36 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



shire. Careful notes of its character and occurrence were taken, 

 in the course of other study, and the facts observed and inferences 

 drawn will be found in full in the publications of the United States 

 Forestry Division. 



This belt of thin rings can be seen by anyone who will take the 

 trouble to examine carefully any good sized spruce log. It demon- 

 strates the effect of inclement seasons on the growth of trees, and 

 it is further of value in that while there is some variation about it, 

 the approximate regularity of its position, the close correspondence 

 in number of the rings outside the thin belt with the seasons that 

 have elapsed since the cold year, gives added confidence in the sub- 

 stantial regularity of ring deposit and consequently in the results 

 of investigations which proceed on that assumption. 



An instance of the effect of exposure on the growth of trees, I 

 am able to present through the interest of Mr. William Monroe of 

 Bangor. Jn the winter of 1893-4 he scaled a landing of spruce 

 hauled into Silver lake in the town of Katahdin Iron Works, from 

 a piece of ground on the south slopes of Saddle Rock Mountain, 

 which had never before been cut The soil was a deep red loam, 

 and the spruce was gathered along brook runs or scattered amongst 

 the hard wood growth intervening. But the point is that the tim- 

 ber was divided between two separate slopes of the mountain, the 

 upper one of which was some 200 feet above the lower, and consid- 

 erably more exposed. 



The timber from each slope was yarded on the more level land 

 at its base, and Mr. Monroe kept a separate scale of the two lots. 

 A marked difference in the size of the trees is found. The logs 

 cut on the ui^per and more exposed slope were 4,377 in number, 

 and scaltd 43.5,726 feet B. M. or ninety-nine and one-half feet to 

 the piece The lower lot numbered 2, .596 sticks, and the total scale 

 was 320,811 feet or 123 1-2 feet to the piece. The difference is 

 twenty-four per cent of the smaller piece. No other cause for it 

 being apparent, the difference in the size of the trees seems to be 

 due to their greater or less exposure. 



