AMERICAN FOREST CONGRESS 151 



sional mature tree for seed purposes cannot be too 

 strongly urged. This will continue Nature's method 

 of reproduction and not destroy all of the possibilities 

 of future growth. The small trees will take on new 

 life and reveal a marvellous increase of diameter if 

 their condition is benefited by the removal of defective 

 hardwood, and as an evidence of this future growth, 

 data have been tabulated which reveal the following 

 careful estimate. Virgin forests of spruce, if cut to 

 a twelve-inch basis ; that is, all of the twelve-inch trees 

 left standing, an equal product can be harvested from 

 this same territory in a period of twenty years. Should 

 the land be cut to a ten-inch basis, it will require forty 

 years to reproduce, and should the cutting be made to 

 an eight-inch basis, a century of growth will be re- 

 quired for a yield equal to the original cutting or 

 harvest. 



As an evidence of the resting qualities of spruce, 

 a small tree of fifteen feet in height growing under- 

 neath a cover of large trees, was cut down and exam- 

 ined as to its annual rings. It revealed a growth of 

 about one century, yet this tree, had the cover been 

 removed, would have taken on new life, grown as 

 rapidly as a vigorous young trees of a dozen years and 

 been a competitor for an equally good yield of timber. 



Our population is not great enough to enable us to 

 sweep and garnish our forests as practiced in some 

 countries where the natives are glad to get the waste 

 or fallen branches for fuel. On the Island of Madeira, 

 fuel is annually grown from seeding the mountainous 

 lands with pine seed. As soon as the trees have at- 

 tained fifteen feet in height, they are carefully removed, 

 roots and all, bundled and sold in the city of Funchal 

 as the principal product for fuel. This process has 

 been in existence for years and evidently is on a paying 



