FOREST COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. 25> 



his standard of cut for saw logs is eight inches at twenty feet, 

 while from most of the lands under his control sticks six inches in 

 diameter are salable at a profit for pulp. His question was whether 

 to cut those small trees or to allow them to grow into logs, and he 

 answered it in this way. Taking to the scale rule the dimensions 

 of the two sticks, a six inch and an eight inch log of the same 

 length, he finds the increase of scale is 117 per cent of the smaller 

 stick, an amount which comes much below the increase of money 

 at compound interest for twenty years. Thus Mr. Buswell arrives 

 at the rule that when camps and crews are on the ground every 

 stick that can be handled at a profit shall be cut. 



AJr. Bus well's facts are all right aud so far as I see there is only 

 one objection to his application. That objection is that the late 

 of diameter growth was determined on logs ten or twelve inches or 

 larger in top diameter while they are applied to trees of much 

 smaller size on which the growth in a country wLiose larger trees 

 have been cut would be considerably greater. 'I his ISIr. Buswell 

 admits, balancing that gain, however, with the loss from blow- 

 downs which in such growth in the course of twenty years might 

 be considerable If it be agreed however that Mr. Buswell's rule 

 is immediately and practically sound, there are yet limitations to 

 its application which ought to be stated. In the first place it does 

 not take into account the State's interest in the matter — leaves out 

 of sight the effect of severe cutting on the future volume of busi- 

 ness as well as on the reforesting of the land. Then the rule may 

 prove to be short sighted in taking no account of any future rise in 

 prices, which n)ight readily, growth out of account, be enough to 

 reverse it. Nor does the rule s-ay that it is good policy to mow 

 down a piece of growing timber as soon as any of it is fit to cut. 

 Young growth just coming into the merchantable class may be 

 increasing in value at a very rapid rate. To put in roads then cul- 

 ling out the largest trees, and killing many more that were nicely 

 growing, is a great waste and loss, — loss to the lumberman him- 

 self who might have made so much more out of his property. 



Then if pine were the timber concerned, conclusions would have 

 to be greatly altered. So rapid is the growth of that wood, and so 

 great its improvement in quality brought about by age and proper 

 conditions that growth is a much larger factor in the account. 

 Lastly, cost of transportation is such a large element in every such 

 calculation that conclusions are different for every case. The most 



