The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1871-05-24
LAUNDERING and its Results i'm Maine.

LAUNDERING and its Results i'm Maine.
For the purpose of speech making it may
do to declare that Maine has unlimited re-
sources as a lumber producing region. in-
deed, the immense quantities OF logs that III
orally bridge sections, miles in length, OF our /
l,roer rivers and cover smaller stream from |
tro,a source to month, would impress the OBJ |
server that the supply was inexhaustible. |
Yet those most familiar with the condition of
the timber lands of Maine and conversant
with the reckless waste that has always char.
acterized numbering operations in Maine, will
not hesitate to state that the next generation
will speak of The lumber business in the mast
tense. In the lumberman's vocabulary there
has been no such word as economy. In his
daily struggle with the forces of nature, he
has entirely ignored the want of his children's
children. To-day Maine has little reason to
be called the spine Tree State;" for about jail
We can know of this giant of the forests is
from tradition or in. the huge stump and
wasted remains that one meets in our back
woods Through carelessness that is often
criminal, the fire in the old operations is fully
accomplishing the ruin of that which the
lumberman has left. Every year thousands
of acres of timber land are hopelessy ruined
by burning not only the dry and green
growth, but the very soil, leaving nothing but
y bed of boulders and clay, so poor that moth
ing but a worthless growth of white birch
and poplar can succeed.
These are not statements made wholly for
vi oil m tta 90 H.
who have no means of reliable information,
but the uniform testimony of leading lum-
Der operators, frequently unwil'ingly given.
No intelligent man who has been acq uain-
ed with the lumber operations of Maine will
pretend to say that the paople of the State
have received any adequate return for this
wealth of timber-particularly those dwelling
in the vicinity. Rarely, fortunes have been
made, and here and there operators have Sc
cured competency, but the great mass of
men who have operated In the lumber forests
have toiled hard all their days to die in pov-
erty. Indeed, there is no hazard in stating
that in no industry, has hard untiring labor
and small capital met with so little reward
1t is not denied that fortunes have been
to the development of the State by building
railroads and manufactures; but it is never
theless claimed that Maine has not, and does
not, receive anything like an adequate return
for the despoiling of her timber lands.
1t is often urged that numbering operations
have constantly afforded market at the
doors for farmers in the interior counties and
II.
ments at seasons when they would otherwise
be without employment. To a certain ex-
tent this is true, but since railroads have been
extended to Bangor, Pennington, Skowbe.
gan and like localities, aud particularly now
that the European & North American rail-
wa the Bangor & Piscataqus and the St.
Andrews & Houton railroads have brought
the numbering regions nearer the business
world, this is not the case. Even In ARGOS
took the most reliable means of securing
money, the past ten years, has been from
such products as find market by other than
The demand from numbering. Farmers from
that section inform US that stock, WOOL the
products of the dairy, and the past year, pota-
toes have been the surest means of obtaining
money. Long credits, extortionate prices for
goods, and ruinous rates Of interest are the
well known concomtants of numbering oper-
ations in the remote counties Granted that
years ago numbering gave a ready market and
employment at hand, it is we'll known that
the crops demanded, extended but little be-
yond hay and grain-such as must lead to the
lmpovcrlshment of the soil. 1t has become
an ada9e that lumbermen make poor farmers,
that employment taking them from their
business so late in the season and so much of
the time, that their farms have become of a
secondary Importance, if, of any at all, and
their agricultural operations confined to the
most common crops produced in a rude man.
ner because the work must be done late in
the season.
- Indeed so little attention has been given in
some OF the newer counties to general agri
cultural pursuits, that these do not raise the
apples their people consume, yet there are
orchards enough to clearly demonstrate that
this branch of fruit culture would be very
profitable.
The markets made by numbering is very
unreliable and frequently worse than none.
We know of a town ia Aroostook with a
valuation of less than S200,O 900 hat has $780,
600 of its farm products, money and labor
locked up in the lumber operations of one
man.since the winter of 1870. This year he
may get his lumber to market, but the ruin
GUS rates OF interest that he must paw, render
his ability TO meet his liabilities very doubt
full. Meanwhile the general market for good
stock and some special kinds reduce to
ship out of the State has been munerative
in ready money.
Meanwhile the most energetic young men
OF the region are going West-which is the
worst of the whole-impressed with the idea
that there is, as they say, "no chance for
them"
The important question at this crisis in the
destiny of Maine is like that made long ago:
What can we do to be savedp
First, Danish the idea that Maine is to be
comparatively worthless when the present
prodigality strips off her lumber. Second, by
some method, secure more diversified employ
ments, and particularly in our agricultural
regions. Third, adopt some policy to improve
that water power which we have in abun-
dance snd which, well informed men say, is
vastly cheaper anywhere than artificial power
near populous places.
Democratic Economy.
AGooD ARTICLE FOR DEMOCRATIC PA
PFRs TO COPY.
Democrats have shown a taste for Tr;huna