78 



ADIRONDACK SLACK SPRUCE. 



TABLE XX. 



ACBE No. 4. 

 Lot 206, Township 11, 0. M. Tract, Essex County, N. Y. 



NOTES. This a ere is on land sloping toward the east On this strip thare is a cluster of 

 spruces ihat have all the appearances of being a "first -growth," although the trees are not 

 large. It is evident that at the time of the first cutting these trees were considered too small 

 for saw logs. 



In several instances the owners of spruce timber lands in 

 northern New York have shown an encouraging and commend- 

 able tendency to manage their property with reference to sus- 

 tained productivity. Instead of taking all the merchantable tim- 

 ber available for immediate profit, they have restricted their 

 cutting materially with the intention of securing further growth 

 and further revenues in future. The cutting of small spruces for 

 pulpwood has been prohibited on many large tracts, although the 

 revenue -derivable from this source is large and available at any 

 time. Furthermore, the cutting for lumber or saw-logs is 

 restricted to trees 12 inches in diameter on the stump. 



Although this is a step in the right direction, and something of 

 an improvement on previous methods, there is little in it worthy 

 of the name of forestry. As an approach to scientific or even 

 intelligent forestry methods it is a very slight advance indeed. 



It is true that spruce lands in our State have been cut over a 

 second and even a third time, at intervals of 25 years or there- 

 about, and that such cuttings have proved remunerative. But 

 this was not rendered possible altogether by any increase in the 



