292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



again becomes fit for fuel. If it can be shown that the growth of 

 these trees can be so hastened by cutting out the inferior species 

 as to produce the same amount of fuel wood per acre in thirty- 

 five to forty years as now grows in fifty, and if this work can be 

 done for a sufficiently low price per acre to make the financial 

 result profitable, then the purpose of this experiment will have 

 been fulfilled. For a woodland owner can well afford to pay the 

 cost of removing these poorer trees, even when too small to be 

 of any value, provided the remaining trees grow much faster and 

 straighter, and show better quality. 



While it is our belief that this result will be accomplished, we 

 have no actual data at hand to prove it. As we always have held 

 that facts are more useful than theories, w^e hope by the time four 

 or five years have elapsed to be able to show conclusive results. 



The method of making the experiment was this : two quarter acre 

 plots were laid off side by side, so marked as to be clearly dis- 

 tinguishable. One of these plots was left untouched; the other 

 was marked by a forester and all the marked trees were cut and 

 drawn out. Data as to costs, number of trees thinned, number 

 left, etc., are not available at this writing, but soon wull be, and 

 examination of the plots from year to year will reveal the progress 

 of the growth. When sufiicient time has elapsed we hope to 

 have at hand "visible" data, so to speak, of a sort which, so far 

 as we know, does not now exist in this section of the country. 



Forest Working Plan. 



One working plan has been made this year for the forested 

 watershed of the city of New Bedford, in the towns of Freetown, 

 Lakeville, Middleborough and Rochester. As a printed report of 

 the working plan has been published by the city only a brief 

 summary will be given here. 



The complete plan consists of (1) an examination, with esti- 

 mates and recommendations; and (2) a forest map based upon 

 surveys, both area and timber; it was made as the result of a 

 preliminary examination made by us in September, 1911, and 

 covers an area of 1,510 acres. 



The growth was divided into types, each of which was esti- 

 mated separately. Then general recommendations, divided prin- 

 cipally into thinning, planting, establishment of a nursery and 



