The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1898-12-01
MAINE THE PULP MILL STATE.
The Lumber Trade Giving Place to the Max
ing of Pulp.


The day seems near at hand when
the lumber industry of Maine will De
of small Importance compared Win
the making of pulp and paper and 50
far from being regretted, the chan8e
now in progress ffom sawmills to
pulp mills. is welcomed by the owners
of timber lands and all concerned.
Twenty-Five years ago, when the luli-
ber trade on the Penobscot began to
decline Bangor shipped from zoo'ooo'
900 to 275,000,000 feet of lumber anhu-
ally to markets on both sides oil the
Atlantic, and in four continents Since
then the shipments have fallen to from
125 100000 to 150,000,000 feet annually
and the only foreign trade now re-
manning is with Great Britain, Where
a few million of deals are sold annu-
ally. The South American trade, 10
Buenos Ayres, Montevideo and RIO ia
neiro, is supplied with Canadian lum-
Der, shipped direct from the maritime
provinces or from Quebec via the
Grand Trunk road to Portland. Inc
African trade, to the Canaries, cape
Verde and the Gold Coast, was lost
long ago, and the once extensive west
India trade has dwindled to almost
nothing. The domestic trade, also,
has declined. chiefly on account OF the
increased use of metal in construction
but largely, also, because of the COM
petition of southern. western ana "a
madam lumber, which the Maine pro-
duct must meet in every American
market.
: With the lessened trade and the
keen competition has come such De
cline in the price of eastern spruce
that it is no longer profitable TO sa"
LOGS into lumber, and so change Is
inevitable-the logs must be @evoted
to other uses. This year m@ny OF the
Penobscot river sawmills have been
idle. others running on reduced time
Cargoes of spruce lumber, shipped 10
New York after all expenses We're
deducted. have yielded only about ~
per thousand feet or less than the cost
of the logs.
Within ten years there have D"en
erected on the Penobsco! half Il dozen
large mills, in which many millions ot
feet of small logs are annually @fouhd
and cooked into pup. THESE lh'iis are
so profitable that several new ana lar
GER structures are now planned, anu
the various pulp and pape" inaiiulict-
uring projects now under way ~nl re-
ouire millions of capital. At WIN Il
large pulp and paper mill s to De
built, an extensive ENTERPRISE IL
planned ut Milford. and a company
has lust been formed here whose pur'
pose is to erect at North Twin Dam,
on the west branch of the Penobscot,
the largest pulp and paper mill III 'he
world. At this point the river Will
furnish 10000 horse power ana there
are millions of acres of timber lahu
surrounding.
Big logs will some day be scarce on
the Penobscot, but no man can tel
when the supply of material suitaDie
for pulp will become exhausted. Ihe
pulp forests are practically unlimited,
and no fear is felt even by the So
called forestry reformers that the pup
mills digesters will ever go hungry.
Pulp pays. lumber does not. That
is the whole story. Pulp gains. lumber
loses. The brick mills. with their ac-
ids and grinders; are rising on every
hand: the wooden mills, with their
gangs ard muley saws. are decaying,
and Maine will soon be best known as
the pulp mill state.-New YORK Sun.