1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



569 



since it takes no more time to distill bark and to keep the vats full and the 



three pounds of oil from three stills fires fed. Usually, however, the labor 



than it does one pound from one still, in the process involved is not con- 



but the larger distillery entails a great- sidered by the distiller from its ' eco- 



ei labor to chip a larger amount of nomic standpoint. 



SPKUCE FORESTS OF THE WHITE 

 MOUNTAIN REGION 



BY 

 AUSTIN GARY 



THE White Mountains of New 

 Hampshire contained in their na- 

 tive condition some of the finest spruce 

 timber in New England, as heavy a 

 stand perhaps as stood on any like area 

 within the whole region of distribution 

 of the species. These were not among 

 the first New England forests to be cut 

 through. The ground they stood on 

 was so steep and rough and the 

 streams which drained it, many of 

 them, so ill adapted to log driving that 

 it was not till the advent of railroads 

 that the timber in these forests, thick 

 and fine as it was, could be logged at 

 a profit. 



Meanwhile there arose in the North- 

 east and gathered in part about these 

 woods, because they furnished the raw 

 material, the pulp and paper business. 

 The rapid development of this indus- 

 try injected great values into the for- 

 ests tributary to it. It had further this 

 peculiarity as against the saw-mill bus- 

 iness which claimed the more acces- 

 sible and better watered forests of the 

 Northeast, that a tree of very small 

 size was merchantable. The logs 

 which come to an eastern pulp mill 

 would look very queer to lumbermen 

 in most other parts of the country. 

 Trees 8 inches in diameter at the 

 stump as a rule are worth nearly as 

 much per M standing as larger timber, 

 and the cutting limit in this region 

 for spruce and fir frequently is and 

 has been even somewhat smaller. 



Thus we have a striking contrast 

 between cut and uncut lands in the 

 region, a contrast which holds in every 

 relation in which they can be conceived 

 of. It holds in respect to value in 

 the first place. Well timbered spruce 

 land may be worth, to cut at once, 

 anywhere from $20 to $100 per acre, 

 while the cut-over land is hardly worth 

 paying taxes on. Then it holds good 

 in every protective relation. The vir- 

 gin lands have a fine thick stock of 

 trees which clothes the ground fully, 

 keeps the soil moist, and is safe from 

 wind throw. Spruce lands that have 

 been newly cut, on the other hand, are 

 an almost continuous brush heap. If 

 scattering trees are left, either soft or 

 hardwood, they frequently blow down. 

 The country is very inflammable ; re- 

 production is put at every disadvan- 

 tage. Of course not all of the country 

 is left as badly off as that. Easy val- 

 leys and ridges where there is a large 

 proportion of hardwood, the severest 

 kind of logging cannot deprive entire- 

 ly of their cover. What is left, how- 

 ever, may be of little or no commer 

 cial value and an actual impediment as 

 regards useful reproduction. 



The effect of these conditions out- 

 side the White Mountain region is a 

 difficult matter and will not hi- dealt 

 with by the present writer. Within 

 the White Mountain forests it would 

 seem as if there could be no disagnv- 

 ment as regards either the conditions 



