498 



THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY. One-half of this county is reported covered with woods, mostly second growth. A 

 large amount of cooperage and wheel stock is manufactured. No deterioration in the quality of material is 

 reported, although at the present rate of consumption it must soon become exhausted. 



MERRIMACK COUNTY. One-half of this county is reported covered with woods. Cooperage stock, handles, 

 and excelsior are largely manufactured. A slight deterioration in the quality of material is reported. 



ROCKINGHAM COUNTY. From one-quarter to five-eighths of this county is reported covered with woods, mostly 

 second growth. 



STRAFFORD COUNTY. Four-tenths of this county is reported covered with woods, mostly second growth. 

 Hoop-poles, cooperage stock, etc., are largely manufactured. Wood of all sorts is reported scarce and rapidly 

 increasing in value. 



VERMONT. 



The forests of Vermont, as compared with those of New Hampshire and Maine, are varied in composition. 

 About the shores of lake Chain plain several western trees first appear, and throughout the state the forest is more 

 generally composed of deciduous than coniferous species. Forests of spruce, however, spread over the high 

 ridges of the Green mountains, their foot-hills being covered with hard-wood trees and little pine or hemlock 

 occurring in the valleys. A forest of white pine once stretched along the banks of the Connecticut, and great 

 bodies of this tree occurred in the northwestern part of the state, adjacent to lake Champlain. The original white- 

 pine forests of the state are now practically exhausted. They are represented by a small amount of second-growth 

 pine only, which furnished during the census year a cut of 6,505,000 feet of lumber, board measure. 



The forests of Vermont now suffer comparatively little from fire, although at different periods during the last 

 fifty years very serious fires have laid waste great areas of forest in the Green Mountain region. During the year 

 1880 3,941 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with an estimated loss of $48,466. Of such fires ten 

 escaped from farms into the forest, five were set by locomotives, two were traced to the carelessness of hunters, 

 and one to malice. 



Large amounts of cooperage stock, woodenware, furniture, paper-pulp, excelsior, veneers, etc., are manufactured 

 throughout the state. Material for these industries is fast disappearing, and a great deterioration in quality, 

 especially of oak, ash, and chestnut, is reported by manufacturers. 



Vermont surpasses all other states in the manufacture of maple sugar. During the year 1879 11,261,077 

 pounds were produced in the state. 



The following estimate of the spruce standing in the state May 31, 1880, has been prepared from Mr. Pringle's 

 report, and is based upon the statements. of numerous timber-land owners and experts in different parts of the stater 



BLACK SPRUCE (Picea nigra). 



Partial returns of the hoop-pole industry give a production during the census year of only 43,900, valued afe 

 $470. 



ADDISON COUNTY. About one-third of this county is reported covered with woods. Spruce and ash are scarce 

 and rapidly disappearing. Oak of sufficient size for the manufacture of cooperage stock is exhausted. 



BENNINGTON COUNTY. Two-thirds of this county is reported covered with woods. Manufacturers of woodenware 

 and cooperage stock consider the prospects for future local supply favorable. 



CALEDONIA COUNTY. From one-third to three-eighths of this county is reported covered with woods, mostly 

 confined to the northern and western portions. 



CHITTENDEN COUNTY. About one-fifth of this county is reported as woodland. The following extracts are 

 made from Mr. Pringle's note upon the forests of Vermont : 



"Except on the summits of a few of the higher peaks of the Green mountains, where black spruce and balsam- 

 fir grow to the exclusion of other trees, the arboreal growth is composed of a large number of species. In the 

 valleys and on the foot-hills, and even on the slopes of the higher mountains in their lower portions, hemlocks 

 mingle with spruce, beech, maple, and birch (yellow birch chiefly, for there is little white birch seen in northern 

 Vermont); basswood, butternut, the ashes, red oaks, etc., are confined to the lower elevations and are less abundant 

 than the trees first mentioned. Between the isolated patches of spruce and fir about the summits of the mountains 

 and the region where hemlock is found, rock maple, yellow birch, and black spruce are the predominating species. 



