Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-09-24

this convention, has raised this season
at his summer home on a nearby island
IL Penunscot Bay, ISlesboro, 1000 bush
| els of potatoes and plans another sea-
son to devote forty acres to the 1aising
OF tubers.
The evening session at Coakley hall
was largely attended. Addresses were
made by Roy l.. Marston of Skowhe-
gan on Forestry and Water Conser-
vation," VIM. O. Weber Of Boston ON
THE Development of Tidal Power
| illustrated, and L. C. Plummer of Bath
on american Shipping National
Need"
lows:
Maine has depended upon two factors.
of Maine has depended upon two factors.
her natural resources and her men. The
strong bodies and minds which have en-
abled our Maine men to take the promi-
nent parts that they have in the indus
tries and councils of every state in the
Union are due in large part to the man
hood building work of developing that
greatest Maine resource. the forests.
We are fools, indeed if we neglect to take
account of stock, reckoning both the sup
ply and the demand. Pulp mills have
come from other states whose spruce is
gone and they have come to stay. The
men at the head of these great enter
prises realize that they must insure a
constant and perpetual supply of timber
In very brief the situation is this: We
are cutting about 100 million feet of spruce
and only about 600 million feet are grow
ing per year. Reckoning the amounts
annually destroyed by fire. wind, insects
and disease. and it does not require very
wise man to that emitting
% per cent more spruce every year than
is growing. Now then. we must either de-
crease our cut which means decreasing
the amount of business done by the mills
and throwing men out of employment and
money out of circulation, or We must in
crease our yield
Ten years work in the forests of Maine
has convinced me that it is possible and
practicable to make our timber lands
yield billion feet of spruce per year
do not mean that we can do it this year
or next, but | do most emphatcally
mean that it could be done in y years.
The present average net annual income
per acre in Saxony is $437 The Saxons
accomplished these results by spending
money for the care of their timberlands
Just as they spent money for the care of
their farm lands. They began by spend
ing so cents an acre and now are spend
ing about $2.35 per acre every year in
be accomplished in Maine by the same
general methods i. g. efficient protection
from fire, reduction of waste and more
complete utilization of the log. handling
the cutting so that complete reproduce
ton of young trees would be insured, and
f1nally by taking care of the young trees
thereafter.
The effect of this conservation of the
forests upon our other great natural re-
source, the water powers is without
question quite as important as upon the
allied timber industries themselves.
Our powers have done much towards
the industrial development of the State
but the future certainly has in store an
industrial era far greater and more i'm
portant than most of us believe We
have now 2.797 wheels developing s,09i
horse power part of the year which makes
us rank third in the country But if We
will but stop~nnd think how most of the
power sites are developed we can under
stand what it means for us to stand third
in the country. The average development
per wheel in Maine is only 123 horse
power compared to 1876 in California The
recent report of the National Conserva-
ton Commission SHOWS that we have in
Maine 99l 800 horse power which could BE-
developed. Now then. if consider
that each horse power is equal to about
!! tons of coal per year. we find that our
rivers could drive mills requiring in round
numbers 100000 tons of coal. a repre-
sentative of one of the large pulp cor
porations of Maine testified before a COM
mittee in Congress this year that his
company estimated that Xater power was
NoIt III SfuW per IoISe power per year
which would put a monetary value OF
nearly $N,WO.OOO per year for our Maine
powers, an amount 10 times greater than
the value of our spruce cut
The relationship of the forests upon
the water power lies in the reservoir
of the watersheds. Broadly
speaking. it can be said that every bit of
water flowing over the top of dam dur
ing spring freshet periods or in fact at
any time is wasted water power. The
ideal watershed would of course hold
this freshet water in it's soil and allow it
to run off very gradually into the rivers
so that the mill ponds would be always
full but never overlooking. 1t is not diff
cult to see that denuded watershed
would allow the snow water and rain
water to run off and cause floods and
freshets much more than a watershed
covered with trees. underground and
heavy moss. The records of the Geologi-
cal survey show beyond any question that
this is a fact. The Conservative Commits
sion also reports that in every state
where the forests have been cut off. there
has been a gradual decrease in the annual
rainfall. This has been much disputed
question, but the commission has records
Of rain gauges of fifty years to substan-
tiate it's claim.
In the matter of natural reservoirs
Maine is more fortunate than any other
state in the Union because it has more
acres of water to the square mile than
any other state. Each of our great rivers
has one or several large bodies of water
to serve as a catch basin. such Moose
head for the Kennebec and the Rangeleys
for the Androscoggin
The construction of dams on all TIL,
reservoirs of tho drainage area to store
water is absolutely necessary for COM
rlete utilization. The effort of developing
the available storage capacity in the up
land basins is shown by co.nnaring the
second-feet unit per square mile on the
where the develop" ont -
very near complete to the unit on the
kennebec Every square mil, on the for
mer holds 2.14 feet while on the latter it
Is but lisa second feet AS the amount Of
power is increased in direct proportion
to the increase of the second feet unit it
is evident that Water Conservation is a
pighty Important confederation il this
State. The d'f;Cu't problem in handi,.
this situation in Maine is tie f ct that il
very many p'acHs the bowers are ownel
by several Individual wheel owners which