1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



547 



easily be again under careful regula- 

 tion. 



The forest policy of the administra- 

 tion appears to enjoy the unbroken 

 support of the people. The great 

 users of timber are themselves for- 

 warding the movement for forest pres- 

 ervation. All organized opposition to 

 the forest reserves in the West has 



disappeared. Since the consolidation 

 of all government forest work in the 

 National Forest Service there has 

 been a rapid and notable gain in the 

 usefulness of the forest reserves to 

 the people and in public appreciation 

 of their value. The national parks 

 within or adjacent to forest reserves 

 should be transferred to the charge of 

 the Forest Service also. 



THE FOREST SITUATION IN NORTH- 

 ERN NEW HAMPSHIRE 



BY 



GEORGE T. CRUFT 



President of the White Mountain Board of Trade, and Treasurer of 

 the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. 



"T 1 HE manufacture of paper from 

 * spruce has made very great changes 

 in the forest situation in northern New 

 Hampshire during the last ten years. 

 Cities of 12,000 inhabitants, like Berlin, 

 N. H., have sprung into existence. 

 Lincoln, N. H., is another young city. 

 The older towns, like Littleton and 

 Lancaster, have felt very strongly the 

 impetus. The total capital invested in 

 twenty-nine paper and wood pulp 

 plants is rated in the twelfth census of 

 1900 at $8,163,081, paying annually in 

 wages $1,036.856, and turning out an 

 annual product of the value of $7,244,- 

 733. These astonishing figures do not 

 include the saw mills and other manu- 

 facturing plants aside from the paper 

 and pulp industries, nor do they in- 

 clude the very active logging opera- 

 tions in the woods. Two paper mills 

 of the largest capacity have been put 

 in operation within the last three years. 

 Not only New Hampshire, but all 

 New England, feels the stimulus of 

 this new and prosperous business. 



With this advance, it is not surpris- 

 ing that the values of spruce lands 

 have greatly advanced. A rise of 

 more than 50 per cent has occurred 

 during the decade, and prices are like- 

 ly to go still higher, for we learn from 



the report which the United States 

 Forest Service has recently made on 

 northern New Hampshire that there 

 are standing 4,764,000,000 feet board 

 measure of coniferous timber. This is 

 mostly spruce and fir. The annual cut 

 is given as 225,000,000 feet. If there 

 were no new growth, therefore, and 

 no importations from Canada and else- 

 where, the supply would last twenty- 

 one years. The annual growth in the 

 forest is large, and 37 per cent of the 

 amount needed is already imported 

 from Canada ; but there is a constantly 

 increasing demand with a correspond- 

 ingly larger output which tend to make 

 the time of exhaustion nearer at hand. 

 With the constant growth in popula- 

 tion of the country it is inevitable that 

 the output must be larger. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that 

 those who know and love the White 

 Mountains should be anxious lest the 

 beauty of the mountains be despoiled. 

 Inquiries come from all p-rts of the 

 country, not only from those who for- 

 merly lived in New Hampshire, hut 

 also from that much larger number 

 who have visited its places of rest and 

 recreation, particularly from the Mid- 

 dle West: What can we do to help the 

 reservation in the White Mountains? 



