386 INFLUENCE OF MAN 



of development approaching the climax. Areas occupied by the earlier successional stages 

 so necessary to high grouse production were probably few, small, and scattered. 



One of the first products taken from the forest by the white men were heavy planks, sawed 

 from the choicest white pines. Later they cut oak and other hardwoods, both for their own 

 use and for export. Because of the superabundant supply, these early cuttings were light and 

 highly selective, taking only the largest and choicest trees of certain species. Probably, such 

 operations disturbed the forest very little. Few openings big enough to seriously affect the 

 forest composition were made. 



As population increased and transportation facilities improved, the forests were exploited 

 for a greater quantity and a wider variety of products. I\ot only choice saw-timber but lower 

 grades of logs and wood were extracted to meet the growing demand. In the Adirondacks, 

 where river driving was the chief means of transport, only softwoods were cut. In the south- 

 ern tier, tremendous quantities of pine were sawed up and the lumber rafted to market. 

 Untold millions of hemlock trees were stripped of their bark for tanning and left to rot in 

 the woods. 



In all but the oldest-inhabited parts of the State, the lumberman and his sawmill kept just 

 ahead of the farmer and his grist mill. Generally, these cuttings were heavy enough to break 

 up llie forest canopy. The removal of the bigger trees, with the attendant increase of sunlight 

 and air, the ripping up of the soil in skidding and roadbuilding, and the effects of occa- 

 sional fires set back the course of forest succession and brought in many light-demanding 

 trees and shrubs which produce grouse food. Thus edges were produced in abundance as 

 each year's cut followed the last. 



Later, with decreasing limits of merchantability, the tendency was to clear-cut extensive 

 areas. This was especially true in the Adirondacks, where large bodies of spruce and fir 

 were cut for pulpwood; in the southwestern Catskills, where hardwoods were clear-cut on a 

 short rotation for acid-wood; and in the western part of the southern tier, where timber- 

 lands were stripped for mine props. Elsewhere, the portable sawmill operators had taken 

 off even the smaller trees. 



Such lumbering operations tended to break up the pattern of the forest into a multitude 

 of small blocks of varying age. They stimulated the growth of advance reproduction, under- 

 growth and herbs. Especially where fire intervened, the climax forest composition was 

 replaced by woods representing earlier stages in the successional series. Abundant grouse 

 food-producing plants are usually to be found in these. Thus, the vast and uniform areas 

 of virgin forest were replaced by a patchwork of small lots of varying age. composition 

 and density. 



Such a forest paltcrn, with its varied and productive flora and its tremendous amount of 

 edges, is ideal for grouse. The now-familiar cover requirements — s|)ring breeding grounds, 

 summer and fall feeding grounds and winter shelter — were available everywhere. As fast as 

 new areas of suitable habitat developed, the grouse moved in and occupied it. Though per- 

 haps losing a little territory through fire or too-close cutting, they gained immeasurably in 

 numbers, as is attested by early records of abundance. 



With the disappearance of "inexhaustible" supplies of virgin tinilicr, luinhering is now 

 carried on in smaller units. Trees of less size are also in demand. The production of such 

 second-growth, though still largeh accidental, does rccpiire some care on the part of the land- 

 owner. There are taxes to be paid, fires to be kept out. As the value of land and timber 



