' FORESTRY FROM A COMMERCIAL STANDPOINT. 91 



most farmers employed their teams and labor during the winter 

 months in getting out lumber for home consumption, but sold 

 enough to make the effort and time profitable. The old-fashioned 

 method was also not to cut clean, but to take only the larger and 

 mature trees. This practice did not destroy the forest but replace- 

 ment followed rapidly. Our present method is to sell the stumpage 

 and as the purchaser finds he is able to market every vestige of the 

 product, the forest area is stripped of vegetation. In earlier days 

 this extreme of clearing was done only when the land was to be 

 used for agricultural purposes. Where the larger growth only was 

 taken out in the past, in twenty years or so the same land could be 

 cut over again at a profit; under present practice it will require a 

 period nearly or quite twice as long for similar results. Again, even 

 the cutting clear practice was not so productive of ill results until 

 it came into such common usage. When only here and there a 

 track was cut, the surrounding growth reseeded it, today the reseed- 

 ing factor is also cut leaving great areas where nature is unable to 

 assist as formerly. The white pine for example will reestablish 

 itself wherever the conditions are favorable. When, as in earlier 

 times, the ill-shaped and limbed specimens contained no commer- 

 cial value, they were allowed to remain standing. These trees 

 make our best seed trees, hence were responsible for reforesting 

 the land with this species. Today even these seed trees have 

 value, no matter how pronged or crooked; they will make box 

 boards, pails, tubs, matches, etc., and bring prices from $14.00 to 

 $16.00 a thousand when delivered. The results of this practice 

 are as we find them altogether too common. Portable mills are 

 operating at the present on wood-lots that in earlier times could 

 not be used commercially. Where the diameters of trees were 

 thought of in terms of feet, we have simply changed the feet to 

 inches for present practical usage. The commercial pine tree of 

 today hardly reaches the seed producing age before it is harvested. 

 W^hat is true of white pine is equally true of many other of our 

 forest trees. Our pulp companies chew up practically ever\i;hing 

 of the spruce, and even balsam fir which a few years ago was con- 

 sidered practically worthless, at present is of equal value with 

 spruce in limited amounts. Hemlock was little thought of for 

 joists and general framing material in buildings not long since. 



