14 FOREST COMMISSIONER'S REPORT. 



time derive reasonable revenues from them, and it will only 

 be by careful investigation and study of the subject that we 

 shall be able to prevent a possible disastrous condition in our 

 State. 



Hon. Charles E. Oak, State Land Agent and Forest Com- 

 missioner : 



Sir : In transmitting to you the results of field and office 

 study carried out in some special directions, I wish briefly to 

 refer to some general considerations regarding the forests of 

 the State, and to suggest lines of further work. 



The importance of her forests to the State of Maine I need 

 not dwell upon. Forest products have l^een our largest 

 export. Trees cover the greater portion of the surface of the 

 State, and their cutting, manufacture and sale occupy a large 

 proportion of our people. Moreover, great natural character- 

 istics of the State render it probable that this Avill continue 

 to be so. The geology of the State providing only in limited 

 regions a soil agriculturally productive, combined with our 

 moist climate which causes rapid growth and ensures that all 

 neglected land shall be quickly covered with trees, — these 

 facts seem to render it certain that the most profitable use for 

 a large portion of our territory will permanently be the grow- 

 inof of tim1)er. 



In any such comniunit}" as ours, large areas of woodland 

 must remain, even in the best settled districts. Such areas 

 in the aggregate have great productive power, and their sit- 

 uation renders them of the greatest value and use. Leaving 

 them out of account, however, we might roughly designate 

 areas which seem destined to be unmixed and perpetual forest. 

 Of the great natural divisions of the State, the fertile Aroos- 

 took region is probably best defined. Embracing the north- 

 ern anjxle of the State, and the district east of the East Branch 

 Penobscot, the rocks underlying the country provide such a 



