808 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



\ C ALTON 



LITTLETON 



WENTWORT 



National Forest in the White Mountains 



map of the present purchase area in new hampshire and maine, showing in hatched lines the tracts 



already purchased, or approved for purchase 



and valleys of primeval forest. Much 

 valuable timber, however, remains. On 

 these moist north slopes fire has not 

 followed, making of these woods an 

 unusual exception. In many places 

 young spruce trees are seeding in 

 aboundantly. The fire danger has not 

 passed, however, and everyone who 

 traverses the paths should be cautious. 

 The southern slopes of the Presidential 

 Range have been acquired also. These 

 include two adjoining valleys striking 

 in their differences of condition. One of 

 them, the Rocky Branch, was heavily 

 cut and burned over before its acquisi- 

 tion by the Government. The angel 

 of death appears to have found no 

 passover sign, and to have ravaged 

 this valley with complete desolation. 

 Seed trees and seedlings are gone. 

 Where the soil is not burned away, 

 small bird cherry trees, the seeds^long 



dormant, cracked by fire, are springing 

 in by the million. These have no value 

 and will occupy the soil from fifty to 

 eighty years. It takes half a century after 

 a fierce fire for little spruces to seed 

 in again, and another half century 

 at this elevation for them to become 

 6 inches in diameter. The summers, 

 under the summit of Mt. Washington, 

 are short and cold. It requires another 

 half century for the trees to become 

 small saw logs. From the human point of 

 view, a two century set-back is not a 

 light matter. 



The adjoining valley is the Great 

 Gulf that projects its wide spac? into 

 the east side of Mt. Washington. Here 

 the primeval spruce timber is standing. 

 It ranges in small sizes to be sure. How 

 could a wind-swept valley at high 

 elevation produce other than small 

 timber? Yet, taking the valley as a 



