10 



FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



to 





Year8 of as<e. 



There is a graphical way of phiciug these facts before the ej-e, one 

 that is especially useful when comparison is necessar}-. Let us for 

 instance, take a sheet of paper that has been ruled oft into squares. Our 



zero point is at the lower left 

 hand corner. Along the hori- 

 zontal line running from that 

 we will place at regular inter- 

 vals the numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 

 etc., representing years of the 

 tree's life. Height on the other 

 hand will he spaced oft" on the 

 vei-lical line, each space repre- 

 senting a height of 5 feet. Now 

 from the table just given the 

 tree at 31 years of age is found 

 to have attained a height of 16 

 feet; so just to the right of the 

 vertical line up from 30 and Just 

 above the horizontal line across 

 the page from 15 we will put a 

 dot. Again at 42 years of age 

 the tree was 26 1-2 feet high. 

 Another dot, therefore, is put 

 in where lines up from 42 and 

 across from 26 1-2 iuter^ect. So with each poiut given iu the table, 

 including the stump and the present height and age. The points then 

 niaj' for clearness' sake be connected by a curve, the rise in which sliows 

 at a glance the height growth of the tree. The slow growth of the young 

 seedling is indicated by the slow rise of the first end of the curve. Along 

 at 10 to 1.5 feet the height growth reaches its maximum rapidity. It does 

 not begin to slack much till it has reached 40 to 50 feet. 



The value of this method of representation will be best brought out by 

 comparison. The tree so far dealt with grew up on a piece of ground 

 that was burnt somethiug over 100 years ago. It has had therefore 

 throughout its life the benefit of unobstructed sunlight. It grew more- 

 over out of a libe7*al soil, favorable conditions in general being indicated 

 by the large and thriving pines which stood in its immediate neighbor- 

 hood. Now a short distance away, on the same area of second growth, 

 was flat and very rocky ground, with hardly any soil except the mold 

 formed from the decaying sticks and leaves. This had seeded to the 

 same kinds of trees as the other ground, but the trees though close 

 together were much smaller and far less thrifty. The pines had been 

 specially affected. They were small and spindling, and plainli" never 

 would reach the size of practicable lumber. 



Now note the effect of the poor soil conditions on the height growth 

 of the spruce. A tree cut here measuring 7 1-4 inches in diameter and 

 49 feet high bears about the same relation to its neighbors as did the 



