SECRETARY'S REPORT. 1G1 



contract for his supplies on the same condition ; in which case 

 he has to pay from twenty-five to thirty-three per cent, more 

 for his goods than he would dealing on cash or common credit. 

 Sometimes, when there is no freshet, the logs do not get doAvn 

 until the second year; and then the trader and lumberer both 

 suffer for want of their pay. 



" The third mode is the simplest and easiest for the owner. 

 He avoids all trouble of furnishing supplies, of watching the 

 timber on the river, and of looking out for a market. But he 

 must have a man of some capital to deal with, as he furnishes 

 his own teams and supplies, # and pays his men, receiving very 

 heavy advances. The purchaser of it has no interest to cut 

 the timber savingly, and he sometimes makes dreadful havoc 

 among the trees, leaving a great deal of valuable stuff on the 

 ground to rot. And if he selects only the best trees in a 

 berth, much of the timber left standing may be lost, because no 

 one will afterwards want to go into that berth from which all 

 the best trees have been culled. It is common now, in all 

 large concerns, for the owner to employ a man to pass the 

 winter in the camps, living alternately at one or another, for 

 the purpose of scaling the logs, keeping a correct account 

 of them, and seeing that the timber is cut according to the con- 

 tract. • But, after all, there is always found to be a considerable 

 difference between timber cut by the thousand and that which 

 is cut on stumpage. 



" Each mode has its troubles ; but I think that owners at a 

 distance will manage their concerns with least vexation by 

 selling the stumpage, provided that they have honest men 

 to deal with." 



The public attention is of late, we hope, more alive than it 

 has been to the value of our forests, to the necessity of 

 economizing what yet remains of these rich national treasures, 

 and of replacing what has been so carelessly wasted. This 

 necessity is every day making itself more manifest. Fuel has 

 already become scarce in our sea ports, or rather on our whole 

 sea coast — a fact worthy the serious consideration of those 

 who reflect that the sufferings of the poor from the want of 

 this article are probably greater than from all other causes 

 united. 



21 



