102 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



ground had been regularly cut to haul away, and smaller 

 ones if they were in the roads. Many too of the smallest 

 sizes were smashed down, as is evidentfrom the small number 

 found standing. Altogether the count gives me between 

 nine and ten spruce trees per acre, about thirty cubic feet, 

 which as near as I can tell is about one per cent of the 

 original stand. 



What now is coming up on that land to replace the timber 

 cut off? In the first place it will bear repetition that the 

 ground w^ill not be altogether left to a new croj), but will be 

 largely occupied by the trees left in cutting, the undesirable 

 ones in species and quality, which will spread out and largely 

 cover the ground. As to the new growth, it is certain that it 

 whatspe- will not be mainly sprucc. White birch, I think, 



cies torm J i ' ' 



growtif- '^'^ the tree that will be most prominent in the 

 their value, j^^^^, growth. On this ground and in other places 



where hard spruce cutting had left the ground nearly bare, 

 the prominence of this species was many times noted. On 

 old yards and sluice-ways it is apt to be especially abundant. 

 And this is what would be expected from the biological charac- 

 teristics of the tree. It requires a great deal of light, and so, 

 while it is not abundant in the virgin forest, it does spring up 

 freely on burnt or abandoned land, being aided in its diffusion 

 by the extreme lightness of its seeds. Heavy cutting or a blow- 

 down again afford the necessary conditions for its growth, and 

 here too it is abundantly found. 



Not uniformly or alone however. Dwarf maples, Acet' 

 pennsylvariicum and A. sp{catu7n, are very apt to fill up gaps 

 caused by cutting. Cherry is another tree that shows a simi- 

 lar propensity. Twenty or thirty years, however, is about as 

 long as these will last. They die out finally, crowded out by 

 the longer-lived trees, yellow birch and maples, which are 

 almost always njixed with them. 



Evergreen trees moreover are not absent. Small fir is one 

 of those things that is almost sure to be seen whenever in the 

 woods one looks about him. There is generally a lot of it on 



