38 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



cut already that the future supp y will be practically what grows 

 annually, and the time is not far distant when all of our forests will 

 be reduced to this basis. 



We are naturally led to enquire whether the annual growth of 

 lumber in Maine is equal to the annual demand, thus insuring a per- 

 petual supply'. Let us approach the subject by the aid of such 

 statistics as we can command. 



There are about nineteen million acres of land in Maine, twelve 

 million of which is in forests. This includes swamps^ mountains, 

 poorly timbered areas, and all lands not included in farms. 



The annual yield of survejed lumber is about 500 million feet, 

 board measure. This excludes cedar, cut for shingles, pulpwood, 

 firewood, etc., not surveyed, which would greatly augment the 

 amount. Dividing the yield, 500 miUion by the acreage, twelve 

 million, we get 42 nearly or the number of feet of lumber each acre 

 must produce annually to supply the present demand. 



To find out the present yield per acre of our forests the opinion 

 of experienced scalers has been obtained. One scaler who has just 

 surveyed a township estimated about 3,000 feet of marketable lum- 

 ber to the acre and thought it would hold out. Said he did not 

 believe there was a township on Penobscot waters that would average 

 over 3,000 feet of marketable lumber, and regarded 2,000 feet a 

 good average. Another said that taking the State it would not 

 average over 2,000 feet. Another experienced scaler estimated 

 1,500 feet per acre. Another thought l,00u feet per acre for the 

 State would be enough. The writer averaged the pine in one of the 

 Southern States for the tenth census and placed it at 2,500 feet per 

 acre. His impression of Maine forests is that the yield would be 

 considerable less. To be on the safe side let us take the highest 

 estimate 2,000 feet. That would give twenty-four billion feet as 

 the marketable lumber now ready to cut. 



At the present rate of consumption, making no allowance for 

 annual growth, or wood cut for other purposes than lumber it would 

 last about forty-eight years. If 1,500 feet is more nearly correct, 

 it would last only thirty-six years, if 1,000 feet then only twenty- 

 four years. 



The question reduces itself to whether the annual growth in forty- 

 eight years would amount to tweuty-four billion feet, and thus keep 

 up the present supply. To get some idea of the time required for 

 forest trees to grow to marketable size, observations have been made 



