 1402, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
THE NUMBER OF SEED TREES LEFT IN CURRENT CUTTING PRACTICE ON PRI- 
VATE LANDS 
The degree to which the minimum need of four 20-inch trees per 
acre is met on private cuttings is exceedingly variable. Timber 
type, the state of the market, and the opinion of individual com- 
panies, all affect the closeness of cutting. 
To determine the number of seed trees left, in private cutting, 
cruise strips aggregating over 96 miles in length were tallied in the 
principal types, embracing old and new cuttings and covering all 
important operations in the region. 
THE YELLOW PINE TYPE, EAST SLOPE 
In the yellow pine type of the east slope, 15 samples were taken 
on private land, the earliest going back to cuttings of 1895. Of these, 
8 areas, or 53 per cent, averaged less than 1 tree per acre 18 inches or 
more in diameter ; 1 area, or 7 per cent, had from 1 to 2 such trees ; 
2, or 13 per cent, had 2 to 3 seed trees ; 1 had 3 to 4 trees; and only 3, 
or 20 per cent, had an adequate number of seed trees, that is to 
say, 4 or more per acre. The number of trees from 12 to 16 inches 
in diameter likewise was low, averaging but 3.3 per acre. Such 
trees will in time, say 15 to 25 years, build up their crowns and pro- 
duce fair quantities of seed, but little immediate help can be expected 
from them. 
In general, on recent cuttings in this type, less than 1 tree of 
18 inches or over is left, in comparison with an average requirement 
of 4 trees per acre on national forest cuttings, where marking has 
been primarily for the purpose of obtaining reproduction. It is 
to be noted, too, that the average figures for private cuttings tend 
to present the condition in a more favorable light than would more 
detailed figures, owing to the fact that the sample strip arbitrarily 
laid out may run through a clump of trees on an otherwise very 
scantily provided area and the average for the entire area be raised 
thereby. 
Patchy or scattering distribution of trees left after cutting is 
typical of yellow pine areas. If advance reproduction is absent or 
if it has been destroyed by logging, an impossible task is put upon 
the few remaining trees left by present cutting practice. Regenera- 
tion is most difficult in the yellow pine type at best, even with the 
abundant seed furnished by the untouched virgin forest. On cut- 
over areas the seed supply is seriously reduced and the destruction of 
seed by seed-eating rodents is likely to remove most of the small 
quantity that remains. Where the required trees are left, as on na- 
tional forest cuttings, or where high diameter limit has been observed 
in cutting, the future producti^dty of the land is assured. (Fig. 16.) 
It appears, however, that cutting on private lands in the east side 
yellow pine type is generally so close that hardly any trees of seed- 
bearing size are left. 
On many small areas advance reproduction is present and survives 
logging in sufficient quantities to insure future productivity, but this 
appears to happen noAvhere over large areas. In general, advance 
reproduction is too uncertain and unsafe a method to depend on ex- 
clusively for regeneration. Because of relatively recent fires, ad- 
