36 FOREST comjiissioner's report. 



cut into at breast hio;h the thickness of the outer six rings 

 measured, and the percentage of growth determined by the 

 use of Pressler's tables. The average of the ten trees was 

 1.2 per cent, the thickness of the six rings running from one- 

 eighth to one-fourth inch, and averaging a little over two- 

 tenths. Happening soon after to be in a more open growth 

 of mixed hard wood and spruce, — this on a well-drained slope 

 and with something of a soil — the idea struck me that com- 

 parative figures would be very interesting. Choosing, there- 

 fore, ten representative trees of the same average size as the 

 others, they were treated in the same way. The result is 

 striking. The six rings here average over four-tenths inch 

 in thickness, and the percentage of growth, according to 

 Pressler's formula, is just twice as much as in the other case, 

 or 2.4 per cent. It is possible that this difference is not 

 trustworthy to the fullest extent. Little circumstances and 

 unconscious selection will sometimes affect a result a o-ood 

 deal. But in this case we can deduct considerable for leeway, 

 and still retain a very significant result. Now if a man were 

 planning how to cut a township and found parts of it charac- 

 terized by as great a difference in thrift as this, it ought not 

 to take him long to decide where it was best to cut first, and 

 what portions should be left for growth. 



Cut-over -^^^ ^^^ next look over the cuttings in this coun- 



land. ^^.y ^^^ ggg what may be learned thereby. First 



as to growth succeeding the cut. The adjacent part of No. 

 IV, the country lying a mile or so north of Horse pond, was 

 cut through for saw logs, as was found by inquiry at Parlin 

 Pond, seventeen years before. Here there was a chance to 

 find out just what the growth on trees left had been, as well 

 as to ascertain what was left on the land to grow by the 

 method of cutting practiced. By this means ideas could be 

 oljtained which perhaps might, by proper allowance, be made 

 general. So taking an axeman from Parlin Pond, part of one 

 day was spent in cutting and measuring a few sample trees 

 and the balance of it with the next in looking round, counting 



