FOREST POLICY. 

 FORESTRY CONDITIONS OF MAINE: 



1. Area: Woodlands comprise, after 12th census, 23,700 

 square miles, or 79% of State. In 1893 the State assessor reports 

 only 15,000 square miles of forest. 



After report of the forest commissioner in 1903 forest lands 

 comprise 21,000 square miles, and 14,800 square miles are taxed 

 as "wholly wild land." 



2. Physiography: The north and northwest are said to be 

 mountainous. Mount Katahdin, the highest peak, is 5,385 feet 

 high. The south and southeast is hilly. Lakes, valuable for for- 

 est transportation, are found all over the State. The coast line 

 is deeply indented. The most important rivers are the Andros- 

 coggin, Kennebec, Penobscot and St. John, the latter on and 

 close to the New Brunswick line. 18,000 square miles are abso- 

 lute forest land. 



3. Distribution: The conifers of the northern pine belt 

 (white pine, red spruce, white spruce, hemlock, balsam, tamarack, 

 white cedar) occur mixed with maple, white and yellow birch, 

 beech, ash, oak, hickory and basswood in varying proportions. 

 Large bodies of hemlock used to exist in the southeast. Valuable 

 bodies of poplar are found, especially on the Kennebec. Only 

 the immediate coast region between the Kennebec and Penobscot 

 lacked the conifers. 



The State is largely cleared in the south, and the north is 

 culled of its white pine. Pulp wood has been removed from one- 

 half of the wild lands. Still lumbermen alone in 1900 were re- 

 ported to be owners of over 1,000,000,000 feet b. m. of white 

 pine. Good second growth of white pine is found all over the 

 southern counties. Regeneration of spruce is frequently met be- 

 neath an ushergrowth of gray and white birch, poplar and pine. 



The sustainable yield of the spruce woods amounts to 637,- 

 000,000 feet b. m. (after Ralph S. Hosmer) per annum. 



Forest Commissioner E. E. Ring publishes the following 

 figures as the result of recent explorations: — 



Stumpage of coniferous timber (9 inches and over 

 in diameter) in million feet b. m. 



Drainage St. John Penobscot Kennebec AndToscoggln Ten Minor 



System. Kiver. River. River. River. Rivers. 



Spruce 6.942 5,166 3,883 3,248 2,000 



Pine 427 153 



Cedar 1,830 438 



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