172 



Canadian Forestry journal, Afiril, 1919 



they have made no appreciable growth, a few show- 

 ing 6 inch leaders this year. The majority are 

 dlive and that is all. Some of these trees are 75 

 to 100 years old. While these trees were evidently 

 not capable of reseeding the area, yet the whole 

 region is covered with a luxuriant reproduction of 

 spruce and fir, being 40 per cent spruce and 60 

 per cent fir. The spruce is 8 to 10 feet high and 

 the fir 10 to 14 feet high. Some of the trees 

 measure 4 inches in diameter at the collar, and show 

 iously enough this reproductio is coming up only 

 8 rings to the inch in diameter breast high. Cur- 

 whcre roads were not made. These roads are still 

 plainly visible and fairly passable. From this cir- 

 cumstance Mr. Linn judged that the reproduction 

 must have been present at the time of cutting and 

 did not seed in from the sides or come from seed 

 trees. 



Destroy the Hardwoods. 



Clean cutting of both spruce and hardwood: A 

 clean cutting has been made in Dummer, New 

 Hampshire, for the past six years for both soft 

 and hardwoods. Reproduction in these instances 

 ocmes up to brush interspersed with fir that is out- 

 topping the brush. While the reproduction of soft- 

 wood is not as much as is desired, it is much thicker 

 than where the hardwoods are left standing. The 

 resulting forest will be a mixture of hardwoods, fir 

 and spruce, and ascendency slowly passing from 

 hardwoods to Ir and from fir to spruce. 



The present method of cutting on Brown Com- 

 pany lands is to follow a nine inch stump diameter 

 rule for spruce and pine and cut the fir and other 

 sofe woods clean, and be exceedingly careful to 

 protect and save all the young trees and sprout 

 growth possible while getting out the niature timber. 

 This leaves in a spruce type stand a sufficient number 

 of vigorous young trees to restock the land, able 

 alike to produce seed and elastic enough to bend 

 before the gales, and if blown over not of sufficient 

 content to make a large loss in the aggregate. Hard- 

 woods wherever possible are taken. Spruce stands 

 in heavy hardwoods are either cut clean or allowed 

 to remain to such a time as a means of getting the 

 hardwood to market can be found. All the above 

 with frequent modifications to suit local conditions 

 based on a preliminary survey, plotting of areas, lay- 

 ing out of jobs, marking trees to be left if necessary, 

 careful supervision of cutting and frequent inspec- 

 tion by a trained forester. 



From the above examples the Brown Company 

 has drawn the following conclusions which may be 

 of interest in Canada, as general principles of cutting 

 apply over the same general region and species, al- 

 though special modification is always necessary to 

 suit climate, soil and location. In fact every piece 

 of land from one hundred acres up, if handled in a 

 truly scientific way, should have its special study 



and its operation determined by a trained forester. 

 Recomendations for cutting systems to be sound must 

 clearly be based on a knowledge of what comes up 

 after cutting, and man's interference with the natural 

 order of things, and the years that these have been 

 obtainable in America are all too few. What the 

 land restocks to in Maine and New Hampshire 

 under certain conditions is here given as a matter 

 of record only, leaving the other interesting problems 

 as .to why it does so, such as light conditions, mois- 

 tures, temperature, altitude, soils, competuinn and 

 rotation of species, etc., as a study for another time 

 and place. 



Diameter Limits. 



First — The theory of diameter limit in cutting 

 should be based on the average age of the stand, in- 

 stead of on the average size of the trees. In Quebec 

 a study of the boundaries and years of the great 

 fires would give a reasonably close estimate of the 

 location of even-aged stands and form a basis of a 

 silvical cutting system applicable to each. 



Second — Mature growth softwood stands are 

 commonly best handled if cut clean, occasional seed 

 trees being left and sacrificed for the reproduction 

 which they may bring, and even these seed trees 

 are not always necessary to a splendid natural re- 

 production of young softwoods. 



Third — In even-aged mixed stands in deep soil 

 and well protected from the wind, thinnings can be 

 made to advantage by selective cutting, provided the 

 hardwood is always thinned also. 



Fourth — In even-aged softwood stands where the 

 soil is deep and there is protection from wind throw, 

 the strip or group system of cutting can be prac- 

 ticed successfully. 



Fifth — Fir balsam should be cut practically clean 

 in any silvical method practiced, as it often proves 

 to be unsound and matures and dies rapidly and 

 needs no assistance in reseeding, and if not thinned 

 will reseed in such abundance as to check the more 

 valuable young spruce. 



Sixth — Most land originally suitable for softwood, 

 carrying a mixed soft and hardwood growth, will 

 restock itself quickly and abundantly if the hard- 

 woods are cut down or thinned out. The taking of 

 hardwood is, of course, largely dependent on near- 

 ness to market and transportation, and it is not 

 always possible to remove it. When the region is 

 remote and softwoods reproduction is desired the 

 girdling of hardwoods should be seriously considered. 



Seventh — Any selection or group system of cut- 

 ting presupposes more or less loss from blow down 

 and this should be carefully balanced against the 

 opportunity to return and the cost of salvaging this 

 every year to market. Clean cutting is therefore 

 particularly desirable for distant and inaccessible 

 places. 



