''0 FOREST commissioner's RErORT. 



cut out, that according to my ideas is most valuable for 

 growth and as a source of permanent spruce supply. 

 tinis^Great ^bout a mile and a half from the west end of our 

 amonr^'^ li»e ou the southeast corner of Spencer pond, cut- 

 *''^™- tings were met with. Right about here the cut had 



been for ■8ome reason extremely close. The country presented 

 an entire contrast with the original growth that had just been 

 passed. Great gaps had but a few trees standing per acre, 

 allowing a long unobstructed view. Out of what must have 

 originally been a fine and heavy stand of timber it was esti- 

 mated that in the cleaner cut regions not over 200 cubic feet 

 were left on the ground. Other and earlier cutting, while 

 perhaps full more wasteful in its way, had not gone over the 

 ground so closely and left standing perhaps double that 

 amount. As little actual care for the future ])ropably had 

 been exercised in one case as in the other. 

 of'lxplora™ It would l)e uscIcss to weary the reader with 

 ^'°"- long accounts of the detail work. The result of 



it is the thing wanted, while certain principles which guided 

 it are well worthy of distinct formulation. The latter are as 

 follows : Cruising a town, if it is not guided by lot lines, 

 and especially if it is hurried and merely aims to get at, in a 

 general way, its stand and condition, is best done in straight 

 lines. Three or four trips across a town will give a man a 

 good idea of how the land lies, and even though it may be 

 hacked and gashed in cutting that nmch systematic travel can 

 be depended on, checked in the ways which common sense 

 will suggest, to give an approximate notion of the amount 

 and character of the timber. By that means, too, the explorer 

 is kept out of roads. Much, no doubt, may be learned by 

 the thoroughly practiced eye from roads, but the man who 

 wants to learn what timber there is on a township had better 

 keep out of them. No man in a strange country can keep 

 run of his whereabouts if he is folio wino- the veerino-s of a 

 logging road. Further than that, he does not see a fair 

 sample of the country. Cutting is always cleanest along a 



