170 



Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1919 



and cover themselves quickly with a fine re- 

 production of both soft and hardwoods. 



I will disregard Mr. Gary's struggles for close 

 utilization and to reduce waste in cutting (by 

 insistance on small tops, low stumps, and the 

 cleaning up of lodged, dry trees and skids, pre- 

 venting the needless breaking down of young 

 trees in cutting large ones, and moves taken 

 towards a disposal of waste and other forms 

 of fire protection) as these problems have been 

 accepted and solved to a large degree every- 

 where now. 



Storms Interfered. 



His first experiment in selective cutting was 

 made in 1896 in Seven Ponds Township, Maine, 

 on the Kennebago waters which flow into the 

 Rangeley Lakes. A 15 inch diameter selective 

 system was chosen for a solid spruce slope type 

 of even-aged old growth timber standing on a 

 thin rocky soil. Two winters' careful cuttings 

 by a single camp were made, and along came a 

 winter's storm and blew down the remaining 

 trees so completely and in such a tangled mass 

 that another season's cut was necessary to clean 

 up the drying timber, at a relatively large ex- 

 pense. This land restocked rapidly to young 

 spruce and fir and will cut from 3 to 4 cords 

 to the acre to-day. 



His second experiment was in the Academy 

 Grant, New Hampshire, on the waters of the 

 Dead Diamond, a tributary of the Androscoggin 

 river, in a splendid stand of old growth red 

 spruce mixed with hardwoods, which carried 

 from 25 to 30 cords to the acre and lay in a 

 spruce slope and flat type. 



14-Inch Diameter Best. 



After a study of tree growth to determine at 

 what age and size a growing tree made the 

 largest returns, he decided to cut to a 14-inch 

 stump diameter, and for this purpose had the 

 axe-handles marked in order that the choppers 

 should cut down no trees under this diameter, 

 measured at the swell of the highest root from 

 the ground. All told many square miles were 

 cut for saw logs in this region, and the young 

 growth is now about 20 years old. 



During the past year the Brown Gompany 

 sent their forester, Mr. Edward R. Linn, over 

 this territory to make a survey and report the 

 present conditions. His report finds that the 

 fact of cutting to a diameter limit of 14 inches 

 in those places where hardwood stand was equal 

 to the spruce, has been to gradually turn the 

 forest towards an ultimate hardwood stand. 

 The cause for this was that the trees below 



14 inches on the stump had already reached 

 maturity, being from 100 to 200 years of age, 

 and the increment borer failed to show any ap- 

 preciable increased growth during the past 20 

 years. The openings in the cover made by 

 cutting out the large trees were taken up by tne 

 crowns of the surrounding hardwoods and did 

 not induce softwood reproduction underneath. 

 These small openings came up with the young 

 hardwoods, and in instances where larg2 open- 

 ings occurred, such as landings, yards, roads, 

 etc., these commonly filled with young fir which 

 crowded out the spruce. Where just one tree 

 was removed from hard wood the change 

 wrought consisted only in the passing of the 

 spruce. Where six to ten trees on a quarter- 

 acre were removed enough light was furnished 

 to enable fir to start, and small clumps of second 

 growth were found. Under this hardwood 

 type, there was a very scattering reproduction 

 of young spruce, and fir, three to six feet high, 

 stunted trees with bushy tops, which will never 

 make growth or lumber of value unless the hard- 

 wood is cut. 



Where the cutting to a 14-inch stump diam- 

 eter in this region was done in a spruce slope 

 type, conifers making 75 per cent of the stand, 

 the soil good and the trees sheltered in a valley, 

 most of the trees left were standing, and the 

 interstices between them were coming up to 

 an abundant growth of spruce and fir, the fir 

 prodominating, being almost too crowded to be 

 good. 



In another place where the land was rocky 

 and soil thin, and where the situation was ex- 

 posed on hill tops or knolls to the sweep of the 

 wind, a very considerable portion of the spruce 

 left standing had been blown over, but the re- 

 production in the interstices of young spruce 

 and fir was equally good. The trees left stand- 

 ing, however, exhibited little or no increment 

 of growth, because the whole region originally 

 was an even-aged stand, and too old to take 

 on a new growth. Logging this territory again 

 will be increasingly expensive, as there will be 

 less timber per acre and much damage will 

 necessarily have to be done to the young growth 

 to salvage the trees which were originally left. 



Cut Clean in Even-aged Stand. 



Altogether much loss will always be experienced 

 in leaving trees under 14 inches in diameter in an 

 even-aged old growth stand, and such land when 

 entered should be cut clean, leaving here and there 

 a seed tree to restock the land, and taking if possible 

 the hardwoods at the same time if in any manner 

 merchantable, but if the region is and will remain 



