FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 145 



Quite as important as these rates per cent, both for imme- 

 diate and private consideration and in connection with the 

 long-ran productiveness of hind, is the absolute amount of 

 growth, especially as affected by the severity of a cut, the 

 amount of timber which cutting leaves on the land. A hard 

 cut not only decreases so much the more the visible stock of 

 timber, Init it atfccts future supply often to a greater extent 

 by depressing the growing power of land. 



These general statements the reader is asked to interpret 

 in the light of the examples and the qualilications that have 

 gone before. Careful consideration of what has preceded, 

 picking out essential factors as they have been determined 

 and modifvinij the variable ones to fit, will enable men, it is 

 hoped, to work out for themselves their own individual 

 problems as regards the growth of timberland. 



The computations which have preceded, not only tJ"J^"Xncuo 

 hold relatively among themselves, but they have ''*^«"^"- 

 vjdue because, used with good judgment, they tell very much 

 about the production of the country and the prospects of 

 future supply. 



In making general the results worked out, the first thing 

 to be considered is the relation of the sample areas dealt with 

 to the average stand of the country. In this comparison Mr. 

 Pike's estimates come in ])lay, with ascertained fiij- ^tanding 



*■ *^ o sj)i lice 



ures as to the area of the spruce-bearing country, '"escurces. 

 Mr. Pike's estimate puts on the Androscoggin drainage in 

 Maine 3,600,000,000 feet of spruce lumber. Now the 

 si)ruce-bearing area as early defined foots up according to my 

 reckoning about 1250 square miles, from which must be 

 thrown out for water areas, settled land, burns of greater 

 or less age and other items of waste about 400 square miles. 

 ^30 square miles, or 531,000 acres, therefore, nuist bear the 

 total stand of spruce. This makes the average stand 0,800, 

 and as just al)out half the area has to some extent or other 

 been cut through, the average natural stand of the country 

 should probably be set as high as 9,000 feet. Our sample 



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