30 



FOREST COMMISSIOXKR S KEPOUT. 



Circumstances & Locality 

 SAME AS Last. 



Average 



.56.9 



Kennebec representatives saved on the averaoje 70 per cent of the total 



wood contents of their trees. Here the average is rather less than 60 



per cent. The last lot of figures is especially 



noteworthy. Tliese were for large trees in 



vii'giu timber, trees that should cut with 



small waste, yet there was taken out of the 



woods oulj' .57 per cent of the lumber cut 



down. Large logs were frequently cut less 



than 30 feet long, no top logs being taken. 



Trees as large as 11 inches in diameter breast 



high, cut in the roads, were left on the ground 



to rot. And this was by no means on very 



distant or difficult land. 



When r started in to make these tabula- 

 tions it was with a view to demonstrating 

 the waste caused by the use of a top-end 

 scale rule. There is too much of it here, 

 however, to be accounted for in that way. 

 Such cutting as this is an heirloom from 

 ancient times. Men were brought up to cut 

 that way, they never have been elsewhei'e to 

 get anj^ new ideas, they keep on consequently in the same old fashion. 

 Such logs of course sell well. They are clear and tine. Many mill men 

 think they cant use top lumber, and their hand-down ideas aid those of 

 the lumberman in maintaining the fashion. 



It may have been the case, too, that these lumbermen were so situated 

 that they had to cut in this wasteful way. Sometimes stumpage is held so 

 high that a man can take only the cream of the timber, such as will 

 scale best and bring the very topmost piece. I am reminded in this con- 

 nection of a conversation between an acquaintance of mine who is a 

 thorough and progressive woodsman, and a prominent land-owner of the 

 Kennebec. The owner was speaking of the great returns derived from a 

 certain town. For some of the lumber he said he had collected §4 a 

 thousand stumpage. 



The woodsman had recently explored the tract in question and answered 

 at once that in his judgment the owner didn't get .$1.50. That was a 

 startling statement, but it may readily have been perfectlj^ true."' When 

 men pay $4 stumpage, they take only .$4 lumber. They take the lai'gest 

 trees only, and only the clear parts of them. They slash through the 

 country with their roads and suffer nothing to stand that is'.iu their way. 

 And in the situation they are put, they can't do otherwise. Cut in that 

 way it is very easy to understand that not half the timber killed by the 

 lumbermen may be taken from the land. This says nothing of the wind- 

 fall which so often enters on their departure. 



