FOREST commissioxek's hefokt. 205 



in other words that we can follow the policy heretofore 

 pursued in cutting our forests with perfect safety. 



While I do not care to pose as an alarmist, I have no hesi- 

 tation in saying that the idea is all w^rong. We think it fully 

 demonstrated that it is possible to exhaust our forest supply 

 of S})ruce by present methods in tlu^ course of the next century 

 at least, and also think it possible by adopting wise methods 

 to cut even larger amounts than arc l)eing taken at present 

 and still have luml)er for generations to come. 



As before stated, the loss from waste in the aggregate is 

 something enormous. It varies a great deal in different 

 localities, being fully twenty-tive per cent greater in some 

 regions than in others, a fact that seems to have escaped the 

 notice of many individual owners, yet a fact that it seems 

 ought to concern them very much. 



Each cutting is accompanied by great waste, not only in 

 leaving to rot large portions of the trees actually taken, but 

 in the destruction of young growth, and whether or not this 

 potential loss is much greater in the frequent indiscriminate 

 cuttings than by systematic well detined methods oi operating 

 is yet to be determined. Now certainly in localities where 

 growth has already become the key to the situation, where the 

 amount of young growth determines the growing power of 

 the land, this potential loss seems to deserve careful study. 



To correct these wastes, to learn what, from all points of view, 

 is the best method of handling our forest land, Ave must study 

 previous cuttings, study methods comi)aratively with their 

 etlects, and guide our future course thereby. In a word, we 

 have but to use in this important matter some of the strong 

 common sense which in other lines of business is uniformly 

 employed. 



Before we can go very far on that line, however, it seems 

 that one definite measure must be taken. This is a change 

 in our methods of scaling lumber. Everybody understands 

 fully what a thousand feet of manufactured lumber means. 

 Any school boy can easily scale a pile of manufactured lum- 



