40 



FOREST COMMISSIONER S REPORT. 



old showed almost as large a percentage of destruction. On 

 this kind of land the blovvino; do.wn of thinned out o-rowth is 

 to 1)6 expected. The roots of the trees cannot anchor into 

 the ground, but are spread out upon it. The trees of virgin 

 growth mutually shield one another and are braced and inter- 

 locked in their crowns. And when after cutting, this support 

 is lost, when each tree stands by itself, open to the lull force 

 of the winds, the chances of our ordinary weather can be 

 counted on to upend it. I was myself camped out once in 

 growth of this kind durino- an Octol)er oale. It was on Bald 

 mountain on the Moxic, in the first timber beneath its top. Our 

 fire-place was solid, for it was a faulted ledge four feet high, 

 that served to throw the heat from our fire under the birch- 

 bark shelter that was our protection from the rain. But 

 everything else was afloat. The posts of our habitation were 

 waving round, and the floor, with the whole surrounding 

 surface of vegetable mold knit together with spruce roots, 

 was going up and down with much the motion of an old swell 

 at sea. 



Waste in • Before leaving this topic and locality it will be 



Lumbering, ^^q j.^ bring forward the notes of the sample half 

 acre, suppose an ordinary saw log cut to be made through it, 

 and see what the sequences will be. All the pine of course 

 would be taken out. Of the spruce we will say that all trees 

 are cut which will yield a log scaling eighty feet by the Maine 



Sample Acre (see page 35) cut to a Standard of 9 in. at 24 ft. 



Utilized 1.020 cu. ft. 



Wasted l,300cu. ft 



Left to grow 480cu.ft. 



36% 

 47% 

 17% 



