July 7, 1897.] 



Garden and Forest. 



269 



one in the sun-baked valley, comes the dyeing, when the 

 "immortelle" takes on its conventional ruddy color. Many 

 of them are also dyed black for the purpose of picking out the 

 legend or dedication on cross or wreath. They are then 

 bunched and boxed for transportation to Paris or London, as 

 the case may be. The crosses and wreaths are largely made 

 up on the spot, the feminine fingers at Ollioules being pass- 

 ing deft at this unique and intricate industry. Every bud 

 has to be sewed into its place on the framework of plaited 

 straw, which is the backbone of the design and which 

 must not show when the article is ready for the market. 



"Immortelle" prices vary at Ollioules; last year, for 

 instance, they sold for £3 per hundredweight, and a good 

 year brings in ^8,000 to the small community. 



Recent Publications. 



The Spruce Forests of Maine. — II. 



Third Annual Report of the Forest Commissioner of the 

 State of Maine, iSg6. Augusta: Burleigh & Flint. 



This rapidly diminishing supply of standing timber 

 makes the question of the future growth of the trees which 

 remain and the reproduction of new ones one of vital 

 moment, and Mr. Cary gives much space and many valu- 

 able data to its discussion. He ascertains the rate of 

 growth that is to be expected of the trees which the lum- 

 berman has left, and argues the question whether and to 

 what extent more economical cutting pays. At present 

 the practice, varying in different parts according to the 

 facilities of bringing material to market, is to cut down to 

 eight-inch diameter,breast-high, although occasionally larger 

 trees are left uncut, being either overlooked or inconvenient 

 to get out. The amount of wood left to the acre of meas- 

 urable volume of Spruce Mr. Cary sets down as in general 

 varying from 300 to 500 cubic feet, according to the closer 

 or more liberal practice of the logger. On these left-over 

 trees Mr. Cary determines the annual growth in volume 

 a year at from two to three per cent, compound interest. 

 The method employed to arrive at such result, namely, by 

 the use of Pressler's accretion borer, is, to be sure, of ques- 

 tionable value for the purpose for which Mr. Cary uses it, 

 although excellent under very different conditions ; never- 

 theless, for a general statement, where accuracy is not of 

 importance, we may accept the results as sufficiently close. 

 If we take the largest figure of tree volume remaining, 

 namely 500 cubic feet, at two per cent., the annual growth 

 is ten cubic feet "which," Mr. Cary says, "at a fair equiva- 

 lent might be called forty board feet." Eventually such a 

 translation into board feet may become permissible, but it 

 is hardly so for the first ten to twenty years, considering 

 that we have to deal with only small-sized timber. Never- 

 theless, if we allow this figure to prevail over the entire 

 area in question, and assume that the uncut portions par- 

 ticipate in the same proportion of increase, the 2,800 square 

 miles involved would add annually a round seventy million 

 feet, board measure. 



Mr. Cary, himself, guesses — for there is after all but little 

 more than a guess possible from the meagre data — that the 

 Kennebec area produces fifty-three million feet new growth 

 annually. Applying the same ratio to the much harder cut, 

 and hence, in regard to annual growth, much less favorably 

 situated Androscoggin district, we arrive al the same total, 

 namely, seventy million feet of new growth on these two 

 areas. That is to say, after the sixteen years, for which the 

 virgin supplies are estimated to last, there would have ac- 

 cumulated in new growth at best not enough to supply 

 four years of the present annual cut. Mr. Cary abstains 

 from applying his figures or drawing conclusions in this 

 way ; on the contrary, he speaks with a sanguine air of 

 "the bounty of nature in setting at our hand greater sup- 

 plies, when all are considered, than we are yet able to 

 utilize," and thinks that "to talk of European economy for 

 the state of Maine is folly." 



Many other notes of interest are to be found in the vol- 



ume, which the interested reader will find hidden away in 

 the recesses of this woodman's tale, of which we can men- 

 tion only a few. Here is, for instance, a most valuable 

 observation to be heeded by the forest exploiter, namely, 

 that where Spruce forms the prominent feature of the vir- 

 gin growth, the culling process of the lumberman prepares 

 a large loss in the shape of windfalls; older trees left, hav- 

 ing lost the support of their neighbors, arc uprooted and 

 thrown. This loss Mr. Cary estimates as often more than 

 half the timber left. Thus he states the account of a sample 

 acre as follows : 



Left standing by the logger, - 850 cubic feet. 



Blown down in 17 years, - 500 



Remainder, - - - 350 



Growth on it during 17 years, 150 " 



Now standing, - - 500 " " 

 Balance lost, - - 350 " " 



The loss is really much greater, almost double ; for we 

 are entitled to the accretion on the entire amount left stand- 

 ing, hence adding to the 850 cubic feet, which the logger 

 left, at the assumed rate of increase [z s / 2 per cent.) for sev- 

 enteen years, that is, 340 cubic feet, and deducting the 

 amount now standing, namely, 500 feet, we find that 690 

 feet at least were lost during the time in original growth 

 and accretion. 



The account with another acre is calculated as follows : 

 Original stand, 52 trees of 12-inch and over, 1.360 cubic feet. 



214 

 266 



of 3-12 inch, - 



Utilized 36 per cent, in logs hauled, - - - 

 ( in stumps and tops, - 



Wasted 47 per cent. < destroyed in cutting, 

 ( blown down, - - - 



Left to grow, 17 percent., 



1,440 



2,800 

 1,020 

 34o 

 480 

 480 

 4S0 



2,800 



Mr. Cary advises, therefore, to cut down to the lowest 

 available diameter wherever Spruce stands thickly, in order 

 to reduce the inevitable loss by windfall, while in mixed 

 growths in which hardwoods predominate, and hence the 

 timber left is supported by neighbors, the cut may be more 

 conservative without danger of windfall. 



He then attempts, with admittedly insufficient data, to 

 discuss the financial difference of a severe and a conserva- 

 tive cut. The results can hardly be more than illustrative 

 of what natural reasoning leads to, namely, that the severer 

 the cut the less is left to grow and the longer the time, 

 when the logger may come again on his robbing expedition. 



In this part of the discussion Mr. Cary makes what, from 

 the forestry point of view, we must consider a vital omis- 

 sion when he leaves the question of reproduction entirely 

 undiscussed. This is like a stockman who sees in his swine, 

 young and old, nothing but animals to be fattened and 

 slaughtered as soon as they are fit to kill, but provides for 

 no new litters to replenish the herd and keep up the supply. 

 The young growth left is to grow on to log size and then 

 to be cut — that is to say, the robbing system is simply to 

 be continued as long as there is something to rob. It 

 would have been proper for Mr. Cary to point out that 

 under the present system, while the hardwoods remain 

 occupants of the ground, with the Spruce constantly dimin- 

 ishing in number, not only will the rate of growth on the 

 smaller sizes be constantly diminished by reason of the 

 shade of the overgrowing hardwoods, but it is only a ques- 

 tion of time, and not a very long time, when the Spruce will 

 be practically eradicated, at least in all mixed growths. He 

 fails to point out to the lumbermen, for whose benefit he 

 attempts to find the best method of management, that this 

 system of culling out the Spruce must inevitably result in 

 killing out all Spruce growth. 



With all its shortcomings and its faults from a literary 

 point of view, which seem due to the pardonably exuber- 

 ant enthusiasm of a man who has found a new ami prom- 

 ising field of work, the study of this report cannot but be 

 helpful to all who are interested in practical forestry prob- 



