The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-04-21

1 tight from the 1st of December to the 1st of April. The money value of mill l lions of feet of logs now hung up i'll the
 yards is locked up for a year, and be- sides, logs that lie over a year in yards 1 depreciate in value more than logs
 hung up on drive.
 The log crop is not limited to the
 wild lands, but is an important industry
 in all the towns of the state. There are
 some old logs that were hung up on the
 drive last year that will help out this | years crop.
 The log harvest is not of short dura-
 tion, like the wheat harvest but lasts
 as long as the sledding lasts. We like
 to hear the wild birds sing in the trees,
 but we don't want to SC the robins hop ping round on the bare ground when we
 ought to hear the music of the logging
 sled grinding over the frozen roads.
 We have plenty of standing timber in
 Maine, all ripe and ready for the ax, i for which there is a brisk demand, and
 all we need to harvest big crop Is cold i winter and to have the sledding last
 until the middle of April. 1 Since the pulp industry has developed in the northern part of the state the 1 spruce log is king, and the demand for | pulp stuff is equal to the demand for saw logs. To meet this demand large
 crews of men and teams went into the
 woods early in the fall, but the logging
 season has been so short that many l logs that are cut and yarded are hung
 up until another year. Rain came when snow was needed, and frozen roads were f1oaded.
 It is very easy to construct a good
 road through impossible swamps and
 bottomless bogs with plenty of snow
 and steady cold weather. Such roads
 will last all winter if the weather is
 cold, until it is time to start the drive, but they can't stand mid-winter thaw.
 The streams and rivers are now at driving pitch, but there is no large body of snow in the wods, as is usual at this season of the year, to help along the
 drive. Usually in the spring of the year
 there is a large body of snow In the north woods, which keeps the rivers full until the logs are run into the booms. If heavy rains come after the snow is gone the flood soon passes away, but if there is a large body of rain, which gradually melts the snow and keeps the rivers at a driving pitch until the 4th of July.
 We need the snow to stay late. not only for logging, but for driving It don't cost half as much to drive logs if in the wild lands on the list of April there is four feet of wet snow on the ground as if the ground is bare.
 e, Evya in the wodos in March it is no obstacle to 1oggin operations, because the logs are yarded the first of the writer in an- ticipation of deep snows later. The business of logging after the 1st of Jan uary is hauling logs from the yards to the landing, and the teams don't step out of the main roads The logging roads are laid in the valleys, and they don't feel the snow blizzards and don't drift. The only thing that can cut off the log crop, and the thing feared, is thaw in mid-winter that will break up the sledding.
 It is said it has cost the city of New York S700000 to haul off the snow this winter The want of snow and of cold weather has damaged the lumber in dustry of Maine more than half of that sum, besides leaving the prospects of dry drive in the spring. If all the logs now left in the yards had been landed on the banks of the rivers all would be needed to supply the demand for saw logs and pulp stuff"
 There is a big building boom in the wind in this state this spring; not only | in the cites and towns, but many fo fo h,,i1I and larger barns and improve their buildings, and Hogs is rig since the crews in the woods have broken camp. Most of the larger saw-mills are close to tide water, and have the benefit of 1 ocean carriage to take care of the sur plus There will be brisk demand this year for every stick of spruce that can be reached by river or railroad.
 It is said the spruce log will play | out It don't look as though the own CTS of the pulp mills expected the spruce | log would peter" out. The pulp mills | are built of stone and steel as perma- ment as the brownies of Milwaukee and | will last as long as the premeval rocks, | Nearly one-third of the state of Maine l is wild land, large part of which is | covered with old growth spruce which | has not gained in growth for the last | 100 years Fifty years ago spruce had | little or no value for lumber, and | spruce trees were not cut as old growth 1 pine trees were, and the spruce forests | were left untouched. Whether the | spruce log will play out or not, one | thing is sure--if the old growth spruce | forests are not cut the spruce log will l die out.
 There is no more sense in letting a crop of logs go back into the ground than there would be in letting a crop of corn go back into the ground. On many of the wild lands where an axe never was struck there was more sound tim Der 100 years ago than there is now. The old growth pine that was saved was sound 50 years ago, and is now 'otting on the stumps, but there are arge forests of second growth pine now pig enough for saw logs.
 We have plenty of standing spruce 'ipe and ready for the ax, but we need