62 FOKEST commissioner's REPORT. 



that won't stay put. The smiill tiniher never was taken off 

 it, and it grows rapidly. Probably the town with its forty 

 square miles of area, nearly all of which is productive land, 

 is irrowing towards two millions of spruce every year. 



The condition and prospects of Tomhegan are quite a con- 

 trast with Sapling townshij), that part of it at least which lies 

 between Churchill stream and Indian pond. Later in the 

 summer that district was crossed a couple of times in passing 

 between Misery farm and Squaw mountain. The land had 

 l)een cut very hard, but over and above that it was flat and 

 slow growing, with large swamp areas and much worthless 

 ijrowth. The black land of Sandwich and Misery is of a 

 much better type. Thorndike is probably intermediate in 

 the character of its 2^1-0 wth l)etwcen Brassua and Dennis, at 

 any rate very thrifty land. Middlesex and W, except the 

 mountainous portions in the north, link themselves with Tom- 

 hegan. These townships, of course, vary much in the amount 

 of merchantable timber standing. The comparisons made 

 relate to the natural character of the timber, and the growing 

 power of the land. 



So much for the lower Moose river. The upper portion of 

 the drainage I have had to take more at second hand. The 

 Moose hard wood on these towns nmst, before very many 



River. years, be a valuable resource, and there is hard wood 



of quantity and quality there. But as producers of spruce 

 also these townships are of value. Spruce formed a consid- 

 erable proportion of the original stand in all parts of the 

 drainage, and all who were inquired of testified that there is a 

 good deal of small spruce scattered over these lands to-day. 

 Probably in this respect, as also in topography and thrift, 

 Dennis is somewhere near what it was chosen for — a repre- 

 sentative town. Its 3'early growth of spruce, however, we 

 have set at not much below a million feet. 

 Yearly pro- j^; y^^\\\ ojve US easily remembered figures and 



ouclioii or ~ »' .0 



Ru'*er! probably fairly sum up the results of our study 



of Moose river lands if we should say that after an ordi- 

 narily hard cut for saw logs they are left in shape to 



