FORESTRY. 



309 



bir^atiorxs seem mostly based on narrow 

 considerations of the present and to 

 use their power mainly for immediate, 

 not for continued pocket interests. An 

 exhibition of the dangers to social and 

 political institutions which may come from 

 these trusts, managed on such narrow lines, 

 is furnished by the influences which the In- 

 ternational Paper Company evidently wields 

 in the State of Maine. The International 

 Company was instituted & few years ago 

 to amalgamate the paper pulp interests, and 

 incidentally to control the supplies of 

 spruce, which in the Northeastern States 

 have dwindled down to a condition where 

 hardly any more than 10 to 15 years' mater- 

 ial for the present mill capacity is visible. 



Now a new corporation, the American 

 Realty Company, has been organized by 

 leading members of the International Com- 

 pany for the purpose of purchasing, man- 

 aging, and caring for the timberlands 

 owned by this trust located in Maine and 

 elsewhere. If this management is intended 

 to proceed on forestry principles, i. e., with 

 a view to a rational and economic utiliza- 

 tion of present supplies and to reproduc- 

 tion, we can only welcome and applaud the 

 combination. This would then be a bene- 

 ficial trust, to be encouraged. Meanwhile 

 this rearrangement brings to light rather 

 peculiar relationships, which may exist in 

 the official family of the State of Maine ; 

 for it appears that Mr. Charles E. Oak, 

 now the purchasing agent and manager of 

 the American Realty Company, while serv- 

 ing as State land agent and forest com- 

 missioner had been at the same time in 

 like capacity in the employ of the Inter- 

 national Paper Company ; and the treasurer 

 of the new company, Mr. F. M. Simpson, 

 only recently retired from the office of 

 State Treasurer, and is at present a mem- 

 ber of the State Board of Assessors. 



The Augusta New Age comments on 

 these relations of Mr. Simpson as follows : 



Whether or not he will resign from this 

 office has not been ascertained. If he 

 does not retire from the board it might 

 not be unfair to insinuate that the Ameri- 

 can Realty Company desires him to re- 

 main where he is. Its management prob- 

 ably believes that as a tax assessor he can 

 render the company great assistance when 

 he assesses the valuation of the wild lands 

 owned by the combination. 



It is a palpable fact that the great paper 

 trust has been shrewd in securing the ser- 

 vices of these 2 men, office holders of the 

 State of Maine for many years, for the 

 most important places in the pulp supply 

 company which it has created. In their 

 official capacities as land agent and as 

 treasurer Messrs. Oak and Simpson have 

 had exceptional advantages over other men 

 in obtaining valuable information concern- 



ing the location and worth of Maine wild 

 lands. 



The company will receive the benefit of 

 the 'training school' which the State of 

 Maine has provided. 



It is to be sincerely hoped there 

 was, is, or will be nothing wrong in these 

 relationships ; that the control of the spruce 

 lands, if secured by this company, will be 

 a benefit to the community in the sense 

 pointed out, and that the new Forest Com- 

 missioner, Mr. E. E. Ring, who sold his 

 holdings to the International Company pre- 

 vious to his appointment, will faithfully 

 work for the interests of thes State which 

 have been intrusted to him. ' 



WORLD'S TIMBER SUPPLY. 



At a recent meeting of the Society of 

 Arts, in London, Dr. Schlich read a paper 

 on the world's timber trade. The present 

 European deficiency ,he said, was 2,620,000 

 tons a year, and the demand was increas- 

 ing at the rate of 600,000 tons a year. In 

 other quarters of the world than North 

 America he saw no chance of relief. Most 

 of the other sections of the earth produce 

 only hardwoods, and if Russia and Si- 

 beria have sufficient quantities of conifer- 

 ous woods the cost of getting them to 

 market is prohibitive. 



The production of the United States 

 is estimated at 75,000,000 tons and the 

 consumption at one-third more than that, 

 so the supply there must soon be ex- 

 hausted. Canada had not yet responded 

 to the increased demands of Europe, so 

 he deemed it improbable the Dominion 

 would do so in the future unless a thor- 

 ough system of forest cultivation and pro- 

 tection were established. 



In spite of vast forests in some of the 

 colonies the British Empire imports about 

 £90,000,000 worth of timber annually, and 

 the quantity is increasing. Canada, Austra- 

 lia and India could be made to produce 

 great quantities of timber by proper man- 

 agement. The United Kingdom spends 

 $125,000,000 a year for imported timber, 

 % of which is pine and fir. Yet there 

 were 12,000,000 acres of waste land and 13,- 

 000,000 acres of mountain and heath land 

 out of which to select the 6 or 7 million 

 acres required to supply the United King- 

 dom with timber. — Exchange. , 



At the International Congress of Silvi- 

 culture, held at the Paris Exposition, a 

 Monsieur Melard discussed the same ques- 

 tion of the world's supply and demand 

 for timber, and came to the conclusion 

 that Great Britain, Germany, France, 

 Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and the 

 3 European peninsulas, with 215,000,000 

 population, require, besides their own 

 cut, about 1.4 million cubic feet of wood, 

 for which they pay $200,000,000 to other 



