FORESTRY AND ARBORICULTURE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 61 



tion of a permanent and most liberal income was the protection 

 and preservation of the forests. These have been cut and burned 

 away in portions of the region in most unintelligent disregard of 

 their value as a permanent possession. In consequence, much 

 of the charm of the region has been destroyed, the value of the 

 hotel property is being seriously threatened, and some of the places 

 which were once among the loveliest are now desolate and hideous. 

 This forest region might have been preserved uninjured forever, 

 and yet it might have yielded another great revenue from the 

 timber which it produces, most of which could have been cut at 

 proper times without impairing the value of the forests in any way. 

 All this would have been practicable if we had been sufficiently 

 civilized. 



I have not time to speak of the loss by the destruction of this 

 great source of timber suppl}', nor of the injury to the streams 

 which have their sources here, the disastrous floods and the depleted 

 summer flow, or the effect on the industries and subsistence of 

 thousands of men and women in the great mill towns between these 

 mountains and the sea. The injury to New Hampshire agriculture 

 is to be recognized, though it is less important because most of 

 the State is unsuited to cultivation and should have been left 

 permanently under forest conditions. Some portions of the hill 

 country of Western Massachusetts have in a considerable degree 

 the same character as the mountain region of New Hampshire, and 

 should be taken care of accordingly. 



The care of small tracts of woodland is of interest to many land- 

 owners who think little about forestry in its larger aspects. It is 

 common for men from the towns to buy places in the country, and 

 then to find, when they begin to improve their wood-lots, that the 

 trees begin to die and to blow down, being pulled up by the roots. 

 This is very surprising to the owners ; but they usually begin by 

 cutting away all the underbrush, thus removing the natural mulch 

 from the larger trees. If there are wet places they drain them, 

 and, in short, they change as completely as possible all the condi- 

 tions under which the trees have lived hitherto, and then they 

 wonder that the trees do not thrive. One thing necessary to most 

 trees in this part of the countr}' is shade. In my own State of 

 New Hampshire, as in many other regions, the southern sides 

 of ravines and the north sides of hills grow up to trees when they 

 are protected from cattle and fire. But where the ground slopes 



