FOREST COMMISSIONER S KEPOKT. 39 



erallv cut, :uh1 the point of the considerations here presented 

 is that on hind like this — nearly pure spruce hind, where the 

 trees are not firmly rooted — as a matter of both public and 

 private economy they should be cut. It is a waste to leave tim- 

 ber to blow down, and until lumbering methods are revised 

 from top to bottom, until land and cutting have been studied, 

 and foreman and chop{)er have been so instructed that timl)er 

 can l)e left with reasonal)le assurance that it will stand n\) and 

 oTow, such land as this had better be cut clean. I heard of 

 the desire of owners of land in this locality to cut with refer- 

 ence to future growth, allowing only trees that would scale 100 

 feet to be taken. If they are willing to sacrifice something 

 in the way both of immediate profit and of effort, if they will 

 study their land thoroughly and introduce new and economi- 

 cal methods of cutting, training men to carry out their ideas — 

 in a word adopt forestry in place of lumbering — then their 

 purpose is to be highly commended. If, however, they 

 simply mean, as no doubt they do mean, to sell stumpage 

 with the stipulation that only trees scaling 100 feet and over 

 shall be cut, then the results of their policy I am sure will be 

 highly unsatisfactory. They might never know it. Profes- 

 sional land-owners often have no acquaintance with their lands 

 except what may be derived th^ough contemplation of a stump- 

 age account. But the real loss from such a policy will be 

 considerable. 



There is nothing exceptional about the facts presented, 

 nothinf>- misleadino; when the kind of growth is taken into 

 account, and it is also remembered that this is a mountainous 

 countiy, more subject as a rule to blowdowns than more even 

 land. Most of the blowdown previously seen on Dead river, 

 all of it probably that was seen on virgin land, was due to 

 one great gale, that of Noveml)er 18S3, which covered a larger 

 territory and destroyed more timber than any other gale of 

 which I have been able to hear. The great fires of 188(5 also 

 followed in its wake. But what was seen at this point was 

 only the usual and normal thing. Cuttings only three years 



