Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 67, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 March 1912 — THE OAK FAMILY IN FORESTRY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE OAK FAMILY IN FORESTRY

BY Warren Warren H. Miller

COBYw&ar ar neu> aod itwm

XCEPT for purely commercial, forestry, I am sure our people ■ would not want our forests to t be like those I saw this year * during an extensive trip over k the German forests, where only three out of over two hundred forests were by natural reproduction, all the rest being planted. For the lumberman thesi forests, located

right handy to good transportation and continually producing an annual yield, would be Ideal, for the trees grow so straight that everything from the three-inch thinnings up to the slxteen-inch full-grown trees are marketable at profitable rates and have their use in the economy of the national life of Germany. The trees reach slxteen-inch diameter in sixtyyear revolutions, are protected from fire along the railroad right-of-way by fire borders and

have but little fire risk and no patrol expenses, as something Is always going on • Ip nearly all the sections so that there are plenty of woodsmen about to head off incipient fires. When we get a sane system of state forest taxation taxing only the value of the yearly thinnings and the final forest crop, such forestry will become an estab-

llshed commercial enterprise with us, whereas our present system of taxing annually the entire value of the stand is most unjust and one of the biggest hindrances to the Introduction of commercial forestry in place of our present - speculative lumbertogi ■ —■—k. The Prussians have worked out commercial forestry to a mathematical science. They know to a dot just how long a given forest of klefer, or Sylvester pine, will take to reach ma/turlty, just hdw much thinning is best and when to do it, just the right age and soil for the plantations, every known disease of the tree find its remedy, and just where to market every splinter of it at maximum profit. And their government encourages them with oom- * ipulsory fire protection from the railreads and ljust tax laws. The same system prevails with the spruce and fir of Saxony and the hardwoods of Hesse and Westphalia, so that they make from $6.5Q an acre per year in the spruce of Wurtemburg to $2.50 in the Sylvester pine forests of Prussia, and the annual yield from but thirty-five million acres of forest is four and one-half billion board feet! But we are far from any such exact knowledge of our tree species as this, and we have over a hundred species where they use but seven. And it is a fact that many of our experiments in clear cutting and planting have so far failed. After ten or twelve successive, generations of foresters have studied out our best species for pure stand raising and we have, as it were, grown up with pur forests and know them as do the older nations, this system will be applicable on a large scale with us. It is being applied now to a certain extent with white pipe, as witness the numerous successful, though young. sta'nds ot white plneTh Ndw England. The total area of planted forest with us is now about 1,100,000 acres. The total land that would yield best on planted forests is more than 56.000,000 acres. The French system of futaie regulalre, or standard forest, is the more likely one for us to use, 'or rather to grow into, for we are in for at least fifty years of selective forests before any extensive use of standard forest can he Introduced. In the French system three cuts are necessary when the forest reaches maturity: The seeding cut is first made, letting in sun on the forest; floor, and varying in amount widely, depending upon the species of the tree. The next fall of seeds from the seeding trees results in a dense floor of young shoots, for the sun’s warmth is present to germinate and to feed the young trees with sunlight. Then follows the secondary cut, when the trees have reached the age of five years and are tough enough to allow cutting operations without too many of them being killed. This cut takes nearly all the old trees, leaving enough to protect the young thicket from wind, frost and drought. The'terminal cut follows when the young, trees reach about ten years of age, and takes the last of the old stand. First thinning begins five years later and continues every ten years until the main stand

reaches maturity. The thinning cuts are worth about one-third the value of the final crop. This little outline win give an idea of how much knowledge and judgment Is demanded of the forester. Unless he knows exactly what he is doing, the method is dangerous and apt to result in failure of the reproduction, requiring excessive planting. In France successive generations of forests have worked it ont to a

science for the eight species of trees that are used in their forestry operations. We will accumulate this experience for our own species tn time. But the kind of forestry which we can-begin 4o practice right now, both in woodlots and in

small private tracts, is a combination of the French system with ordinary selective forestry, that is, taking out ripe trees here and there as they mature. If you have a fair sprinkling of good oaks on your woodlot, there is' ne reason why you should not encourage them a little by giving them a chance to extend. If you have a tract of barren land hardly worth pasturage and for which the tax

man has no terrors for you, there Is no reason why you should not set it out In white pine, or Sylvester plhe, or whatever species your state forester specifies as suitable for the soil and climate. Keep cattle and running fires out of the woodlot, plant out your spare acorns every chance you get, use up the weed trees for cordwood, and take out worthless trees wherever they are crowding the young oaks, and you will soon be in a fair way to own a valuable oak stand. The same is true of small forest tracts of a few hundred acres, the ideal sportsman’s retreat. You can practice an immense amount of Culture forestry during your hunts and camps and wanderings about your tract. Here and there will be predominating areas of valuable species which only need a little encouragement to take up the whole land. You are always using firewood out of the tract. Make that firewood pay by planting the room each tree leaves with a half-dozen oak or pine seeds, or, better, keep a little nursery of white pines and white oaks and draw from It as you. take out worthless stuff. A white pine twelve years old is a very respectable little specimen twenty feet high and three inches across the butt. In six years It is higher than your head, and wants at least twenty square feet of room, so, before you know It, what was once a clump of soft maples and white birches is now a thicket of thrifty young pines. As regards the oaks, a sharp stick and your heel is all they need to put the acorn down two inches into the mulch. There ought to be one seedling every ten paces, with a reasonable chance at the sun, all over that part of your forest where oaks are wont to grow. As the oaks are the most important family of the hardwoods, and one In which every sportsman Is Interested, I will just run over in review the most widely distributed members of the family in our country. We are blessed with many species, suitable to all kinds of soils and climates. At the head of the family stands the white oak, quercus alba, the noblest tree in our forests. You will know him by the familiar deeply notched leaf with nine regular lobes disposed four on a side with one at the end. Along in October it turns a fine copper color and then brown, hanging on all winter, so that, when snow Is on the ground, if you

see a patch of brown foliage amid the bare tree trunks, it’s either a white I oak or a beech. ' Look under the tree in early October or late September and find the long oval acorn, brown and light yellow. They grow usually in pairs with a rough knobby cup, not scaled, bowl shaped. The bark is light gray, somewhat rough, and young

trees have many little tufts of twigs up and down the trunk, which will develop. into side branches if the least sun gets down to them. The wood is strong and fine —no comparison with such a brashy specimen as the red oak. Just try the two with a plane and saw, and report on the difference in working. None but sharp-edged tools need apply with white oak. In forestry the white oak, that is, its equivalent quercus robur is grown, pure, in big for-

ests in Europe. Seeding cut somber, giving a quite shady forest floor with not very many trees removed, and be careful to do it evenly so that no very open spaces are left Scratching up the humus with the three tined forest rake to . allow the acorns to find plenty of crevices to drop into is imperative just before the fall of the acorns. Seeding should be completed in one fall of

seeds. When sure that the reproduction has been acquired, proceed with the secondary cut, taking but one tree in two to three, more or less, depending upon whether spring frosts are to be feared. A secondary cut may be necessary in the judgment of the forester, two years later, before proceeding with the final cut. Clearance of the seedlings is almost always necessary, as the young oak is slow and apt to be beaten out by young beeches and maples during the first few years of its? infancy. Thinning: Up to the age of low thickets the stand can be left very "dense, but from that time on proceed drastically in favor of the dominant trees, intervening when you see culture necessary to aid them, and in general leaving enough of the dominated and suppressed trees to protect the trunks of your' trees of the future. Return in ten years, or earlier if conditions are favorable, and take out all dead and dominated trees, and all of the dominants that are getting crooked or being left behind, the rule being to keep the tops of your best trees always with a little space to meet in, which space is filled with second stage dominated trees. Leave in the beech sub-growth and any other tolerant trees which add leaf-fail to the humus. The trees will reach eight inches diameter tn thirty years and you will thin about one hundred per acre every trip. From that time on they add a great deal more to their volume every year, since they grow a new ring all around the trunk, which by this time is over two feet in circumference. Of course, as you will start with a forest with some grown trees on it, you will arrange it so as to always have some mature cutting to do, as well as thinning cuts on all other sec|lons. The management of a forest is always a paying proposition, so long as you choose to keep at It, and while you will never see the final crops cut of the sections that you regenerated, you have had a good deal of business out of the old forest and the thinning cuts of the new, and your forest or woodlot has increased in value, not deteriorated, under your hands. Closely allied to the White oak, and sold with it, is the Swamp White Oak, quercus bicolor, good for your wet soils and creek bottoms. Know it by the heavy-ended, slightly

lobed leaf, and the rather small bottleshaped acorns, in pairs on a stem anywhere from an < inch to three Inches long. The , leaf is something like that of the black jack, but the acorn, the bark and the size of the tree will prevent confusing It A third tree in the white oak class is the Burr Oak, but with harder and

tougher wood. It Is also called the over-cup oak, technical name quercus macrocarpa. Leaf has a big lobed head with two very deep notches about half-way down. Bark of twigs always has corky wings, and the acorn is very large with scaly, fringed cup. This tree grows across the whole United States to Montana, as far south as the latitude of New York City, parallel 40 degrees. All these white oaks will grow sylviculturally under the same treat- ' • ?

ment, and all seed annually. The flowers are miserable little catkins of green, pin-headed flowerets, in clusters of four or five catkins on a sheaf. No forest would be complete without a few specimens of the chestnut-oak family. If you pick up a leaf with scalloped edges and find a big acorn ‘With long oval nut, over an inch long, with fine, scalp cup, that’s q. prlnus, the Chestnut oak. It has very strong, hard wood, durable in soil and water, used for fencing and railroad ties. Bark is fine for tanning operations and it grows well as simple or standard coppice, as described in my previous series on European Forestry. Another form of chestnut oak is known as Yellow oak, with a leaf startlingly like the chestnut itself, but the acorn gives it away. The illustration shows a representative leaf. Both the chestnut oak are annual seeders and their value in forestry

is best in the shape of tan-bark coppice. A widely distributed and interesting oak, but of no value in forestry is the Black Jack. You will know it at s’~ht by the blunt-ended leaf with three lobes, rough black bark (smooth higher up the tree) and small stemless acorn with scaly cup. As a woodsman, put it down in

your memory against the time you want a very hard wood. Otherwise leave it severely alone, except to clean it out as a forest weed. It belongs to the bristle-tipped and pointedleaved families of oaks, of' which the red oak is the representative and most valuable species. Seeding is biennial. Sylvlcutural treatment of red oak about the same as white oak, except that the seeding cut must be a trifle more open. The red oak is claimed to be a faster grower than the white aud it certainly overtops it and crowds it out in direct competition. I am of the opinion, however, that if the white oak is given an equal amount of sunlight it will give a crop of mature trees within ten years of the corresponding plantation of red oak. From the carpenter’s point of view there is no comparison between it and the white oak, nor Is there when it comes to market value as the white commands nearly double the figure. Personally I find red oak much easier to work, rather brashy, and nowhere near so strong as the white. It is a hardy, aggressive grower in the forest, and you will know it by its large, dark-green, shiny, pointed, lobed leaves and its big blunt acorn with the flat saucerlike cup. This acorn is the distinguishing feature, as the black oak has a very similar leaf but its acorn is half enclosed in a green, scaly cup. The red oak has the smoothest bark of any of them, nearly black, greenish tinged on the north side. Lekves turn a deep red, late £n October. Now that white oak is getting so high priced the red Is used a great deal in interior house trim. It will grow on dry soils, which fact often decides its choice as the forest species when choosing between it and white oak. Its cousin the black oak, and the scarlet oak, q. cocinea, are so like it in leaf that all that can be said is that the leaf is more deeply notched and heavier-veined. You must look to the acorn to be sure. Both scarlet and black have a deep-cupped, scaly acorn, and the inner bark of the black oak is orange-yellow, making a fine dye, used in medicine as quercitron and In the industries for tanning. Wood sells as "red oak.” The scarlet dak is a much smaller tree, growing best in plenty of sunlight; inner bark reddish, kernel of the acorn, is white while that of the black oak is yellow. Both of them have gorgeous orange and gearlet foliage in October, and are useful for ornamental trees.' All through our moist ravines and creek bottoms you will find a tall slender oak, growing in natural pure stands, with a notched, peaky leaf like the red and black oaks. But under the tree you are sure to find abundant small round acorns with shallow cups, almost smooth. The little acorns are half an inch long and very pretty, sometimes with delicate light stripes running longitudinally. This tree is the Pink Oak or water oak, q. palustris. Wood is coarse and not durable; sells as “second” red oak. Pin oak, beech and black gum are, however, the three toughest woods in the forest. Sylviculturally the tree has no value;when you take one out replace it with a swamp.

white oak. The name pin oak comes from its value for tree nails for house building. ■ - : Two more oaks that have their own peculiarities are the Willow’ Oak, q. phellos, with tiny scale-cupped acorns and long willow-like leaves, and the Shingle Oak, with perfectly smooth mag-nolia-like leaves, smooth bark and small shallow-cupped acorns- Both of these woods split easily, and the willow oak is tough

and pliable enough when* none better can be had for the purpose. In conclusion, I would mention the Post Oak of the Southwest, the “white” oak of that section, deeply lobed (seven); strong wood; small, sweet acorn scale-cupped.

Scarlet Oak.

Red Oak.

White Oak.

Black Jack.

Burr Oak.

Swamp White'Oak.

Chestnut Oak.