FORESTS. Maine is one of the leading States in the Union in the extent of wooded area and in the annual value received from the forest prod ucts. The woodland is estimated at 23.700 square miles, or 79 per cent. of the total land area. The forests cover largely the interior and northern portions of the State, the coast and lower valleys being generally cleared. The land rapidly re forests, and since most of the land is nut well suited to cultivation, reforestation is extensive. Large areas at one time under cultivation have been allowed to go back to woodland. The prime val forests of pine are all gone, and the second growth is being used to some extent. The spruce forests are the most extensive and most heavily drawn upon at present. Authorities estimated in 1896 that the State had 21,239,000,000 feet of standing spruce. Of this nearly a third was in the region drained by the Saint .John River, and nearly a fourth in the region drained by the Penobscot. The densest spruce forests—the larg est, finest trees—are found in the upper basin of the Androscoggin River. The basin of this river
has contributed about 34 per cent. of the supply used in the manufacture of pulp and paper. The Kennebec and Penobscot basins have contributed the remainder. The table on the following page shows that the paper and wood pulp industry is largely a development of the last decade of the nineteenth century. The pulp mills are located along the three rivers above mentioned. A belt of white hire') timber extends entirely across the State, and this specie. figures prominently in the lumber industry. From it spools to the value of a million dollars are manufactured annually. Spool timber is shipped extensively to Scotland. Poplar is cut most extensively in the Kennebee region, where it is used in paper manufacture. In the Saint John and Penohscot basins there are extensive forests of cedar. Much has been done in the way of constructing dams, canals, and sluices to facilitate the transportation of logs.