FORESTRY QUARTERLY. 



Vol. I. July, 1903. No. 



FOREST PROBLEMS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



Observation of New Hampshire forests reveals two leading 

 problems, that of reforesting the White Pine areas in the southern 

 portion of the state, and of maintaining the output of spruce in 

 the northern portion. 



White Pine has an unrivaled growth in New Hampshire. 

 Twenty-five years sometimes produce a merchantable crop suit- 

 'able for the manufacture of boxes, pails and matches, while fort}'- 

 years produce trees that begin to have timber value. There are 

 instances of pine land having been cut over twice by the same 

 man, the profits of the second cut being greater than of the first, 

 owing to changes in market conditions. Only a few scattered 

 groves of the old, original White Pines remain. 



The bulletin of the Twelfth Census relating to New Hampshire 

 agriculture shows that one million seven hundred and sixty-four 

 thousand (1,764,000) acres of land in the state have reverted from 

 improved to unimproved farm land since 1850. These abandoned 

 fields and pastures lie, for the most part, south of the White 

 Mountains and contain much promising pine growth. One may 

 find well-made stone walls in woods fifty years old, indicating 

 that the land was once tilled ; and choked and dying apple 

 orchards in the woods are not infrequent. So much abandoned 

 land would make a bad showing for New Hampshire were it not 

 for the fact that through intensive cultivation, farm values have 

 increased by eight million dollars during the last decade. Thirty- 

 seven per cent, of the land area, chiefly non-agricultural, has 

 never been taken up in farms. This with the unimproved farm 

 land makes a total of more than 70% of the land area under some 

 form of forest cover, a portion of it is, however, brush and not 

 forest land. The chief difficulty from a silvicultural point of 

 view is that nature's seeding has been in most places irregular. 



