the wrath of the upriver men, who declared that they have a right to use the river at least as far as the middle of the channel; and that, so far as violation of any treaty is concerned, it is the downriver men who are guilty, as their log drives frequently obstruct the entire river for months at a time to such an extent as to shut out all others. In retaliation for the hostility of the downriver manufacturers, the upriver men endeavored to secure the repeal by Congress of the act of 1867, contending that the occasion for such legislation no longer exists-that, a means of transportation being now open over American soil for the product of the northern Maine forests, the logs should be manufactured at home and no longer sent to foreign mills, to be manufactured by foreign labor and thence transported in foreign vessels to our markets, to the great injury of Maine and the corresponding advantage of the Province of New Brunswick. CHAPTER VII. MAINE-SPRUCE AND HARDWOODS. Upon no subject have statisticians disagreed more decidedly than in their estimates of the amount of spruce standing in Maine and the length of time that it will last. Longer ago than the oldest inhabitant can remember there were people who could prove to a mathematical certainty that the supply of spruce, and of every other timber for that matter, would end in a few years, and in every year since there have been prophets of timber exhaustion who have talked and written at great length to show that "at the present rate of cutting" Maine would soon be as bare of trees as are the prairies of the West. Most of the prophets have died leaving a well-wooded State behind them, but their successors are with us and the present generation of prophets is far better equipped than were its predecessors with theories, all capable of mathematical demonstration, that the spruce supply of Maine will last only about so many years. To show how long ago these apprehensions concerning the timber supply of the State existed, the following quotation is made from a little volume entitled, "The Maine Reference Book," published by a Boston firm in 1844. This book says, in the course of a brief chapter on the lumber industry of Maine: "Timber of the first quality is becoming scarce on the Penobscot waters; and the timber on the Allaguash is increasing in value, as it finds its way to market on the Penobscot, in preference to the long and uncertain transportation of the St. John. The construction of a dam fifteen miles below Chamberlain (Lake), so as to float the timber above into the Penobscot, will connect a large tract of valuable timber land with this market." Since "The Maine Reference Book" gave utterance to this note of alarm there has been cut on the Penobscot River about 9,000,000,000 feet of timber and loggers seem to have no trouble in finding 200,000,000 feet every winter now. It is true that the big "pumpkin pine" that used to grow almost within sight of the church steeples of Bangor has disappeared --but so have the Indians who used to come down from Oldtown in their canoes and promenade the streets in light and airy attire of blankets and paint. There are only a few Indians now, and when they come to Bangor they travel by rail-but there are more white people. There is not much big pine close by now, but there is a great plenty of spruce up north, and, like the Indians, a good deal of it comes by rail. A man, familiar with the lumber industry and the forestry conditions of Maine, in discussing the question of spruce supply, said: In the report of the forestry commissioner we find an estimate of the quantity of spruce timber, of suitable size for cutting, standing in the Androscoggin Valley. The estimate is about 3,600,000,000 feet on 1,240 square miles. The spruce-producing area of the Kennebec Valley is about 2,800 square miles; of the Penobscot Valley, 4,500 square miles, and of the St. John Valley in Maine, about 5,000 square miles. If we apply the estimates of the Androscoggin spruce-bearing section pro rata to these three sections we shall have the enormous amount of 35,424,000,000 feet of spruce in the Kennebec, Penobscot and St. John valleys. But this amount probably should be reduced onethird, as the three sections under consideration are not considered equal to the Androscoggin Valley in spruce production. Reducing the amount as suggested, and adding the estimated amount of spruce in the Androscoggin Valley, we have 27,024,000,000 feet of available spruce in the four great spruce-producing valleys of the State. In an address delivered in Boston, in 1902, before the Association of Engineering Societies, on "Forest Management in Maine," Austin Cary estimated the amount of spruce standing in Maine at the time at approximately 25,000,000,000 feet board measure. Assuming that the yearly demand from the lumber and pulp mills will, for many years, be not far from 600,000,000 feet, it will take a period of more than forty years to cut over the whole spruce-producing section, a period sufficiently long to grow spruce from twelve to eighteen inches in diameter breast-high. In the opinion of practical lumbermen, these estimates are entirely conservative. One experienced lumberman gives it as his opinion that there is on an average 1,000 feet of available spruce for every acre of forest land in Maine. That would give about 13,500,000,000 feet, requiring twenty-two years to cut over; probably this is too low an estimate and the true amount lies somewhere between the two. Austin Cary said in a recent forestry report: "Taking the State as a whole, I doubt if the yearly production of spruce is overcut. A cut of 600,000,000 feet of spruce annually would be only thirty feet growth per acre on the gross area of the State, or perhaps sixty feet on what is actually spruce-bearing land." The actual growth per acre on much of the spruce-bearing land is over 100 feet per acre annually. We can safely assume that the yearly growth will average fifty feet for every acre of forest land. That would give more than 600,000,000 feet yearly, and it is the opinion of well-informed manufacturers and operators that this source of wealth can be maintained permanently in Maine. There are dangers, however, that must be avoided. The reckless and unnecessary waste in leaving so much of the tree in the woods should cease at once, more care should be taken in yarding the logs and all unnecessary destruction of small trees should be avoided. Timber land owners should draw rigidly their contracts for selling stumpage and insist on the faithful carrying out of the terms of the contracts. If a broad-minded policy is adopted by timber land owners and a due regard for the future prosperity and welfare of the State prevails among them, the forest area of the State can be made to yield a perpetual revenue. CONSERVATIVE CUTTING. While the predictions as to the destruction of spruce have all proved to be wide of the mark, the constant sounding of alarms has had a good effect; for within the last few years there has been much investigation of forestry conditions, the supply of spruce and the relative proportions of |