SOME ECONOMIC FACTORS 185 



could resist. The general decline of farm values; migration of the 

 population to cities and the west; the bankruptcy of railroads and 

 similar events, are the chief incidents of the rural history of New Eng- 

 land of the last generation. Many of the towns, still overtaxed by rea- 

 son of long-standing railroad bonds, may well ask the question " whether 

 the railroad was an asset or a liability." In not a few regions railroads 

 were first constructed for the purpose of transporting lumber. If any 

 thought were given to the future it was assumed that agriculture or some 

 unforeseen industry would follow lumbering and would furnish business 

 for the railroad. In many of these sections only a small portion of the 

 soil is adapted for farming, and wood-using industries alone are possible 

 in a community where lumber is the only natural resource. Is it then 

 any wonder that many of these railroads to-day, after the timber has been 

 removed, are on the verge of insolvency ? It is too late to remedy this 

 evil in many sections, but new railroads are still being built in the 

 same old spirit of exploitation. Would it not be well for a state, in 

 granting a charter for such a road, to make some provision for the con- 

 servation of the natural resources tributary to that road ? Such a meas- 

 ure would not only safeguard the community traversed, but would be 

 of inestimable benefit to the innocent stockholders of the railroad, upon 

 whom the road would, sooner or later, be unloaded by the capitalists. 



Some form of state control would work no hardship upon the people, 

 if adopted in connection with better transportation facilities. It is a 

 well acknowledged fact that adequate transportation alone makes pos- 

 sible the practise of forestry. Yet, because of the shortness of human 

 life, and the still shorter human judgment, railroads in this country have 

 always resulted in waste and desolation of forests, rather than in con- 

 servation and upbuilding, and only in a few cases, where the soil was 

 particularly rich, has forest destruction been justified. 



From the standpoint of railroading, there are few crops which fur- 

 nish the promise for permanent railroad prosperity that is supplied by 

 the timber crop of the well-managed forest. Under fair conditions of 

 soil and management an annual production of 300 board feet per acre 

 is easily obtainable. Let us assume a railroad, fifty miles in length, 

 serving a region about thirty miles wide. If one third of this area is 

 tillable, which is about the average percentage in New England, the 

 total area which should be devoted to forestry would be 640,000 acres. 

 The annual cut from this area would be about 190 million feet of 

 lumber, or 10,000 car-loads, were it all shipped in a rough state. 



The average freight rate on a car of lumber from Northern New 

 England to Boston or Springfield, is about $50. Such a traffic would, 

 therefore, be worth to the whole railroad system (although not to this 

 one road alone) a half million dollars a year. 



It is estimated there are in New England some twenty-five million 



VOL. LXXXVII.— 13. 



