APPENDIX. 67 



much of a curiosity in Maine fifty years hence as a pine will be in 

 the Northwest at that time. 



A potent factor in hastening the cutting of immature patches of 

 second growth white pine which now form so large a portion of the 

 forest growth of the earlier settled parts of the State, is the portable 

 saw mill. The ravages of this monster are fearful to contemplate. 



Such a mill is set up in a large clump of young pines which may 

 have been the most prominent and attractive feature in the land- 

 scape for miles around, and in a few weeks nothing is left to mark 

 the spot which it had so long adorned, but a huge pile of sawdust. 



This wasteful practice is going on all over New England, at the 

 present da}', with the result of keeping the market glutted with 

 lumber suitable only for box boards, and yielding but a small return 

 to the owner of the land. 



In these tracts of growth, where but few of the trees ai'e more 

 than a foot in diameter at the stump, and all above four inches go 

 through the mill, it would be idle to expect any of the smaller trees 

 to grow, if they were left standing. Having only a few feeble 

 limbs to crown a long, slender stem which has a slight hold on the 

 soil, they would be scorched by the sun and easily prostrated by 

 the winds. 



Owners of these mills tell me, that, in order to get business, 

 they are now compelled to set up their mills in timl)er much smaller 

 than that which they sawed ten years ago. The time is not far dis- 

 •tant when many of them must cease work for want of material to saw. 



It needs not the prevision of an inspired prophet to tell us, that 

 a pine tree one hundred years old fifty years hence, will have double 

 the value that such a tree has to-day. In the light of our present 

 knowledge concerning the area and condition of the forests of the 

 country, what manifest folly for the owners of sapling pine growth 

 to sacrifice it in the way it is being done now everywhere. 



We believe that thrifty white pine growth, a patch of which is to 

 be seen on nearly every farm in the older settled portions of the 

 State, will yield a far larger return to the owners, if the weaker and 

 less valuable trees are removed, in order that the larger and more 

 thrifty trees may have the light and room essential to their rapid 

 growth. 



That such management would give a better financial result, even 

 at present prices, for large timber, than that of total clearance, 

 when the largest trees are no more than a foot in diameter at the 



