194 FOREST COMMISSIONER S REPORT. 



as !i field rather than a mine. Having attained that, we shall 

 have further to learn conservatism and patience. Patience is 

 an essential in successful forest management. Trees grow 

 but slowly to a mature condition. If they are cutl)ef()re they 

 are fit, the best results, the greatest aggregate returns, cannot 

 be reaped. 



, ,, That brinijs us to the inquiry where will forestry 



Wl;ere sbaU '^ i J J 



we ijeginv ^^\i\^ ^xs begin ? AVhere are the interests of parlies 

 so related to one another and to the land that self interest 

 prompts to a conservative treatment? Here the observations 

 recorded in the body of this report help us. It is where the 

 cutter of land is also its owner, and has therefore, an interest 

 in its future productiveness and value. That interest heightens, 

 however, when the chief investment of the owner is not in 

 land, but in mills which require the product of the land for 

 their supply. It is our expensive plants for pulp and paper 

 manufacture dependent for their raw material of spruce w^ood 

 on the output of restricted districts, that will furnish motive 

 for the introduction of productive forestry into the woods of 

 Maine. Among the different regions of the State, it is on the 

 Androscoggin where mostfavorable conditions subsist. There 

 much of the land is held by the owners of costly mills. Natural 

 conditions too are there most favorable. The possibilities 

 are greater. The natural stand of s[)ruce is heavier than 

 elsewhere ; the possible production of the land is more 

 considerable. 



Here, it w^ill be seen, we gain a view of the pulp and paper 

 industry quite at variance wdth that entertained generally by 

 our people. That it is the right view, a ^r^bW considerations 

 and the actual f\icts of the case as well leave little room to 

 doubt. The paper mill man with his costly plant is the man 

 most interested in steady spruce supply. As a matter of fact 

 he is the man who is most pointedly considering it. 



There are many things in the German system of forest 

 management which we certainly cannot adopt. Thus purely 



cultural operations such as planting, trimming, and thinning 



