270 



THE FORESTER. 



November, 



they deserve. New Hampshire's pros- 

 perity is no longer founded on her agri- 

 culture, but on industries to which the 

 continued existence of her forests is of the 

 first importance. The factory towns along 

 the Merrimac which has been called the 

 main artery of the State's economic life 

 and on some of the other streams in the 

 lower part of the State, are the commu- 

 nities which are flourishing and growing in 

 population. To their well being it is of 

 the greatest importance that the flow of 

 the rivers should be regular, and should 

 not go on increasing its fluctuations as 

 during the last three or four years. In 

 other regions the plentiful presence of the 

 summer visitor, who has of late been 

 bringing New Hampshire between seven 

 and ten millions a year, is the one condi- 

 tion of prosperity ; and this summer busi- 

 ness, which centers very largely around 

 the White Mountain region, would be 

 wiped out entirely if either fire or waste- 

 ful lumbering should sweep the forests 

 from the mountain sides generally, as they 

 already have in several regions now well- 



nigh desei'ted. Finally, the lumber busi- 

 ness itself is one which the State would 

 not willingly see disappear. But if the 

 State is not to come near seeing it do this, 

 if it is to see the lumbermen go on happily 

 and prosperously without working harm 

 to other industries it must regulate their 

 operations. With this end in view it will 

 frequently be enough to point out to timber 

 owners, what some of them have already 

 discovered, that methods of cutting which 

 perpetuate the forest are really to their 

 best interest. In other cases moderate 

 legislation will be all that is needed. But 

 in a few places the State will undoubtedly 

 have to take charge of the forest lands 

 herself. This may seem a grave step, and 

 the task of awakening public interest in 

 forestry generally may seem a heavy one, 

 but when manufactures, summer business, 

 and in the long run lumbering, are all 

 vitally interested, and when the agricul- 

 tural regions are all so well supplied with 

 wood and so perfectly fitted for its pro- 

 duction, New Hampshire cannot afford to 

 remain officially inert any longer. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Spreading of Timber Areas and the Sprouting of White Pine Seed. 



To THE EDITOR OF THE FORESTER. 

 Facts and truths from nature are what are 

 needed in forestry. The article by Charles 

 . Bessey in the October number of the 

 FORESTER is useful because it is full of 

 facts found by observing nature. In gen- 

 eral I had observed the same facts in the 

 \\Yst and some corresponding ones in New 

 I. upland. In our section Pine seed seldom 

 sprouts and produces trees on a close grass 

 sod, and this is especially true if the ground 

 is lianl and dry. I have known land to 

 moss over till the Pine seed would grow in 

 tia- moss, Imt weeds, blueberry bushes, 

 \vect fern, hardback and similar growths 

 in open lands generally form the beds in 

 which the young Pines start. One of the 

 most beautiful groves of White Pine within 

 my knowledge is on land covered with 



sweet fern when I was a boy. Plowed 

 land, in the vicinity of Pine trees, left to 

 \veeds is a good bed for Pines to start in. 

 I have sometimes wished for blueberry or 

 similar seed to sow on land near Pines so 

 as to form a bed in which the Pine seed 

 would sprout and grow. 



I concluded years ago that fire was the 

 great reason why the western praires were 

 treeless, and that the thick laminated back 

 of the Post Oak and of our Pitch Pine 

 caused those trees to stand the fire better 

 than others, and consequently were the 

 trees respectively found on western prairie 

 and northern sand plains. I thought the 

 same kind of bark had much to do with 

 the Hard Pine of our Southern States. 



Let us preach that forests increase or 

 equalize rainfall, change the climate, pre- 



