SILVICAL SYSTEMS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 901 



CUTTING TO A TEN-INCH DIAMETER LIMIT 



In the town of Grafton, Maine, at the head of the Cambridge River, 

 cuttings were made to a lo-inch Hmit. The growth was a spruce flat that 

 merged into the hardwood type. Here the soil is thin and rocky, and 

 the wind makes a good sweep when it blows. In cutting this area large 

 clumps of trees that were small were left intact and single trees in the 

 other parts were left standing alone. The result, then, is that the iso- 

 lated trees were practically all blown down, and the wind is slowly but 

 surely taking down the clumps by systematically tipping over the trees 

 on the edges. It is somewhat difficult to say much about reproduction, 

 for the areas have been entered in some places several years ago in 

 an effort to pick up the "blow-down" and rescue what remained stand- 

 ing. This season the remaining portion of the area is to be cut over 

 for rough wood. It is needless to say that it costs money to pick up 

 blown-down timber and to log in scattered timber. A lot of the "blow- 

 down" is beginning to decay, and so is spoiled for pulp or lumber. The 

 reproduction, where the area was cut quite clean, has a good percent- 

 age of spruce in it. but the greater percentage is fir. 



ABBOTT BROOK 



Hardwood Type 



.-\long the Dartmouth College Grant line, about one-fourth to one- 

 lialf mile from the State line, the following conditions were noted: The 

 academy grant was cut to a 14-inch limit about 25 years ago. Across 

 the line, at this particular spot, the college grant runs about 20 cords 

 to the acre. The growth is large red spruce, uj) to 16, 18. and 22 inches 

 d. b. h. The reproduction of spruce under these old trees seems ample 

 to restock the spots. On the academy side of the line, where the old 

 spruce growth was removed, but where the conditions were practically 

 the same, as evidenced by the numerous stumps, the ground is now 

 occupied by beecli and birch saplings i to 3 inches in diameter and 20 

 feet high, growing in a dense stand. A few young firs were mixed in. 

 Here the land did not come in to spruce, though spruce trees were 

 everywhere present. 



In many places in the hardwood tyjK' in the .\bl)oU Brook X^alley. 

 wliere the cutting was to a 14-inch limit, the underbrush of mountain 

 maple and striped maple is so dense tliat road swamping will be very 

 exj)cnsive when the loggers come back after the spruce in the scattering 

 stands. 



