NEWS AND NOTES 



621 



from 60 to 65 per cent, of the volume of 

 the lumber trees actually cut was saved and 

 utilized for lumber purposes, while since 

 that period on account of the paper indus- 

 try it has been demonstrated by later meas- 

 urements and experiments that from 80 to 

 85 per cent, of the volume of lumber trees 

 is actually utilized, and what is of far 

 greater importance is the fact that crooked, 

 seamy and defective trees, as well as all of 

 the undersized trees formerly cut and de- 

 stroyed in swamping and in making yards 

 and landings, are now all utilized. 

 Fully one-half of the whole territory of 

 Maine has never as yet produced one sin- 

 gle log for pulp and paper production. I 

 refer to the St. John River drainage, where 

 the same wanton system of lumbering, al- 

 though possibly in a somewhat lesser de 

 gree, is being followed as was followed 

 through the long period from 1860 to 1900. 

 Were this territory fully developed for 

 lumbering by means of proper railroad con- 

 nections or water facilities it is safe to as- 

 sert that conservatively managed, as the 

 paper companies are endeavoring to do to- 

 day with the best knowledge obtainable, it 

 would supply the entire demand for all the 

 mills now located in Maine indefinitely." 



In the State of New York all the paper 

 makers who own lands in the Adirondacks 

 have an association including many other 

 lumbermen, which has co-operated with the 

 state authorities in securing legislation 

 which would foster conservative cutting and 

 the prevention of fires. 



The International Paper Company, own- 

 ing nearly a million acres of forest lands 

 in New England, New York State and 

 elsewhere in the United States., has always 

 conducted its operations with a view to the 

 future supply. In eleven years this com- 

 pany has cut less than two-tenths of a cord 

 per year per acre, which is believed to be 

 less than the natural growth. Two years 

 ago this company started a nursery in Ver- 

 mont, and each year it has been putting 

 in transplants in increasing quantities in 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New 

 York State, supplementing its own supply 

 by purchases of seedlings and transplants 

 at home and abroad. This replanting is 

 being done on abandoned farms, pasture 

 lands and burns. On their other holdings 

 no replanting is necessary, as there is al- 

 ways sufficient growth left for reproduc- 

 tion. Some other companies have done re- 

 planting, but in general, conservative cut- 

 ting and protection from fire render exten- 

 sive planting unnecessary. 



The paper industry has acted on its own 

 initiative, and while self-interest may have 

 actuated it, the result is none the less 

 beneficial from the public point of view, and 

 the policy is more apt to be followed per- 

 manently than if impractical laws, attempt- 

 ing to make conservation compulsory, were, 

 passed. 



E. W. BACKUS, 



Delegate to the National Conservation 

 Congress, St. Paul, Minn., September 

 5 to 9, 1910. 



NEWS AND NOTES 



Invested in Pulp 



According to the Pioneer Western Lum- 

 berman, ten million dollars will be required 

 to pay the army of lumbermen at work in 

 the forests of the Northeast Maine, New 

 Hampshire and Vermont, and the provinces 

 of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia this 

 coming winter. There are in this peaceful 

 army of loggers 70,000 men. They are ac- 

 companied by 22,000 horses, and the fruits 

 of the campaign will not be fallen capitals 

 and confiscated territory, but a crop of 

 2,500,000,000 feet of pine, cedar, spruce, 

 hemlock and birch. In Maine the harvest 

 for pulp mills will reacli the enormous total 

 of 350,000,000 feet. 



Coopers Demand Forestry 



A report was submitted by a committee 

 on forestry at the recent semi-annual meet- 

 ing of the National Coopers' Association, in 

 Chicago. The report declares that "only 

 the application of forest knowledge, with 

 wisdom, method and energy, in the next ten 

 years can prevent the starving of national 

 industries for lack of wood. In America 

 forestry has passed through the experimen- 

 tal stage and is in a position to accomplish 

 much needed results. But action, immedi- 

 ate and vigorous, must be taken if the in- 

 evitable famine of wood supplies is to be 

 lessened. We are now using as much wood 

 in a single year as grows in three, with onU 

 20 years of virgin growth in sight." 



