TAXATION AND FORESTRY. 



The Diagnosis of a New England Town. 



By p. W- Goedsbury. 



The attractions of the great West and the lures of the cities 

 and towns of the East have been the main factors perhaps in 

 depopulating New England hills, but still another factor has been 

 operative in certain sections. Climb with me to the top of a 

 mountain in the center of a certain town which I know and you 

 will see how little that carpet of green forest and bush is inter- 

 rupted by cleared fields and pastures. One might say that fully 

 95 per cent, of the land was growing up according to nature's own 

 sweet will. Sprouts and seedlings hasten to cover the scars left 

 by the shearing sawmill, trees choke the pastures and openings and 

 drive out man. 



Now I am a physician, and after living some years in the city 

 and endeavoring to diagnose many human ailments, I feel in- 

 clined to go myself into the country, where I am fully persuaded 

 I can work better and can follow up my diagnoses with better pre- 

 scriptions of hygiene. The country without economic, social and 

 other handicaps should be the wholesomest sort of place to work 

 in, yet I have found the town I came to ailing, I have heretofore 

 diagnosed many nervous and mental conditions pertaining to in- 

 dividuals, and now have been led on with a hope that my ex- 

 perience in business and various lines will assist me in diagnosing 

 some community disorders and finding some of their causes. 



This town has but one-third the population it had 125 years 

 ago. The state on the other hand has increased its population 

 ten-fold or 30 times that of the town. The farmer of 80 years 

 ago was craft wise, practiced many wholesome economies which 

 labor saving machinery has upset. He could then select trees 

 ripe for cutting and cart his own logs to mill. 



Now the machinery owners, manufacturers or powerful in- 

 terests higher up control in efifect the labor, force him to use a 

 portable mill, to cut all the trees or none, interfering with his 

 selective judgment. Outside ingenuity came in to dominate town 



