FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 11 



and if we assume that the vuhie of the soil after removinsr 

 the himber to ])e tifty cents per acre — without growth, the 

 total value of the lumber would 1)e gone in about eleven years. 



Knowing then the rate of cutting each year, which is 

 approximately 7 per cent of the present valuation, the neces- 

 sity of knowing the percentage of growth is readily appre- 

 ciated. 



If we are correct in estimating the percentage of cutting, 

 and should discover that the annual growth is only 2 per cent, 

 we should find ourselves face to face with the alarming con- 

 dition that in twenty years the himber industry of the State 

 would be entirely gone. 



I do not wish to be understood as making the statement 

 that the total annual growth is only 2 per cent in my judg- 

 ment, yet I think it can be demonstrated to the satisfaction 

 of an}^ person who will take the trouble to study the matter, 

 even in a superMcial manner, that of the spruce lumber that 

 has already reached a merchantable size, which we will assume 

 to l)e twelve inches in diameter three feet from the ground, 

 that the annual growth on such lumber cannot possibly exceed 

 2 })er cent on the average. 



As it is only the merchantable lumber that fixes the present 

 value of lumber lands, it seems to me of the greatest impor- 

 tance that a close study should be made of the younger 

 growth in order to understand more perfectly exactly what we 

 have to depend on in the future, in the way of furnishing" a 

 constant supply of luml)er. 



With this idea in mind, since takino- charo;e of this office, 

 I have endeavored, with the limited means at my command, 

 to obtain as much information upon the subject as possible, 

 to embody in a detailed report. 



The result of the work will be found in the report of Mr. 

 Austin Gary whose partial services I was enabled to secure — 

 he having been previously engaged by the National Division 

 of Forestry to do some special work in this State. 



