158 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



replacement after cuttinir it v;ill take time to make. The 

 growth of an inch in diameter means six or eight years. AVith 

 clean cutting, the original crop will not be regained in less 

 than forty. 



Neither can we count on the yield of land treated in that 

 way being maintained. Continued cutting of spruce, leavino- 

 its competitors to stand, puts that species at a great disadvan- 

 tage. The hard woods in such places spread their crowns, 

 shade over the openings, and put a damper on the proo-ress of 

 the young growth beneath. Then the new growth in such 

 places is not characteristically spruce. Dwarf maples 

 are most frequently the first growth, mixed of course 

 with a variety of species, of which yellow birch and maple& 

 seem to be most common and lasting. Spruce may be 

 present, but in competition with the more rapid-irrowino- 

 hard woods it is badly left behind. The fact seems to be that 

 by cutting out the mature spruce we have destroyed the bal- 

 ance of seed supply on which for one thing the original pro- 

 portion of spruce was dependent. Continued cutting must 

 have a great effect in this direction and in time it will be felt. 

 It is perfectly evident in fact that persistent cutting of a 

 species puts that species at a vast disadvantage. 



The earlier effects of this kind of treatment Avere often 

 observed during the summer's travel and some points have 

 been spoken of in the narrative. Its final results would be 

 best seen in the older timber lands of the State, from extended 

 exploration of which I have been prevented. To counteract 

 this tendency of one-sided cutting I propose that an efl'ective 

 measure would be to girdle hard wood trees. This will have 

 to be done with judgment, because the time may not be far 

 off when much of our hard wood will itself be valuable for 

 lumber. There are always worthless trees, however, crooked 

 and forked specimens that never will be worth anything, and 

 these may without harm be destroyed. No harm can be done, 

 that is, if growth is not so o[)en as to be exposed to wind, 

 and the advantao-e which this measure would oive to the youns^ 

 growth on the irround, and particularly to the start anew of 



