84 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



the birch enough to make a closed stand in from forty to sixty- 

 years. The birch is then crowded from the sides, prunes itself 

 well, and develops a clear bole with good merchantable length. 

 As a result, the best developed trees with the best quality of 

 wood are often found in mixture with spruce and balsam. It 

 is sometimes claimed that there is more red heart in birches 

 grown in mixtures of this kind, but this seems to depend more 

 on the character of the soil than on the mixture. Upon the 

 removal of the birch there results a pure coniferous type. 



STAND PER ACRE. 



The stand of paper birch varies very greatly in dififerent 

 places, and under different conditions, from almost nothing up 

 to 40 or 50 cords per acre. Even experienced woodsmen are 

 likely to overestimate the average stand. Actual figures of the 

 cut of spool stock, which may be taken as a fair representation 

 of the merchantable material, from two good birch towns in 

 Maine are. respectively, 58,175 cords from 18,000 acres, or an 

 average of 3.2 cords per acre; and 39,905 cords from 10,000 

 acres, or nearly 4 cords per acre. The northwest corner of the 

 second town, where the birch was exceptionally thick, yielded 

 16,500 cords from 3,000 acres, or an average of 5.5 cords per 

 acre. Still another town, which was considered rather poor 

 but still good enough to cut, yielded only 3,303 cords from 6,000 

 acres, or an average of 0.55 cord per acre. All the material 

 may not have been completely utilized in these cases, but it was 

 approximatelv so, since the towns were cut over with consider- 

 able care. 



Actual cuts and careful estimates show that the average stand 

 in what are ordinarily considered good birch towns is about 2 

 cords of spoolwood material per acre. Individual acres may. 

 of course, run very much higher than thjs, and single excep- 

 tional acres may run as high as 40 or 50 cords. Areas of a few 

 hundred acres may average as high as 12 or 15 cords of spool 

 stock per acre. vStill other areas, even within the birch region, 

 contain no paper birch whatever. It is, therefore, fair to assume 

 that within the better portion of the birch region (mai^-ed i 

 on the map) the stand will average i cord per acre; in the 

 intermediate portion (marked 2 on the map), one-half cord per 

 acre; and in the poorer portion (marked 3 on the map), one- 



