22 FOREST commissioner's HEPORT. 



next cutting these areas form the center of his work. The trees 

 left there are now much the largest on the whole tract, while some 

 of the smaller growth has now come into the usable class. Areas 

 therefore which were earlier untouched furnish the bulk of the 

 second cutting. So much for the current rule. Admitting that as 

 a rule it has its use, it is yet true that in different mouths it meane 

 different things, while as to the absolute production of ground it 

 tells very little. 



To strike at once into the heart of our subject it may be said 

 that to ascertain the growth of a large region of which full and 

 exact records are not in existence, three steps are necessary. 

 First we should understand the growth of the individual ten. Sec- 

 ond, sample areas that represent the different conditions prevailing 

 in the region may be studied. Third, the data of soil, topography 

 and standing growth for the whole tract should be collected, and 

 attaching to each kind of land the production ascertained to be 

 characteristic of it, the production of the whole tract may be ar- 

 rived at. This sounds perhaps like an impossible scheme. It is' 

 however, all possible of execution — in a proximate way I believe 

 without great outla}' — while a material beginning is already made. 

 Such work as has been done in this State has been done under the 

 Forestry Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. It fur- 

 nishes pretty full data on the growth of individual trees, while an 

 idea is furnished of what will be the result of the second branch of 

 inquiry. 



The facts have been gathered at first hands. All of last winter 

 and a portion of the previous one were passed by the writer among 

 the lumber camps in different parts of the State. Stations were 

 taken from Houlton near the New Brunswick line through to the 

 Moosehead and Chamberlain country. Then several weeks were 

 spent in the White Mountain region of New Hampshire. Trees in 

 all kinds of situations were studied, — swamp sites where epruce and 

 cedar were the principal growth — ridges and slopes covered with 

 mixed growths, — steep mountain sides where the spruce stood 

 clean, seamed by the winds, short-limbed and thick-foliaged from 

 exposure. 



The plan of measurement pursued has been used for some years 

 by the agents of the Forestry Division. It was described in the 

 report of the first forest commissioner of this State, in the paper 

 contributed by Mr. Hobbs, and it is also illustrated in the appen- 

 dix to this paper. The trees were calipered every four feet, their 



