152 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



TOPICAL DISCUSSION. 



In the narrative whicli precedes, much that might have 

 been said has of necessity been omitted. Some of these 

 matters, with others rehited to the main purpose of this report, 

 it is now designed to take up in the shape of topical discus- 

 sion. This will be arranged under three major heads — first, 

 the distribution of spruce in Maine and a description of the 

 usual stands in which it occurs with some suijirestions as to 

 their management ; second, an examination into current 

 methods of measuring lumber ; third, I shall endeavor to state 

 what genuine forestry in connection with the spruce resources 

 of Maine seems to mean. 



DISTRIBUTION AND USUAL STANDS OF SPRUCE IN iMAINE. 



?t'"-i<ln'of'^" The distribution of tree species is related to the 

 Maine. topography, soil and climate of a country. Wells' 



"Water Power of Maine," several times referred to in this 

 report, gives us far better than any maps in existence the 

 conformation of the capitol. The ruling topographical feature 

 of the State is the White Mountain Plateau stretchins: out 

 eastward from northern New Hampshire, bearing the Range- 

 leys and Moosehead Lake, and ending at Mars Hill on the 

 New Brunswick line close to the St. John river. The axis 

 of this plateau runs as indicated, in a direction somewhat 

 north of east, determining gentle slopes north and south from 

 it. It is a broad plateau, not a well-defined watershed. On 

 it all the great rivers of the State have their source, their 

 head waters interlocking and sometimes interflowino;. Thence 

 they run north, east and south, to widely separated outlets in 

 the ocean. The greatest height of the plateau is at the west, 

 near its source in the White Mountains. Here lie the Range- 

 ley lakes at a height of about 1,400 feet above the sea. 

 Moosehead, at the center of the plateau, is called 1,023. The 



