FOREWORD xxix 
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I am inclined to believe that lumber is bound to continue both 
scarce and high priced, and in a way this condition will work for 
better forest management, as a high price for lumber will have a 
marked tendency toward the elimination of waste and on account 
of the increased value of stumpage the owners of timberland can 
better afford to spend more for protection and for restocking of 
their holdings. 
The financing of any measures for the protection and improve- 
ment of our forest resources, either by the Maine Forestry District 
or from public funds, should not be considered as an expense, but 
rather as an investment; for we will be repaid once and again 
through the manifold benefits and comforts that only the forests 
can supply. The maintenance of a forest policy embracing pro- 
tection reforestation and public ownership will assuredly con- 
tribute to the wealth and welfare of every one of us. 
Budworm Damage In Maine. 
The damage being done to our forests by the spruce budworm 
first attracted my attention in the spring of 1911 on Parlin Pond 
Township in Somerset County. By the end of the summer of 1912 
the spread of the budworm, as evidenced by the brick-red color of 
the foliage of the dead and dying trees, was very noticeable and 
began to cause some concern in the minds of the Kennebec lum- 
bermen. In the infested areas at certain seasons the air was filled 
with the small, light colored moths, the final development of the 
worm, and it seems only natural that they should be blown about 
and spread over new territory by the wind, like an unchecked 
forest fire. 
By the fall of 1913 the. budworm was widely established in the 
northern part of the Kennebec watershed, and in 1914 and 1915 
the infested territory included townships to the north and east of 
Moosehead Lake. In the next three seasons this blighting insect 
hoard spread rapidly to the north, south and east. It overran 
the Allagash regions, invaded the valleys of both branches of the 
Penobscot River and the Katahdin district and extended down into 
Hancock and Washington Counties. The greatest amount of dam- 
age probably occurred in the summers of 1917 and 1918; and in 
this latter year the budworm visitation seemingly came to an end. 
They did not dwindle away. They simply vanished in a season. 
So the budworm apparently has come and gone; but as a re- 
sult of his reign in our forests we have wide areas where prac- 
