A recent national report stated that Maine is 48th out of the 50 states in terms of offering a "positive" business climate. It indicated the state has numerous regulations and comparatively few tax incentives. It adds a mininum of new jobs each year.

The fact that Maine placed near the bottom by estimates of economists and Chamber of Commerce correspondents is not surprising. Maine has been on the statistical floor for a long time.

But Your Scribe thinks the state is doing better than the stats indicate. Or at least the people are.

I took a long ride recently, in what might be called the Amateur Economist's Blue Highways Tour. "Blue Highways" was the term that author William Least Moon dubbed his auto visit of several rural states, not over the interstate system but the routes noted in blue on maps that go through "regular" towns.

Or, in my parlance, through Cabin Country.

I toured from Farmington to Bethel on Route 2, and south along Routes 35 and 114. I did not see a broken economy. I observed many vibrant small businesses - which would never appear on the radar of a 9-to-5 economist.

I saw several paintball courses - which charge admission. I observed scores of stands selling rasberries, blackberries, strawberries and blueberries. There were merchants selling hot dogs along the road, and sellers of cheap portraits of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. There was a roadside stand hawking motorcycle helmets. And many, many antique stores.

In Rumford, a guy in a battered black pickup was selling moose horns. It's true! He had about 20 racks laid out on the pavement for all motorists to be tempted by.

Such small businesses complement two "real" industries that are booming in the countryside: construction and tourism. Say what you will, but the world still wants Maine. There are scores of waterfront communities being built, and hundreds of individual homes.

My individual barometer for small-time prosperity: new churches. Almost every thoroughfare in central Maine has a new grass-roots church either being built or just opened. That doesn't happen in communities where people have no financial means.

The Pine Tree State has some industries that others can't match. There is Days Bear Bait in Alfred, which offers 55-gallon drums of donuts and granola. And it markets a 5-gallon drum of molasses, which reportedly will attract bears for miles.

And a Bangor company sells small septic systems for camps, about which owners jokingly boast, "This could be the biggest advance in camp bathrooms since the double-decker outhouse."

These aren't the jobs that excite economists. But Maine has a better upcountry economy than some think.

Of course, it would be great to be back in the days of then-Gov. Angus King, who declared Maine could have great jobs because the electronic economy could thrive anywhere.

And we did. MBNA was just one corporation that arrived, bringing terrific jobs to Belfast, Rockland, Camden, Farmington and other communities. But the international economy cut both ways. When Bank of America took over MBNA, many of these jobs were erased within a year.

One element that this national study did not emphasize was liveability. Not just peaceful towns and good schools but the chance to buy a home.

New York and San Francisco, North Carolina and Arizona, add high-paying jobs at a rate that turns the heads of numbers crunchers.

But can you buy a house in Manhattan? Can you rent even a 1,000-foot apartment in the City by the Bay?

Not likely.

We may be No. 48. But it's a ranking many folks can live with.

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