FOREST COMMISSIOXEU'S RErOKT. 113 



tical thin<i" to do, when it is determined to touch such timber 

 at all, is to cut it clean. 



This is the first locality where I ever saw s[)ruce "^{'^Z'n^ 

 sawed down. At this particular point the logging t""''^'''- 

 was done by j()l)l)ers, but under close inspection by the own- 

 ers of the land and mills. Stumps were cut ivom a foot to 

 eiti^htecn inches hio:h, in most cases down to the tlare of the 

 roots, and there certainly diil ai)pear to be a saving of tim- 

 ber. Saving in cost and time is a different matter. Opera- 

 tors so far as talked with gave the method a bad name, while 

 the rei)resentatives of the owners of the land thought it had 

 worked well, and that the inevital)le objection to change 

 was being gradually overcome. At any rate they required 

 it of their own men. There seems to be a difference on this 

 point lietween small and large timber. In the pineries al)out 

 Rice Lake, Wisconsin, as I learned on a visit there, sawing 

 down was introduced l)ecause it saved in time, not for its 

 economy of timl)er. In the comparatively small timber of 

 our own State the facts may be difierent. Sawing down 

 involves more tools to carry and more clearing away and 

 fussing round before men actually get to work on a tree. 

 AltoiTcther there seems to be an economy in the use of the 

 new method in our own woods. 



In this connection another feature of the cutting ^jlf,^^^ ^^p 

 all about Berlin should receive attention. This is ^"*''''" 

 the way in which logs are run up into the limbs. Berlin is 

 very economical in its use of timl)er. There is no waste from 

 its mills unused. On all the tributary country logs are cut 

 very long. Big trees scaling 200 to 400 feet are run up to 

 seven or eight inches at the top ; small trees are cut off at 

 four to six. The knotty tops are some of them sawed into 

 scantling. Many also go into pulp, sawed up into lengths for 

 the barker and only the largest knots split out. It is news- 

 paper material mainly that is made at Berlin. For finer 

 grades of paper that quality of wood could not be used. At 

 any rate most pulp mills in iMaine, and the saw mills too for 



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