The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-12
LUMBER BUSINESS
 IN CONNECTICUT
GOVERNMENT FOREST SERVICE
 ISSUES BULLETIN OF INTEREST.
This States Forests One of Its Most Useful Resources-A Great Annual
 Waste of Cordwood Material.

l
 The United States Department of
 Agriculture, forest service division, in operation with the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, has
 issued Bulletin No 96, dealing with
 econd-Growth Hardwoods in Con- necticut." The bulletin is compiled by
 Early H. Frothingham. forest assist
 ant, and is based on field work car
 ried on by the forest service during
 the summer of 1910. with the co-op- eration of Samuel N Spring, Connecti-
 cut Stae forester. A summary of a portion of the bulletin follows: Few of Connecticut's resources have
 tempered in usefulness with it's for ests. Not only have they yielded di- rectly a great and increasing quan- t1ty or railroad ties. telephone and telegraph poles, lumber, and other pro- ducts. but indirectly they have been perhaps the chief factor in the success
 of some of the States most valuable industries. One of these, brass man ufacture, owes it's present supremacy largely to the cheap, abundant, and
 constant supply of wood fuel. Lime and charcoal burning. brick manufae- have in like manner prof1ted from the forest. An immense amount of fire woods is used annually for household consumption.
 Compared with the production of fuel wood, the lumber output of Con- necticut is remarkably small Thus, Fin 1908 while the lumber cut amounted to 1S7,s55, GOO board feet. valued at g. S52, ,186, the total fireWood consumption In the State was estimated at 495, 370 cords. which at an average price of about $4.45 per cord, had value of g. .204, 805. Assuming cords to the 1000 board feet-a conservative equiv comparable to a lumber cut of 27,- 900 board feet. It is thus appar- ent that while the cordwood cut was almost 80 per cent. greater than the lumber cut, it's actual value was about 6 s1-2 per cent. less. The drain put upon the forest for cordwood is far in excess of that for all other uses
 It is not, however, in the mere quan- tity of wood removed that this drain Is most serious Almost all of the cordwood cut consists of small and rapidly growing trees of relatively small present worth. but capable of furnishing within comparatively few years poles, lumber, or other products of greater value than cordwood or even than ties. Disregard of this potential value of the forest inevitably results in wasteful use, and deprives State and, owner of the just returns on their woodland Investments
 Connecticut, like most of the other northeastern States, imports much the greater part of it's timber The sources from which this is obtained are them selves. rapidly becoming depleted, and with the advancing lumber priceS which mark this. decline the home pro- auction of lumber will increase in att tractiveness to timberland owners.
 The woodland and brush area of Connecticut is estimated to be nearly one-ha1f the total area of the State, or about 2,500 square miles. Practi- eally the whole of the woodland has been cut over repeatedly. Along the northern border there still exist a few small virgin stands of white pine and one excellent stand, only 200 or 300 acres in extent, of shemlock, maple, beech, yellow birch, and other north ern hardwood. But aside from these the present forests of Connecticut have original virgin stands, or after the abandonment of farm lands, and are known as second growth
 Second-growth white pine stands are quite numerous. especially in the northern and eastern portions of the State. They are usually dense and en-edged, and result from the seed ing of abandoned fields by white pine trees in the vicinity. There aEe also many plantations of white pine in the State, a few of which have. already reached merchantable size. Though very linnby, second-grow pine is al- ready valuable and promises to be- come more so especially for box boards.
 OLD FIELD TYPE.
 ] As it's name implies. this type re- suits from the seeding of abandoned fields by various trees, but chiefly gray birch and red cedar. These two spe- cies are, as a rule, the advance for. est growth over old fields, with birch more conspicuous in some places and cedar in others. Sooner or later otf- CT and more valuable species begin to appear beneath or between them, and, if left alone, the forest ultimately hardwoods type. Since the reforesta- ton of an abandoned field rarely be- comes complete in less than 50 or per- haps 100 years, the resulting stand is of very uneven age. All stages in the trapssition from field to merchantable forest may be found: First, the ad- vance growth of birch, cedar, and shrubs of various kinds; then crowded mixtures of these with young trees of more shade-enduring species, fight ing vigorously for light and growing space; and, finally, the stand of oaks
 and chestnut. Once cut over, this be- comes the characteristic even aged woodland.
 EWEN-AGED HARDWOODS.
 Even-aged hardwoods may be term ed the characteristic forest of Connec- ticut. These types are. from the