Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-08-09
IN NAMES WILDW0ODS.
Products of the Forests and Delights
Of Camping There.
Spruce Townships Now Regarded of
Great Value.

The great woods of Maine have hard
~ been explored yet, says the New
York Tribune, except by the hunter and
timber experts, and the summer visit
ors and campers VINO flock along the
lines of the rivers and chains of lakes
barely appreciate the magnitude of
this woodland empire. 1t is estimated
that about 43 per cent. of the whole
area Of the State is composed of wild
woodlands, which are unncorporated,
and which represent an approximate
wealth Of at least $4,000, 900. In the
silent recesses of these woods there are
wild animals and birds which have
never yet been hunted by the sports
man, and each year wonderful tales are
brought back by the wocdsmen of the
sights which they have discovered.
The Maine wildwoods furnish an ex-
haustible supply of timber to the lun-
berrnen, and probably nowhere else in
this country are the forest interests
conserved so well as in this State. So
much has been said about the denuda-
ton of forests and the ruthless de-
struction of trees that the impression
still prevails that few lumbermen pay
any attention to the preservation OF
of all their available timber. This is
not even approximately true of the
great spruce and pine woods Of Maine
for cutting off all through the Wild
woods of that State is judiciOusiy and
carefully done. Most of the valuable
timber lands have come under the con-
troll of big lumber companies, and for
their own interests they protect the
young trees. 1t is rarely that one sees
the young trees cut down CT mutilated,
and as a result the supply is likely to
keep up indefinitely
The wood pulp and paper mills are
scattered all over the Maine woods,
and they have added immeasurably to
the wealth CT the States timber re-
sources. Before the paper mills began
to use the spruce trees for manufact-
uring paper it was only the pine that
was considered of any particular value.
Indeed all the early valuations of the
timber lands OF the State We're made
upon this understanding, and the
authorities in trying to adjust and
equaliZe valuations for taxation rarely
accorded any worth TO the spruce
forests. the townships that abounded
in pine trees We're the wealthest, but
to-day the spruce townships have be
come the most important. Those who
purchased wooded lands in those days
received the spruce woods practically
free of cost, and to-day they are sell
ing them at good round sums to the
paper mills.
There are eight counties in which the
wild lands are located, and they repre-
sent approximately nearly ten million
acres of forests. 1t is almost impossi-
BILE to state exactly how much eacI
township contains, nor have many q
the owners of the woods known jus
how much land they possessed. The
early surveys made little of a few hun
drcd acres Of woods. more or less. ans
man buying ten thousand acres many
time found that it was nearer tVelv,
or fifteen thousand when they Were
resurvcYed. In the last few year,
many of these wild woodlands have
been surveyed over again, and thu
figures that have heretofore prevailGt
have had to be all readjusted. Ar
effort is now being made to estimate
pretty correctly the total amount OF
forest land in the State, and it may be
that within another year accurate sur
veys will be on record.
The paper manufacturers have beer
the most extensive buyers Of wild land,
in Maine, and they have stimulated 3
desire for more accurate knowledge
concerning this vast empire wilderness
The paper companies obtain their in
formation entirely from practical
foresters and rangers, who go into the
woods and make estimates according
to a science all their own. The value
of the timber lands naturally depends
upon their relative proximity to the
watercourses. The unusual number
of streams in the Maine woods makes
ii possible for the lumbermen to reach
most of the great timber forests and
in parts Of the State paper and pull
mills obtain their water supply from
the same river which floats down the
trees from the interior. The water
power of the State has been greatly in-
creased in recent years by the mill
companies, which have damned u
parts of the streams To prevent waste
In this way they have succeeded in OBJ
timing good power through the dryest
of summers
While spruce and pine are the chief
resources of the wooded parts of the
state, there is a variety of other woods
which are cut for various purposes.
i"cie ''ic lew iorestS OF haru WOODS,
and some large ones of cedar. The lat
ter are used for shingles, and are in
great demand. The lumber mills have
become so numerous in the wild lands
that the hunter and camper to-day has
some difficulty in getting entirely be-
yond them. They crop ur in the most
unexpected places. especially along the
watercourses. The only way to get
away from them is to seek the interior.
where the lumber is still of uncertain
valuation.