494 



THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



NORTH ATLANTIC DIVISION. 



MAINE. 



The forests of the Northern Pine Belt once extended over the state of Maine. Pine and spruce, with which 

 were mingled maple, birch, and other deciduous trees, covered the entire state, with the exception of the immediate 

 coast region between the Kennebec and the Penobscot rivers, a region of hard- wood forest; hemlock was common. 



The original pine and spruce forests of the state have been practically destroyed. Pine has been cut in every 

 township, and the largest spruce everywhere culled, except from the inaccessible region about the headwaters 

 of the Allaguash river. Scattered bodies of the original pine, often of considerable extent and generally connected 

 with farms, exist in the southern, and especially in the southeastern, counties, and fine hemlock of large size is 

 still an important element of the forest in the central and southern portions of the region west of the Penobscot 

 river. Birch, maple, and oak, too heavy for transport by raft, are still common, except in the neighborhood of 

 manufacturing centers and the lines of railroad. Hard-wood timber is particularly fine and abundant through the 

 central portion of tbe state; farther north the forest is more generally composed of coniferous trees. 



The lumber business of southern and central Maine attained its greatest importance as early as 1850. In that 

 year spruce was for the first time driven down the Kenuebec with pine, and the proportion of spruce to pine has 

 since steadily increased, until, in the season of 1879- r 80, only 20 per cent, of the lumber cut on that river was pine. 

 The lowest point of productive capacity of the forests of Maine has probably been passed. The reckless disregard 

 of forest property which characterized the early lumbering operations of the state has been replaced by sensible 

 methods for preserving and perpetuating the forest. This change in public sentiment in regard to the forests has 

 followed naturally the exhaustion of the forest wealth of the state. As this disappeared the importance of preserving 

 some part, at least, of the tree covering, the source of the state's greatest prosperity, forced itself upon public 

 attention ; for unless the forests could be perpetuated, the state must lose forever all commercial and industrial 

 importance. It has followed that the forests of Maine, as compared with those in other parts of the country, are 

 now managed sensibly and economically. They are protected from fire principally through the force of public 

 sentiment, and only trees above a certain size are allowed to be cut by loggers buying stumpage from the owners of 

 land. In the southern counties the young pine now springing up freely on abandoned farming lands is carefully 

 protected, and large areas are planted with pine in regions where the natural growth has not covered the soil. The 

 coniferous forests, under the present management, may be cut over once in every fifteen or twenty years, producing 

 at each cutting a crop of logs equivalent to 1,000 feet of lumber to the acre, of which from 5 to 7 per cent, is pine, 

 the rest spruce. 



Forest fires, which formerly inflicted every year serious damage upon the forests of the state, are now of 

 comparatively rare occurrence. During the census year only 35,230 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by 

 fire, with an estimated loss of $123,315. These fires were set by farmers in clearing land, by careless hunters, and 

 by sparks from locomotives. 



The following estimates of the amount of pine and spruce standing in the state May 31, 1880, were prepared 

 by Mr. Cyrus A. Packard, of Augusta, land agent of the state. They were made up from the results of actual 

 surveys, and have been reviewed by a large number of experts most familiar with the condition of the forests in 

 different parts of the state : 



