184 FOREST commissioner's report. 



figures are very instructive. B}^ the side of what scientific 

 forestry could do with the land, these amounts are utterly 

 insignificant. To one like the writer who believes that mere 

 care in lumbering — stopping of the needless wastes that occur, 

 and cutting with some reference to wind destruction and the 

 future production of the country — would both piece out our 

 resources considerably and multiply the volume of future 

 growth, these figures are very encouraging. With things 

 going on as they are the State can long maintain the present 

 volume of the si)ruce cut. The production of the hind we 

 have it in our power to increase whenever we find it necessary 

 to do so. 



The paper ^ Subordinate matter here, and yet one that is of 



business. pning importance, I -wish here briefly to treat of. 

 That is the pulp and paper business. This is one of the most 

 valuable industries that the State has. It is a substantial and 

 lasting thing. Its worst possible enemy seems to be itself, 

 acting in the way of overstocking the trade, increasing pro- 

 duction beyond a natural and wholesome demand. Spruce is 

 the staple of the raw material of the paper mills. Their pros- 

 perity seems bound up in its abundant and continued supi)ly. 

 Now while there seems to be nowhere a cause for immediate 

 fear in this respect as long as the pulp and paper mills can 

 command the output of the land, there does seem to I)e the 

 feeling in some quarters that the upper limit for i)rice of 

 wood has been nearly reached. I have in mind an Andros- 

 coggin manufacturer who made the statement that in his iuds- 

 ment the advance in price of pulp wood by one dollar per 

 thousand could not be stood by the business — that the mills 

 would have to go out of business or find other sources of sup- 



What there may be outside of the State and its forests that 

 may be available for the supply of Maine paper mills I have 

 no means of knowing. What there is w^ithin those limits 

 adequate to the stocking of a great industry seems, however, 

 pretty clear. There is first our stock of hard woods. Any 

 manufacture which would employ wood of this kind, using 



