40 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



portion of it still has an unbroken crown cover and is composed of over- 

 mature trees and abundant young material nearly ready for the axe. 

 While the saw-logs considered merchantable imder the present standards 

 have been chiefly removed, yet the severely culled hardwood forest 

 type contains large quantities of material utilizable in the minor wood- 

 working industries. In the mixed types and in the pure coniferous 

 types, the severely culled condition prevails, for the lurnberman takes 

 practically eve^hing, so that only scattered poles and saplings remain. 



Excluding the recent bums, the old bums, the barrens, and the 

 yotmg growth, mature forests in the Trent watershed occupy 397,700 

 acres, and of these 310,300 acres, or 78 percent, have been severely 

 culled. 



As a result of clean cutting or fires, frequent young stands of maple, 

 beech, and birch; of pine, hemlock and balsam; and of a mixture of 

 these are found. Such stands were divided according to age into ' young 

 growth' and 'second growth', the former being from 20 to 40 years, and 

 the latter from 40 to 60 years old. The stands of young growth ag- 

 gregate 12,070 acres, and the stands of second growth only 7,890 acres. 

 The yoimg growth and second growth of birch and poplar, mostly aris- 

 ing as the result of fires, were classified separately. 



The classification of the mature forest areas into three general types, 

 namely, 'pure hardwood,' 'pure conifer,' and 'mixed,' is based upon 

 the degree of intermixture of the two classes. For example, a hardwood 

 forest was considered pure, if the mixture of conifers among the domi- 

 nant trees did not exceed 10 per cent ; a coniferous forest was con- 

 sidered pure, if the intermixtiu-e of hardwoods was not greater than 10 

 per cent ; stands of greater than a 10 per cent mixture of conifers or 

 hardwoods were designated as a mixed type. 



The areas represented on the maps and in the tables as 'recently 

 burned,' i.e. burned within the past four years, do not give the real 

 extent of the recent fires because they refer only to the areas where 

 the trees were killed. Areas over which fires had mn, killing the young 

 growth but not the mature trees, were classed as forested. The barrens 

 and semi-barrens recently burned were not included. 



It should be noted that in those townships not lying wholly within 

 the Trent watershed, the percentages of the area and distribution of the 

 forest refer only to the portions surveyed and not to the townships as a 

 whole. 



In the appended tables certain townships are separately entmier- 

 ated, and the area of these lands is not included in determining the per- 

 centages of the various forest types. These lands are privately owned, 

 mostly by one company, and with one exception they are practically 

 unsettled, and, for the most part, almost entirely imtouched. They 



