FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 93 



alone, according to my information, somewhere fi'om five to 

 six dollars, several times the labor cost oi manufiicturing a 

 thousand feet of lumber. The work too is carried on under bet- 

 ter conditions, is of a higher sjrade, and has the advantasfe of 

 lasting all the year round. This, moreover, is saying noth- 

 ing of the paper manufacture which, in order to save trans- 

 portation, is working nearer and nearer to the woods which 

 are its final source of supply. Taking everything into 

 account, it is probably safe to say that the conversion of a 

 million feet of spruce into paper is worth more to the lal)or 

 of the State than five millions converted into lono; lumber. 



Above all, in concentrating attention on one kind of lum- 

 ber, we must not forget other resources which, though they 

 may at present have little or no market value, possess, never- 

 theless, great utility, and will certainly have value and make 

 business in the not distant future. Chief among; these are 

 our hard woods. A survey of the country for spruce is a 

 very partial and one-sided affair, dictated by the limitation of 

 time and money. The uniform tendency of the past we have 

 no reason to think will be reversed in the early future. Our 

 forest resources have been taken a piece at a time, and they 

 are yet but partly utilized. The increase of population, the 

 development of transportation and of the arts have given to 

 our timberlands in the run, aiid in spite of the searching pur- 

 suit of some kinds of timber upon them, a constant increase 

 in value. 



^^'ith so much in the way of forecast and of explanation, it 

 remains now merely to assemble and put in compact form the 

 major results of this study. As this is done, the qualifica- 

 tions that have been made on previous pages must not be for- 

 gotten. This work cannot be held to close accuracy — there 

 may indeed prove to be considerable errors in it. The facts 

 obtained are seldom the result of exact record. Sometimes 

 they are in terms which are variable and not uniformly under- 

 stood. Judgment almost always forms a considerable ele- 

 ment in them. Not only is this the case with those facts 

 which were obtained by inquiry, ])ut those which were 



