FOREST COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. 27 



the same deductions as before, the final result, giving the replace- 

 ment annually of merchantable timber, is twenty cubic feet. These 

 results it should be said are in exact terms. Cubic feet here aie 

 not cubic feet on any artificial scale rule. They are net volume in 

 standard measure. For each cubic foot of the growth about six 

 board feet should be allowed to ascertain its money value. 



The ratio of growth to stand in this last case was 1.05 per cent. 

 The total yearly growth upon the acre was estimated at about forty 

 cubic feet 



Jn this connection another idea may be developed which has 

 wide application. What becomes of the growth of land that 

 remains uncut, growth which is the product of air and water com- 

 bined with a little material from the soil. The answer may be 

 seen in the scoie-of trees. On the first acre mentioned eight tices 

 of the largest size were standing, dead and in all stages of decay. 

 At least ten years' growth is so represented. And this fact is thor- 

 oughly illuf^trative. In a country that is left uncut, the annual 

 growth is offset by the death of old trees, and is absolutely lost to 

 human use. Hence we see the unwisdom of those who indiscrim- 

 inately declaim against cutting. Wasteful cutting, or cutting that 

 prevents the leforestatum of the ground with desirable species, cer- 

 tainly is a deplorable evil. But on the other hand growth should 

 not go to waste, and so the sooner every piece of virgin land is cut 

 over and the growth instead of rotting in the air or on the ground 

 begins to store up for human use, the sooner, financially consid- 

 ered, will it be for the country. Fuithermore the growth of a sec- 

 tion is materially increased when the old trees are cut out, provid- 

 ing young trees are left to take their places. Dead trees and those 

 which have passed the period of vigorous life not merely produce 

 little or nothing themselves, but in a very real sense they cumber 

 the ground Could the^-e be taken out, could young trees occupy 

 their places and the whole surface of the ground be covered with 

 productive foliage, then it is reasonable to expect that our figures 

 of twenty or twenty-four cubic feet migi t be materially increased. 

 Such is a sample of the line of work by which the sustained 

 yield of our spruce forests might be determined. Our nearer and 

 second growth areas of pine, poplar, birch, etc., some of which are 

 among our most valuable timberlands, might be studied by the 

 more direct method of observed yield. For forests treated as are 

 our great spruce tracts however, such methods will not apply. In- 

 direct methods have to be invented. W^hat other in outline should 



