Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-09-16
Interesting Experiment in
Municipal Forestry.
uow Brunswick Has Devoted
Itself to SyIvicuIture.
,;<bes Valuable Object Lesson to
Other Municipalities.


i'm To b.. sure people have welcomed
r,a worth long since. Many OF them
.. etulen out to company with the
No.. ,miabIe trees" Lowell has de-
dared;
,Wbo does his duty Is question
Ton complex to be solved by me,
1,,,t be | venture the suggestion,
ro.s part of his that plants Il tree.
Sidney Lanier, with an eloquent
,,.ev too carly silenced by death, made
t,,s4lf the spokesman for
Each no-tongued tree
That epriug by spring doth nobler be,
And cumbIy and most wistfully
Tic mighty prayrrful arms outspreads
.bov. utn's Oft-unheeding heads
And his big blessings downward
sheds
On, uo.trv is not sylviculture,
mite in metre will not save our
,nberands. The proper protection
.r3 vis4 utilization of our forests have
.rs,ed therefore only as the dream OF
,,Ir,n Missionaries" until the hard
..,d.J business man with his COM
| nsr,j,l commonSense aWoke 10 the
.tn,tion Since then the tree has be
,un 10 loom. Today forestry is not
| .oiy It Is foresight; and its teaching
IL r.rkoned with not only in the mes
cages If the President of the United
Gates but also in the town meeting of
a bumtle New England village. as the
following paragraphs are to set forth'
vri,ec Rev. Herbert A Jump of Bruins
wick in the Boston Transcript.
Tn. town of Brunswick. Me-. holds
N. title to q tract of land about 800
acres in extent which was voted IL by
The Peinpscot proprietors in 1891 TOT Il
perpetual town common. IL COIL
nrises some of the poorest ihhd III d
rorton Of Maine where poor land IS not
the exception. Lacking the fertility
necessary for cultivation. its fiat, dry
and sand soil has been allowed tn grow
M 10 blurbrrry bushes, save Where
scrIhhy and scraggly pitch pines nave
Struggled hproiCaIly to replace the tree
cover cut away more than n century
oro Across this area fires have swept
u almost annually and such wood as was
not thus eaten up willing pilferers nave
oupropriateI AS soon as it WAS large
enough to serve as firewood. What the
Common had always been-a dlstfiai'
uproni.iug sample of useless so1l-it
night always have remained II there
bad not come to Brunswick few years
ago u man with vision. Mr. Austin
C,rv WAS on" Of the pioneers i'll the pro
i rselon Of forestry in the United states
Ringing. from his study and from N
II Intimate acquaintance with tn'
tres,..rs of Germany fine yet sane
II faith in the improvability of even Tn
tarr.ucst Of the Maine Sandplains. NJ
lmi before the citizens OF frunSWlcf
IN the spriug Of 1890 facts and figures
which created municipal hope tina
n The Nia acres of valueleSs land belong
il.g to the town might be transtorme'
into profit paying asset. Acting upoi
II his suul,.s tinu and under his direction
II accudinrly. brunswick. through It's an
II nual town meeting. his undertaken III
pxIerimrut IN municipal forestry, an'
\ the experiment bids fair to substantial
every exp, citation cherished Tor II
Fifty Years hence. provided the mr.
infection and tree planting now Dem!
I carried ON ara. not suffered to lapse. tn
town will find itself the owner of
tract Of forest land with value q
i"rhaps s3h 600 reckOnrd at rresen
timber values. and capable of yielding
With practically no expense nor dlml
n rulion . comfortable annual income
What Brunswick Is doing may easil.
h dome by other communities pos
y sssing public lands. by private owner
Il in, e
BRING them moro worry than money
snd by possible investors who can fine
in northern New England large acre
ages Of abandoned farms which. unde
The cheriShmg care Of the forester, ma.
made to rejoice and blossom. If no
IKE the rose, at least into preCiOu
timber.
The money appropriated during IN
'"lr Years amounting to only $500. haj
@fn utilized by the committee Il
NEE ways. A corps Of fire warden
ms been organized. composed Of me-
'"Nldmg in the n-ishhorh""d of tn
'"mn"n whose policing has been s
thorough that not a single disastrnu
NE has afflicted the r"mHnn sine
.'F appointment. Meanwhile tn"
nave eXtinguished numerous incipi"r
%Nsratious and etfectually prevent
"%heir surveillance any plmderin
Tie growing trees for tirewood. a
ia't o. the scheme of fire prnt"ctio
S'aoe burrows hlv" been pl"ughe
' ding the Common into sections an
ese burrows. rides" or fire lanes
The German fnrrSters would ca
N'' have almost invariably Succeede
"eir object. Secondly. nurSeI
started three years ago which h:
only furnished healthy stock f
taaplanting on the municipal land
:" mas also netted the town fro
lungs an Income Of thirty three NJ
one-third per c"nt. on its entire appr,
ration for The four years. Thrill
'.ut 10000 trees have been set o
u are now thriving. from which
~, "iah a half-century merchantab
~ can be cut. When the time f
NJ '''s operations arrives. NOR
sinn d careful and scientific superv
,nn vi 'he cutting will preserve for Il
Who, " capital in growing stock fro
rived al an an l,ual dividend can be d
II Bru"ifu'm sly through the futu,
fhclul., neriment in forest
tive acti,,,. entive and constru
~ plies ~ he one hand it SUI
~ The erea,saon 'ainst fire, which
e loeali,r en- ~ to timber in til