Cull as Determined From Basal Wounds In Kentucky Highlands Timber

This article is a by-product of a study of forest-land economics in eastern Kentucky being conducted by the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station with the support of the General Education Board. In this region, as elsewhere in the Appalachians, basal wounds are one of the principal causes of cull. Trees with an open wound have more than five times as much basal cull as those without an open wound, while top cull is about the same for both classes of trees. The author describes a method of using open basal wounds as an index of cull in merchantable timber, and uses the data collected in the study to illustrate the practical application of the method.