186 FOREST commissioner's report. 



now always enlightened, and the State can save the cost of 

 the work hundreds of times over by simph^ spreading effec- 

 tively pertinent information. For instance, to teach to-day 

 in one section of the State the economies arrived at in (others 

 would be an immensely paying matter. The State moreover 

 can study questions in a way that individuals cannot afford to 

 do. It can study timber supply in a broader way. It can 

 get at the fundamental facts, get at them once for all, and put 

 them in the possession of every man who can use them. 



Particularly in the new development that seems likely 

 to come upon us, the handling of forest land with real 

 knowledo^e and forethousfht, should the State direct and lead. 

 The actual practice of the matter must be left to private 

 hands, for the State has no timberland worth practicing on. 

 The State, however, can encourage and aid in the matter. 

 There are great established principles relating to trees and 

 their growth which our people may well be taught. There 

 are bodies of information collateral to correct forest manage- 

 ment which scientific men only, not men of business, are 

 equipped to obtain. There are needful things which one man 

 cannot do because they cost too much in i)roportion to his 

 individual interest in the matter, whil*^ for the community to 

 do them is a highly paying thing. It looks as if a revolution 

 were impending, a development in methods of handling forest 

 land which means much to the business prosperity of the State. 

 The State can by its support and countenance mightily forward 

 it. 



Here again I have in mind mainly the spruce in those great 

 areas of permanent forest commonly called "the woods of 

 Maine." In the discussion of better cuttino; for these lands 

 in the body of this report, great emphasis was laid on one 

 idea — the value of conservative cutting, of leaving young 

 timber on the land to grow. In fact, except for wind destruc- 

 tion, very little in the connection was said about anything 

 else. This it was thought would best meet the needs of the 

 situation, best answer the questions in the minds of practical 



