1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



This lot contains 300 acres, the principal 

 species being Spruce, Fir, Birch and 

 Maple. Here Spruce and Fir are by far 

 the most valuable species, the stuinpage 

 being worth from $3.00 to $4.00 per M., 

 while the hardwoods will not average over 

 $1.00 per M. So of course it is best to 

 cut to reproduce Spruce and Fir, and 

 especially Spruce, as we do not want over 

 30 per cent, of Fir as compared with 

 Spruce, for the paper mills cannot well 

 use more than this. 



Such a tract handled in a systematic way 

 will be a material help and a constant 

 source of revenue to the minister and the 

 church. 



E. M. GRIFFITH, 

 Washington, D. C. 



Studying the Adirondack Forest. 



The collection of the data necessary to 

 a working plan for the tract of the St. 

 Regis Paper Company, situated in Frank- 

 lin County, New York, occupied a party 

 of student-assistants during July and 

 August of the past summer. These were 

 Messrs. J. V. Doniphan, E. C. Lewis, 

 Charles Jones, Kinsley Twining, C. F. 

 H. Westfeldt, W. P. Haines and Henry 

 Grinnell, who was in charge of the partv 

 during my absences. 



The 80,000 acres of cut-over lands in- 

 cluded in the tract of the company con- 

 tained much of both silvicultural and eco- 

 nomic interest, although the state of af- 

 fairs is not yet such as to permit of the 

 application of those alluring forms of in- 

 tensive forest management, which must 

 necessarily remain peculiarly German, 

 until local conditions are such as to render 

 their use financially advisable. The 

 spectacular effect of cutting series, plan- 

 tations, fire lines and a permanent road 

 system would doubtless lend marked im- 

 provement to the appearance of the tract 

 of the Company; they could, with the 

 same degree of certainty, lend proportion- 

 ate disfigurement to the annual balance 

 sheet ; and forestry must prove a source 

 of revenue to private owners or it will 

 meet the fate of any other unsuccessful 

 business enterprise. 



To this Company, the question whether 

 systematic forest management should be 

 adopted was in substance the same ques- 

 tion that the private owner naturally asks : 

 Given, a certain capital invested in forest 

 lands, and such conditions of market and 

 of transport as to produce a certain net 

 profit per cord of pulp wood and per thou- 

 sand feet B. M., of hardwood timber: 

 Will the sale of the " sanctioned yield" of 

 these forest lands, or the cords of pulp 

 wood and the feet B. M. of hardwood 

 timber, which can be utilized annually or 

 periodically for ever, yield a fair interest 

 on the capital which the forest lands them- 

 selves reuresent ? 



, 



Such a query does not incline one to fix 

 a site fora forest nursery. It points rather 

 to valuation surveys and stem analyses 

 the one to determine the amount of market- 

 able material upon the ground, the other 

 to calculate the rate at which it is pro- 

 duced. These were the problems to be 

 considered first, and it was towards their 

 solution that the work of the student-as- 

 sistants was directed. 



Valuation surveys were run upon the 

 strip method to the amount of one thou- 

 sand acres. These followed compass 

 courses, the character of the forest being 

 such that more accurate results were ob- 

 tainable by radiating the surveys from 

 several common centers, than by following 

 the course of streams, ridges and hillsides, 

 as is preferable where wide variation in 

 elevation and topography renders the types 

 of forest growth more distinct. 



The stein analyses, the total of which 

 somewhat exceeded 1000, and which were 

 the first complete analyses to be made of 

 the Adirondack hardwoods, included 

 Birch, Hard Maple, Soft Maple, Ash, 

 Cherry and Basswood a sufficient num- 

 ber of Birch, Hard Maple and Beech 

 from which to compile full tables for rate 

 of growth, and of the other kinds to fur- 

 nish a fair beginning for further investi- 

 gation. 



Among the more striking points illus- 

 trated by the stem analyses was the 

 remarkable longevity and late culmination 

 of the diameter growth, of the Hard 

 Maple. Several specimens analyzed 



