FOREST commissioxer's repokt. 127 



The upshot of this calculation is summarized in few words. 

 Could this acre of land have been staked out twenty years 

 ago, after the cut, about sixty-two spruce trees * six inches 

 and over in diameter would have been found standing upon 

 it, containing a total volume of about 5)00 feet. In twenty 

 years these trees have added fifty-two [)er cent to their volume 

 and five more trees have passed the six inch limit. A yearly 

 increase of twenty-five cubic feet per year has been made, and 

 a gain in volume at compound interest of 2.1 per cent. 

 Similar reckonino; with the merchantable timber, louttino- the 

 limit at the lowest notch, shows a yearly gain of 113 board 

 feet, or a rate of 2.6 [)er cent. 



PROBLEM OF BEST MANAGEMENT. 



In what immediately precedes one more step has been taken 

 in ascertaining the growth upon our culled-out spruce land. 

 We have been gaining at the same time light on the problems 

 that surround the question of the best system of mana^^ement. 

 We are now ready to go back to the sample acres of virgin 

 growth that were studied, to suppose them to be cut with 

 different degrees of severity, and to study the subsequent 

 growth. Let us take first the acre upon Parkertown, the 

 trees on which were recently scheduled. 



In the estimated scale put upon that sample Rjgiittocut 

 acre— about 7,400 feet— 5,500, or three-quarters "'^'t'««^- 

 of the whole was in the shape of trees over fourteen inches in 

 diameter four feet from the ground. That is a fact to be 

 distinctly marked. Three-quarters of the total spruce in the 

 natural stand of the country is mature, ready in the natural 

 course of things to be cut. This is not merely the lumber- 



* The four trees over sixteen inches in diameter are left out of the calculation. 

 It is an acciilent an.l not by design that they are standing. 



