FOREST commissioner's REPORT. 179 



OUR FORESTS AND THE FUTURE. 



Before taking up in detail the measures which seem to 

 mean forest reform in this State, it will perhaps be well to 

 state the attitude toward the forests and forest industry which 

 study thus far has brouirht the writer to take. 



First then as to waste. Here a line of distinc- w'f,*.^,*^ = 



W lliit IS 



tion must be drawn. Much waste, we know, can- '^^'"I'^iibie. 

 not be avoided. It is forced into our methods by the abun- 

 dance of our resources and the cheapness of wood material in 

 proportion to hibor. Those who hold up before us the 

 standard of European economy, without recognizing that in 

 America it must l^e greatl}' slackened and modified, can have 

 little comprehension of real American conditions. 



On the other hand against other wastes strong condemna- 

 tion can justly be made. The destruction of timber by fires 

 has been already considerably ventilated. Not so well known, 

 but as I believe in our Maine spruce forests greater in amount, 

 is the destruction wrought by wind. Much of this as it occurs 

 is again irremediable. A considerable proportion, however, 

 as large it seems to me as of the los.s caused by fire, is within 

 the power of managers of tiniberland to prevent. 



Then there are the wastes of actual lumbering. Trees are 

 killed that are not utilized. Stumps are cut high and valua- 

 ble lumber left in the shape of long tops to rot in the woods. 

 A proportion of those wastes comes under the unavoidable 

 list. With a certain distance from market, and a certain 

 ratio of lumber value to labor cost, these goes a corresponding- 

 degree of economy which is the nu)st that can be reached. 

 Much, however, is not to be so excused. ]Much is duo to 

 mere force of habit in our lumbermen. In the old days they 

 learnt wasteful habits, and in the slack conduct of the lumber 

 business in some quarters they have never been compelled to 

 learn better. Here observation in different secticms of the 

 State teaches us a great deal. We learn by that means that 

 the form in which business is oraanized has much to do with 



