ACCELERATED GROWTH OF BALSAM FIR IN THE 

 ADIRONDACKS 



By E. F. McCarthy 



Professor of Forest Utilization, N. Y. State College of Forestry 



This study of growth was made following a pulp logging operation 

 in northwestern Hamilton County, near Brandreth Lake, N. Y. The 

 unusual growth of the stand was not discovered until the age classes 

 were computed separately. Diameter growth curves show that each 

 of the age classes was released from suppression about 50 years ago, 

 or possibly half a decade sooner than that. 



While the cause and knowledge of the exact time of the release would 

 open the way to new determinations, facts are evident which show new 

 possibilities of balsam pulp-wood production. The suggestion is made 

 that the cause of release was the cutting of a stand of pine which had 

 been sufficiently dense to hold the balsam in suppression. 



Measurements were taken on trees cut along the west side of the 

 inlet to Rose pond. The type was characteristically swamp, located 

 on flat bench-lands back from the small stream that drains the valley. 

 The valley itself has a slight slope, but the forest floor is of the spongy, 

 sphagnum type characteristic of true swamps, and the stand of timber 

 of pure balsam-spruce. While there is a distinct drainage to the small 

 valley, the areas from which measurements were taken were swampy, 

 flat benches. The site might have supported a stand of white pine at 

 some time past. The valley opens to the southwest and is flanked on 

 both sides by ridges with a mixed spruce-hardwood cover. The upland 

 was cut for spruce to a diameter limit 20 years ago, but the lowland 

 was not logged, nor was the hemlock on the upland cut. 



Field work was carried on in September, following the cutting and 

 peeling of the balsam, but before the trees had been cut up into log 

 lengths. The trees lay where they had fallen, with the tops lopped and 

 cut off at the 4-inch diameter. Decade measurements were made on 

 the stump, counted in and measured out from the center. Record was 

 also made of the total height, merchantable height, crown length, stump 

 height, diameter at breast height inside bark, and a ring count and 

 measurement at the point of cutting in the top. All trees that were cut 

 were taken, except those that were cut with an ax, which were few and 

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