124 FOREST commissioner's report. 



ill 10 years. That is one answer to the constantly recurring 

 question — what is the growth on cut-over timberlands?* 



*Mr. Crawford on looking over the manuscript of tins Androscoggin report 

 points out that the diameter growth here given is much less than that which 

 according to his observation is characteristic. In fact in reckoning on the growth 

 of cut-over spruce land in Ins letters he figures the diameter growth at an inch 

 in five years. 



Mr. Crawford doesn't mean by this criticism to dispute my facts any more than 

 I mean to dispute his. The question simply is which figures are representative 

 or most nearly so. On this point we must leave the reader to judge. On the two 

 or three pages precedeing it has been clearly stated how the records which stand 

 behind these statements were obtained. The effort was made to obtain figures 

 representative of the country and to that end the effects of conscious and uncon- 

 scious choice were guarded ag'ainst Ijy taking, wlien notes of this kind were being 

 taken, every tree which caine in my way. 



Still I am inclined myself to think that the figures for growth here given are 

 somewhat too small. That has been in my mind ever since the field notes were 

 figured up and comparison made with the figures of the same nature from the 

 Kennebec. That the Kennebec averages a nuich more thrifty country for spruce 

 than the Androscoggin I cannot believe, yet from these figures it would appear so. 



For further study in this <lirection I refer to the appendix. As affecting the 

 representative character of the figures in this table, the following is to be said: — 

 The figures were taken from trees standing as a rule in mixed growth— that is 

 with a considerable proportion of hard woods which impede the growtli of the 

 spruce left to some extent. Tins is the usual stand of timber on the lands that I 

 traversed. Perhaps Mr. Crawford's Ideas are gained from purer spruce lands 

 which, while not in the long run and on the average more thrifty, yet after cut- 

 ting give freer room to the trees left. Another thing that tends to reduce my fig- 

 ures, while perhaps not to make them unrepresentative of present conditions, is 

 the fact tliat it is unthrifty trees in many cases that are for that veryTeason left. 

 That is the cause of their being small and so left behind. Again my figures were 

 gatliered in some cases not many years after the land had been cut. Thus the 

 trees may not liave recovere<l from their earlier sliading and gained the thick 

 crowns and high rate of growth which later would be characteristic. This it was 

 thought at one time might seriously affect the results, until in fact I separated 

 out from all my figures those against which no such objection could be urged, 

 those namely from the old lake cuttings of twenty years and more ago. The 

 average of these figures Is substantially the same as that of the whole body. 



These figures at any rate are conservative. I prefer to let them stand as they 

 are on that understanding. Perhaps their scale should be raised somewhat for 

 the present purpose. They certainly are not high enough to represent what 

 mignt be attained under a carefully studied system of forest management. At 

 the same time it is only right for me to say that I think Mr. Crawford's figure is 

 too high to hold as an average in either connection. 



This matter of getting representnttve figures is a very important one. For 

 instance, to the figures for age of merchantable spruce trees given in the Maine 

 Forest Commissioner's report for 1S94, exception was taken in some cases by men 

 who knew of facts widely varying from the stsitements made. They had cut 

 spruce logs from land which they had the best of evidence to believe seventy or 

 eighty years before was field or pasture. 



Now those facts, are valuable as are all facts, but how about their representative 

 character? In this respect it will be clear, after a moment's refiection, that they 

 cannot by any means be held to represent the average growth of spruce in the 

 country. In the first y)lace such trees professedly grew up on cleared land, where 

 from the start they had free access to light and air,— a condition by no means hold- 

 ing of the spruce in our great areas of timberland. Secondly they were, even for 

 their own conditions, picked trees. 



