The Detroit times., 1911-04-29
PLENTY OF SPRUCE.
LEFT IN MAINE
Forebodings of the Pessimistic Proph-
cts Discounted By Timber
Now Standing.

BANGOR, April 2s.-Ever since
1860 OF earlier those prophets who
are always hunting trouble nave peen
predicting that within comparative
" short time the forests OF Mains
would disappear. Looking over ene
files OF a Bangor newspaper OF 1919
the writer found communication
from a Bangor man in which atten-
ton was called 10 the fact that Al
the rate OF cutting then In progress
the Maine timberlands must within a
few wears become denuded, while in
the early eighties United states Sen
ator Eugene Hale, in a speech deliy-
cred In Bangor, declared with great
emphasis that within forty years
Maine would be "as bare OF timber
as this platform upon which l am
standing"
II is thirty-eight years since the
loud note OF alarm was sounded In
the whig and Courier. yet more logs
are cut in the state every winter now
than ever before. and the supply
somehow holds out. II Is. OF course,
true that the operators have TO go
little further 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 II 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 forests will have dis
appeared In so many years-any-
where from twenty TO one hundred.
Figures Contradict Prophets.
Forestry Commissioner Ring. in his
report for the year 1902. estimated
the stand OF merchantable spruce
that is trees nine inches in diameter
breast high-in Maine at 2l,2S9,OOO,-
600 feet, and he was OF the opinion
that the annual growth OF this i'm
mense forest was sufficient to allow
for a yearly cut of 637 ,000.0 900 feet
without depicting the supply. Now
OF the total cut in l900 which was
estimated at SAC, 6S6,O00 feet. only
425,14S. 900 was spruce, and that was
a big logging year Since 1900 there
has been some expansion OF the wood
pulp industry, but not enough 10
bring the cut. of spruce up 10 the
limit set by Commissioner Ring-637.-
OOO, 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 100000
900 and $4,000. 900 feet a year. de-
pending ON whether the lumber trade
is dull or active. The higher the lum-
Der market goes the greater the log
cut, OF course, and as the lumber
market is never likely to go higher
than il did in l904-5, when heavy di-
reached SIS TO $29 in New
York, no one need expect to see saw
mill operations more expensive at any
time in the future than they were in
those years. certainly not so long as
New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and
West Virginia can food the Ameri-
can markets and run down the prices.
Pulp Menace Not Apparent.
Pulp and paper, too, are now about
as high-priced as they are ever likely
to be, and there is always the pos
sibility, II not probability, that one or
these udlS the DOtIOtl viii Uc hnOIh-
ed out OF the wood pulp business by
the perfection OF some OF the numer-
Gus processes now in the experiment
al stage OF making paper from other
fibres than wood.
A lumberman OF long experience
said the other day that most OF the
talk about careful cutting methods be-
ing practiced by the big pulp con-
Germs 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 a fact.
Yet, there is aplenty OF big spruce
yet to be had This indiscriminate
cutting, continued for many years. |
would, OF course, reduce the standing |
supply considerably, but IL will be a
long time before Maine will have TO
look for substitute for spruce. !
Probably in the year 1919 the dismal
predictions OF 1911 will sound as fool