FOREST COJIMISSIONER'S REPORT. 97 



tains further south is not known to the writer. No other 

 part of Maine, however, ever had any such spruce stand, and 

 probably no portion of New York or New England as is 

 found from licre across northern New Hampshire. Only 

 patches of timber elsewhere stand as thick as does the coun- 

 try here. The timber too is much of it of the finest quality 



and size. 



A paragraph in general regarding the cutting on Cutting 

 this drainage will be of service before starting in i>i«'^"iy- 

 on its detail examination. Brunswick was the center of the 

 early lumber business on the Androscoggin, and much of the 

 early pine cut was sawed there. It was after 1850 that the 

 bulk of the business was shifted up river. About 1852 mills 

 were l)uilt at Lewiston, while at the same time the Grand 

 Trunk extended to Berlin, N. H., and mills were located on 

 the falls at that point. In 1852 also dams were built on the 

 lakes, and drives from the lake region, which up to that time 

 had been small and uncertain, became regular and consider- 

 able in amount. But all this early lumber was pine. Pine 

 was originally on almost all the drainage mixed with the 

 spruce. Spruce, however, through all this upper region was 

 always the most abundant coniferous timber. 



It is only within forty years that spruce has been cut on 

 the Androscoggin, while from as far up as the lakes no s))ruce 

 was driven out till the first years of the war. The length 

 and difiiculty of the drive has saved the timber, and kept the 

 river much behind the Kennebec in the utilization of its lum- 

 ber resources. 



To understand the course of the spruce cut, another glance 

 at the map is necessary. This will show that the michlle 

 course of the Androscoggin — which is its lower course in the 

 spruce belt — is within the limits of the state of New Hamp- 

 shire. Much of the cutting up to the present time, therefore, 

 has been on the New Hampshire side of the line. That i)or- 

 tion of the Androscoggin drainage is indeed comparatively 

 severely used, and hard cutting has extended about up to 



