LOSSES THROUGH ORDINARY LUMBERING. 57 
is that in the majority of cases, where timber has been killed by flood- | 
ing, the water was held up during a part or the whole of the summer | 
months and the exact proportion of the damage done during the winter | 
can not be determined. The writer has been fortunate in finding a 
single case where the water in a small pond was raised about 2 feet in 
the autumn and lowered in May, and, as a result of the flooding, the 
trees whose roots were submerged were killed. 
Bum Pond, where the flooding occurred, is situated in township 36, 
Hamilton County, N. Y. It is about a quarter of a mile long and about 
100 yards wide, with comparatively low shores surrounded by Spruce, 
second-growth Pine, Tamarack, Balsam, and a few Yellow Birch. 
According to the statement of Mr. Ernest H. Johnson, of Little Tupper 
Lake, New York, who built the dam, all the trees, including the Tam- 
aracks, were alive before the water was raised. The next season the 
foliage of the trees which had stood in the water became red, and all 
died before winter. The following statement of Mr. Johnson will 
show exactly when he built the dam, when the water was lowered, and 
what injury was done to the timber according to his observation: 
LITTLE TUPPER LAKE, December 2, 1898. 
In November, the fall of 1893, I built a small dam for Dr. A. L. Loomis on the 
outlet of Bum Pond, in township 36, Hamilton County, N. Y., and raised the water 
about 2 feet. Early in May the dam broke through and the water drained down 
to its former level. The dam was not filled again that summer, but the trees that 
had stood in the water and had been frozen in the ice all died during the summer, 
which was the result (I should say) of being frozen in and girdled by the ice, as the 
bark, just at the high-water line, all peeled off. 
: ERNEST H. JOHNSON. 
There can be no doubt that the trees were girdled by the ice. On 
many of the small trees with thin bark the latter had been cut and had 
peeled off exactly at the high-water line. The trees with thick bark 
had been killed, but the bark had, in most cases, remained intact. It 
would appear that the girdling was done by the action of the ice, frozen 
about the trees, when the level of the water was changed. The strain 
upon the trees must be very great when the water is raised, and the 
weight of the ice must tend to force the bark from the tree when the 
water falls. The full physiological explanation of the phenomenon 
must, however, be left for further study. 
The effect of winter flooding at Bum Pond is shown in Pl. XVI, figs. 
1 and 2. 
LOSSES THROUGH ORDINARY LUMBERING. 
There is an increasing tendency among the lumbermen in the Adiron- 
dacks to avoid unnecessary waste in lumbering. Many companies are 
doing excellent work in this regard, but with the majority there still 
remains considerable room for improvement, especially where the lum- 
bering is done under the system of contracts and subcontracts. The 
