CHANGES IN FOREST AREA IN NEW ENGLAND 449 



The foregoing remarks have dealt with forest area rather than with 

 the amount of timber; and an increase in the former does not neces- 

 sarily mean an increase in the latter. But at the same time that their 

 complete eradication by the farmers has been indefinitely postponed, 

 the inroads on the New England forests for other purposes have been 

 diminished, partly by the same causes already mentioned and partly in 

 other ways. A brief explanation will be appropriate to complete the 

 story. 



The pioneer settlers of any wooded region naturally build their 

 houses of wood, except for the chimneys, etc. (and in some parts of 

 the country those too are mostly wood ) . Fences, too, are required 

 around the fields, and unless rocks are abundant (as they happen to be 

 in New England) split rails or even stumps are used. At first the 

 timber cut in clearing the land more than suffices for building and 

 fencing purposes, and a great deal may be burned simply to get it out 

 of the way. 



Earl}' in the history of New England timber began to be exported to 

 Europe and other less favored regions. The straightest and tallest 

 trees within reach of streams large enough for log-driving were long 

 ago taken for masts and spars, which made Maine pre-eminent in ship- 

 building for a long time. With the era of railroads and rapidly grow- 

 ing cities the lumber industry became very important in New England, 

 and it has continued so down to the present time in Maine and New 

 Hampshire, and has declined little, if at all, from its maximum in the 

 other states. (In 1909 Massachusetts was cutting more white-pine 

 lumber in proportion to its area than any other state in the Union.) 

 The enormous increase in the use of wood pulp for paper in recent 

 decades has been supplied chiefly from the boreal coniferous forests of 

 northern New England and similar regions. 



The use of wood for fuel has been one of the greatest drains upon 

 the forests. Up to lOO years ago it was practically the only fuel used 

 in the United States, and it is still used everywhere in rural districts 

 away from the railroads. When steam locomotion was introduced, that 

 at first increased the demand for wood. In the .Imcrican Journal of 

 Science (vol. 20, pp. 133-136), in 1831, which was just at the dawn of 

 the railroad era, the editor viewed with alarm the vast consumption of 

 wood by steamboats, and urged a more general use of coal, which was 

 then a novelty. Fifteen years later, in 1846. G. 1'. Emerson, in his 

 classic rc])f)rt on the trees and shrubs of Massachusetts, published by 

 the state, estimated that the railroads in that state {•^(10 miles) were 

 using for fuel 53.710 cords of wood annually, and that the consumption 

 was not likely to decrease. 



