CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 85 



ECONOMY IN LOGGING METHODS. 



In logging, all unnecessary waste should be avoided, and saws should be used 

 instead of axes. Trees should be cut no higher than the swelling of the root, 

 and hence logging after the deep snow has come, should be avoided. All trees 

 should be taken as far into the tops as they can be profitably handled. All dry, 

 standing trees, and dead and down timber if partially sound, should be removed, 

 and no lodged trees or merchantable culls should be left in the woods. All mer- 

 chantable trees in the main woods should be left standing by the swamping crews 

 as they will be more economically handled by the yarding men. Immediately 

 after a fire, camps should be put in to remove all burnt material of any value 

 before it becomes badly wind thrown, or is attacked by insects and fungi. In 

 these and in many other ways, a great deal of unnecessary waste may be avoided. 



PROVISION TO.INSURE FUTURE CROPS. 



Natural regeneration is so good in New Brunswick, and the spruce tree bears 

 seed so early in life, that special precautions to secure regeneration are seldom 

 necessary. When for any reason it seems best to make a clean sweep of all mer- 

 chantable trees over an area; seed trees should be left. Windfirm bunches, es- 

 pecially if protected by a few hard woods, will answer the purpose best. If they 

 are not windfirm a blow-down is inevitable, hence very careful selection is necessary. 

 Some of the well known European methods to secure regeneration in spruce woods 

 have been tested on this side, but the writer does not know of any experiments 

 on a large scale that have resulted satisfactorily under American conditions. Fail- 

 ure lies in the absence of trained labour, in the cost of the operation or in the dis- 

 astrous blow-downs that frequently result. The system in most common use here 

 is that of cutting down to a minimum diameter limit. The method is not only 

 cheap and practicable, but by varying the diameter limit, each forest type will 

 receive a treatment more or less suited to its requirements. Only after a careful 

 study of local conditions can the most suitable diameter limit be determined. The 

 Miramichi Lumber Co. uses a general diameter limit of fourteen inches, breast 

 high, or four and a half feet above the ground, but there are many exceptions to 

 this rule controlled by local conditions. It is difficult to get these conditions on 

 paper, but the following classification will give an idea of the principles upon which 

 the exceptions are based. 



A clean sweep of all merchantable trees is made 



(1) Where a blow-down after logging is feared, e.g., on high exposed ridges, 

 on steep slopes, and sometimes on heavy spruce flats on lower ground, having 

 only a thin top soil with rock or marl subsoil. 



(2) In the case of black spruce on wet or barren ground, where growth is 

 very slow and trees seldom reach a large size. 



(3) Where the fire risk is great. In these cases windfirm bunches of spruce 

 are left to secure regeneration. 



A diameter limit of eight, nine, or ten inches may be selected in such cases as 

 the following: 



(1) In inaccessible localities where the cost of logging is great and where 

 therefore logging operations should be undertaken as seldom as possible. 



(2) Where thinnings are indicated for sylvicultural purposes. One or two 

 points in regard to thinnings should be emphasized. There is a different principle 

 involved in thinning for pulpwood than in thinning for deal logs. In the latter 



