Stripping the Mountain Topsi White Mountain Scene 



ber the settlers, the forest fires, and the 

 sporadic lumber hig had spared. 



The cheaper grades are in demand, 

 and nearly everything is cut down to 

 seven or eight inch saplings ; the brush 

 and tops are, as heretofore, left upon 

 the ground, and the fire that is sure to 

 follow completes the work of destruc- 

 tion. And the damage is not confined 

 to the cut-over lands ; the fire, fed by 

 the dry brush, becomes uncontrollable 

 and spreads to adjoining lands, oft- 

 times burning over large tracts of 

 standing timber and destroying other 

 property of many times the value of 

 the lumber taken from the cut-over 

 land. 



A few years more under the present 

 mismanagement and our original for- 

 ests will be gone ; and even if we begin 

 now to plant and grow for future use, 

 we cannot provide a supply soon enough 



to prevent a timber famine that will 

 cripple almost every industry, affect 

 every citizen, and be of incalculable loss 

 to the country. 



But the danger of loss from timber 

 famine is small compared wath the loss 

 that is sure to follow the general de- 

 struction of the remaining mountain 

 forests. 



We are told that already "more than 

 a thousand million tons of our richest 

 soils are swept into the seas every year, 

 clogging the rivers on the way and fill- 

 ing our harbors." 



The waters from our melting snows 

 and heavy rains rush swiftly down the 

 denuded mountain sides, overflowing 

 the creeks and rivers below, wrecking 

 roads and railroads, dams and mills, 

 and submerging farms, villages, and 

 cities ; many lives are lost and millions 

 of property are gone. The water is 



66 1 



