Canadian Forestry Journal, July, 1918 



1783 



The Pejepscot Plantations 



In an article in the New York 

 Paper Trade Journal Julian Rothery 

 points out that forests, vast as they 

 are, are not unbounded, and that the 

 amount of pulp-wood available in 

 this country and Canada which will 

 permit of manufacture of reasonably 

 cheap paper is not bottomless. He 

 gives some interesting facts about 

 what one paper firm has done in the 

 way of reforestation and how its 

 nurseries are conducted. To quote 

 Mr. Rothery: 



"The Pejepscot Paper Company is 

 one of the old established manufac- 

 turers, with mills on the lower An- 

 droscoggin River in ATaine and ex- 

 tensive timber lands bo^h in Maine 

 and Canada. It was also among the 

 foremost to embark on a far-sighted 

 policy of conservation, and its New 

 Brunswick holdings constitute the 

 finest spruce forest the writer has ever 

 seen and probably the finest in eastern 



America. Due to careful methods of 

 cutting, there is more timber upon 

 the lands today than when operations 

 were commenced many years ago. 

 But it is the reforesting of the barren 

 or open lands where conservation is 

 the most direct and aggressive. The 

 Pejepscot Paper Company established 

 nurseries at several places in its 

 woodland properties. 



"Thousands of these young trees 

 have been set out in the old pastures 

 and clearings and are slowly filling up 

 gaps in the woodland cover. The cost 

 is not heavy; the returns, both direct 

 and indirect, are sulTicient to make it 

 an object to continue the work each 

 year until now, when the open areas 

 of their large Canadian properties 

 are nearly all restocked with valuable 

 growing trees. They find planting is 

 educational as well as practical, 

 tending to promote care of the forest 

 and impress upon observers the value 

 of trees and forest cover." 



Can Forest Revenues be Maintained? 



The point is frequently raised in 

 connection with Canadian forestry 

 policies that our Provincial govern- 

 ments will soon be ooliged to return 

 to the forest a much larger percentage 

 of forest revenues than is now turned 

 over to maintenance of limber 

 materials. Indeed, the argument is 

 frequently put forward that the day is 

 fast approaching when the Pro- 

 vincial Governments instead of ex- 

 tracting surpluses each year from 

 I lie forest resources may be forced to 

 turn over to their Forest Services 

 every dollar of revenues so as to pro- 

 vide a supply of raw materials to sup- 

 port the forest industiies. 



West Australia recently launched 

 a strong forestry movement and in 

 ".Jarrah" the official mouthpiece, as- 

 serts that the system of extracting 

 revenues from forest exploitation. 



with almost no provision for main- 

 tenance of timbercrops, mi'st cease. 

 West Australia has reduced its forest 

 area to about 3,000,000 acres, out of a 

 total area of 975,000 square miles, and 

 only 12,000 acres have been reserved. 

 The export of forest products in 1913 

 brought 1,183,000,000 pounds sterling 

 and only 12,000 pounds were spent on 

 the Department of Forests. 



What business in the world could 

 stand a system of management which 

 aimed at taking all the profits and 

 putting nothing back to consolidate, 

 and improve the business and assure 

 its future. Here is the most perman- 

 ent and certain of all the primary 

 industries, one which, under proper 

 rnanagement will be yielding its 

 timber in increased, not diminished 

 volume long after the last ounce of 

 gold has been won from the earth. 



