Page 194 APPENDIX—Continued
FORESTS OF BRADY TOWNSHIP
Your letter of the 6th instant reminded me that I owed
you some information about the average amount of timber that grew on
an acre of land in Brady Township. I have mislaid that letter, but
am inclined to think I missed bringing it from York State.
PINE. The popular name of trees known as the genus
Pinus, of the order Coniferae, of which there are many kinds of
species.
WHITE PINE. Pinus Strabus, the principal pine that grew
in this region, and furnished lumber of the most valuable kind. Its
native "habitat" seemed to be through central and northern
Pennsylvania, and through southern and central New York, to the
Great Lakes. This species of Pine was a lofty tree, tall, straight,
and hardy, and was remarkable for its uniformity in size for nearly
its whole length, which rose to a height of one hundred and ten
feet, or more.
As to the average number of feet, board measure, that I
grew on an acre of land, I submit the following, to wit:
I may say here, that in my experience as a scaler of
saw logs, and estimating of standing timber for more than forty
years, the average number of board feet that grew on lands in Brady
and adjoining townships, as well as all over this region, averaged
for white pine, twenty thousand feet per acre, straight and sound
scale.
This estimate of the number of board feet on a tract of
land was made as a whole while perhaps there would be seven acres on
the tract, that would have but very little, if any pine thereon.
Phillip Swoope, who cut the pine timber on the lands of
A.M. McClure, near where Stanley Station is now, and I measured an
acre on which I scaled ninety thousand board feet. Yet, the average
for the whole tract was 19,780 feet per acre.
George W. Nolder, who cut the pine timber on the Jacob
Pentz farm, near the C. & M. Junction, and I measured an acre a
short distance north of the Junction, on which I scaled 78,760. Yet
the average for the estimated number of acres, was 18,500 board
feet. (Note)
Not long after I began scaling logs I became interested
in finding a Pine tree that was here when Columbus discovered
America. In the large number of trees that I counted the growths, I
never found one. When I would find an extra large tree, the growths
would be correspondingly large.
The largest Pine tree, and the oldest one was on the
waters of Stump. Creek, on lands of L. B. Carlisle, in Brady
Township. This tree had three forks that started twenty-four feet
from the stump. The diameter across stump, two and a half feet above
the ground, was seventy-two inches. The two logs below the forks
contained 2,578 and 2,383 feet respectively.
|
