The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-06-30
Lumber and Forestry.
1Amerlcan Cultivator.] ]

II
customed to hear certain class Of people
predict scarcity of lumber in Maine, in Yer
mont and New Hampshire. They have de-
clared all along during the last three or four
decades that the lumber was about all cut off
at Calais Me-, at Machias or at other sawmill
centres, or that the spruce on the Kennebec
or the Penobscot, or the Andr0scoggin, or
the Merrimac, or the Connecticut was about
all gone, and that the trade must soon look
elsewhere for spruce lumber Forestry writers
and orators are predicting dire calamities,
extinction of great woodworking industries.
terrible floods and droughts, famine prices
for lumber, by reason of the annihilation Of
the forests of New England.
Yet what are the facts? Spruce lumber Is
no higher in price now than it was thirty
wears ago; not so high by Sc to IS per 1000
feet as it was twenty-five years ago. New
England is cutting more spruce now than it
was thirty years ago, and could double its
present product if the demand would war
rant hauling little further from the. stump
to the river, or transporting few miles tur-
ther by the railroad, II timber famine was
impending here would not the sagaclous ex-
plorer and lumberman in the wilds OF Maine
and New Hampshire know it as soon as the
theoretical forestry expert, sitting at ms
library table with quill in hand, forming
statistical tables of imaginary hgureS? New
England may cut 500,000000 feet of spruce
per annum for the next fifty years to come
before exhaustion of her spruce forests, and
then 90 back and commence cutting the new
growth which the fifty years has again ma
tured ready for the lumberman'S axe. why
not face the facts in the matter? Why adj
vocate forcst-tree planting from an unsonnd
standpoint or an imaginary basis depressing
need?
The time has not arrived when men of capi-
tai can in this part of the country make profit
able or remunerative investments in planting
forest trees on an extended scale. The lar
mer or land owner may plant MS waste land
with white pines, which with their rapid
growth will add to the value of his farm, yet
even with white pines no man afford to pur-
chase land and hire all the labor necessary
to make a plantation, caring for It during
fifty, sixty or seventy years, and get MS
money back with two per cent interest;
Sentiment and good taste, public spirit and
love of the beautiful, may prompt the plant
ing of shade trees or the covering OF bleak
hiIl-tops and barren mountain sides. ClumpS
and row of trees may be planted as wind
breaks OF hold the drifting sands. Expefl=
ment stations institutions supported by State
or nation, wealthy men In the roll OF pubic
benefactors, may be induced to test varieties
and methods in connection with forest-tree
planting, but until the chances for proht are
to make investments in growing forest trees.
What folly for forestry orators TO claim any
possible profit in establishment new planta-.
lions, where there are millions OF acres OF
spruce, hemlock and hard wood lands for
sale in New England at prices varying from
81 to $40 per acre, where the principal
growth has already attained hundred years
or more. If forestry orator claims faDu-
lous profits in planting seeds now and wait
ing hundred years for crop, why not ae-
cept the following offer: "We will come
under heavy bonds to sell 100000 or more
hardwood trees from twenty-five years to 100
wears old, now standing in the forests OIL New
England, at ten cents eachp' Can any emil
nent forestry expert beat these figures, even
with his quill-pen in growing forests on
paper.
romance and glamor. Let us take common
sense view of it. Letus admit that there are
too many trees now growing in New Eng
land to warrant any timber scare or timber
famine for half century at least Let US
determine to secure the necessary leglslatlon
to protect the magnificent forests OF new
England from forest fires as far as possible
Let US inculcate the wisdom OF cutting not
only the ripe and mature specimens, leaving
the younger trees to increase with Vlgor ana
rapidity Let us take practical care OF ex-
listing forests, and they VIII iast unuer
present demand for many years TO come.
The intelligent lumberman, VINO only cuts
| out his mature trees, not amounting to twenty
FIVE per cent. of the whole growth, does not
dimish the water-storing capacity OF the
| dense forests He does not carry away the
moss or sponge or carpet of decayed vegeta-
table matter which holds the Winter snow
or the Spring rain, and allows 1t to pereolate
slowly into the little streams and rlvulets at
the heads of mighty rivers. Ordinary, cut
tings in dense forests take but moderate
proportion of the whole number OF trees
There is absolutely no market today for those
hardwood trees, which can only be marketed
by driving some stream or river: Inc
crooked trees, the young and smah specimens,
even of pines, spruces or hard woods. are
not wanted at present. Even after taking
out twenty-five per cent of a virgin forest
| for lumber, the casual passer-by glancing at
the hillside would suppose 1t an unDroken
woodland.
Millions of mature trees in New Englnnd
stopped growing years ago, and some are not
worth as much now as they were twenty-five
wears ago. Whatfolly to desire to allow them
| to cucumber the earth longer, when they
may furnish lumber for the houses OF the
people @ and give way to younger and more
| vigorous growth Few forestry orators take
| their own medicine. Few take up barren
| hillsides and plant them with seedlings. We
| wonder they no not buy some trees already
| grown Even now the market is over
| stocked with timber lands. There are more
| sellers than buyers, strange as 1t may appear
| in the face of the impending timber famine.
Our forestry orators drink in their inspir-
| alton from some French or Geruran volume
| on the profits of tree planting, Ihey nave
| never tramped month in New England
| forests. Forest-tree planting on large scale
| may pay the European landholder or eapi-
| talfst, but it is premature to preach such
| doctrine here. Nature may be slow in her
| primeval methods of producing forests, but
| She is inexpensive. Nature has provided
! bountiful supply of forest land In this sec
| ton and the proper care and Judlcious use OIL
| that already supplied would be lar more
| profitable than the creation of new and
| costly plantations. AS in many other
| branches of art and science, so with forestry
| those who have explored the least are the
| most ready and willing to formulate their
| opinions, and the most likely to mlslead the
| public through their desire for notorlety ana
| their ignorance of facts. Educate the people
| of this section to take care of the forests and
| forest land they already have, rather than 70
make fruitless efforts at extensive foreSt-tree
| planting The fire destroys more than the
| iumberman's axe. Study to conquer the nres
| and the present generation Will have accom-
| plished praiseworthy work.
| 1t may be none too early to make a study
| of forestry in its many branches, to interest
| the rising generation in the Importance OF
| caring for and protecting our forest areas IN
/ this section. Public sentiment may need
| ouickening in this direction, and there are
| always gentlemen of leisure and wealth VINO
| will experiment for the public good, but 1t Is
| important that the work be inaugurated upon
| many years before timber will be worth taD-
| ulous sum in New England, and it will be
| many wears before the impending famine
| strikes this section if our present resources
| are properly cared for.
| A small boy named Coffin, who lives in
| Ashland, has. had g conflict with q t pear, J: