The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1904-12-31
HINT FOR TIMBER GROWERS
The Chestnut Found by the Bureau
Of Forestry to Be of Great
Importance.

ALipol IdASt.
Throughout the northeastern states.
from Massachusetts to Maryland. and
as far west as Indiana, chestnut holds
an important place as a timber tree,
Commercially, it is chiefly in demand
for ties, telegraph and telephone poles,
and posts, for all of which purposes, as
well as for some CONSTITUTIONAL uses. il
is especially adapted by its peculiar
power to resist decay in contact with the
soil. 1t is also largely used for fuel and
general farm purposes. In Maryland
alone, according to the twelfth census,
its annual market yield of lumber, rail-
road ties and telegraph and telephone
poles amounts to over 500, 600, besides
large supplies of material for local con-
sumption.
1t happens that chestnut is especially
fitted for management in farmers wood.
lots. Before scientific forestry began to
be heard of in the United States, and
when forest preservation was not I'M
commonly talked about as a sentimental
fad, the thrifty owners of the small
tracts of woodland which cover so much
of southern New England, New York,
Pennsylvania; and neighboring states
had long been cutting successive crops
Of the hardwoods which sprout rapidly
from the stump, thus practicing more or
less rudely what the forester calls the
pure coppice" method of management,
The superior market for chestnut, com
bined with its rapid growth, gave it, on
the whole, the leading place in the es-
teen of these woodlot owners, who by
winter cutting were able to turn to good
account time for which farm occupa-
tons gave no other employment.
The results of a study recently con
Quoted and soon to be published by the
bureau of forestry show strikingly the
advantages of chestnut for this kind Of
management, and at the same time sug-
gest some very practical conclusions
concerning how the methods now in
vogue may be improved. Like other
trees which reproduce by %sproutinE
chestnut loses it's yigor when the root
system becomes too old. Trees grown
from seed increase, both in height all
bulk, more slowly for many years than
those grown as sprouts from the stump
But by the time the trees are from 80 tc
100 years old the Seeding trees will catch
up, and eventually reach a larger size
than the others. For ordinary uses,
however, chestnut is cut long before this
age is reached, and coppicing is there
fore the best way to raise it. But unless
new Seeding growth starts in the forest
along with the sprout growth, the dc.
clining vigor of the old root systems
will result in smaller and smaller pro.
duction until only a sickly stand Of
inferior timber is left to draw on,
Chestnut tends to prduce seed abun-
dainty, and if the nuts were left to SOW
themselves the forest would take cars
of itself very well. But crows and SPUR
rels and other animals levy a heavy toll.
Far more formidable, however, in we'll
settled regions, are the gatherers of nuts
for the market. With chestnuts selling
at an average of $3.50 a bushel. there is
a premium on the seed crop which
makes propagation of the tree through
this means a matter of dubious chance.
When in addition the hogs are permit
ted to range the woods for mast. and
cattle to browse the tender shoots as
they rise from the ground, the prospect
of seeding growth is small indeed,
Chestnut is not exacting in its soil re-
quirements. It's roots spread compare
lively deep, so that it is not so sensitive
to fire or humus destruction from any
cause as most species. Its sprouts grow
so fast that a height of seven or eight
feet at the end of the first season is no
uncommon, and its stumps are so Wig
orous that n will often produce 40 to
SO sprouts. Not more than one in eight
or ten of these will mature. but by Sc
lecting the most promising the full vigor
of the parent stump may be concen-
trated on them to the great improve
~ 'hNil iate VI SIoNLu' Inc 90
servations made by the bureau have
proved that low stumps produce more
vigorous sprouts than high ones, and
that winter or spring cutting is fol-
lowed by better results than that done
in the summer or fall. Telephone poles
grown. in Maryland, from healthy
stumps in from IS to IS years, and ties
may profitably be cut in about 80 years.
Too early cutting of ties should be dis
couraged as wasteful in the long run.
The practice of permitting contractors
cut unrestrictedly for a given sum is
one which works much injury to the
permanent productiveness of the woods.