116 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



of four, and when the men came to it they cut it, though 

 under size. Now if hmd is to be cut wnth a view to growth, 

 it is just such trees as this that should be left standins;. 

 Difficulties What is here said is not said from an unfriendly 

 to be met. ^^ discouraging attitude. Every attempt to man- 

 agce land with a view to the future should be aided to the 

 fullest degree by the State. But attempts of this kind should 

 not be made blindly, unmindful of the real ditiiculties that lie 

 in the way. What is here said will call attention to the fact 

 that when a saving cutting policy is determined on in the 

 office of a l)ig lumber company, that is not the end and execu- 

 tion of the matter. The axemen and men in charge have still 

 to be considered. Their wasteful habits must be checked, 

 their old methods so far as they conflict with the new policy 

 corrected. And this is not the work of a day. It will take 

 time and the sharpest kind of superintendence to effect it. 



Let it be clearly understood that before any great saving 

 can be effected in our lumberins;, new methods must to a cer- 

 tain extent be developed, and men trained from the top down. 

 The training up of a professional class of head men and 

 choppers is especially desirable, men who shall chose trees 

 and protect young growth to as good effect as they now plan 

 their roads and the felling of their tiuiber. This is a long 

 labor, one in which the experience of other countries can help 

 some, but not much. The brunt of it must come in our 

 own woods. With all genuine efibrts in this direction, the 

 co-operation of State forest commissions should be of the 

 heartiest. 



-implfrtant Returning again to Parkertown, let me present 

 tbeie*trom. somc figurcs that will be used in the further dis- 

 cussion of the problems arising in connection with the man- 

 agement of these Androscoa"o;in lands. First, is a detailed 

 statement of the trees standing on a sample acre that, fairly 

 re})resentative of the country in its stand of mechantable spruce 

 timber, was thought to be approximately such also in respect 

 to the proportion of hard and soft woods and large and 



