Unprofessional Forestry. 185 



and effort will be attained. Habitually, in Kennebec logging two 

 horses and a sled four feet wide for yarding purposes are employed, 

 a type of rig which necessitates a wide road and a good deal of de- 

 struction of small trees. Much of the country and timber of the H. 

 & W. Co. appears to be adapted to the Adirondack methods of 

 yarding with a single horse, trailing or snaking one or two logs 

 directly on the ground. The company is aware of the saving of 

 growth by the latter method, and as soon as it can be done under 

 favorable conditions will give it a thorough trial. The final decision 

 between the two will depend on ratio of saving to expense. 



Another point in which the work of the company may be criti- 

 cised with a show of reason is that its method of cutting is too 

 rigidly uniform; it does not allow sufficient variation to meet the 

 needs of the case. The territory is in general well adapted to con- 

 servative cutting, but there are directions in which the present 

 system does not meet the full requirements of the case. A good deal 

 of fir below size limit standing on the ground will surely go to waste 

 if left for the next cutting. Then there are places where the land 

 had better be cut clean, and other places where scattering trees of 

 merchantable size had better be left to stand either on account 

 of expense or for the sake of young growth around them. The 

 present practice of the company is perhaps best for the present, all 

 things considered, but there can be no doubt that in the near future 

 it should be changed. Possibly such change will require that a bet- 

 ter class of men shall do the marking than those now employed, 

 though the points involved are neither many nor difficult. 



Lastly there is the matter of destroying small growth in felling 

 trees, in swamping roads and similar operations. Change in the 

 yarding method would do much to relieve that, but outside of this 

 measure, reform is a difficult matter involving training of the woods- 

 men and, if possible, more permanency in the woods force. How 

 much can be done in this direction is uncertain. 



The statements above cover the main points involved in the system 

 of conservative cutting, but there is one other achievement of the H. 

 & W. Company which is well worthy of note. Like every other man 

 and corporation doing business on the Maine rivers, though not all 

 like them have been aware of the fact, they have been sufferers from 

 the peculiarities of construction and from the tricks in manipula- 

 tion of the common board rule. With the business in their own hands 

 from the stump to the mill, they did not have to remain subservient 

 to the custom of the region in which they operated. They have in 



