The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-07

T along the shores, the men who had been l given grants from Massachusetts and
 England, made partial investigations and explorations; later, in reports of
 this session of New England, they gave great emphasis to the immense wealth
 of the forest where were untold quanti-
 ties of ship-timber yet standing on the stump. | When Captain Mowatt appeared be-
 fore Portland in 1775 and gave the in-
 habitants two hours time to remove
 the sick and the !nfirm before he de-
 stroyed the city, that ultimatum was given out from the fact that a vessel
 was partially constructed and wanting
 masts and spars, which the loyal set
 tiers refused to sell!''
 1 Wild lands in Maine are located in
 eight counties-Oxford, Franklin, Som-
 erset, Piscataquis, Aroostook, Penobs- I cot, Hancock and Washington. Aroos-
 tock the largest county in the state.
 with an area of sixty-eight hundred
 square miles, has approximately three
 million acres of wild lands. The timber varies. Hardwood ridges there are. | with growths of spruce. cedar and some pine. Piscataquis county has S,7S0 square miles of area, with two million
 acres of wild ands. Somersets unin- corporated lands include about one and three quarters million acresT he 'av
 craze of the remaining five towns is a half-million acres each. The total is
 approximately 9,400,O00 acres. The. original surveys of these lands were very liberal. In the days when land was not worth very much, this statement was true of farms as well as townships.
 I have in mind a farm in Androscog-
 gin county" says MT. Pottle. It was
 one of the original hundred-acre lots.
 Surveyed few years ago. it was found to contain ane hundred and twenty-sev
 en acres, twenty-seven per cent. more
 than the original survey.
 Tt Is extremely difficult to ascertain
 accurate records of the acreage of wild lands. This is especially true of Bing
 hams Purchase, the total area of the town in the Maine Register being quo- ted as 23, 040 acres.
 Riley Plantation has for long time been given an area of 25,201 acres. This year, through information from one of the explorers, the figures have been changed to twentyeight thousandl| acres"
 "But of course in the land office at Augusta" put in MT. Simpson here, i've get reliable information of the acreage of large portions of wild lands, because they are surveyed by the state largely and the records are kept here.
 Regarding the growth with which these lands are timbered, pine, as. far as it exists, is of course, the most valua- ble."
 Years ago." says MT. Pottle, when | whole townships of land Were sold, practically the only valuation taken | into account was the pine. In the days | of hand working solely, pine entered | into the building of ships as l we'll as every form of house-fnishing, | while spruce was considered of little | value. But in these days of improved | as well as plup- mills, spruce has climbed steadily up the ladder of value, and being used for almost every Is becoming of more worth than almost any other wood.
 Cedar, in great demand for shingles T ty or wherever grown, for that matter, equal to spruce in value. Probably @ larger growth ofycedar exists in Aroos- took than any othersection, although 1t is well scattered over the state"
 This matter oftascertaininS the value of wild lands for the purposes of taxa ton is much more difficult than similar work in towns and cities" says the Hon. MT Hayford, the chairman of the board. "In the latter places, the asses sors are supposed to place a valuation on every parcel of property land and for the purpose of assessing l. he tax. eW get synopsis of the re- suit of the valuation, in that way keep ng pretty close with any decrease, in- ,rease or change in the valuation of the ' own"
 But with the wild lands it is far diff. 'erent!" adds MT. Pottle. These unin-, ,orporated townships are largely unin- Ia abited, It is not easy, you can imag- ne, to ascertain how much timber is In I' township, or what is it's value. There Ire many things to be considered First, and most important, of course, is he amount of timber Close second to his in importance are the driving wa CTS or other facilities for getting the imber to the mills or manufactures as | old. In some countries are large uantities of timber-notably in the , part of Aroostook, where he expense of cutting and getting the ; lfnber to the mill is so great that there , $ little margin left of the timber as it tood on the stump. We try and ascer- E ain all these facts. f "The greatest difficulty is in finding = ccurate and reliable knowledge of the z aving jurisdiction of all highways { cross wild lands and townships have n opportunity to pick up considerable 1formation of the lands in this way. 'wners of great timber territories gen rally employ a practical lun1berman, rho Is supposed to have some knowl- dge of these ownerships. In addition. ! here are q few men who are employed [ . y wild land owners to survey and ex-l lore the townships, securing informa- on necessary to settle opinion line dis utes. The opinion of these men is as aliable as anything we get regarding he quantities of timber standing on ne lands. These men, most unfortu- iY,cr .fo