The Opelousas courier., 1899-01-28
MAINE THE PULP MILL STATE.
fac Lumber Trade Giving Place to the Max.
ing of Pulp.

The day seems zeal at hand when
the lumber industry of Maine will be
of small Importance compared with
the making Of pulp and paper, and. SO
far from being regretted, the change
now in progress from sawmills to
pulp mills. is welcomed By the n
of timber lands and all concerned.
TWENTY-FIVE years ago, when the UNI
her. trade On the PenobSCot began to
decline, Bangor shipped from 2oO,ooo'-
600 to 275. 0O0, 900 feet of lumber annu-
ally to markets on both sides OF the
Atlantic, and in four continents. Since
then the shipments have fallen to from
125, 900. 600 to $50, 900. 600 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
Bueros Avres, Montevideo and Rio ia
metro, is supplied with Canadian lun1
Der, shipped direct from the maritire
provinces or from Quebec viar the
Grand Trunk + al to Portland: The
African trade, to t. TTonaries. Cape
Verde and the Gold Coast, 'as 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 and Ca
madam lumber, which the Malne pro-
duct must meet in every American
market.
With the lessened trade and the
keen competition has come such q de-
cline in the price Of eastern spruce
that it is no longer profitable to saw
logs into lumber, and so a change IS
inevitable-the logs must be devoted
to other uses. This year many or the
Penobscot river sawmills have been
idle, others running on reduced time.
Cargoes Of spruce lumber, shipped to
New York, after all expenses were
deducted, have yielded only about -
per thousand feet, or less than the cost
Of the logs.
Within ten years there have been
| erected on the Penobscot half Il dozen
large mills, in which many millions OF
feet of small logs are annually ground
and cooked into pup. These mills are
so profitable that several new and lar
ger structures are now planned, n
the various pulp and paper manufact-
uring projects now under way will re-
uuire millions of capital. At Nian q
large pulp and paper mill IS to DE
built, an extensive enterprise IS
blamed at Milford, and q company
has Just been formed here whose pur-
pose is to erect at North Twin Dam,
on the west branch of the Fenobscot,
the largest pulp and paper mill in the
world. At this point the river VIII
furnish 10000 horse power and there
are millions of acres of timber lauhl
surrounding.
Big logs will some day be scarce on
the Penobscot, but no man can tell
when the supply Of material suitable
for pulp will become exhausted. The
pulp forests are practically unlimited,
and no fear is felt ven by the So
called forestry reformers that the pulp
mills digestars will ever 30 hungry.
Pulp pays, lumber does not. That
IS the whole story. Pulp gains, lumber
loses. The brick mills. with their &C
ids and grinders, are rising on every
hand; the wooden mills. with their
| gangs and muley saws, are decaying.
and Maine will soon be best known as
the pulp mill state.-New York Sun.