The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-31

supply there for him. Besides his own
foresters, of whom he has a regiment,
the foresters of the United States gov
eminent have been studying his tract
and have laid out a method of con-
sentative numbering. This was done
in accordance with an offer made by
the Department of Agriculture to all
owners, public and private, of forest
lands, under which the United States
authorities volunteered to make stud
les of certain tracts which presented
favorable opportunities to illustrate
forest management, prepare plans FOR
the work and to supervise the eXecu-
ton of them. The owners need mere
ly to pay the necessary expenses of
the federal employe assigned to the
work.
DIR. Webb also had his tract, which
contains about 10000 acres, examined
by the governments The government
experts went through the woods With
hatchets, on the face of which the
initials "U. 81 were cut. Every tree
that was sefected as a proper one for
telling was "blazed' with this below
the stump, and the lumbermen had or
ders to chop down no tree unless it
was so marked.
The results of the introduction CT
scientific methods were surprising. The
net cost to the owner of going through
was $54S79. Among the wasteful
methods discovered in the trace and
checked by the examination was
that of leaving high stumps.
The lumbermen do not care to
cut the trees near the ground be-
cause the work is much harder and
tires their backs. By careful measure
ment, the foresters demonstrated that
on a tract of 10000 acres the net loss
from leaving high stumps was $4,000,
which could be saved readily each
year.
They also drew up plan for cutting
the tops instead of leaving them in the
woods. AS rule, the lumbermen lop
off from four to twelve feet of the
tops, and this debris always has been
one of the great sources of forest fires.
Lumbermen have objected to carrying
the tops out, because they declared
that they were unstable waste and.
represented nothing but loss, and that,
consequently, it would be ruinous to
go to the extra expense of transport
ing them.
The foresters showed that the tops
that were left in the woods of forty
thousand-acre tract would be worth
$780, Thus improvident numbering
not only had caused constant mem
ace from fire, but actually thousands
of dollars had been left in the woods
10 IOb edCH year.
The examination of the Whitney and
Webb tracts also showed the owners
that enough young spruces are cut
each year for sideways and corduroy
roads by the lumbermen to make a
pretty good forest in themselves if they
were left to grow, and that, if certain
sums were set aside now to build roads
from other materials, in twenty-five
years there would be many thousands
of marketable trees that would more
than pay for the roads and the inter
est on the money thus invested.
A Triumph of Forestry.
AS consequence of the examina-
ton, stringent rules have been adopt
ed in both the Whitney and Webb pre-
serves. They are that no trees shall
be cut unless they have been marked,
while all marked trees must be felled
no tree shall be left lodged in the
woods to decay or go to waste; no
trees shall be cut higher than six
inches above the ground; no spruce
shall be used for bridges, sideways,
corduroy roads or other purpose unless
no other less valuable timber can be
obtained all spruce used for sideways
must be hauled outsafter such use If
it is at all marketable; contractors
must discharge any men who do I'M
necessary damage to young trees.
The net result of the working plans
thus made will be that, If they are fol-
lowed faithfully and under the care of
efficient foresters, numbering can go
on steadily with the present annual
output in the two tracts and yet in
thirty-six years there will be so many