FOREST COMMISSIONEIl'S REPORT. 31 



Before leaving this subject of tree growth I wish to say some- 

 thino" of the vahie of the slow methods and exact terms of science. 

 The processes which I have described look perhaps elaborate and 

 expensive. On the other hand it should be said that they are exact, 

 or if they depart from exactness the liability to error is closely 

 known. Further, a little of such work goes a long way. By com- 

 parison and estimate a small amount of accurate knowledge will 

 form the basis of large results which can be relied on as approx- 

 imately correct. Similarly as to terms. Men want to know things 

 in board feet, in current values, in percentages. But were it 

 attempted to do the basal reckoning in such terms, the results would 

 be only temporarily and locally useful. Prices vary with the lapse 

 of time. Material at one time not worth handling comes later to 

 iiave distinct value A thousand feet of lumber means one thing 

 on the Androscoggin, another on the Kennebec, still a third on the 

 Penobscot. Yet results that are exactly worked, and couched in 

 exact terms, can be applied to any locality and at any time. 



If it is asked why no more practical and sweeping results are 

 arrived at in this paper, I will answer that there is not yet sufficient 

 basis for working them out. When I say that it looks something 

 like the truth that a good spruce town should grow in the absolute 

 sense a million feet of lumber in a year, that statement should be 

 coupled with another to ttie effect that such figures and similar ones 

 that might be made for tlie production of the State are little more 

 than a guess. For those wide inductions the time is not yet ripe. 

 More work must be done, and the basis of judgment greatly 

 enlarged, before any one can talk about those matters with suffi- 

 cient assurance to make it worth while. But when the fundamental 

 work is done, when well considered plans have been carried through 

 to a successful conclusion, then results will be in hand whose value 

 it will be hard to estimate. Wholesale figures will show something 

 about the future of business that can be depended on. Practical 

 rules will be solidly based and widely applicable. Empirical state- 

 ments may serve a temporary and restricted use, but they are liable 

 to mislead. Rules derived from thorough fundamental knowledge 

 will hold anywhere and for all time. Such rules are not fetiches, 

 but are intelligently held. Their limitations are known, and they 

 can be modified to suit circumstances. 



The study of the forests of the State should be thoroughly scien- 

 tific No other kind of study is worth spending money on. 



