FOREST COMMISSIOKER S REPORT. 



41 



rule, or uhout nine inches in diameter at twenty-four feet. This 

 Mill include trees down to about twelve inches four feet from the 

 ground, except crooked and seamy specimens, which however 

 we will not for present purposes take into account. Enough 

 trees to make up nearly half the volume of the stand are 

 taken as merchantable. One-third the remainder is supposed 

 destroyed in cutting, and one-half of what is left is supposed 

 to l)low down. The upshot of the matter shows thirty-six 

 per cent actually taken from the ground and utilized, forty- 

 seven per cent wasted in one way or another, and seventeen 

 per cent left on the ground as a basis for growth. This 

 seems to the writer conservative fiourino- and the results 

 of it a })ointed con)ment on the wastefulness of present 

 methods of lumbering. The reader must not jump to the con- 

 clusion that there is this proportion of waste everywhere. 

 Larger timlier and more open growth cut much more economi- 

 cally, while a mixtiire of hard woods will generally save most 

 of the blowdown. But there are large areas where it is fully 

 believed that a cut for good sized saw logs by present methods 

 will l)e attended by as great a waste as that here set forth. 

 In closest connection with these figures I wish to put for reflec- 

 tion the following question : Would it work to the promotion 

 of economy in our forests if the State should pass a law as 

 some have suggested prohibiting the cutting of small timber? 



Half Acre om III R. VI, Somehskt Countv, on Rocky Land, iMos.s-CovEKED 

 OF Slow Gkowth. Thinned bv Cutting, but not Blown Down. 



