FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 195 



except in well orrown stands, will in our irreat forest areas 

 have to go by the board. They cost too much in proportion 

 to present wood values. Neither can we cut throuah our 

 lands every four or live years as is there often done. We 

 siiall have to take more lumber at a cut to pay for the costs 

 of the operation. Neither shall we, at first at any rate, grow 

 spruce in even-aged stands. First trials in forest manage- 

 ment should have the virgin woods to start with, not be con- 

 fronted at the start with the re-stocking of valueless land. 

 Now in the normal virgin forest of spruce there are trees 

 of every size and age, down to those standing but a few feet 

 or a few inches above the ground. These trees have 

 cost many years of growth, and to clean off completely the 

 old stand and aim at a full regeneration would he to throw 

 away the time which those trees represent. Such a course 

 postpones to a hundred years the time at which another har- 

 vest may be expected. So far ahead as that, individuals and 

 business cori)orations cannot, in the changing liusiness condi- 

 tions of America, be fairly expected to look. 



On most sites then the first principle of forest .^^,!l"'P';i"'i?' 



i- *- pitr or 111 till" 



management as it must come here is that principle hfr".'*^"^ 

 so often referred to as being already in the minds of our 

 practical men — sparing the small trees. This policy is ren- 

 dered all the more desirable by the fact that has often been 

 pointed out in the course of this work, the vitality of spruce 

 under shade, its ability to thicken up and grow after longand 

 severe suppression. This i)olicy as often indicated in this 

 work will have to be api)lied with discrimination. The prob- 

 lem of wind throw will be a most troublesome one. The man 

 who has to decide whether timber can be safely left, or whether 

 if left it would merely be condemned to blow down, will have 

 set him oftentimes a very difficult problem 



One great ol)ject of conservative forest management, how- 

 ever, will be the preservation of the small trees. With this 

 in view many changes in our present lumbering methods will 

 doubtless in time be made. In some directions the detail of 

 the German practice may hel[) us. Thus the Germans avoid 



