SILVICAL SYSTEMS IN NEW HAM I'SIl [RF. 8951 



Where, then, just one or two trees had been removed there was no 

 result other than making more room for the surrounding hardwoods. 

 Occasionally young fir trees were present, but even where no older 

 trees were removed there was found young spruce and fir coming up 

 under the hardwood. That these trees will ultimately make sizable 

 timber is questionable. At least they will not do so in the length of time 

 that one would care to spare for a rotation. 



In many places where the spruce and fir had been removed the slight 

 openings were being filled in by hardwood reproduction or by brush 

 of the mountain maple or striped maple. This is very noticeable on 

 the hardwood ridges. They are surely being changed into a pure 

 hardwood stand. 



Throughout the hardwood type there is a very scattering reproduc- 

 tion of spruce and fir, consisting of stunted trees 3 to 6 feet high, 

 with flat, bushy tops. They are 20 to 40 years of age and will never 

 make timber unless the hardwood is cut. 



Spruce Slope Type 



Briefly described, this type occupies steep, rocky slopes with thin 

 soils. The soil is practically lacking, thick deposits of moss and dufi: hire 

 functioning as soil. Spruce and balsam make up the greater per cent 

 of the stand, with spruce up to 75 per cent of the total. This type was 

 found only on a few small knolls or outcrops of rock. Very little of 

 the country where this study was made is in the spruce slope type. In 

 these places the trees were still standing. The logging of 15 years 

 ago flid not include them, possibly because of their undersize or because 

 of the difficulty of logging as compared with other areas. However, 

 this type was studied for reproduction, and the following conditions 

 were noted : 



1. Enough reproduction covered the ground to restock the land in 

 most instances. In some places it might be advisable to leave seed trees, 

 expecting that they would blow down, but hoping that they would ac- 

 complish at least part of their function before being wind-thrown. 



2. The reproduction was heavier in \wy cent of fir than the old stand. 



3. Where cut into slightly, these knt)lls, or where the type might be 

 said to verge into the spruce flat type, the reproduction was thriving 

 and almost too dense to be good. 



On the north side of the Little Dead Diamond River, on lots u .and 

 14, cut 1899 to 1905. pure spruce is found on the gently sloping land. 

 but merges into a mixture of hardwood and spruce nearer the height 

 of land. Here a diameter limit of 1 2 to 14 inches was followed, hut 



