504 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



the forest, selected only the big trees, cut 

 them with a high stump, threw away all 

 the upper branches, using only the stem, 

 and wasted easily one-half of the tree. 

 Now they are obliged to begin low on the 

 trunks and to "work up" all of the tree 

 that can be used. There is almost no 

 waste. 



The large companies are cutting more 

 strictly. They have been brought to real- 

 ize that wood pulp has come to stay as an 

 article of commerce and that their plants 

 must be fed not only next year but twenty 

 years hence. Many of them hire trained 

 foresters, as a farmer hires farm hands, 

 and all of them employ expert woodsmen. 

 Certain companies have engaged foresters 

 to go into the woods and block whole re- 

 gions into sections of one square mile. 

 The quantity of timber on each of these 

 64U-acre tracts is accurately estimated; its 

 boundaries are blazed lines with marked 

 cedar posts at their intersections; and that 

 square mile is sure of intelligent cutting. 



Few realize the vast extent of virgin 

 forest .which remains in Maine. Most of it 

 has been notched along the watercourses, 

 but nothing more. It was the custom in 

 years past to cut along the water courses 

 up the big rivers and smaller brooks, 

 choosing only the timber which could eas- 

 ily be "toted" to the stream and brought 

 down on spring freshets. But farther in 

 these tracts there are miles of untouched 

 trees as sound and tall as ever grew in 

 Maine. These lands, thanks to the block- 

 ing system, will be cut economically. This 

 economy has been learned in good season. 

 The Bangor & Aroostook Railroad projects 

 a new line through the heart of this un- 

 opened country to be called the "Allegash 

 Extension." There is every indication that 

 this will be built within a few years, and 

 when it is quickened lumber activity and 

 the opening of extensive and fertile farm 

 lands is sure to follow. There is good 

 reason to suppose that this development 

 will be made wisely, thoroughly and con- 

 sistently. A few years ago one could not 

 have been so sure of this. The proposed 

 Allegash Extension is a chapter by itself 

 of Maine politics, of railroad enterprise in 

 the state, of the development of Maine's 

 peculiar resources. The point at present is 

 that whatever is done to the timber lands 

 in consequence of its building will prob- 

 ably be done with a view to conservation 

 of these resources. 



Economy in cutting has been supple- 

 mented in Maine by the economy, equally 

 important, of protection against forest fires. 

 The records of the past few years tell their 

 own story. "Weather conditions in the 

 spring of 1907, as most of us remember, 

 were abnormal. It was the wettest season 

 in years, rain following rain in an almost 

 perpetual drizzle. The dampness continued 

 most of the season and the loss by forest 



fires was only $14,567. The season of 1908 

 was as abnormal the other way: It will 

 be remembered as the driest year in a 

 decade or more. The drought began early 

 in May and lasted until October 27. Of 

 this period were only three weeks when 

 forest fires would not run. With the ut- 

 most vigilance and much hard fighting the 

 forest wardens kept the loss down to an 

 estimate of $G18,816, and the area burned 

 was less than one per cent of the wooded 

 land of the state. In 1909 came the first 

 real test of Maine's forest fire protection. 

 The appropriation had been more than 

 trebled ($64,000), making possible more 

 frequent patrols and lookouts. The esti- 

 mate of damage dropped to $96,699. Last 

 year it was only $2,841. The United States 

 Government has copied Maine's system for 

 preventing forest fires. 



When we consider that this whole cam- 

 paign of conservation and economical for- 

 estry dates back to 1902, it is to see that 

 the country is not, after all, so slow to 

 "catch on." In 1902 the first scientific for- 

 estry in Maine was begun by the United 

 States for the Great Northern Paper Com- 

 pany. Three years later the field was en- 

 tered by independent foresters, practising 

 for private owners. It is only fair to add 

 that no mean share of the missionary work 

 was done by the Federation of Women's 

 Clubs, which established a chair of forestry 

 at the State University. 



Maine has lost her merchant fleet and 

 her ship-building industry, but she keeps 

 her forests and by the present programme 

 she will keep them. L'ast year 637,000,000 

 feet of lumber was cut, which is about the 

 average, though this amount is increasing. 

 Maine is learning to raise her annual crop 

 of timber as a farmer raises potatoes or 

 corn." 



Cooperation with Lumbermen in New York 



Commissioner Osborne, of New York, 

 has undertaken to inaugurate closer co- 

 operation with the lumbermen to check 

 waste and promote reforestation. The 

 commissioner sent Superintendent of State 

 Forests Pettis and others of the state force, 

 by arrangement with the company, on to a 

 tract of 80,000 acres in St. Lawrence coun- 

 ty, recently purchased by the Emporium 

 Lumber Company of Buffalo. The state 

 foresters will make an examination of the 

 soil and ascertain the varieties of trees 

 which are supported by it. As a result of 

 this investigation by the foresters, the 

 company will receive gratuitous expert ad- 

 vice as to which trees should be cut and 

 which left standing with information along 

 reforesting lines. In this way the state 

 department will attempt to exert an in- 

 fluence to prevent operations that are 

 wasteful and destructive of the forests. 



