FOREST COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. 23 



length of crown and total height measured, their age determined, 

 and, by measures and counts at the sections, the rate of growth in 

 diameter and height. The manifold inferences to be derived from 

 these figures, embracing the lype and growth of forest trees, and 

 the influence upon them of conditions of every kind, beh)ng to 

 those who paid for the work. I am at liberty, however, to bring 

 out some facts which relate to the matter in hand. 



Trees as they stand in the woods are very different from such as 

 are seen on open ground, the central facts in the list being the 

 development and relations of the crown. The early life of a forest 

 tree is passed under the shade of its larger neighbors and its growth 

 is, therefore, slow. I have cut trees not over four or five feet high 

 that were over fifty years old, while on the other hand some that 

 grew up in openings might be larger at ten or twelve years. The 

 former, however, would doubtless be much more nearly typical of 

 the young spruce in our great forests. This is seen plainly in the 

 record of youth left in the adult trees. It is shown elsewhere that 

 the average age of spruce logs as they come down the drives of this 

 State is nearly 200 years. This figure is obtained by count of the 

 rings in the butt of many hundred logs, and the same examination 

 has shown, that of the total number of rings, perhaps a half, the 

 inner hundred, say on the average, are generally closely packed. 

 Frequently these central rings are counted with dilflculty, even with 

 a lens. At 100 years of age the average diameter of a forest grown 

 spruce might not be far from six inches, while its total capacity 

 would be four or five cubic feet. Somewhere about that time, 

 however, a tree that is ever to do much begins to shoot ahead. Its 

 trunk raises the crown up among those of its larger neighbors ; per- 

 haps some of its competitors grow old and fall or are cut. The 

 crown, at any rate, responds to accessions of light and air. Led 

 by its leaves it expands and thickens, while the trunk so slowly 

 formed begins to put on diameter quickly. Tbe tree now is becom- 

 ing dominant among its neighbors. Its growth at this period might 

 be an inch of diameter in from six to ten years. 



The period of severe competition is now passed. As elsewhere 

 in the world wealth produces wealth. The crown grows larger in 

 surface, and the foliage in consequence elaborates more food for 

 the tree. The trunk not only grows larger, but barriug accident, 

 is clearer and proportionately more valuable ; and if in later years 

 the annual ring grows thinner, by reason of the greater surface 



