eter and ten or twenty year period and read off the increase. This would serve equally for any other diameter of tree, and manifestly, if one had a complete list of trees on the sample acre classified by diameters in inches, he could readily find from the growth rate exactly how many trees there would be twelve inches or more in diameter twenty or thirty or forty years hence, and from the volume table how many feet of lumber could be cut at the end of those periods. So, in each of these sample acres crews of men stand ready to pounce upon any and every tree felled and reduce it to a mass of data, not omitting even the stump and top. These men do other things, too. They keep track of defective, or diseased or culled trees; of the quantity of small trees destroyed in making skids, sleepers, etc.; of the waste caused by leaving too much stump or too much good timber at the top-in short, of everything that would have a bearing on the economics of the forestry enterprise. 2. THE VALUATION SURVEYS. In order, next, to be able to estimate future increment of timber, it is necessary to know the amount of standing timber of all sizes on the whole tract. Manifestly it would not be practicable to count the trees on a tract of 1,250,000 acres. Moreover, for the forester's purpose the lumberman's "ocular estimate" is not sufficiently accurate. The standing timber may, however, be estimated with approximate accuracy by means of valuation surveys. This constitutes the laborious and time-consuming part of the enterprise. It consists in measuring (or "callipering") the diameter at 4 feet (breast high) from the ground of every tree on sample acres (except the hard woods are callipered only to eight inches). Such sample acres are strips one chain (66 feet) wide and ten chains (660 feet) long, taken at regular intervals over the entire tract. The plan pursued in the present instance is to survey in this manner strips four rods wide clear across the tract east and west at intervals of every half mile. Think of the amount of walking that means. Those boys must tramp back and forth from the Sabine to the Neches and even one county west of that, in Hardin, Tyler, and Angeline counties, at intervals of every half mile from the south end of Jasper county to the north end of Sabine county, 100 miles further north. At least, if it is not quite so bad as that seems, they must certainly do it on all the lands of the Houston Oil Company. DETAILS OF THE WORK. At the main camp the valuation survey proceeds in this wise: A base line was established about midway between the Neches river and the east line of Jasper county. From this base line as a starting point, crews of four men survey east and west to the county line and to the Neches, respectively. Leaving the main camp early on a given day, they reach the county line some six miles away by late afternoon. As they must be out overnight, they carry blankets and provisions and make a night camp, surveying back to the base line the next day one-half mile further north. Of this crew, one is compass and chain man who runs the course; another, the tally man, checks off the chains and records the readings of measurements of trees, including data, also as to diseased trees, the soil, slope, soil covering, etc. Then there are the right and left calliper men who calliper in inches every pine tree within one rod right and left of the chain, and every hard wood tree above eight inches in diameter. Having struck their course, away they go by chain lengths, hour after hour, through open upland pine or baygall thickets, through water-soaked flats and running streams, often knee-deep in water, incessantly reading off measurements of trees like signals at football: "20, 18, 25, 6; 30 two 20s, 12; chain," and gaining four rods on each down. As the work progresses the three subsidiary camps will move northward, and will, where possible, be so located that a crew leaving its own camp in the morning will complete its day's course in the vicinity of one of the other camps, remain there overnight and survey back the next day. Thus will the valuation survey proceed until the Kirby tract has been gridironed from Jasper county to Sabine, and from the Sabine river across three tiers of counties -certainly a stupendous task. The data gotten by this method of surveying are various and of really great value. In the first place, as previously explained, it yields an accurate estimate of the standing timber of all species and sizes in diameter classes by inches. In the second place, it yields data for making an accurate topographic map of the tract. On this map may also be indicated the main soil divisions, swamp lands, streams, and other features. Again, the percentage of diseased or imperfect trees is determined, and the location of deadenings, and the various types of forest recorded. The tally sheets with all these data are sent in at regular intervals to the office at the main camp, there tabulated and forwarded to the bureau at Washington. 3. STUDYING THE SILVICULTURAL CHARACTERS OF THE LONG LEAF PINE. Another line of work is that which deals with the individual peculiarities of the long leaf pine itself. As in the cultivation of any profitable crop, it is desirable to know the habits and qualities of the breed cultivated, so in an enterprise involving the raising of timber for a long period of years, it is desirable-necessary-to know a great many things about the species to be grown upon the tract-to know in short its silvicultural characters. Has the long leaf pine, for example, the capacity to reproduce itself-that is, does it produce seed regularly enough and abundantly enough to seed the ground uniformly and so provide for a continuous renewal of the forest? Further, are these seed capable of germinating and securing a foothold in the soil conditions usually found in the long leaf lands? Can the young seedling make any progress in its growth beneath the shade of the forest canopy? What sort of growth does the tree make in the different kinds of soil and upon the various relief features of the tract? Again, what diseases or enemies or other agencies tend to destroy the long leaf pine, or prevent its successful growth throughout its life from germination to its natural death from old age? To determine all these things requires the careful investigation of a trained silviculturist. Thus, when these data are all in, the bureau of forestry will submit to the Kirby Lumber Company a forest working plan which might in effect say the following: In your first cut-carried on as directed herein-you would best remove all trees-with exceptions herein named of the diameter of (blank) inches (say 12) and upward. This will yield you an average of (blank) feet of lumber per acre. Having done this as directed, and having carried out the precautions recommended as to forest fires, etc., you may, if you so choose, in twenty years from this time, make a second cutting, in which, removing all trees-with certain exceptions of the diameter (blank) inches and upward, you may expect a yield of (blank) feet of lumber per acre. If, now, you will carry on the first cutting on your pine lands so that a period of twenty years will elapse before it is completed (which as a matter of fact would mean cutting about 400,000,000 feet annually) you will be able to learn without loss of time your second cutting with the expected yield above mentioned. If, on the contrary, you should not begin the second cutting until the end of thirty years, you could expect a yield of (blank) feet per acre (of course, much larger than at the end of twenty years). As an alternative for the first cutting, if you make your diameter limit higher (say fifteen inches), you could expect a profitable second cutting at the end of fewer years (number and yield specified) than would be possible for the diameter limit (say twelve inches) above specified. In the ordinary course of things, you may expect the renewal of the forest from seedlings to be so and so (prospects here specified), but if you will proceed as herein directed (in the matter of preventing fires, etc.), you may expect the renewal of the forest to be so and so (presumably so great as to justify expectations of a permanent forest supply). AFTER THE SURVEY, WHAT? The question naturally arises, can the Kirby Lumber Company afford to follow out the working plan submitted to them? Of course the management believes it can, as attested by furnishing funds for the survey. If the plan is adopted, it will greatly modify lumbering methods and introduce new features in the relation of invested capital to the lumber business, all of which the management no doubt figured out before taking up the matter with the Bureau of Forestry. If, as a result of the survey, it should for any reason be impossi |
