07 



about by chance. It would be almost impossible to have produced 

 such an overwhelming sentiment by any party machinery. 



The fact is that the cause of alarm sounded in New Hampshire 

 by the Hon. T. Jefferson Coolidge, was already working in New York. 

 It is worth dwelling upon. 



I have been at the pains of verifying the following abstract which 

 is taken from the "Manufacturer," Philadelphia, October 31st, 1896. 

 As I can neither condense nor improve upon the presentation, I sub- 

 mit it for your consideration : 



FORESTS AND FACTORIES. 



"In his annual report to the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, 

 whose great mills are located at Manchester, New Hampshire, util- 

 izing, as those below at Nashua and Lowell do, the splendid water 

 power of the Merrimack river, the treasurer of the company, Hon. 

 T. Jefferson Coolidge, of Boston, stated some important facts con- 

 cerning the usefulness of the river for manufacturing purposes. He 

 describes first, the great freshet in the Merriraack, on April 16, 1895, 

 when the water rose to the highest point that until then had ever 

 been known, injuring the Amoskeag dam, and compelling extensive 

 and costly repairs. He then describes the terrific freshet of March 

 2, 1896, which rose 1J feet higher than even that of the preceding 

 year, and which compelled the stoppage of the mills, with their 

 6,000 operatives, for some time, and would have done immense dam- 

 age to the mills, had it not been for the strong repair construction 

 of the previous year. 



" 'I need not say/ proceeds Mr. Coolidge, 'what a terrible loss to 

 the city of Manchester such accidents are, and how desirable it is 

 to take any measures which may diminish the probability of future 

 and higher freshets. When you consider that the Merrimack has f o 

 the past few summers been lower than in previous years, it is evi- 

 dent that some cause is at work turning the stream into a torren 

 with long droughts and fearful discharges of water.' 



"There is but one explanation, he further says of this phenomenon. 

 It is simply, 'the cutting down of the forests around the headwaters 

 of the Merrimack, the Pemigewasset and other affluents. The woods 

 hold back the water and allow it to trickle slowly into the streams ; 

 cut down the woods and the rain running rapidly over the surface 

 of the ground, which is baked by the sun or frozen hard by the 

 winter's cold, pours all at once into the streams, turns them into 

 rearing torrents, and finds its way all at once into the Merrimack, 

 sweeping everything before it. In a few days the river sinks rap 

 idly and becomes in time of drought an insignificant stream. Hrtd 

 the forest been left, no sudden discharge of water would have taken. 



