216 



climate is exceptionally favorable to the development of the 

 sphagnums. They are built up almost wholly by the sphagnum, 

 and they can develop only in regions where there is sufficient rain 

 and fog to permit the sphagnum to grow up above the water level. 



Now the facts regarding raised bogs that I have just pointed 

 out have a rather important application. If, as I have said, 

 these raised bogs are restricted to regions where climatic condi- 

 tions are most favorable to sphagnum development, it follows 

 that you ought to find your best sphagnum in regions where 

 these raised bogs are present. In other words, you can regard 

 the abundance of raised bogs in any region as a sort of barometer 

 as to the degree to which the climate there is suited to the sphag- 

 nums. 



I have spent a month this past summer investigating the 

 sphagnum situation along the Maine coast. Starting in at 

 Portland, I have visited fifteen different localities between there 

 and Calais, which lies along the Canadian border. In the 

 vicinity of Portland there are no raised bogs, and I was unable to 

 find any trace of surgical sphagnum. As you travel eastward 

 the raised bogs become more and more common, and surgical 

 sphagnum, at first very local in its occurrence, becomes more and 

 more general in its distribution. There seems to be little ques- 

 tion that the coastal region of Maine, from Penobscot Bay east- 

 ward, is the most promising part of the eastern United States in 

 which to look for supplies of surgical sphagnum. Unfortunately, 

 however, many of the very best bogs — the ones most suited to 

 the growth of surgical sphagnum, and the ones easiest to get at — 

 lie along the borders of small lakes; and these lakes for years 

 have been dammed by the lumbermen and the bogs flooded to 

 such an extent that most of the best sphagnum has been drowned 

 out. In other places fires have exterminated or killed back the 

 sphagnum over large areas. Sphagnum papillosum, the most 

 desirable species for surgical purposes, is extremely sensitive to 

 any change in external conditions. In spite of these difficulties, 

 however, I was able to locate a considerable number of sizeable 

 tracts of good moss; and I have no doubt that others will con- 

 tinue to turh up. 



