1U4 REPORT OF TKE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 



as examples of the f,'pneral testimony : A small stream in tlic sontliern 

 part of the State, in the town of Eichmond, in 1865, famished ])ower 

 .sufficient for four sawmills nearly all the year. It began to dry ni) as 

 the cntting of the timber commenced in its vicinity, and the water and 

 the woods now have disapi)eared together. In the adjoining towns of 

 Fitzwilliam and Eindge tlie same results have beeu reached. ^Vell- 

 knowu trout-streams, once well stocked with fish, are now dry one half 

 of the year, the ground having become treeless In Chesterfield tlie 

 flow, of the streams is re])orted as more irregular than in early lian's. 

 The same is true of the streams about Nashua. The Merrimac lliver, 

 so important for manufacturing irarposes, is protected from great \aria- 

 tions in its volume from month to month, by means of large ])onds and 

 dams, but one of the oldest inhabitants of Franklin, who has observed 

 the river for sixty years, thinks its volume has diminished one-fourth 

 in that period. One who lias given much attention to the subject, is 

 confident that the water in the Oontoocook Kiver has decreased one- 

 third, even within twenty years, and that its tributaries have fallen off 

 sliU more. At Hanover, it is said the Connecticut River for many years 

 has beeu decreasing in volume, and with increasing rapidity the timber 

 from its headwaters has been floating by. In Canaan, sixty-five years 

 ago, there were nine or more mills; abundant water-power all the year 

 round ; no thought of reservoirs, double dams, or precautions against 

 drought. A native of the place, returning after an absence of thirty 

 years, found the hills and rocks bare, the springs choked up, and the 

 mills obliged to resort to steam-power or lie idle. Even in the northern 

 counties, where the timber is still comparatively abundant, similar testi- 

 mony is given. In the town of Littleton, three of its oldest citizens 

 testify that the power of the Ammonoosuc at that point has diminished 

 one-third within iifty or sixty years. An intelligent observer at Berlin, 

 on the Androscoggin, says that the water in eight brooks and two ppnds 

 in his vicinity has materially diminished within twenty-six years. Six 

 years ago he supplied his stock with water from what was then an un- 

 failing brook, by means of an aqueduct, which furnished 300 gallons per 

 hour. Now, that the trees along the stream have been destroyed by the 

 woodman's ax and by forest fires, his water-supply is cut short in sum- 

 mer by drought and in winter by frost. 



The' geological character of New Hampshire is such that it must con- 

 tinue largely a wood and timber bearing State. " Nature herself," say 

 the commissioners, "in the very configuration of the State's surface, and 

 in the character of its soil, absolutely commands that whatever maybe 

 the preference of its inhabitants, at least one-half of it shall remain per- 

 petually devoted to the production of wood and timber, and that what 

 nature has unalterably ordained it becomes them to accept." Accept- 

 ing this ordinance of nature, the wooded area, in limited districts, lias 

 lieen allowed to increase, and in every instance where the decrease of 

 •.vater-power has been checked or averted, the commissioners say that 

 it has been by means of the preservation or restoration of the forests. 

 The regulative power of forests receives important testimony in its favor 

 idso from the geological report of the State, from which we have the 

 .-ratemeut (vol. 1, p. 124) that when in the central and southern por- 

 tions of the State the hay crop has been cut short by drought, it has been 

 known to be above the average in the northern part, even with less rain- 

 Call, and for the reason that the forests secured a better distribution of 

 the results of rainfall and melted snow. In short, the proper storage 

 and distribution of our water-supply are of much greater importance to 

 us than the amount received. 



