130 A FIELD DAY IN GROVELAND. 



"Forestry," which had just been engaging his attention 

 at the west. Before proceeding to that subject, however, 

 he spoke a pleasant word for the fidelity of Mr. W. P. 

 Conant, an associate member of the Institute who is do- 

 ing faithful work in the Agricultural Department at 

 Washington in the collection and classification of the 

 grasses. He spoke of the Merrimac River and its asso- 

 ciations with matters of history, and of the vast im- 

 portance of its many and varied industries at Manchester, 

 Lowell, Lawrence and other places, contrasting them 

 with the woollen industry by hand process of the olden 

 time. 



After briefly alluding to the leather and other indus- 

 tries, he then spoke of the lumbering business and its 

 growth within the past fifty or sixty years ; formerly it 

 was considered as being identified exclusively with Ban- 

 gor. The activity of the woodman in destroying our 

 forests is raising the question of the future supply. If 

 it continues at the rate it has been going on in Maine, 

 the supply will be exhausted in eight or ten years. 

 In Michigan, Wisconsin, and other western states, it will 

 be but a few years before similar results will follow. But 

 in Texas, rating from the past it would take 250 years to 

 exhaust the supply, and in South Carolina 150 years. 

 While lumbering is disappearing along the northern belt, 

 there is a belt of lumber standing along the Gulf States. 

 The south now wants the activity and energy of New Eng- 

 land, and this will be one of the stepping-stones by which 

 this section will become prosperous and enterprising. 

 While these remarks had more particular reference to 

 pine, he spoke also of ornamental woods. At St. Paul's 

 he had been presented with a gavel made of hickory, 

 which was very handsome. Of all the many and various 

 woods in the collection at Washington there were none 



