The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-20

and spruce. The forest was thinned by numbering the pine, and the in. crease amount of light permitted new kinds of undergrowth to get a foot hold. Fire, as almost invariably hap pens, followed the lumbering the rest of the original stand was destroyed, and the undergroWth was still further altered great variety of valueless underbrush and weeds taking possess sion of the ground, together with a stand Of birch, people, red maple and other hardwood seedlings. As the fires continued to occur this hardwood growth became scrubby and was final- ly entirely eliminated. and the ground became true barren, covered with a growth of blueberry bushes, sweet fern, brake, bunchberry, golden-rod, and sheep laurel. With the ground in such condition it's best use is for blue berry culture.
 The blueberry owner divides his land into three portions; each year he picks the berries from one portion, burns another portion, and allows the third to rest. The first year after the land is burned over the blueberry bushes sprout and grow a. few inches. The se- cond year they yield a full crop of ber- ries. The third season the crop is small and of little value, and the bushes reach condition in which they can be burned most effectively.
 Under this system of blueberry cul- ture the land does not run out" with constant use for the same crop. Where the burning has been properly done,
 the same tracts have grown blueberry continuously for 50 years without showing any decrease in the yield. But if the land is burned over at the wrong time of the year, or the roots of the bushes are badly injured by fire,
 many years are required to restore the
 productive capacity of the tract. The
 best time for burning is when the
 melting snow leaves the ground wet and the tops of the bushes dry. After May 10 burning is very injurious, un- less the spring is exceptionally late. The canning cornpafTtes own most of the blueberry lands fn Maine except some small 25 or 5O-acre private hold ings. Pickers from company lands get 3 cents a quart, while private 4CSSiNS dpOuI IU CeILS d quart for their berries The picking season lasts six weeks. A rapid picker makes from $4 to SS a. day; if he has a large family to help him it is not un- usual for him to make $500 or $500 in the six weeks. This makes the in- dustry very popular among the pickers, and increases the danger that forest fires will be set or permitted to burn through good timber in order to in crease the extent of blueberry barrens. In addition to the 2800 acres of present barrens, there are in Hancock County over 5000 acres which have been reduced almost to a barren con- dition. Here, if necessary, this indus try could be pro1tably extended. But when numbering and fires have not materially depleted the forests, the land should be continued under forest cover and stand improved. The oppor- tunity is ample for proper extention of bluebsrry culture without invading valuable forests lands, which should be protected from fire. The wisest poll icy Is to utilize the present blueberry barren areas to the fullest extent, and not to encroach further upon the for ests, except as the growth of the in dustry makes it profitable to take old cut-oyer lands for this purpose Exchange.