The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1882-08-17
NeM England Forest.

NV EAAAnA 4VAN5~7~
Thirty years ago the pine forests of
Maine were considered inexhausdble,
and Bangor was the greatest pine-dis-
tributino center on the continent.
Spruce, which then sbounded in all the
Northeastern forests, was little esteemed
and rarely cut, and hemlock not at all,
except for its bark
We are reminded of these facts by the
publication by the Census Office of For
estry Bulletin No. Is, which deals with
the pine and spruce forests Of Maine.
The map which accompanies this Bui-
letin shows that nearly one-half of the
entire area formerly covered with conf
erous forests has been stripped of its
merchantable timber, and that the large
pine, and nearly all the largest and
best spruce, has been culled from the
remainder. There are still, however,
some considerable bodies of large, scat
tered pine, principally in the extreme
southwestern part Of the State, which.
strongly held as investments, have
thus far escaped destruction. Second
growth pine, too, is springing up
wherever in the State the forest is
spreading again over Abandoned farm
ing lands; and the oldest of the second
growth pine, although far from mature,
dAEEluY ukSIE5r tAAC HILLS Will saw
logs, and actually supplied large por-
ton of the hundred and odd million feet
of pine cut in the State during the CEN
sus year
Great changes have occurred in the
numbering industry in Maine during the
last twenty years Now fve-sixths of
all the lumber manufactured in the
State is spruce; the supremacy of Ban
gor as a lumber market is a thing of the
past, and the Pine-Tree State obtains
much of the pine which it consumes
from Canada and Michigan. AS factors
in the country's supply of lumber the
forests of Maine are not now worth con-
sideration. An examination of their
actual condition, however, shows that
their future is not without hope, and
that in no other part of the country can
such valuable lessons in forest economy
be learned. Prof Sargent, in this Bull
letin, calls attention to the fact that
1.-the system of cutting only the large
trees and carefully protecting the re-
mainder prevails in Maine and allows
the forest to be proftably worked at
stated periods, varying from fifteen to
TWENTY-FIVE years. . The state of public
feeling which has made such system
possible has not vet extended much be-
yond the State, but the fact that forest
owners in Maine have been able success
fully to guard their property against fire
and introduce a sensible system of pre-
serving their young and half-grown
trees. indicates that a similar public
sentiment may in other parts of the
country attend enhanced values of for
est property.
Fire is the greatest check to the
spread of forest growth in the Eastern
States; but, as we have more than once
pointed out in these columns, means
viii be found to reduce the number and
extent of forest fires as soon as the mon
ey value of the forest makes its preser-
walton of prime importance to a com
munity. Such has been the case in.
Maine. Its great source of wealth and
prosperity existed in its forests. They
were fast melting away, and what fires
and the improvident methods of the old
days had left became of such vital i'm
portancc to the welfare of the whole
people that the preservation of the rem
nants became possible. In Maine for
est fires are now of comparatively rare
occurrence. The entire forest growth
is not cut off, as in the Northwestern
pineries; all trees below a certain size
are allowed to grow for ano her har-
vest; and young pine, which is freely
springing up in some parts of the State,
is carefully watched and guarded as a
farm crop. Unfortunately, these wise
measures were not adopted, or their
necessity even dreamed Of, until the
great pine supply of the State had been
practically exhausted; but it is growing
again, and, while Maine will never yield
a second crop of pine equal to the first.
| it is not at all improbable that she W Il
regain and before many years her
position of first among the white pine
| producing States.
Forestry Bulletin No. 10, with an ac-
complaining map, treats of the pine and
spruce supply of New Hampshire and
| Vermont The original pine woods in
both these States has entirely disap-
/ peared, although the valley of the Con-
/ necticut, the shores of Lake Champlain
| and all of Southeastern New Hampshire
were once covered with vast forests of
/ white pine. A growth of white pine has
/ sprung up, principally in the southern
/ part of these States, and these young
! forests furnished cut of over one hun
| bred million feet of lumber during the
| census year. But these trees are cut
| too young, and at too great a sacrifice
of future profit. The spruce forests of
/ New Hampshire aud Vermont, although
4 reduced by fully three quarters of their
/ original extent, SClIl cover considerable
areas in the White Mountain region and
along the ridge of the Green Mountain
range. Young second-growth pine is
carefully protected from fire, and
"sprout" pine lands are now held at
high figures; but the spruce forests are
not yet as we'll preserved or carefully
worked as in Maine, and they are too
often the prey to destructive fires. 1t is
worthy of remark that Burlington. once
in the heart of great coniferous forests,
and still the third lumber distributing
point in the United States Chicago and
Albany being the first and seconds
wholly supplied with Canadian lumber.
N y. EUeaing Post.
Carrots as Food for Horses.
A correspondent of long experience
calls our attention to the following ex-