the soutliern and south-central parts and most of the middle Connecticut 

 Valley. Podzols in New Hampshire are commonly associated with conifer- 

 ous forests either pure or in mixture with northern hardwoods. Contribut- 

 ing climatic factors are short and cool growing seasons which permit the 

 accumulation of considerable (piantities of acid organic material on the 

 forest floor. South and west of the area of podzols and embracing parts 

 of Strafford. Helknap. Merrimack. Hillsborough, and Cheshire counties, 

 as well as the middle and lower Connecticut X^alley. is an area of brown 

 podzolic soils. Characteristically these are associated with deciduous forests 

 or mixtures of deciduous species in fairly strong concentration with coni- 

 fers. Higher tem])eratures, with less effective moisture, contribute to the 

 formation of Ijrown podzolic soils. A special type of this class of soils is 

 characteristic of the middle and lower Connecticut X-'alley and also of 

 southeastern New Hampshire including southeastern Hillsborough and 

 much of Rockingham and southern Strafford counties. The characteristics 

 of parent material would seem to account in part for the distinctive quality 

 of this soil type. It may be that the prevalence of species of Carya in 

 southeastern New Hampshire and in the Connecticut Valley is due to the 

 similarity of the soils in the two widely separated areas. 



The more detailed classification of the major soil-types into numerous 

 classes, based on soil-texture differences which has proven useful in 

 agricultural and land use programs, seems to show few if anv consistent 

 correlations with natural woody vegetation in New Hampshire. 



The following brief discussion of the natural woody vegetation of New 

 ITampshire is necessarily incomplete. Manv of the factors that control the 

 distribution of forest associations and of individual species are not well 

 understood. Moreover the complicated handling of the forest by man during 

 the past 300 years has greatly exaggerated the natural diversity of forest 

 types, making it difficult to account for most of our present forest associa- 

 tions. • 



As pointed out above, it is possible to relate certain of the more con- 

 spicuous forest types in a general way to climatic or soil factors. The very 

 striking restriction of the natural ranges of Thuja occideii falls and of Picca 

 (jlaiica to parts of New Hampshire west and north of the Presidential 

 Range would appear to show a more specific chemical relationship involving 

 calcium in the soil. 



There are very few places where one can still find communities of woody 

 species in an undistiu-bed condition, and unfortunately without exception 

 these are either difficult of access or are the kinds of places for which man 

 has had no use. The original vegetation of fully two-thirds of the state is 

 not represented at all. 



Undisturbed areas are often spectacularly beautiful and they are invari- 

 ably of great interest to the biologist. The most appealing of all are the well 

 known alpine areas of the Presidential and Franconia ranges where l^oth 

 climate and vegetation bear a distinct similarity to the Arctic. Here the 

 characteristic genera, and often species as well, are identical with those of 

 the far north and exist only as highly localized relic colonies in their 

 mountain refuges in New Hampshire. Below the alpine areas there are 

 virgin stands of Picca and Abies balsaiiica of dwarf, weather-beaten char- 

 acter, amongst which in more open situations, can be found mats of J\n-- 

 cinium uligiiiosiiiii. / '. angusfifoliuiii . J', rifis-idara. Rmpctruiii iiif/nnii. 



