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REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF 



from the ravages of insects ; for these pests, if they appear, are more apt to confine 

 their work to some one species. The insectivorous birds are more numerous in woods 

 composed partly of deciduous trees than where the trees are all evergreens. A forest 

 of coniferous, resinous trees is much more liable to fire than one in which there is a 

 large proportion of hardwoods. A mixed forest will produce more wood than a pure 

 forest; and, will better meet the varied demands of the market. 



Tenth : To place the tract under the charge of a professional forester, who should 

 designate the trees to be cut, and allow none to be removed except the ones he marked 

 for such purpose; and who should be employed to make the "working plans" so 

 necessary in determining the future management of the tract, and the future 

 character of the product. 



The question arises here as to how far it would be profitable to limit the cutting in 

 our American forests to mature trees, and to an amount not exceeding the annual 

 growth. This involves the matter of interest, taxes, and yearly cost of maintenance. 

 The experiment has never been fairly made in our forests, and so there can be no 

 satisfactory answer. In the best managed European forests a net revenue of four per 

 cent, is possible only through a sale of the waste product, which is generally equal to 

 fifty per cent, of the entire gross receipts. On the other hand, those forests are worth 

 on the average over one hundred dollars per acre, and yield four per cent, interest on 

 that valuation. 



It can hardly be expected that the American forester who is handicapped fifty per 

 cent, by his inability to sell his waste, can compete with European management or 

 achieve the same results. To obtain an income from his forest he may have to content 

 himself with a smaller diameter and more frequent croppings. As to what this 

 diameter should be it is impossible to say. It must be regulated by the pecuniary 

 needs of the forest owner himself. If in urgent and immediate want of money — all 

 that he can realize — he must and will cut his entire forest as fast as he can turn it into 

 cash. If he is a capitalist and in easy circumstances, he may content himself with 

 cutting his spruce and other merchantable species on the basis of a twelve or fourteen- 

 inch diameter on the stump ; and, although it has never been practically demonstrated, 

 there is reason to believe that he could, under some such system of management, 

 obtain a satisfactory, permanent rate of interest on his investment. If the European 

 forests, capitalized at $100 per acre, can pay four per cent., our Adirondack forests 

 ought to pay as much on a basis of $10 per acre, even if there is no sale in this 

 country for fuel and by-products. 



In 1893 the Legislature of New York enacted a law authorizing the Forest Com- 

 mission to sell spruce stumpage on the State preserves, and fixed the minimum 

 diameter for such cutting at twelve inches on the stump. Bids were received by the 



