LUMBERING 33 
valuable kinds. In road-building the destruction of 
useful young growth is particularly noticeable. Young 
Spruce is often cut where other species are at hand and 
would answer the purpose just as well. 
In general, the amount of damage done under the 
present system of lumbering is in direct proportion to 
the number of trees cut per acre. Almost the whole 
of this damage is unnecessary, and could be easily pre- 
vented at very small expense. 
The influence on water-supply of cutting for logs and 
pulp-wood—not for charcoal—as at present practiced 
in the Adirondacks is small, except as lumbering in- 
creases the spread of fires. So few trees are taken per 
acre in the Pine and Spruce forests that, as a rule, the 
forest cover is but little interrupted, and is capable of 
re-establishing itself within a few years. When, how- 
ever, the forest is completely removed, as in places where 
Spruce occurs nearly pure or where the timber is cut 
for charcoal, the consequent drying up of the forest 
floor and washing of the soil has a decided and harm- 
ful influence on the flow of streams. The same result 
is brought about by the forest fires which have ravaged 
portions of the Adirondacks, and for the majority of 
which lumbering hitherto has been directly or indi- 
rectly responsible. 
