APPENDIX. 75 



First. As an encouragement to timber land owners to let their 

 trees grow until they are mature, the forests of every state should 

 receive the most ample protection the law can possibly afford 

 against fire, their most destructive enemy. 



Second. It is a matter of prime importance tliat we have a trust- 

 wortliy account of st ck taken of the forests of the country giving 

 their area and condition. 



This should be taken by the general gov rnmentat every census. 

 Such statis'ics will prove to be of incalculable value lo the owners 

 of wood lands, manufacturers of lumber and all consumers of forest 

 material, as large a number of our population as are interested in 

 any other c'ass of statistics. Let these statistics be accessible to 

 every owner of timber land small and j^reat. If one knows the 

 indispensable demands of the public for material to be cut from a 

 given area, the condition of which is also known, it will be a simple 

 arithmetical problem for him to determine whether the fiuancial 

 result will be larger by letting his trees grow to maturity or by 

 cutting them before that time. 



It is to be regretted that in taking the eleventh census no pro- 

 vision was made for collecting such forestry statistics as were taken 

 in the tenth census. 



The forestry convention at Bangor in December 1888 appointed 

 a committee to memorialize Congress with reference to enlarging 

 these forestry statistics in the next (last) national census. This 

 committee consisting of Hon. G. F. Talbot of Portland, Dr. A. C. 

 Hamlin of Bangor and Prof. Harvey of the Maine State College 

 attended to that duty. We deem it a great misfortune to the nation 

 that their suggestions were unheeded. 



In dealing with the subject of the depreciation of our forest 

 growth, the enormous waste suffered from great tires deserves men- 

 tion. One vital step in the prev-^ntion of this p stis the cultivation 

 of an enlarged sentiment in respect to the worth of our forests. 

 Many a one who would hesitate to set a fire that would endanger 

 a hay stack will wantonly expose to the flames unbounded tracks of 

 valuable wood land. It is hoped that the interest already awakened 

 in this State in the subject of forestry which manifested itself in 

 the enactment of the forestry law by the last Legislature will have a 

 tendency to create a more tender care than has hitherto been felt 

 for our woods. 



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