But it is not without effort that a forest will protect soil and water most 

 effectively. Forests must be harvested wisely, fires kept out. and the packing 

 action of the feet of grazing cattle must be kept to a minimum. 



Forest Types and Soil Management Groups 



Most trees have a wide adaptation and are found on many kinds of soil. 

 The pines do better than the hardwoods on the droughty sands, and the 

 spruce-fir type does well on the low swampy areas. Locally, the distribution 

 of forest types is the result of past management and of soil conditions. There 

 is a relation between soil condition and growth rates, with the best growth 

 on the moist soils with the most uniform supply of water. The principal 

 acreage of such soils is found in Soil Management Groups 1, 3, 6, and 7, 

 and their stony counterparts in Group 10. 



The map (Figure 10) shows the forest cover type groups for New 

 Hampshire and Table .5 gives the acreages of each type. 



Table 5. The Forest Types of New Hampshire and Their Acreages* 



Forest Types 



Commercial Forest Land 



Acres 



Percent of Total 



Hardwood Group (maple, beech, birch) 



Yellow birch — sugar maple — • beech 1,230,900 26 



Hardwood — spruce — fir 494,100 11 



Hardwood — white pine 444,500 9 



Oak 94.700 2 



Aspen — maple — elm 90,000 2 



Total 2,354,200 50 



White Pine Croup (white, red. jack pine) 



White pine 760,000 16 



White pine — ■ hardwood 331.600 7 



Hemlock 223,300 5 



Pitch pine 24,500 1 



Total 1,339,400 29 



Spruce — Fir Group 



Spruce — fir 366,300 8 



Spruce — fir — hardwood 207,100 4 



Cedar — tamarack — spruce 33,900 1 



Total 607,300 13 



Aspen — Paper Birch Grouji (aspen, bircli) 



Aspen — grey birch 249,200 5 



Paper birch 132,100 3 



Total 381,300 8 



Total for State 4,682,200 100 



*The Forest Resources of New Hampshire, Forest Service Report No. 8, Forest 

 Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1954. 



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