EDITORIAL COMMENT 337 



Howe, that foresters — and physicians do the same — differ as to best 

 methods for given cases and are opinionated about it. 



The writer belongs to the same guild of opinionated silviculturists 

 when it comes to a proposition of treating the hardwood-conifer type 

 ■of the Adirondacks, and does not need the exact proof that if in a 

 mixed herd of cows and pigs you slaughter only cows, pigs remain. It 

 ■only needs common sense to see that tlie competition of the hardwoods 

 must curtail the chances for the conifers. The writer has seen no 

 reason for changing the language he used in 1903 : 



"There is one fact on the silvicultural side which the experiment has demon- 

 strated to the satisfaction of the writer, namely, that in the hardwood forest of 

 the Adirondacks, where the pine and spruce have been severely culled, the only 

 practicable method, both from financial and silvicultural points of view of secur- 

 ing a desirable new crop, is a clear cutting system, followed by artificial regen- 

 •eration of the conifers, leaving only enough of the hardwoods to produce an ad- 

 mixture by natural regeneration, and saving only so much of the promising volun- 

 teer growth of young hardwoods and conifers as is not liable to be thrown by 

 the winds." 



This was said in challenge of the propositions detailed in "Practical 

 Forestry in the Adirondacks," which has proved such a bad prognos- 

 ticator, although it had its value as an educator. 



Timber's Horn of Plenty 



Under the above caption, a writer in the Hardzvood Record tries to 

 •discredit the idea of shortages in timber supplies, charging to bad guess- 

 ing the continuance of certain supplies that had been predicted as soon 

 to give out, black walnut and white pine in particular. He fails to 

 mention that to find the necessary amount of walnut for gunstocks a 

 ■close hunt in fence corners and ornamental grounds was necessary, and 

 that at the same time substitutes were assiduously sought for and used. 

 He fails to mention that the cut of white jjine has dwindled from over 

 '8 billion feet to less than 3 billion and the price for the best grades has 

 more than quadrupled in a short time — a sure sign of the exhaustion 

 of supplies ; and we could explain why the whole white-pine business 

 has not yet gone entirely out of existence, and that the guessers were 

 not so wrong after all ! 



The writer also says it was a surprise to find in France and England 

 timber supplies enough to keep the Canadian and American forestry 

 battalions busy. 



There was, of course, nothing surprising or unknown to the French 

 ■regarding their timber resources, and a country which imports annually 



