1900. 



AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



269 



woefully, it is hard to see the nature of 

 their mistakes until the reasons for them 

 have been taken into account. The farm 

 wood lots, except where they contain 

 groves of good-sized White Pine, heavy 

 stands of hardwood or Maple orchards, 

 are little cared for ; but the course of 

 events during the last two generations 

 shows many reasons for this. In the first 

 place the original forest, which the New 

 Hampshire farmer cut to good profit, dis- 

 appeared from all but the White Mountain 

 region years ago, and since then many 

 townships have had no connection what- 

 ever with profitable traffic in lumber. 

 The couple of dozen or more trades which 

 used to be carried on in every community, 

 when country towns had little communi- 

 cation with the rest of the world, have 

 also died out, and with them have disap- 

 peared a once steady local demand for 

 wood and woodwork of many sorts. High 

 hills and bad roads have made the hauling 

 of cord wood to a market or to a raih'oad 

 difficult and costly in many places. Rail- 

 roads and the supply of cheap coal have 

 altered the demand for fuel even in the 

 villages. For decades, too, the tide of life 

 has drawn strongly away from the rural 

 districts, and in the parts of the State 

 where farms have been deserted, firewood 

 has been all too cheap. So that it is not 

 strange that for a long time the New 

 Hampshire farmer has considered his 

 woodlot simply as a part of the farm from 

 which fire-wood may be cut when needed, 

 but for which he has otherwise no use. 



But although the indifference to forests 

 is no more to be wondered at in New 

 Hampshire than in many other parts of 

 the country, this does not necessarily im- 

 ply that their neglect is not shortsighted 

 and mistaken ; and even disregarding for 

 a time the non-agricultural regions, and 

 the considerations touching the water sup- 

 ply, and attractions to the summer tourist, 

 is not such really the case? An illustra- 

 tion will answer most clearly. Groves of 

 White Pine or of useful hardwoods, like 

 Oak or Maple, when well grown, are con- 

 sidered the most valuable part of many of 

 the farms on which they are to be found. 

 From almost any such grove may be seen 



woods which, though similar in all condi- 

 tions of soil and environment to that in 

 which the good timber is found, contain 

 only an irregular, weedy growth in which 

 trees of a dozen different kinds are inter- 

 fering with each other and getting along 

 but poorly themselves. When the reason 

 for this difference is sought it turns out 

 that it is unnecessary to assign any cause 

 for the relative poorness of the second 

 stand of trees which it would not have 

 paid to get rid of. Indeed the difference 

 is no other than that usually to be found 

 where things are left to luck; and the ne- 

 glected condition of the woodlot is with- 

 out warrant. For where as many useful 

 trees grow as freely as in New England, 

 a little sowing or planting in places where 

 seed does not fall ; a judicious use of the 

 ax to remove undesirable growth at the 

 right time; and care and economy in cut- 

 ting wood for use on the farm ; will often 

 make the difference in fifteen or twenty 

 years between a stand of trees which is of 

 little use, and one which adds a good 

 amount to the value of the farm and pays 

 its taxes. Even in remote townships it is as 

 great a mistake to act as if the first growth 

 supplies the only marketable wood, as to 

 assume that a good second growth will 

 more than occasionally grow up without 

 care or attention. The truth is that almost 

 everywhere in New Hampshire and other 

 parts of New England the conditions are 

 so favorable to forest growth that a small 

 outlay of labor and money " t will make the 

 woodlot on almost any farm increase in 

 value at the same time that it yields its 

 owner a good per cent, on what it \vas 

 originally worth. This being the case there 

 is no reason why a field should go to wood 

 exactly as it goes to "waste." It is quite 

 wrong that this census definition of all 

 farm land not either '"tillage" or 'pas- 

 ture" should apply so literally. 



Importance of 

 Forests to New 

 Hampshire. 



But turning now to the ei 

 of the forest on the \\ater 

 supply and the beauty of the 

 country, it is clear almost at a -lance that 

 though no State has taken less care of her 

 forest interests than New Hampshire, none 

 could profit more by attending to them as 



