80 FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 



skirts of the raountiiin, we ran out of it into a growth pre- 

 dominantly hard wood. This piece of timber was located 

 where it could be hauled either way, — into Penobscot or 

 Kennebec waters, — and that fact perhaps, complicated by the 

 owner's preferences, had saved it to the present time. It is 

 introduced here mainly because it shows what may ])e on 

 what is called a cut-over town in some portions of our State. 

 One never knows till he looks it over what a township treated 

 like this has on it. A second cut, if thorough, sometimes 

 yields more than did the first. 



What further inferences different readers may draw from 

 this record of fact observed I may not be able to guess. To 

 many lumbermen this will seem a perfectly natural and fit- 

 ting condition. Forestry agitators on the other side may 

 adopt quite as extreme a view. There certainly is great waste 

 in our methods of lumbering. Some directions in which this 

 takes place have not yet been referred to. The waste which 

 Wastes jg here most iilain on the surface is the cuttincr of 



or huQ * o 



sy9teSf5^ timber in such a way that what is left blows down. 

 Great values are lost in this way. As I think over what has 

 been seen during the season's travel, it certainly seems that 

 the loss through wind in the great forest areas of the State is 

 greater than that caused by fire. Study of our forests and edu- 

 cation of our lumbermen will remedy much of this loss. Much, 

 however, cannot be remedied, and in one sense does not 

 require remedy. The bounty of nature in setting at our hand 

 greater supj^lies, when all are considered, than we are yet 

 able to utilize, forces into our business methods much waste 

 and loss. To talk of European economy for the State of 

 Maine is folly. 



But there are wastes here which are needless and glaring, 

 and the conditions under which they occur must not be 

 allowed to escape us. Not only is timber cut without regard 

 to the future of the land, but with little reference to getting 

 the full benefit of what is now on it. Little more than half of 

 what is killed is utilized. The land is hacked and gashed, 

 not sytematically cut. The thick bunches are taken and that 



