8 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



shade-producing layer. These two layers excluded so much light 

 that the young pine trees could not develop. The seeds doubtless 

 germinated and the seedlings may have persisted for some years, 

 but not receiving sufficient overhead light, they were eventually 

 crowded out by the shade-enduring hardwoods. 



Over 100 Years These some-time white pine areas were subsequently 

 for Spruce cut over for spruce saw logs or pulpwood at least 



twice and some of them three times. Our growth 

 studies show that all the spruce trees since removed by lumbering 

 operations were present in the original forest beneath the pine 

 trees. They were at least 6 inches in diameter and about 100 years 

 old when the pine was cut. Many lumbermen think that the 

 second cutting on an area is from young trees which have grown 

 since the last cutting. The area which we are describing has been 

 cut two or three times in the last 30 years and the youngest spruce 

 cut was over 100 years old, most of the trees being more than 150 

 years old. This is the length of time that it takes to make a spruce 

 forest from seed to pulpwood size, when the spruce grows up in 

 company with hardwoods. 



The situation is somewhat different, however, in the 

 case ^ balsam. Some of these trees now being cut 

 for pulpwood were seedlings scattered on the floor 

 of the original forest at the time the pine was first cut, that is, 70 

 years ago. 



We counted and measured the stumps on all our sample plots. 

 The spruce stumps averaged 22 per acre. At the present time, 

 there are 6 spruce trees per acre entering the crown cover and over 

 70 years old. Therefore, at the time of the first cutting 70 years 

 ago, there were 28 spruce trees 8 inches or more in diameter on the 

 average acre. It is interesting to note in this connection, that 

 according to Mr. Ellwood Wilson, forester to the Lauren tide Com- 

 pany, there are 26 spruce trees 8 inches and upward in diameter in 

 the virgin forests farther northward in the St. Maurice valley. This 

 result is derived from cruising surveys, totalling over 1,000 acres 

 and representing about 3 per cent of the area through which the 

 strips were run. 



Thus, you see that the number of spruce trees has been reduced 

 from 28 per acre to 6, a reduction of nearly 80 per cent, by the 

 lumbering operations of the past 30 years, the period during which 

 spruce has been cut for saw logs. Our results show practically the 

 same number of balsam as spruce trees taken from the average acre, 

 namely 22, and the number of balsam larger than 8 inches in the 

 present forest is also practically the same 6 per acre. 



