2 2 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE 



office ; that the character of the lands in each town is presumably well known to 

 the men who make the assessments ; and that, although the description of the 

 assessors might not be accurate in all cases, it would, when supplemented by the 

 field work and personal examination of the foresters, enable us to make a final 

 classification that would be accurate, or approximately so in a close degree. 



Foresters Bryant, Williams and Knechtel were assigned to the work. After 

 several weeks of steady application a tentative classification, tabulated lot by lot 

 on large blanks printed for this purpose, was obtained from the assessment rolls of 

 1900. With these sheets in hand they went into the forest, where they verified or 

 amended the description of each lot. This field work occupied several months, 

 during which the foresters worked diligently and intelligently, as may be seen from 

 the large pile of neatly tabulated sheets now on record here. On returning to the 

 ofifice the areas of the lakes and ponds were obtained by tracing their outlines with 

 a planimeter on a map. In this latter work the sheets of the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey were of great assistance, the large scale on which this map is made 

 conducing to greater accuracy so far as the area of the water surfaces is concerned. 



Before entering upon their field work the foresters were instructed that the fol- 

 lowing definitions of the various terms in the classification must be observed : 



Forest. Embraces all forest lands from which no timber has been removed 

 except white pine which on many townships had been cut forty years or more ago, 

 at a time when the lumbermen took this species only. Also, lands which were lum- 

 bered for spruce over eighteen years ago and on which there is now a good second 

 cutting, because the lumbermen at that time did not cut below twelve inches. 



Lumbered. Under this head are included all lands from which the evergreens or 

 softwoods — pine, spruce, hemlock and balsam — have been taken, but on which 

 there is still a good forest covering of hardwood timber, tin- latter species generally 

 forming over sixty-five per cent of the original growth. Some lands on which the 

 lumbermen left the hemlock and balsam were also included in this class. 



Waste. Includes wild lands on which there is a scattered growth of small poplars, 

 scrubby hardwoods or stunted conifers. 



Burned. Lands that have been burned over within a few years, and on which 

 the timber was all killed ; or ground co\-ered with old, charred fire-slash. 



Denuded. Sand plains; barrens; ground covered with ferns, huckleberry bushes 

 and brier patches; abandoned farms and old clearings. 



Wild Meadows. Grass lands, such as the Indian Plains on the South Branch of 

 the Moose River; beaver meadows; and river flats on which wild hay is cut by resi- 

 dents of the vicinity. 



