40 FOREST LANDS FOB THE PROTECTION OF WATERSHEDS. 



slopes of the White Mountains yourself, any of you gentlemen, some 

 of them with a stupendous growth and others cut as clean as Mr. 

 Hale described it to-day, you would realize that those snows, all left 

 open to the sun, going off rapidly, and with the rains coming down 

 on it and the soil being washed on the upper slopes, leaving bare 

 granite; every drop of water runs off. 



The CHAIRMAN. If the denudation there results in bare granite 

 and has resulted already in bare granite, and if you can not raise a 

 little tree without the protection of larger trees, what would you 

 have the Government do in case it purchased that? 



Mr. CURRIER. Those slopes that have not been cut over have not 

 a very valuable growth on the upper slopes; the prices are small. 

 There is a growth there which is worth cutting now if those lands 

 could be purchased. Under those operations the soil itself all washes 

 away, and nothing can be done. The mountains that have been cut 

 over in my State, which are more than 3,000 feet high, have got now 

 from 500 to 1,000 feet down to bare rock, and they used to be cov- 

 ered over the summit with trees. 



Mr. POLLARD. What would be the cost of this land which you spoke 

 of a moment ago that you want the Government to purchase ? 



Mr. CURRIER. It is difficult to lumber there, and they are short- 

 bodied trees, as they call them. I could not tell you the cost ; but they 

 are not particularly valuable ; nothing like the value of the great pine 

 growths of the lower slopes. 



Mr. POLLARD. Could you approximate it? 



Mr. CURRIER. No. 



The CHAIRMAN. Do you think the upper slopes, which you de- 

 scribed as bare granite, should be purchased in any scheme of this 

 kind? 



Mr. CURRIER. Possibly not; but I would purchase clear up to the 

 timber line. Nobody expects you to purchase the top of Mount Wash- 

 ington. The bare rock up there is worth $3,000 or $4,000. Nobody 

 wants that purchased ; but purchase as high up as the timber goes. 



The CHAIRMAN. I would like to suggest to the gentlemen here, we 

 do not want to give the wrong impression. The questions that are 

 being asked by the chairman and the gentlemen of the committee are 

 asked for the purpose of eliciting information. They are asked to 

 meet objections we hear on every hand. 



Mr. CURRIER. Any information I can possibly give, you know I 

 will. 



The CHAIRMAN. You will understand, I know, Mr. Currier; I 

 want the rest of the gentlemen to understand that any question is 

 not asked as a question of objection or controversy, but in absolute 

 good faith. [Applause.] 



Mr. HAWLEY. As to the matter of forest reproduction, that was a 

 matter in which we are greatly interested. I asked a question a 

 moment ago, and I have been figuring. If I understood you cor- 

 rectly, you said that one man, in his lifetime, had cut over his land 

 three times. 



Mr. CURRIER. White-pine growth. 



Mr. HAWLEY. At the average of about 40,000 feet to the acre? 



Mr. CURRIER. Yes. 



Mr. HAWLEY. That would be 120,000 produced on 1 acre of land 

 in a man's lifetime? 



