New-York tribune., 1901-02-25
THAT COMMONWEALTH IS RAPIDLY BE-
COMING A PULP MILL. STATE.

COMING A PULP MILL. STATE
Bangor. Me. Feb. q (speciaD.-such are the
changes wrought by time that Names familiar
title Of The Pine Tree State has ceased to be
appropriate, for it is a generation now since the
pine tree was prominent in the great lumber IN
dustry. and. except in far northern regions, II Is
not even a conspicuous ornament in the rugged
landscape. The lumbermen of old were wasteful
OF the riches OF the forest and their careless prodi
gality scattered the great soft white pine In mill
ions of feet TO the far corners OF the earth. no
thought being taken Of the day when the typical
tree Of Maine would practically disappear from the
lands bordering the important waters. like the
Penobscot the Kennebec and the expansive lakes
which feed those rivers.
Old men recall with regret the waste of the pine,
and even men OF middle age remember the
days when II easy for boy in a punt 10 pick
up enough OF the splendid hewn and sawed pine tim
ber floating adrift in the harbor OF Bangor. in
sea son 10 build a good sized cottage. When raft
went adrift no great effort made TO recover
it-time and labor were worth more than pine tim
ber and when the stevedores who loaded the
splendid, clear boards upon vessels for the West
Indies and Europe came to the bottom OF a raft
and found II muddy they simply cast IL adrift, and
the .'wreckers'' got It, To-day il poor piece OF
timber of any kind that is allowed 10 adrift and
seldom or never is bit of pine seen floating down
the river The best pine. In fact gets into
the water after being sawed. but Is carefully
soned and then shipped by rail. so valuable has II
become Economy rules everywhere-they
have locked the door after the horse has been
stolen
1t was the from 1868 to 1874 that the pine
last saw It's Importance a factor in the great
lumber commerce of Bangor. and early 1861
II was overtaken and distanced by the spruce.
Ever since then the proportion of pine in the tim
ber cut has been dwindling and that of the spruce
increasing, that for forty years the spruce
has been more appropriate than the pine as an
emblem for the State of Maine. Fifty years ago
the Penobscot River lumbermen cut annually about
100000 feet Of pine and about 5OOooo0o feet OF
spruce. In recent years the cut OF spruce has been
from 1OOOOOO0O to 125 100000 feet. and that Of pine
from 2OOO0O00 TO S0OOGCo0 feet.
But now. while the spruce harvests are still large
the day seems far distant when the sawmiIls
will be silent. and Bangor will see little of the
of axemen. The tides of commerce and industry
have taken another turn, and the Penobscot timber
harvest. instead of coming down the swift river in
the form OF log RATS; will to feed the ever in
creasing hunger of that newest monster Of prog
ress. the pulp mill. Even now the log and the
Waters h m % 0ief fierce fne b 2 Of & bae
control has just been suspended through truce.
Legislature. The pulp and paper want the
big river and all its logs, and the loggers and
mill men, who have been in undisturbed enjoy
ment of those valuable rights since Bangor was
their industry. upon which Bangor has been built
For the time the lumbermen victors. but it is
that. it is feared will result in the triumph Of
the disester and the grinder over the muley and
Even now the pulp mills eating up nearly
at Miilinocket requiring about 6oOoOOO feet yearly
and this holds good throughout the State 1t is
likely that the pulp mills will take 275.Oo0 900 feet
of the 55OO0OOo0 TO 60O.O0OC0O feet of logs cut in
Maine this winter. and II is estimated that ten
years from 10 per cent of the log crop will go
into pulp.
Twenty years ago Maine had only pulp
mills and less than 100000 invested in the
industry in this State. while there were twelve
paper mills, with about s.. 2.000.G00 capital Now
there about sixty mills. equally divided between
pulp and paper. with $50 600 900 invested and
nuaI product worth $50 100000. Over thousand
men employed all through the year. wages
averaging about 81 so day. that the total paid
in wages approximateS So 100000 annually In addi-
ton this, enough is paid for labor outside the
mills bring the total up S5O0O0 600 The spruce
logs feed these mills cost about 81. 10000 annu-
ally. The daily output of pulp and paper is
about twenty-one hundred tons and this will
be increased to twenty-five hundred tons. placing
Maine, II is said, at the head of all pulp and paper
producing States.
At present the logging industry: considered sepa-
rately from the manufacture OF timber. employs
about fifteen thousand and six thousand
horses for four to ffve months in the year. the
wages of the men amounting to seOoo0o season.
the of the horses to another 81 00oe00 and the
product of 600 100000 feet of logs being worth the
booms s6,oo00oO. In driving and saving the logs
and in loading the timber for shipment. thousands
is still bigger thing than the pulp and paper
industry. But the drift is all one way. and the
question is, How long Will IL be before Maine will
feel called upon to remove the historic pine tree
from her seal and substitute therefor the chimney
OF a pulp mill? J