V 
LUMBERING 
LUMBERING, as at present practiced in the Adirondacks, 
affects the forest to its injury, because, in the first place, 
it decreases the number of valuable trees. The Spruce, 
which at best is only scattered here and there through 
the hardwoods, is removed, and no provision of any 
kind is made for its reproduction. The less valuable 
trees remain to perpetuate their kind, and the final 
effect on the forest is to leave it less valuable in com- 
position and promise than when the lumbering was 
begun. The trees which, for the most part, are 
spared by lumbermen at present are the hardwoods, 
the less valuable conifers—chiefly Hemlock and Bal- 
sam—and the defective Spruce that cannot be used 
for pulp. Underneath these trees the young Spruces 
may live for many years, but in the end they find 
it exceedingly hard, or in many cases impossible, to 
penetrate the dense cover of foliage above them and 
reach the light. Until they do they must remain 
stunted and of little value. It often happens, by the 
removal of the sound Spruce, that not enough mature 
trees remain in any locality to provide seed for the 
future forest, and in this way the reproduction of 
Spruce is hampered or made impossible. Cutting for 
pulp does far more harm than cutting for lumber, be- 
cause it takes a vastly greater number of trees. To re- 
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