70 
BULLETIN 1402, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; 
Table 9. — Effect of grouping on growth before and after cutting in yellotc^ pine, 
Stanislaus National Forest 
Num- 
ber of 
Treatment 
Annual growth 
Average 
Before cutting 
After cutting 
increase 
or de- 
10 years 
5 years 
5 years 
10 years 
crease 
16 
Released .._-.. 
Per cent 
2.22 
1.71 
Per cent 
2.26 
1.51 
Per cent 
2.81 
1.44 
Per cent 
2.63 
1.43 
Per cent 
+21.4 
10 
Left in groups.. . 
-10.9 
Trees left in groups continued to decline in growth, as if no cut- 
ting had been done, whereas the others were accelerated 20 per cent 
by cutting of trees within a 60-foot radius. It is thus highly de- 
sirable to thin out groups of thrifty merchantable trees. 
CUTTING UNMERCHANTABLE TREES 
Since the best practice aims to improve the condition and in- 
crease the yield of the forest, it follows that while reserving thrifty 
fast-growing trees, cutting should aim to remove ail other trees, 
whether merchantable or not. The practice on national forest cut- 
tings of removing diseased or mistletoe-infected trees, including 
many of no merchantable value, is one of the essential distinctions 
between a merel}^ tolerable practice and one making for full timber 
crops. Especially in stands with white fir in mixture, there are 
always some old trees that obviously are mere shells of wood with 
little merchantable contents. Such trees should be cut for two 
reasons ; 
(1) To clean up the area and reduce the risk of infection of the 
younger trees by w^ood-destroying fungi. 
(2) Equally important, to get rid of worthless trees so that the 
s^^ace they occupy may be utilized by young growing trees. Ordi- 
narily these defective and unmerchantable trees are not desirable for 
seed production, and it is better to cut them and leave them on the 
ground than to allow them to occupy valuable space. In short, 
diseased and defective trees will never have more value than they 
now have, they are a menace to the soundness of the new stand, 
and are worthless users of space. 
THE COST OF CUTTING RESTRICTIONS 
The various steps outlined as essential to the production of full 
timber crops depart more or less widely from the current practice 
on private lands and will increase the logging cost if they are put 
into effect. Studies of the extra costs of logging national forest tim- 
ber made for the California pine region by Birch (4), Berry (3), 
and Price (i^), indicate that the extra direct costs per thousand 
feet cut chargeable against Government requirements are: 
Extra railroad constrnctiou cost, due to reservation of 10 
to 15 per cent of stand $0,375 
Markiiiii: . 015 
Cutting diseased trees .07 
Extra yarding costs '- .30 
Extra stumpage costs 1 .30 
Total 1. 06 
