56 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



protective forest management is of the utmost imporiance 

 at the sources of our two great rivers in New Hampshire. 



In 1883 a commission Avas appointed in New Hampshire 

 to incjuire into the condition of the forests of that State and 

 report what action might l)c advisable for their protection. 

 The report, which was i)rinted in 1885, is of much inter- 

 est to us in Massachusetts, for it is encouraging to know 

 that, aside from the effects- of forest destruction in New 

 Hampshire alone, it considers the effect of such destruction 

 on the rivers upon which so many manufacturing towns in 

 Massachusetts are situated. There is also much information 

 of practical value to be gathered from this report in relation 

 to methods of re-forestation and the selection of species to 

 use, which, owing to the similarity of soil and climate, are as 

 applical^le to the Massachusetts as the New Hampshire 

 plantations. 



These suggestions naturally point to the importance of 

 co-operation in matters of forestry. We are as a country 

 admirably situated to control our forest affairs for the pro- 

 tection of our rivers, and to prevent, as far as it is possible 

 to do so, undesirable changes of climate and injurious me- 

 chanical influences. 



Except, however, in a few instances like that of New 

 York, which contains within its own borders the sources of 

 its most important stream, the individual States, cut out 

 regardless of natural divisions, are without power to estab- 

 lish any system of forest management which will bo of the 

 slightest benefit to themselves or protective of the industries 

 carried on by their citizens. On the other hand, it may be 

 possible for a single State, by a bad forest policy, or by no 

 policy at all, to injure or even ruin the property in a neigh- 

 boring State, while having no vital interests of its own to 

 suffer. 



It is hardly to be expected that legislatures will be so 

 bound by the golden rule as to enact laws for the protection 

 of their neighbors when they are as yet too often indifferent 

 to the importance of such action to protect the interests of 

 their own citizens, and hence we are forced to the conclu- 

 sion, that to be effective and just for all, our forest policy 

 must be a national one. Such a policy should be pat'ivnal 



