Daily Kennebec journal., 1896-01-07

nesS are brought out Wnlcn are OF deep IN
terest to all who have given the subject
any attention. The report will say upon
this subject:
Forests.
When these shores were first trod by
white men they found the lands covered
by the forest primeval. Very pertinent
in this connection are the following brief
extracts from the able address delivered
by ex-Gov. Daniel +. Davis, president of
the Maine Landowners and Lumber
mems Association, at the session of the
Maine State board of trade in Bangor this
fall:
.'The. fors st primeval IS our most valu-
able inheritance Consider it all in all
just as it IS and all that 1t does for us,
and all that it has done since this whole
country was settled. 1t is, I repeat, our
most valuable inheritance; and so it is of
every country on the globe, and has been
through all the ages since civilization
began. We have here in Maine l3, 56S, 600
acres of timber land. The primeval
woods of Maine, accordingly, will cover
an extent seven times larger than that of
the famous Black Forest OF Germany at its
largest cxpansc in modern times. The
states of Rhode Island Connecticut and
Delaware, could be lost together in our
northern forests of Maine, and still have
about each n margin of wilderness
sufficiently wide to make its exploration
without compass a work Of desperate
adventure to an inexperienced woodsman.
These forests Of Maine are not simply
valuable for the lumber that they pro-
duce. but also because they furnish the
haunts of the finest and most numerous
game upon the face of the earth, accord
ing to the territory. | think we have
more forest in Maine than in the whole Of
the German empire, which there is under
he contr0 of the German government.
Our acres of forest land. say are
13, sos, 600 in round numbers, probably
much moe in the aggregate. The valua-
tion of the State assessors. as rendered
last year was $35, $50, COO an enormous
sum. Gentlemen, the inland waters of
the State Gf Maine. cover an area of more
than , 05Q 600 acres, and the water power
Of the State is away up in the billions of
horse power What gives Us this power?
1t is simply our forests that do it. The
altitude of our lakes and rivers is on the
average about 600 feet above the level of
| the sea. The flow to the sea is gradual.
giving hen in this State more splendid
water power and more continuous, regn-
| lar flow of water, because of the humidity
of our climate, than comes from any
other territory on the globe of like acre
age | want to say to you that we have
water power enough here in the State of
Maine, away up i'll the billions of horse
power, to turn the wheels sufficient to
, manufacture all the products that the
whole OF America could demand for the
| next hunired years, allowing population
| to increase rs it has in the past, and it is
| all here in the State of Maine.
| with this more than thirteen millions
| of acres OF forest land that produce here
| the best wterpower upon the face of the
| earth, 99-l00 of it today runs unvexed to
| the sea. We have just commenced an era
of development in the line Of manufactur
| ing. Wty here in the valley of the
| Penobscot we have put up within The
| last fifteen years more than SO, 900, 000
WORTH OF pulp and paper mills and the
outside world knows but little of it. If
this had been done in any of the western
states, they would have doomed it all over
| the county. and the air would have been
! as thick With advertisements in regard tC
| the same rs the autumn leaves that strew
| the wales of Valambrosa. A fraction
more THAI one man in five Of all our
voters numerically considered is occupied
| in the production of lumber and its trans
portation Thirty thousand men work in
the forests Of Maine every year on the
average. In the Penobscot valley alone
there is same SIS, 600 600 invested in mill
property .ngaged in the manpfaetur3 Of
lumber aud its various products includ-
ing pulp ana other products that come
from ourforests
. want to say one thing more ia re-
gard to the forests of Maine, and that is
in regard to the age Of trees. A few years
ago there was "a popular idea that a spruce
tree could be produced In a very few
years; but it is not so, gentlemen. l have
found, and | have examined this matter
carefully, that it takes in the forest
primeval about $50 years to produce a
mature spruce tree. and it takes to pro-
duce an Dld fashioned pumpkin pine. such
as grew formerly in this State, from 500