FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 135 



siderable dei)artures on both sides will be found. Scattered 

 trees above the limit are left, while some below, if handy or 

 in the roads, will be cut. Lastly, numerous others will be 

 smashed down. To this last method of destruction, si)ruce 

 and fir, being less pliant, are more liable than the small and 

 slender hard woods. Perhaps the variations in these ways 

 from the theoretical cut will l)alance one another approxi- 

 mately except in the case of a very close cut. A cut to 7 or 

 8 inches in thick timber will, as was seen in the exploration 

 of Grafton and Success, leave almost nothing on the ground. 



It was stated along back that on ordinary well- ^""'^cen"^ 

 timbered land in the Androscoggin country the large '^''^ • 

 trees, such as will bring, so far as size goes, the largest market 

 prices form two-thirds or thereabouts of the total stand. This 

 timl)er is fully matured and it is proper from all points of view 

 that it should be cut. No one questions the lumberman's right 

 to it unless indeed those who have regard to the esthetic value 

 of the forest. These do not appear to be many, and real con- 

 sideration of their views, carrying them out to the fullest extent, 

 would not to any great degree interfere with the use of the for- 

 ests for their economic advantages. Perhaps a digression on 

 this topic will not be amiss. If anyone has followed the thread 

 of argument through the previous pages he will probal)ly by 

 this time consider himself entitled to a rest. 



The winter of 1893-4 was spent by the writer in the woods, 

 living in lumber camps, measuring trees for the U. S. Divi- 

 sion of Forestry. After two months spent in central and 

 eastern Maine, 1 went over by rail into New IIami)shire in 

 February and started in work near Fabyan's on the western 

 slope of the Presidential Range. Getting at what I w^anted 

 there in the course of several days, I was ready to move to 

 the next ol)jective point, which happened to be in the Glen 

 valley just across the mountains. Now a journey there by 

 rail would be slow, expensive and uninteresting. A trip 

 across the mountains would l)o quicker and cheaper, and in 

 midwinter enouuh of an ex})loit to possess considerable extra 



