246 



THE FORESTER. 



leave all trees under twelve, and if necessary, 

 all under fourteen inches in diameter ; in other 

 words, to leave a larger amount of money in- 

 vested in the forest than the private owner. 



" The State of New York could further carry 

 on thinnings, for the improvement of the trees 

 left standing, rather than profit from the sale 

 of the timber. Thus the removal of many 

 one-log Spruce trees, six to ten inches in diam- 

 eter, which are usually eft standing by the 

 lumbermen, would benefit the forest to a con- 

 siderable extent by giving more growing space 

 and light to the trees which remain. In the 

 same way small trees, which could be used for 

 pulp, often stand in dense thickets, and a thin- 

 ning of one-fifth or more of the crop would en- 

 able the remainder to grow much more rapidly. 

 If a contractor were obliged to cut these trees 

 he would undoubtedly raise his contract price. 

 The State of New York could pay this price 

 for the benefit of the forest. But at present 

 most private individuals could not afford to 

 make such an investment. Under certain cir- 

 cumstances the State could probably girdle 

 some of the large, crooked hardwoods which 

 are crowding small Spruces and Pines, or if 

 necessary, cut them down ; but for a lumber- 

 man in the Adirondacks such work would not 

 be profitable at the present time. 



"The State would have a special advantage 

 over the private owner in being able to enforce 

 stricter regulations on the contractors in re- 

 gard to the careful construction of roads, 

 sparing the small growth in felling timber, in 

 building skidways, bridges, etc., and lopping 

 the branches from the tops as a protection 

 against fire. The lumberman can carry out 

 these regulations only so far as they do not to 

 any great extent affect the cost of logging. 

 Moreover, the State could employ a much 

 larger force of experts to superintend the 

 marking of timber and to watch the work of 

 the contractors, or, in other words, could take 

 better care of the forest than the private indi- 

 vidual." 



Referring to the private owner the author 

 says : " The only reason for lumbermen and 

 most private owners to adopt forestry is the 

 financial one. Private individuals and clubs to 

 whom the income from the forest is less im- 

 portant than its preservation are in the same 

 position as the State. But lumbermen have 

 invested their money in forest land or stumpage 

 as a business matter, and, unless the ultimate 

 returns are greater from forest management 

 than from the ordinary methods of lumbering, 

 they cannot be expected to consider it at all. 

 * - * Hitherto many lumbermen, who 

 have looked up the matter of forestry, have 

 not adopted it because they have been unable 

 to make a compromise with the foresters. 

 Either they have wished to strip the land, or 

 the foresters have insisted upon certain meas- 

 ures wnich the lumbermen could not afford. 



"Every plan of forest management in this 

 country must be in a measure a compromise 



between the owner of the forest and the forester. 

 The former must consent to leave a certain 

 amount of capital invested in the forest in the 

 form of growing wood, and obtain his returns 

 from merchantable timber after the necessary 

 period of growth has passed, or from the in- 

 creased value of the land. The forester, in turn , 

 must give up certain operations which would 

 benefit the forest." 



And again : ' ' The object of the forester is 

 to obtain for the owner a large revenue from 

 the timber, but at the same time to leave the 

 forest in a condition to produce a second crop 

 in a comparatively short time, and to reseed 

 the openings made in lumbering with young 

 growth of valuable species." 



The general plan for cutting Spruce, as recom- 

 mended in the working plan and as actually 

 carried out on the two preserves under consid- 

 eration, was to remove all trees ten inches and 

 over in diameter, with the exception of such 

 specimens as should be needed for seed. The 

 plan of work advocated was accepted by the 

 lumbermen, and during the first year, fifteen 

 lumber camps were operated and 9,783 acres 

 were lumbered for Spruce and Pine. 



The publication contains a detailed descrip- 

 tion of the forest on the two tracts under 

 consideration and a study of the habit, growth 

 and production of the Spruce. Mr. Graves 

 has drawn freely from the material contained 

 in the "Adirondack Spruce," by Gifford Pin- 

 chot, quoting a certain amount of descriptive 

 matter and a considerable number of tables. 

 The yield tables have, however, been recon- 

 structed, and have been simplified to make 

 them more easily handled in predicting the 

 amount of future crops. 



The most instructive chapter in the book is 

 probably that which discusses the loss incurred 

 by ordinary methods of lumbering. By meas- 

 urements taken in the woods, it is shown that 

 the loss occasioned by cutting unnecessarily 

 high stumps amounts to two per cent of the 

 total product. Similarly the author shows that 

 a considerable loss is occasioned by the un- 

 necessary use of Spruce for skidways and by 

 leaving large tops in the woods. 



Throughout the book the author's state- 

 ments are supported by numerous photographs, 

 which add interest to the publication. The 

 practical character of the book and the straight- 

 forward way in which it is written will make it 

 sought for by all interested in conservative 

 methods of handling timber lands in any part 

 of the country. 



