58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



not too great for pormaueut maintenance. During this period of 

 waste, France neither exported manufuctured wood or rough tim- 

 ber, nor derived important collateral advantages of any sort from 

 the destruction of her forests ; but on the contrary, during a portion 

 of that period she drew largely from the forests of other countries, 

 in timber for naval and other purposes. Active measures are now 

 in progress in France for the restoration of the forests. The gov- 

 ernments and the people in' other countries of Europe, are more or 

 less engaged in the same work. 



The subject of American forests is suggested here as of primary 

 importance, — the first to be considered by the National and State 

 governirients, — tlie first to occupy the attention of all the people 

 of these States, after the immediate provision of food and clothing. 

 We are destined soon to bo startled by the unpleasant fact that a 

 famine for wood is upon us, unless immediate measures are adopted 

 whereby the supply may be increased, and the destruction of what 

 remains diminished. Coal and peat may and should be substituted 

 for wood, as fuel, but for a vast number of purposes in the me- 

 chanic arts there is nothing yet that will take the place of wood. 

 This fact gives to the subject a grave importance, and when we note 

 the constantly increasing value of wood and lumber, the grounds 

 for serious apprehension seem to be substantial. A circular 

 issued in the name of the Board of Agriculture, in May 1 868, 

 served to disclose the fact, that wood lands in the well settled por- 

 tions (jf this State have advanced in value in the last ten years 

 fiDiii fifty to two hundred per cent. \V"ood, as fuel, has advanced 

 ill about the same ratio; and lumber very uniformly about one 

 hundred per cent. After making allowance for our depreciated 

 standard of money value, there remains a fact to be accounted for 

 only on the basis of short supply. The probabilities of demand 

 and supply in the next ten or twenty years, favor a farther advance 

 in prices. Very little wood has been planted or encouraged to 

 grow on lanWs tluit have purposely been cleared for other crops. 

 Other important facts have been disclosed in the pursuit of this 

 iiKjiiiry. That the county of Androscoggin retained in wood in 

 185!) only 38 per cent, of its entire area, and tlio county of 

 Sagadahoc only 39 per cent. Some other counties were reduced 

 in their percentage of unimproved lands nearly as low. Since 1859 

 till' extension of manufactures and increase of population, particu- 

 lurly ill Androscoggin, has seriously reduced the area of wood 

 lands, and many towns are now ncsarly cleared of trees. Estimates 



