500 THE FORESTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



cedar, black spruce, and larch, from which the cedar timber is now being largely drawn to be sawed into shingles. 

 At Barton the hard woods are largely cut into material for furniture, which is shipped toward the sea-board before 

 being put together. 



" The valley of the Clyde river from Newport to Island Pond is cleared for the most part and improved for 

 farms. The usual species of the northern forest occupy the summits of the low hills on either side of the valley. 

 Eastward from Island Pond, down the Neipegan river to the Connecticut by the line of the Grand Trunk railroad, 

 we pass through the wild region from which the lumbermen have only taken some of the spruce and pine. Here, 

 beginning 2 or 3 miles back from the railroad, or in some places much nearer to it, a virgin and unbroken forest 

 stretches over the slopes and summits of the hills for many miles to the northward and southward ; black spruce, 

 yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech are its chief component species. In a few places, where the soil is sandy, 

 white pine occurs in straggling groves or isolated specimens, and the swamps, as well as those of all of northern 

 Vermont, are occupied by the black spruce, yellow cedar, and by a few scattering pines. The pine being the kind 

 of lumber first secured, is seldom found now in these Vermont swamps. The cedars are now cut and manufactured 

 into shingles, fence posts, railway ties, etc., for which purposes the lasting quality of the wood makes it eminently 

 suited. There is little hemlock in northeastern Vermont, and it is believed to indicate poor soil wherever it occurs. 

 The soil of this entire region presents a marked contrast to that of northern New York, being fertile and in other 

 respects well adapted to agriculture. On this account laud once lumbered over is generally occupied by the farmer 

 and not allowed to come up again to forest, except in the more hilly portions." 



Staves, tubs, pails, buckets, and hoops are largely manufactured from spruce, cedar, and ash. The quality of 

 the material used is said to have deteriorated, and manufacturers report that at the present rate of consumption it 

 will soon be consumed. 



KUTLAND COUNTY. Four-tenths of this county is reported covered with woods, principally in the eastern 

 portion. Elm, formerly largely used in manufacture of tubs, etc., is reported exhausted, and basswood has become 

 scarce. 



WASHINGTON COUNTY. One-third of this county is reported covered with woods, principally situated in belts 

 along its eastern and western borders. The following is extracted from Mr. Priugle's report : 



"Reaching Montpelier from the west we have left behind the Green Mountain gneiss and entered a granitic 

 formation. Here is an extensive burned region; the fire, in consuming the forest and vegetable mold upon the 

 surface of the land, has exposed granite bowlders thickly embedded in the soil. To replace the forest growth thus 

 removed there is only an occasional little spruce or balsam to be found among the thickets of bird cherry. The 

 hilltop and hillside forests east of Montpelier show hemlocks everywhere mingled with sugar maples, yellow birches, 

 and spruce ; farther east the spruce and birch predominate. Approaching the Connecticut river, hemlocks and 

 maples again appear and second-growth white pine and paper birches take the place of the other species." 



WINDUAM COUNTY. Three-eighths of this county is reported covered with woods, mostly confined to ridges 

 of the Green mountains. Ash and white pine are reported very scarce. 



WINDSOR COUNTY. From one-fourth to one-third of this county is reported covered with woods, quite generally 

 distributed over the hills. Tubs, barrels, kegs, and buckets of white and red oak, white pine, spruce, and ash are 

 manufactured. Oak is reported by manufacturers to be already practically exhausted, spruce to be fast disappearing, 

 and ash very scarce and in danger of speedy extermination. 



MASSACHUSETTS, EHODE ISLAND, AND CONNECTICUT. 



The original forest which once covered these states has disappeared and been replaced by a second, and 

 sometimes by a third and fourth growth of the trees of the Northern Pine Belt. The area covered by tree growth 

 in these states is slowly increasing, although, with the exception of the young forests of white pine, the productive 

 capacity of their woodlands is, in view of the heavy demands conti nually made upon them, especially by the 

 railroads, rapidly diminishing. Abandoned farming land, if protected from fire and browsing animals, is now 

 very generally, except in the immediate vicinity of the coast, soon covered with a vigorous growth of white pine. 

 The fact is important, for this new growth of pine promises to give in the future more than local importance to the 

 forests of this region. 



These states sustain a considerable annual loss from forest fires. In Massachusetts during the year 1880 

 13,899 acres of woodland were reported destroyed by fire, with a loss of $102,262. Of these fires fifty-two were set 

 by locomotives, forty by fires started on farms and escaping to the forest, thirty-seven by hunters, nineteen by the 

 careless use of tobacco, eight through malice, and three by carelessness in the manufacture of charcoal. No returns 

 in regard to forest fires in Rhode Island and Connecticut have been received, but it is believed that in proportion 

 to their forest area such fires are not less destructive in these states than in Massachusetts. Numerous important 

 industries using hard wood have been driven from these states or forced to obtain their material from beyond 

 their limits. On the other hand, industries like the manufacture of certain sorts of woodenware, using second- 

 growth pine, are rapidly increasing in volume. The principal forests now found in these states are situated in 

 Berkshire, Hampden, and Worcester counties, Massachusetts. 



