18 PRACTICAL FORESTRY IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 



knowledge of reproduction, may be followed by consequences 

 which it is unpleasant to contemplate." 



Such a responsibility should manifestly not be thrown upon the 

 shoulders of one individual. "The temptation to overcut public 

 forests" is increased in this province for a slightly different 

 reason than mentioned above, because of the political situation — 

 viz. , that each Surveyor General desires to show as large returns 

 as possible over his predecessor from sturapage dues. Many of 

 the papers picked up at the end of the fiscal year have articles of 

 this kind under flaming headlines. If this increased amount of 

 revenue is due to closer collection of stumpage dues, better scal- 

 ing, etc. , well and good, but if we are overcutting our forests, as 

 some of the lumbermen believe, - then it is beating the tom-tom 

 at our own funeral. 



But, says someone, "our annual growth in New Brunswick is 

 very rapid, so that we are not overcutting our forests." Who 

 knows that we are not ? There are no definite figures of growth 

 available so far (we mean the results of scientific growth studies), 

 all we have being a guess. The annual growth on Crown timber 

 lands is estimated by that department at 5% or on 1000 board feet 

 per acre say 50 board feet per acre per annum. But according to 

 Dr. Fernow, who is an eminent authority, the annual growth on 

 the well managed forests of Germany is only about 2%%, and if 

 this is the case there is need of some anxiety on this jjoint. At 

 least enough to justify the collection of some sort of definite 

 figures of growth instead of taking an isolated tree here and there 

 where conditions are very likely abnormal and taking this as a 

 standard for all other localities and types of timber in the pro- 

 vince. Just as reasonably pick out one man in the province and 

 say he is a typical New Brunswicker or Canadian. Even more 

 reasonably, for the tree is much more vitally influenced by its 

 direct environment than the individual. 



WASTE IN LOGGING 



The reduction of waste in cutting is another thing to be consid- 

 ered. The waste of timber is enormous. At the present time it is 

 estimated that in logging operations for every 4000 feet of timber 

 logged at lease 1000 feet or one fourth are lost. The loss in the 

 woods is greatly reduced under forestry regulations by cutting 



