202 FOREST commissioner's report. 



cost of peeling. If you will watch the operations of a bark- 

 ing machine, you will readily see where the 450 pounds of 

 pulp goes to. With this system of railroads, the sawing 

 down, peeling, yarding to small yards, sawing into four foot 

 logs, and piled ready for hauling to the track, and a large 

 part of it yarded directly to the track, could all be done in 

 the summer when the men caiylive in tents, thereby saving a 

 hxrge part of the cost of log camps. The winter's operations 

 would be confined to haulino- when the men and teams could 

 live at the track, in cheap frame shanties covered with tarred 

 paper. 



In this system of railroad logging as above indicated, I 

 would work small crews, say about twenty men, for whom 

 one man could cook, with a foreman who has some knowledge 

 of true forestry. If something like this method could be 

 adopted, I think the cost of o^)erating could be reduced to the 

 minimum, even if done with the idea of reaping the maxi- 

 mum profit in a reproduction by growth. 



No arbitrary rule can be adopted as to the minimum diam- 

 eter at which trees should l)e taken from a virgin forest. The 

 man who has charge of the cutting should stud}^ the condi- 

 tions of the growth in which he is at work. 



Here the case must be rested. How much we can actually 

 improve our lumbering methods remains to be seen. How 

 much of European forest practice canbetransi)lanted here in a 

 new country and among democratic institutions only trial can 

 tell. Changes must be slow and well considered, proceeding 

 in accordance with the circumstances of each case. How 

 much these vary within the limits of the State it is hard to 

 believe. It is true for some sections that the ideas that have 

 been lately discussed are hardly at all applicable. Those 

 sections are not far enough along to receive it. Merely to stop 

 needless wastes that occur, catching up in the direction of sim- 

 ple econoni}^ with the standard of other sections, is all that for 

 years can be expected. Elsewhere the situation is different. 

 Men have come to value the forest higher, to use it with con- 

 siderable economy and some foresight. Fixed investments 

 of large size are dependent on the forests. 



Here it seems as if the way were opened for genuine forestry. 

 This indeed we cannot copy after the German model — the lines 



