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Trenk, Fred B. (Fred Benjamin), 1900- / Forest planting handbook
(1932)
How fast does a plantation grow?, pp. 35-42
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Page 39
In Wisconsin, pulpwood is the chief use for small size material, and this is measured by the cord. The minimum size product taken at present is a stick four inches in diameter at the small end and eight feet in length. These dimensions are first attained by pine planta- tions when the tree is about six inches in diameter breast high. Some trees of this size will appear in the stand at about 18 years, but the average time required to attain this diameter is 25 years. Young plantations of pine produce an eight foot stick with a two inch top at about 13 years of age. It has been found in a study of a Norway spruce plantation' that the tops from a four inch diameter point in the tree to a two inch diameter point contain from one per cent of the total cubic foot volume for a 10 inch tree to 16 per cent for a five inch tree. This means that at an age of 30 years and a diameter of six inches, for every seven cords taken for pulp, one cord is left in the woods, if the trees are cut to a four inch top instead of to a two inch top. Example Plantation* This plantation of 0.84 of an acre was planted 38 years ago with young Norway spruce seedlings, the seed of which had been sent to this country from Germany. It is probably the only wood lot planta- tion of Norway spruce of merchantable size in this state. It is grow- ing on a silt loam soil. Originally Scotch pine was planted inter- mixed with the spruce, the probable spacing of all species being about 4 x 4 feet. The Scotch pine did not survive and now only the spruce are left with five European larch which have also made an excellent growth. A rough eye estimate of the density would place it at ap- proximately 80 per cent of a fully stocked stand. The average diameter of the stand is 7.7 inches diameter breast high. Four and one-half cords of eight foot peeled sticks were thinned from this stand for pulp during the summer of 1931 and two cords were cut about two years previous to this thinning. The average growth in this plantation shows that an eight foot stick, four inches inside bark at small end, was produced in about 23 years. At present there is left on this small plantation 39 cords of spruce figured to a diameter of two inches in the top of the tree, which is equivalent to 47 cords per acre. Adding the six and one-half cords already removed, there is a total of 54 cords per acre which this stand of Norway spruce has produced at a plantation age of 38 years, averaging 1.4 cords per acre per year throughout its life. Trees range from four to 13 inches in diameter at breast height. The average to- tal height is 55 feet, and there is an average of four and one-half eight foot pulpwood sticks per tree, when figured to a four inch top. The total number of trees now left (acre basis) is 506. Of this number 438 trees are merchantable and 68 trees are suppressed. The cubic volume of the average tree remaining (not includingphe suppressed *Norway SprUce Plantation at Prereott. Pierce county, Wisconsin. 39
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