Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1906-11-13
Maine Forests.
AN OPTIMISTIC VIEW OF DISMAL
PREDICTIONS.

Ever since 1880, or earlier, that class
of prophets who are always hunting
trouble have been predicting that within
q comparatively short time the forests Of
Maine would disappear-the states tim
Der Supplies become exhausted. Look
ing over the files of Bangor newspaper
of 1878, the writer found Q communities
ton from Bangor man In which atten-
ton was called to the fact that at the
rate Of cutting then in progress tho
Maine timber lands must within Q few
years become denuded, while In the early
eighties prominent Maine politician
perhaps he might be called statesman,
in speech delivered in Bangor declared
with great emphasis that within forty
years Maine would be sas bare of tim
Der a. this platform upon which I am
standing"
1t Is 33 years since the loud note of
alarm was sounded In the Wing &
Courier, and more than half of the states
mans forty years limit has passed, yet
more logs are cut In the state every win
ter now than at either of the periods
named-more, In fact than ever before,
and the supply somehow holds out. It
is, of course, true that the operators
have to 90 little farther every year for
the right kind Of logs, but they seem to
have no difficulty In getting all they
want, and the longer the drive, the more
employment for men.
Many a time 1t has been figured out
that there are standing in Maine so many
feet of spruce, and then the statisticians
proceed upon this basis to argue that, at
the prevailing rate of cutting, the woods
will be perfectly bare in 80 many years
anywhere from twenty to 100. Forestry
Commissioners Ring, in his report for the
year 1902, estimated the stand of mer-
charitable spruce-that is, trees nine
in ohes in diamete breast high, in Maine
at 81 ,239, 600, 900 feet, and he was of the
opinion that the annual growth Of this
immense forest was sufficient to allow of
a yearly cut of 1000, 900 feet without
depicting the supply. Now, of the total
cut in 1900, which was estimated at
$40, 1856, 900 feet, only 425, 14s,OOO was
spruce, and that was big logging year.
Since 1900 there has been some expan-
sion of the wood pulp industry but not
enough to bring the cut of spruce up to
the limit set by Commissioner Ring
837, 0O0, 900 feet.
The total log cut in the state, on all
driving waters, and even including
many small local operations where the
logs are hauled directly to the mills,
ranges between 750, 900 and 875 ,000,-
600 year, according as the lumber
trade is dull or active. The higher the
lumber market goes, the greater the log
cut, of course, and as the lumber mar
ket is never likely to 60 higher than it
did in 19O4-5, when heavy dimensions
reached 1923 to $50 in New York, no one
need expect to see saw mill operations
more extensive at any time In the future
than they were in those years-certainly
not 80 long as New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia can flood the American markets
aud run down the prices three or four
dollars thousand on spruce randOms as
they did last winter and spring. Pulp
and paper, too, are now about as high
priced as they are ever likely to be, and
there is always the possibility, II not
probability, that one Of these days the
bottom will be knocked out OF the wood
pulp business by the perfection of some
of the numerous processes now in the
experimental stage of making paper
from other fibres than wood.
A lumberman of long experience told
the News the other day that most of the
talk about careful cutting methods being
practised by the big pulp concerns is
pure moonshine-that they and some
other operators literally strip the lands,
taking the small growth with the large,
and he said that an inspection of the
logs in the drives would show this to be
fact. Yet, there is a plenty of big
spruce yet to be had and good deal of
it came down the East branch this year.
This indiscriminate cutting, continued
for many years, would, of course, reduce
the standing supply considerably, but It
will be long time before Maine will
have to look for substitute for spruce.
Probably in the year 1889 the dismal
predictions of 1905 will sound as foolish
as do those OF 1878 at this day.