The Elk Mountain pilot., 1919-12-18
DANCER or WOOD
famine IS SEEN.
Trees In Forests Must Be Re-
placed or Great Scarcity
WIN Result.
SAW MILLS SNAIL FACTOR
Pulp Mills Eat Up Many Millions Of
eprues Every Year Scientific
Forestry Has Net Caught Up
to Tree Slaughter.

spruce every Yeoe- Setentouo
Forestry Has Net Caught Up
70 Tree slaughter.
Bangor, Ne.-When the world gets
through with its arguments about war,
peace. the (or ~ League Of Nations
and all that Is expressed in the
short and ugly word rum" 1t should
turn its most serious and intelligent
attention to tree farming. Positively,
there must be many more trees. or .
constant and liberal replenishment of
the existing supply. or presently we
shall suffer great Inconvenience from
the scarcity Of many useful and some
ornamental things.
In the simple and innocent old times
q tree was just 30 much standing lum-
Der, and lumber was cheap. Within
the memory Of men Of middle ago
arst-class spruce logs sold In Bangor
at $11 to $14 per thousand feet. The
men who cut the logs were paid $16
to 500 a month and board, the board
consisting chiefly Of a bunk to sleep
in and "beans twenty-one times a
week" The men who "drove" the
same logs. that is. personally con-
Quoted them down the roaring brooks
and raging rivers. received for their
labors and hair-raising risks. $2.25 to
50 a day. according to their athletic
skill and their fame as white water
men," and Of course all hands were
fed, although the menu was character
lied by monotonous simplicity and
the service subject to many irregu-
larities and postponements. These
same logs were sawed In mills that
ornamented the banks Of the Penob-
scot for fifty miles or more, chiefly
between Milford and Bangor. . dis
tance of about fifteen miles. The MIN
hands went to work very carly In the
morning and kept at It until long af-
ter everyone else had quit for the
day, being rewarded to the extent Of
about $50 a month and all the corned
beef, cabbage, etc. they could eat In
twenty to thirty minutes. three Or
four times q day. according to sea
son.
Profit 10 Manufacturer.
The sweet-smelling spruce that was
sliced of by the saws was worth
$14 to $21 per thousand feet. accord
ing to quality and dimensions. This
would seem to allow Of slight profit
to the manufacturer. but there are
various ways Of measuring logs and
lumber-woods scale. boom scale and
mill scnle-and during the golden era
Of Bangor's spruce trade the juggiery
Of figures was such that 1000 feet Of
logs, boon scale would ~saw out"
anywhere from 1.160 to Loo feet Of
lumber. 1900 feet being . fair aver.
age. 80. even IN the gloomiest dayA
when heavy spruce dineosions were
selling at 81 to "a and the Bangor
mill men would II In their o&scss
chewing tobacco and eussing the hard
times. they wers in fact making q
pretty good thing-eepecially II they
happened to own the land the logs
were cut from.
Then, last Of all, the coasters who
carried the lumber to Boston. the
Sound and New YORK got @1.75, $2.2o
and $3.50 per thousand feet for de-
livery at those several Destination
that is, the rates quoted prevailed
during fairly good times. In dull
times lumber was carried from Ban
gor to Boston as cheaply as 1925 to
$50 per thousand, to Long Island
sound ports at S1.76 to $2, and to New
York at e to $225.
Now everything II changed. OF
Maine's normal log cut Of 100000
900 feet, at least 90 per cent goes In
to pulp and paper. The native log
ger, who swung 4 sharp AZ skillfully
at $1s to $50 month and was con-
tent to live on baked beans and
salted fish. has been succeeded BY
polyglot mob that uses saws Ian
guidly at $50 to $50 . month. de
mands hotel fare. frequent payments.
polite treatment and every few weeks
vacation. The logs for the most
part, are cut into four-foot lengths,
and they go to the big pulp and paper
mills owned by corporations that long
ago bought up hundreds of thousands
of acres Of the best timber In Maine.
Logging used to begin in November
and end in March. Now 1t goes on at
all seasons.
Saw Mills Small Factor.
The saw mill is a small factor in
the great game Of turning Maine for
ests into money. The long log.
ger. that is. he who cuts for sawmills.
is almost extinct. The big sawmin
drives are seen no more. This Is the
day of the "four-foot stuff" which
makes up most Of the drives and gives
business to the railroads. The pulp
mills eat up SO many millions Of feet
of spruce that speculative and statis-
tical persons wonder where it all
| comes from and how long the supply
will last. SO far as Maine is con-
cerned there need be no fear Of wood
famine very soon, but at the pres