LUMBERING AND FORESTRY 



465 



owing to the high price of timberlands 

 at the present time the Company finds 

 that to buy lands on which there has 

 never been any timber cut is unprofit- 

 able as there can be no increase of 

 growth on lands on which there has 

 never been any cutting. Lands which 

 have been once cleared and used for 

 agricultural purposes and have been 

 abandoned and allowed to grow again 

 into timber are found to be more profit- 

 able to hold for growth as the growth 

 on such lands is often very rapid and 

 sufficient, at a reasonable purchase price, 

 to cover the interest on the purchase 

 price and moderate taxes. 



It is the Company's intention, in this 

 division, to at least plant a tree for 

 every one cut on their lands and as 

 many more as they may be able to plant 



conveniently and profitably. I know of 

 no Company in the lumber business in 

 Vermont or New Hampshire which at 

 this time is doing as much to conserve 

 and reproduce their lumber supply as 

 the International Paper Company. To 

 my knowledge none of the other lumber 

 companies in these two States are con- 

 ducting a nursery or doing any con- 

 siderable planting on waste or cut-over 

 lands. If all the lumber operations in 

 Vermont and New Hampshire were to 

 be conducted as conservatively as the 

 operations of the International Paper 

 Company the next quarter of a century 

 would see a large increase in the amount 

 of growing timber in both States. 



*Paper presented at a meeting of the Ver- 

 mont Forestry Association. 



A WOMAN TREE CHOPPER. 



D. Woodbury Bacheldcr of Manchester, N. H., engaged in the lumber business at Dama- 

 riscotta, Me., has in his employ a most remarkable woman as regards strength and endurance. 

 She is Mary Gregory, wife of Frank Gregory. 



She first entered the employ of Mr. Bachelder to provide meals for the fourteen men 

 in the camp. This she was able to do and have half a day left in which to engage in the 

 work of the men, and asked permission of Mr. Bachelder to take her place with the choppers. 



Mr. Bachelder gave his consent and was astonished to see her perform. She wielded an 

 axe as expertly as any man in the crew and made a record one day of chopping, splitting and 

 piling three cords of wood, a task that most men, hardened to the service of the woods, 

 are incapable of equalling. Mr. Bacheldcr says: 



"She is the strongest woman I ever saw. No sooner does she fell a tree than she is on 

 top of it, limbing it out, and in every line of work she is the equal of the men in camp. 

 She handles a crosscut saw with all the skill of a man and not a laborer in the camp can 

 surpass her in the amount of work accomplished." 



HISTORIC WASHINGTON TREE. 



A historic old tree, believed to be 500 years old, famous also because it was used during 

 the Civil War as a signal station, and by Confederate sharpshooters, when Gen. Early, in 

 1864, made his attack upon the national capital, has been recently cut down. 



The tree was in perfect condition until struck by lightning recently. It stood about three 

 miles north of the Capitol. Some Confederate soldiers killed during the two days' fighting, 

 July 11 and 12, 1864, near the capital, were buried under it. 



