Excerpt from Second Annual Report of the Forest Commissioner of the State of Maine, 1894

The first field work performed for the State in the interest of forestry was a determination of the age and size of spruce logs. This seemed worth while on its own account, and it is further prob able that whenever in the future it Shall be attempted to estimate closely the forest resources and growth of the State the results of this work will have a very important use.

In all. 1050 spruce logs were examined for this purpose, taken on drives and mill yards. The length and end diameters of each log were measured, and the rings of the butt counted to ascertain the age. About two-thirds of the logs were grown in the western part. Of the State on the drainage of the Androscoggin. The remainder were partly from the Kennebec, partly from the Aroos took branches of the Penobscot A small proportion of the logs measured were cut for pulp, which renders the selection all the more representative.

The tables which embody the results of the work need, it would seem, very little explanation. The trees were first divided into age classes, and the dimensions of the logs in each class averaged Then the same logs were divided according to butt diameters and the average age ascertained for trees of each size. The most usable result of the work is the grand average of these facts for the whole logs The averaged dimensions of the logs represent a tree containing about twenty-three cubic feet. Or say 120 board feet, and this was grown on the average in 192 years. Adding to the log two cubic feet for stump and seven more for the top, adding also to the age twenty more years for the height growth of the stump - then dividing contents by age gives the figure fifteen cubic feet. That is to say, a spruce tree on the average and throughout its life until cut, maintains a growth of one cubic foot in six and two-thirds years. In adult life the growth per tree would be considerably greater. In young seedlings it would for many years be less. The percentage of growth to stand cannot be immediately derived from these figures.

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