184 Forestry Quarterly. 



acres of spruce land on the Kennebec River. This land they have 

 operated carefully, intending to make it a permanent source of raw- 

 material for their mills. They tried logging by contract at first, 

 but finding that the work was not done to suit them, bought teams 

 and developed an organization of their own. This organization is 

 fairly started now, and while methods of work are not yet perfected 

 as they will be, enough has been done to demonstrate the intention 

 of the company, and to furnish considerable insight into the best 

 methods of controlling such work. 



The principle of conservative cutting was adopted at the start, 

 and is exemplified by the high size limit adopted as a general rule 

 for cutting, namely 12 inches in diameter, breast high. Next the 

 company early determined to mark the timber for cutting. This 

 presents no obstacle in the way of cost — 2 or 3 cents per M will 

 cover that— but it does take determination on the part of the com- 

 pany, and it does mean thorough-going superintendence on the part 

 of its responsible representatives to make logging bosses and chop- 

 pers adhere to it. That it can be done, however, the experience of 

 this company proves, and, as is so often the case with reforms of 

 this kind, carried out in the face of strong opposition, former ob- 

 jectors, since they have got used to the new method, rather like it' 

 than otherwise. The company's lands, to be sure, were of such a char- 

 acter as to lend themselves to conservative cutting. It may, there- 

 fore, be safely said that, as far as the work has gone, a favorable 

 result has been reached. 



Economy in the utilization of the timber cut was, of course, the 

 first thing looked after in the work of such practical, business-like 

 men. Saws are used instead of the ax in cutting down and cutting 

 off; all dead and down stuff in the territory cut over that remains 

 sound is picked up as a matter of course; logs are run up into the 

 tops of trees as far as the wood can be used in the mill ; stumps are 

 cut low enough to put to shame the standard of some much lauded 

 examples of "forestry" elsewhere. A little trick used to secure econ- 

 omy in the latter direction is well worth noting. The trees to be 

 cut are marked not on the trunk but at the base, at a height just 

 above that at which the stump should be cut. The choppers then are 

 required to take the spot off with the log, a very simple and con- 

 clusive evidence of good work. 



It would be strange if in the course of only three or four years a 

 large organization doing work of this nature should have come to 

 the state of efficiency which could be desired, or which with time 



