400 FOREST VEGETATION IN NEW HAMPSHIRE. 



maple is most limited in range, being confined to intervals of the prin- 

 cipal streams, and rarely far away from them. The red maple is com- 

 mon in all parts of the State, and the sugar-maple is abundant, filling 

 an important part in the economy of the State, supplying both timber 

 and sugar. It is common in most parts, but less toward the sea-coast. 

 This with the beech makes up the greater part of the hard woods of Coos 

 County. Southward the beech is common on high lands only, often 

 growing with spruce and hemlock. 



Four species of birch are common, of which the black, yellow, and 

 canoe birches have about the same range as the red maple. The canoe 

 or paper birch grows high up the sides of mountains. The fourth and 

 smallest, the white birch, is most abundant in the southeast part of the 

 State, affording the " gray-birch hoop-poles" used in the manufacture 

 of fish -barrels. 



Five or six species of oaks are found, of which the hardiest is the red 

 oak. Although the only species found along the water-shed between 

 the Merrimack and Connecticut, it does not extend much beyond the 

 White Mountains, having its upper limit at about 1,000 feet above the 

 sea. The white and yellow oaks usually appear together, on the plains 

 and hillsides along the rivers. The former extends northward in the 

 Connecticut Valley nearly to the mouth of the Passumpsic, in the Mer- 

 rimack Valley to Plymouth, and in the eastern part of the State to the 

 vicinity of Ossipee Lake. Its limit in altitude is about 500 feet above 

 the sea, which is also very nearly that of the frost-grape. The barren 

 or shrub oak is abundant on the pine plains of the Lower Merrimack Val- 

 ley, thence extending eastward to the coast, and to the sandy plains of 

 Madison and Conway. The chestnut oak seems to be local in this 

 State ; at Amherst and West Ossipee it can be found abundantly. 



The chestnut is found in the same situations as the white oak, but is 

 first to reach its limit of altitude, which is about 400 feet above the sea. 

 It occurs in a few localities about Lake Winnipiseogee at a somewhat 

 greater height, the neighborhood of the lake producing less severity of 

 temperature than in the river valleys at the same altitude. 



The American elm attains probably the largest size of any deciduous 

 trees. It grows best in alluvial soil, and is the most extensively 

 planted for shade and ornament of all trees, unless, perhaps, the sugar- 

 maple. 



Butternuts also prefer the borders of streams and, in the valley of 

 the Pemegewasset extends northward to the base of the mountains. 

 Hickories are most common in the Lower Merrimack Valley, the shell- 

 bark extending northward to the vicinity of Lake Winnipiseogee. 

 Basswood is found mostly on the highlands, but is not very common. 

 The black cherry is found throughout the State, usually most common 

 near streams. Two species of poplar are common ; the first a small 

 tree, very common in light soil, and often springing in great abundance 

 where woodland is cleared away. The other, the black poplar, may be 

 a large tree. 



The Hon. Levi Bartlett, of New Hampshire, has given in the result of 

 his experience, an interesting illustration of the profits that might be 

 realized from tree-planting in this State, covering a period of about fifty 

 years. A tract had been cleared and thoroughly burned over in a very 

 dry season, about the year 1800. It immediately seeded itself with 

 white and Norway pines, and about twenty-five years after, came into 

 his possession. He at once thinned out the growth on about two acres, 

 taking over half the number of the smallest trees, the fuel much more 

 than paying the expense of clearing off". From that time, nothing was 



