Canadian Forcstnj Journal, October, 1917 1351 



skidways when infer'or logs are ready to hand, who refuses to utilize as much 

 of the top as he might properly do, is not concerned in anything more than a 

 hand-to-mouth policy. What the permanent interest of New Brunswick 

 may be, can appeal to him only by reasonable regulations rigidly enforced 

 by Provincial officers. The Province has an interest in its forests extending 

 generations ahead i :nd having regard not to one class alone, but the whole 

 people. 



A SENSIBLE CODE OF FOREST MANAGEMENT 



What would be the aim of a Provincial Forest Branch of technical for- 

 esters, having authority to carry out public regulations, as they exist or may 

 be amended? 



To secure a high production of valuable material and pay to the private 

 owner and the state the largest possible returns in the long run. As stated 

 by Henry S. Graves, Chief of the United States Forest Service, the objects 

 of scientific forestry are: — 



"To secure quick reproduction after the removal of timber. 



"To produce valuable species instead of those having little or no market 

 value. 



"To secure a full stock in contrast to those of small yield. 



"To produce trees of good form and quality. 



"To accomplish the most rapid growth compatible with a full stand and 

 good quality." 



— a code of business-like objects, the gradual adoption of which in New 

 Brunswick wall arrest the impoverishing tendencies of present-day woods 

 methods, and develop rather than undermine the mainstay of prosperity. 



WHAT MAKES A LIMIT VALUABLE? 



Unlike some jobbers, who have no permanent investment in a forest 

 tract, and have no industries dependent upon a source of accessible supplies, 

 the licensee himself will, in most cases, heartily support whatever means will 

 keep his limits in continuously productive condition. His interests are in- 

 dustrial. The speculative era in timber has passed. His mills must be fed 

 with logs or go bankrupt. To him the value of the limits lies not altogether 

 in their present cubic contents of timber, but also in their ability to repeat 

 their crops. In that last phrase lies the Cnw of the argument for a more 

 determined and intelligent public supervision of cutting operations. Tim- 

 ber crops are not repeated, except at a heavy discount and very slowly, as 

 cutting methods now are allowed to exist. The operator, therefore, is in a 

 position where only the rising market value of Spruce enables him to count 

 his limit at a higher price, for the quantity of timber on cut-over tracts at 

 each successive culling grows actually less, and the interval of delay grows 

 longer; growth in the forest is slower than many believe. 



Because one lumber firm has been able to take off successively from one 

 district, profitable quantities of timber and pulpw^ood during a period of, say, 

 sixty years, does not necessarily signify that it is reaping only the increment 

 of forest growth. Usually the history of a New Brunswick limit is in some 

 such sequence as this: — 



The limit was worked for the choicest pine. 



Then came a second and third culhng of pine, a more complete and 

 drastic operation, leaving relatively little of that species. 



Next, the operator took out the largest spruce of saw timber size. At 

 each return he cut w^hat previously would have been passed over. With 

 the biggest stuff already marketed he proceeded to shave the diameter limit 

 closer. Finally the market for pulp wood made it worth while to take out 

 spruce and balsam down to the smallest legal diameter. Obviously the tim- 

 ber hmit w^as producing for the market more than its natural increment. It 

 was giving not alone the increment, but much of the capital stock as well; 

 in the case of pine, the larger part of the capital has gone. As time passed. 



