The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1885-02-26


TENS the following quantities of merchantable
pine and spruce on May 81, 1880:
Pine. Spruce.
River basins. 6oard board
measure. measure.
St John and its tributaries. 5,nO0000 l40O, 900
Penob-cot and its tributaries. 100000 900 1000 600 900
kennebec and its tributaries. 3OO00OOD l,0O0, 0O000O
tarcs ............ 5o,0Oo,0Oo 5oO,ooOoOo
Saint Croix, Machias, Nara
guagus, and Union, with
other smaller streams. .eOo,0000OO SOC, 600
Total 80. :. .475 600 600 5,nO0 600 900
According to the same authority there was
cut during the census year ending May 81, 1880.
lbs, $4,000 feet of pine aud 3Ol ,020,0O0 feet Of
spruce. Other statistics of the lumber industry
from the Report Of the Tenth Census are as
follows:
LUMBER SAWED.
Number of establishments. ..... s4S
Capital invested. ST, }39 1856
Men employed as years and above) )...... 6,iS0
Boys under 10 years. ..............-.. lS3
Wages paid during the year.. 81 ,6l JAP
Mate.iaM.
Value of logs used. ........ ,754 6l3
Value of mill supplies. l91 ,3l4
Total value of all materials. ........ 4,95l ,951
P,ud4ctS.
Lumber board mcasure..... -....fect. $50, 600
Shingles 426, 80 900
Slaves Observation-Disclosures. ......-.. $4,000
lleaGlngs sets. 3,3i2, 900
spool and bobbn stock feet H. 42600O
Value of all other products. ......-.-.... $lS2,6lS
Total value of all products. 81 933, SOS
In addition to the above Professor Sargent I
reports 1.2l5,SSl cords of wood consumed as
fuel during the census year ending May 81,
1880, valued at S4,01S 131.
The pine has been cut from all the timber
surface of the State, excepting from quite
| inaccessible region about the headwaters of the
Alaguash River in Aroostook County.
There are fifteen large sole-leather tanneries
| i'll Maine, having IA total consumption of 1O3,-
| 600 cords of hemlock bark per annum. In adj
| dltlon TO the above tanneries there are in the
| State three large hemlock bark extract works,
consuming 24,0O0 cords OF bark each year in
| the manufacture of tanning extract The larg-
est tannery in the world is that at Wnn, in this
State, which Is 600 feet long, 50 feet wide, con
| tains 100 watts, and uses 30 cords of hemlock
| bark daily the year round
| The amount of charcoaS used in Maine in
| 1880 was 500 900 bushels. all made in the State.
| What may be termed the minor industries
| connected with or dependent upon our forests
| are every year assuming greater importance.
| The manufacture of wood-pulp. boot-shanks,
| spools, bobbins, lasts, Shovel-handes, clothes
| pins, and other minor forest manufactures are
| bringing into greater value our forest trees
| heretofore little used as fir poplar, white
| birch, beech, maple, and ash the establishment
| OF these industries has been the means of build
| ing up large factories, spreading out villages,
giving employment to men, machinery, and
| transportation companies, and adding largely to
| the business and wealth of the State. Unfortu-
nately there have been no available statistics of
| these Industries to be obtained; but under a
recent act of the Maine legislature these are
| now being compiled by the secretary of state,
| and will hereafter be published annually.
| ift.' al a nf tnD dor
| able Importance. These are obtained entirely
| from the trees of the larch (Latic ameJtcaAo)
| otherwise known in this State as hackmatack
| and juniper 1T grows on very low wet land.
The chief locality for the production of ships
| knees is the towns along the Pl>cataquis River
| Valley; and there We're shipped over the Ban
! gor and Piscataqul> Railroad during the year
| lSS2, l9S full ears of ships knees, or total of
10000.
Forest fires have been very destructive to the
| timber lands of Maine. In 1875 the great fire
| in this State chiefly extended from near Moose
| head Lake eastward to the Penobscot River in
| the southern part of PiScataquS County. 1t
| has been estimated that This burnt district WAS
some 40 miles long by 6 wide, and embraces
| 100000 acres of forest growth. Since then
local fires have frequently occurred, making
| sad havoc among the valuable timber, and en-
| failing heavy losses upon its owners. Estimates
of careful experts place this loss at from Sl00.-
600 to S2O0,000 annually. These fires occur in
| the summer season. from July to September,
| and often sweep over large extent of territory.
Strict laws are in force in this State prohibiting
the setting of forest fires, and the recovery of
| damage therefor.
The spruce forests of Maine have. during the
| past three or four years. been ravaged by an
| insect which has been Identified by Prof. ChaS.
| IL. ternad, of the Maine State College. aS
| 1ofiflt tHAuirt1tto. Indeed. a. early as 1879,
| the spruce timber of the Allagua>h and other
| tributaries Of the Saint John in Northern
Maine-and to some extent the spruce forests
Of the whole of Aroostook County and the
northern sections Of Somerset and Franklin
Counties-was much affected by this insect. 1t
has been difficult to obtain the exact facts of
| the extent of this scourge. The owners of
| timber land have been somewhat reticent about
| giving information concerning it, and it may
| prove that the real damage is less than has been
thought. The bark of the trees is perforated
| by small holes, and in and under the bark are
found great numbers OF the Larvae of the beetle
| 1t is thought tie trees are not much injured
that if cut the first year they make good tim
Der; but if left to the second or third wear the
| life of the wood is gone and the timber quite
Naueless. This is a very serious matter, and
it is well that the life-hstOry of the insect and
the extent of its ravages are to be studied thi>
season (lSS3) by Prof. A. S, Packard, Jr., OF
the United States chronological Commission
| Mr. III. M. Prentiss, Of Bangor, Me, prom
nent lumber operator and large owner of wild
| land, writes:
From all have heard the borer does moi
attack young or thrifty trees. The death of al
old tree in decreptude may be FASTENED by
| borers, severe drought, or other causes. Gen.
orally. where the spruce is old and about all OF
an age, and about ready to die of Old age, the
borers are said to kill as much as three-fourths
of it in spots in some localities. We have seer
nothing of this AS yet upon the Penobscot OF
any of the Maine rivers, excepting the Upper
Saint john On all of these rivers the ageC
spruce has generally beeu culled out, and the
forests now consist almost entirely of compare
lively young and thrifty growing trees. Oul
Maine forests will be forest a thousand years
from now because much of the land is worth
more to raise wood on than for any other crop
We have to take good care of our forests ant
manage them properly, and it is our policy Il
cut and market all the Old, decaying, decrep
trees-pine, spruce, hemlock, &c.-to save then
from death by worms, rot, heavy winds
drought, and the natural death from old age
We do not, generally. have any trees Gu
smaller than IA inches at the stump, nor do we
generally cut in any year more than one-tentt
of the wood growing on any acre Of land. The
reports on the general dying of timber are NJ
doubt much exaggerated"
| AS valuable as are our forests, as great as il
the extent of territory which they cover, and al
important as are the industries founded upor
them, they ale not ineXhaustibie and must bt
husbanded to yield the best results. Year by
year lumbermen penetrate still farther into the
and. while the statement of Prof. Walter Wells
quoted at the head of this division, possesses
some of the truth to-day that it did when frs
printed, yet every year the forests fallins
before the AK, and the trees foated to the
market are perceptibly smaller than they were
fifteen and twenty years ago. In 1869 The
Maine board of agriculture presented me
mortal to the State legislature, praying for The
Inauguration of State policy for encouraging
the preservation and protection of forest trees
and for eXempting from taxation any land tina
should be set out to forest trees or left to grow
up to forest for a period of twenty years. Sucl
a law was passed in 1872.
*The Waterpower of Maine. Second Report, p
"a.
forestry Bulletin, Tenth Census, No 15
forestry Bulletin, Tenth Census, No %.
SReport on Forestry. DIR. +. B. Iough, Vol. Ill
1882, p. 6i.
President Fuller of the Bath Board of Trade
said in his annual address: 'The water suppl.
is still unsolved, although an act is now pend
ing in the Legislature to incorporate a Wate
Supply Company of this city. 1t is question
of the utmost Importance If we expect to re