Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-05-24
REPRODUCTION oE SPRUCE.

Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, /
have become converts to the plan of
cutting out only ripe and mature speci-
mems for present use, leaving the balance /
for reproduction and future growth.
We have in mind actual instances |
where cuttings were made 20 and 20
years ago in thrifty spruce forests, and
where only the largest and best trees
were selected for cutting. Within
year or two these same lands have re-
ceived second cutting, and the owners
declare that the spruce cut recently upon
the lands was finer, both in size ana
quality, than the original cuttings, and
is better today than the growth on con-
tiguous lands which have not been cut
over, and which may still be called vir-
gin forest. In other words, these owners
would pay as many dollars per acre for
the land which had been thinned out %
years previously as they would for the
land which had not been cut upon at all,
and which remained with all the over
ripe and unthrifty trees.
Practical forestry consists in market
ing the ripe specimens, thus enabling the
trees which are left to appropriate all the
minerals in the soil, all the moisture.
sunlight and air, to their own use, thus
/ stimulating their growth, and producing
smoother, cleaner, more thrifty speci-
mems than in the grand struggle of the
deep recesses of the primeval forest.
Practical forestry consists in the develop
ment of the same principle as the farmer
observes who mows his grass land year
after wear. instead Of pulling the grass
crop up the first year or by getting the
whole thing at one run of the moving
machine set to cut roots and all. The
same with the lawn mower. The oftener
it is run the better the growth of the
grass. \ more homely Illustration
might be the feeding of dozen pigs at
one trough. Given the same amount of
food and remove 80 per cent of the pigs
and the other half dozen would grow
enough faster to make the lesser number
the more profitable.
The old, primeval forest simply Illus
trates the survival of the tittest, supply
inc few over-grown specimens, while
the Younger trees are deprived of their
share of food and ar and water. and are
Impoverished in the fierce struggle and
competition with the larger trees. When
the big, over-gIown trees are removed
all the conditions are then favorable for
the rapid and satisfactory growth of
what are known in forest lore as the
"baby spruces.'
Size is not always an indication OF age.
neither are the oldest trees invariably the
largest specimens. This variation is by
reason of favorable or unfavOrable con-
ditions of growth We have counted the
age of two trees standing near each other
before cutting down, one of which was a
fine, full. grown specimen, with large
t thrifty top, showing upwards OF lot
wears growth and measuring about Is
' inches diameter three feet from the
ground. Its next neighbor marked
within five years of the same age, yet
was only II inches in diameter three fee
from the ground, its annual rings o.
' growth being very much narrower thai
+ those of the more thrifty tree. Now /
the big tree had been removed % year,
d before, the second tree would have grow
up fully as large as the first one.
In the thick forest of prmeval wilder
T. ness the whole outlook is cold, moss!
| and unthrifty. In fact, there Is yer.
= little growth in an old forest. since tn
decayed specimens will equal the ne'
/ growth. 1t is only when the older tree
!. are remoN ed, and natures laboratory
set at work. that the Ounger specimen
get start and outstrip the growth of tn
:, original forest. Experience proves tina
a thrifty forest of spruce, from which tn
u large and over-grown specimens ar
u culled, will in 20 to % years be wort
ST more than the original forest, not onl
in excess in quantity, but also IN sup'
riority in quality.
With regard to the spruce forest, OF
servation shows that the slow gown
trees are hard, finty, tough, producin
lumber liable to warp and twist, with
- very close texture better for ship tin
- Der or piling than for clapbOards, hou'
r. finish. framing timber OF wood pull
n, while, on the other hand, the younl
IN thrifty growth Is smoother and softe
or showing more rapid growth and large
~ rings of yearly additions to circumfe
ence, "a finer texture. softer to the kni
49, or saw, less liable to warp and mo-
nearly the texture of pine wood, wit
less of the hard and CLASSY surface.
other words, thifty-growing spruce
a much more valuable tree than an o
specimen which las been two centuri
dong the work which the thrifty tr
would do in half the time.