Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-02-21
THE FORESTS IN DANGER
WARNING GIVEN BY AN EXPERT TO
LUMBER MEN.

Mills A Call for Scientific Forestry.
| A discussion is now going on among
lumbermen, woodsmen and forestry
experts as to whether or not the
spruce forests of Maine are in danger
| of destruction from careless and
wasteful methods of cutting and from
the immense demands made upon
them every yeer by pulp mills and saw
mills.
| Henry Grinnell, an expert from the
! forestry division of the United States
| department of agriculture, who has
| been making a tour of inspection in
the northern Maine woods for one of
the big pulp companies, went to Ban
| gor the other day and in an address
| to lumbermen at the board of trade
( rooms declared that with continu-
| ance of present methods of logging
| the forests would be exhausted in less
! than 100 years.
On the other hand President F. s.
| Lyman of the Cushnoc Fibre company
| of Augusta. one of the most expert
| enced men in the state in all matters
| pertaining to numbering, says that
| there is more spruce standing in
Maine than can be cut off in countless
| years, taking account of the growths,
| that the end of the spruce supply is
| so remote that worry on the subject
| is absurd.
Mr.. Grinnell told the Bangor lumber
men that it required two or three CEN
| turies for a spruce tree to attain
size suitable for lumber. but Mr.. Ly-
| man says he has cut good sized spruce
on land that had been moved for grain
/ 40 years before. The general opinion
| among the older lumbermen seems to
be that the Washington experts the
| ories on some phases of numbering are
not entirely accurate at least as ap-
| piled to Maine.
1t is generally conceded, however,
| that reform is needed in numbering
methods in this state and the present
| discussion must result in great good
The owners of timber lands, the paper
| and pulp manufacturers and the lum-
Der mill owners are all interested in
the situation. The preservation and
| propagation of the spruce forests must
be more carefully looked after, for the
| benefit of all.
E. E. Ring of Orono, state land
agent and forest commissioner, is
making arrangements to ascertain as
! soon as possible after the spring
| opens the amount of standing spruce
| in Maine. He has had practical ex
| perience of more than 25 years in the
woods of northern Maine He knows
h. g
| and Rroostook, as far as the lumber
| growth is concerned, as thoroughly as
| any man living.
He says there is vast amount of
| spruce in the Allegash country, and
| now that the railroads are penetrating
| that region in various directions the
| timber can be more cheaply brought
| to market. When the winter is ended
| Mr.. Ring proposes 20 send experienced
| woodsmen into the forests to explore
| and report the condition and extent
| of the growth.
What the state of Maine needs"
| says Mr.. Ring, 'is modern system
| of forestry, adapted to conditions in
| this state, which in many cases will
radically differ from systems practised
in other countries.
in certain sections lumber and pa
| per companies have invested large
sums of money in mill plants and of
course the continuance of their busi-
ness depends upon the future supply
of timber. Such companies would find
it more profitable to adopt a system
| of forestry which would give the best
| results.
| I'm my opinion, the timber on the
kennebec and Androscoggin is cut to
much better advantage than they cut
on other waters of the state. The rea-
son for this is that on those two riv-
ers the land is owned largely by the
companies that own the mills, while
the reverse is the case on the other
| rivers.
| For instance, on the Penobscot the
wild lands, with few exceptions, are
owned by one class, who sell permits
to the lumber operator, he selling his
out to the manufacturer, often buying
stumpage by one scale and selling the
logs by another.
THE influence of situation and soil
| cii eiS ShaieietCi vi INC VI
spruce is very marked. 1t is not fas-
tidious tree, for it occupies all situa-
tions and soils-.-low, wet swamps,
abrupt rocky slopes, and the tops of
mountains and ridges, as well as
good soil The best spruce is found
on moderate slopes with fruitful soil.
'The loss by cutting high stumps
and leaving large tops in the woods is
something that can easily be rene
died; l may say that this fault is be-
ing overcome by the lumber operators.
1t is well known that when a crowd
ed stand of spruce is thinned, the trees
which remain grow more rapidly than
| before.
| I'm some parts of the spruce
| growths, where the forest is dense and
the climate cool, deep layer of hu-
mus or vegetable mould accumulates
| on tba trno rntordipu a., o,ou,+L