Forest Problems in New Hampshire. 123 



improved management, and the forest area can be profitably ex- 

 tended. To supplement nature's seeding and to plant pieces 

 of non-agricultural land not forested, the Society secured the 

 introduction in the legislature of a bill for the establishment of 

 a state nursery through which forest seedling trees and seeds 

 adapted to the soil should be grown and distributed throughout 

 the state at cost. This bill passed the House of Representa- 

 tives, and though reported favorably by the Senate committee 

 on forestry, failed of passage in the Senate. 



The spruce problem is different. The mountain region and 

 northern portion of the state contain some forests of virgin spruce, 

 much of it, however, on the high slopes where diameters are 

 small. In a felling on Black Mountain forty trees six inches in 

 diameter averaged one hundred and twenty-five years in age. 

 The pulp and paper companies control the greater portion of the 

 spruce in the state. As their mills are large and expensive it is 

 the polic}^ of the three most important companies to cut to a diam- 

 eter of ten inches or sometimes twelve, expecting to return after 

 twenty or twenty-five years for another crop. One of these com- 

 panies cuts its logs into twelve foot lengths in the woods in order 

 to remove them with le.ss injury to the young growth. This re- 

 stricted cutting applies only to the valley and lower slopes, how- 

 ever, because on wind-swept places, including all high slopes, 

 and on all steep slopes it is not profitable except to cut clean. 

 These high forested slopes are particularly attractive to the sum- 

 mer visitors in the mountains, who are reported to leave annually 

 $8,000,000 in New Hampshire, a sum equal to about one-half 

 the annual lumber output. The aesthetic side of forestry is more 

 important, therefore, here than in many other places. 



The wasteful method of tlie lumbermen on these high slopes is 

 sometimes excessive, two-thirds or more of all the trees being 

 left upon the ground, trunks down hill, in order that the remainder 

 may roll down over them to the road below. Such timber should 

 be cut only by a conservative use of the selective method, and 

 this can probably be done only when the government takes con- 

 trol. New growth reappears very slowly and in places never. 

 Besides, the smaller concerns slash the woods recklessly in the 

 valleys as well as on the slopes, having no interest in a future 

 crop. 



Until the year 1869 New Hampshire owned the great portion 

 of the White Mountain region which it then sold for $25,000. It 



