Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-04-28
THE WHITE PINE.
Successful Efforts to Start Young
Growth ON Waste Lands.

The writer Of popular tree book once
stated that the white pine Of our north
eastern states was destined to disappear
except fnF ornamental purposes. There
are many reasons to believe that that
time will never come, yet the nature and
habits Of the tree and the short sighted
ness OF the people make the statement
more than mere suspicion.
Not great many years ago, within the
stands Of old-growth pine. Every old in
habitant to-day will tell you how they
stood on his fathers farm when he was
boy, their clear, straight trunks and
gnarled fiat tops high above everything
else. Many an old house back in the
country has floor boards and cupboard
doors that are more than three feet wide
which were made from such trees.
These old monarchs of the northern
forests are gone now, except for isolated
trees or clumps scattered widely over the
region. A wood-lot owner recently
guided me several miles back into the
hills in order to point out three magnif-
cent pines which have been standing
probably for more than $50 years. One
could never mistake them from others of a
later generation.
Before the advent Of the portable saw
mill, it was Improbable to cut and haul
logs any great distance to market. The
trees were felled, rolled together, and
burned when new lands were cleared.
"Log rolling" days are still pleasant
memories to New Englands oldest inhabi-
tants.
Those were the days of the large farms
with great herds of cattle and many oxen.
Sheep roamed the hills in far greater num-
bers than they ever do to-day. Immense
areas were required for pastursge, and ex-
tensive fields supplied the hay and grain
for the winter feed. Ok pastures are not
known to-day, yet they were common in
the days gone by.
To-day, farming has moved west ward,
and large farms in the hills have been re-
duced or abandoned entirely. 1t is true,
OF course, that men have learned to culti-
vate small areas often as profitably as
their fathers did larger tracts OF land.
b'SAg AhuuStAicuo Wcub OVER lis
pastures each year and removed every
chance pine that bad seeded from some
adjacent tree. Now every wise farmer
leaves the young pines to grow.
1t may not be very strange to know,
then, that to-day there are more acres
actually growing trees than there were
fifty or sixty years ago. There is not
> Lar ~
valuable forests have been removed within
the last fifty years. Such land is now
covered with poor quality OF hardwoods.
The valuable forests to-day are the old
fields and pastures which have grown up
to pine.
Every one knows that broadleaf trees,
such as birch, maple and oak, usually
take the place OF pine when it is cut.
These pines do not sprout, as a rule, and
when pine forest has been cut over
without leaving any trees for seed, there
is no chance for young pines to again
occupy the land. Worthless birch and
maple, with their light seeds, usually
takes possession OF the cut-ove land.
This type becomes known as sprout
growth, and is Of little value to mankind.
White pine, deprived of it's right to the
cut-over lands is, however, the predomi-
mating tree Of the abandoned fields. The
owners no longer cut down the young
pines, but encourage their growth. In a
suitable soil, with sufficient light and with
occasional mature trees to supply the
seeds, the abandoned fields alone are pro-
viding for our future commercial timber.
A southern New Hampshire lumberman
recently stated that il he had left few
sturdy pines for seed trees on the wood
lots he has numbered during the last thir
ty years, the present value of the young
growth would be worth more than all the
timber he has cut during his lifetime.
There are thousands OF acres of land,
once growing pine, which are now pro-
ducing4 nothing better than gray birch
and maple.
Often fires have been allowed to burn
over the ground until the only growth
remaining is scrubby and worthless.
But fires are not the menace they used
to be. Farmers are learning the value of
young pine growth and the starting
OF fires to clear the land is not common.
Fires set along railroads and by careless
boys are now the most serious ones.
With increased safety to forest growth,
planting becomes more and more desir-
able investment. Every acre of land
should be producing something of value
to its owners is the general opinion of
every landowner in this era of progress.
The planting OF white pine is often the
only means OF getting an income from
some lands. All the vacant land aud pas
lures cannot seed themselves and the cost
OF planting them will soon be paid for by
the increased value of the land.
But many people say: at will never do
me any good. 1 will never live long
CROUCH to realize anything from my labor
and expense" Experience of hundreds
has shown that this is a grave mistake.
One does not have to wait until his
MIA red lanCs have grown merchantah le