46 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



thiriiz repeated, rolling from both sides towards the new road, and so 

 on till, at the end of the season, if the growth was thick, it looks much 

 as though the tract had been either exposed to a hurricane or 

 chopped for a clearing, and the effect is the same in either case ; 

 viz., that on that ground there will be no more timber cut until a new 

 crop grows from the seed or from the sprouts that were so small as 

 to be rolled over and thus escape the cutting. If this wasteful 

 system had not been practiced, in the course of a few years another 

 cutting might have been had from the same ground, from trees that 

 were a little too small to be cut the first time but which, after the 

 first cutting, might grow more rapidl}^ than before while crowded 

 by their larger neighbors. 



The second source of waste mentioned — the leaving in the woods 

 so large a portion of the tree cut, is an evil, probably much in 

 excess of what it has usually been considered. Heretofore our 

 forest supplies have been so abundant and so apparently inexhausti- 

 ble that small economies in the use of tbem have not seemed to be 

 necessary. Now, however, the other side of the question begins to 

 appear, and it is seen that with the best efforts that can be made 

 there will soon be need of all the lumber that grows. 



Few people, that have not made a special study of the subject are 

 aware of the additional amount of lumber that might be obtained 

 from almost any tree cut in the ordinary way. 



As the tree is usually felled, there is left standing, a stump whose 

 top may be anywhere from one and one-half to six or eight feet 

 above the ground, the height depending somewhat upon the depth of 

 snow at the time of cutting, but also very much upon the ideas of the 

 chopper and of his employer. 



Next above the stump, there is wasted in the time of cutting of the 

 scarf,f rom one-half foot to one and one-half feet in length of the tree, the 

 larger and more valuable the tree, the greater the length thus wasted. 

 If the length lost by the stump and scarf be taken as no more than 

 say two and one-half to three feet it is fully ten per cent of the 

 average length of the log obtained. 



Farther up where the trunk begins to be pretty knotty, the tree 

 is topped off and all above that is left in the woods furnishing a 

 breeding place for insects and worms, and fuel for fires, obstructing 

 the growth of other trees and being a hinderance to future lumbering 

 operations. 



