174 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



has gone on for many years in the region and on which a considerable 

 number of residents depend. Trained foresters will understand the inade- 

 quacy of that idea. They know that in certain types of growth clean 

 cutting is one of the most approved methods of " modern forestry." The 

 encouragement and the improvement of the growth on these lands is a far 

 more complicated matter than that, if to be practiced at its best, involving 

 one thing here and another there and everywhere limited by financial 

 considerations and practical possibilities. Modern forestry, as practiced 

 to date by trained foresters, has taken into consideration as a guiding 

 principle of great weight the wishes and circumstances of owners; and it 

 is hardly likely that when another principle is introduced they will altogether 

 abandon their training. 



Forester Moon, appointed under this law July 21st, spent the first 

 month of his service in the Highlands studying the forests there, their types, 

 their ownerships and the lines of improved management indicated. He 

 reports some nice woods in existence but the greater part of the territory 

 covered with sprout hardwoods whose vitality has been largely damaged 

 by repeated cutting and especially by forest fires. It is thought that some 

 crops now standing will be more productive in the long run if left to grow 

 into tie and pole sizes, rather than cut into cord wood, and as far as it can 

 be conscientiously done owners will be urged to follow that course, as in 

 harmony with the general purpose of the law. Meanwhile, as planting is 

 the only practical means of regenerating such forest growth, that measure 

 will be urged on those so situated as to undertake the expense, softwoods 

 being in general preferred as more promising both of values and appearances 

 than hardwoods. 



The planting should be in part underplanting, but more largely in the 

 form of a mixture of softwoods set among the sprouts on newly cut or 

 burned areas. These measures will be carefully guarded on the side of 

 expense. Even a hundred or two hundred softwood trees to the acre it 

 is believed will be of great future benefit. 



At that point, plans must, for the present, rest waiting for the develop- 

 ments of time. At least at the present stage men cannot be put under 

 compulsion. It is clearly recognized that no external authority can come 

 into a section of this country and baild it over at once and summarily into 



