FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



PART I. 

 GENERAL FORESTRY. 



CHAPTER I. 

 SILVICS. 



In any study of forests over a wide range of country, as a whole 

 continent, it must be apparent that climate determines the 

 character of the forest just as it affects the growth of agricultural 

 crops in certain regions or belts. In a small region, such as New 

 England, the climatic factors are less noticeable, but cannot be 

 overlooked. 



The average temperature of a region is of less importance in 

 determining the range of different trees than the lowest and 

 highest extremes of temperature. In these extremes we have 

 an explanation of the inability of the eucalyptus of southern 

 Cahfornia to live in New England, and of the fact that the canoe 

 birch, although growing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, does 

 not extend as far south as Long Island Sound. In a less notice- 

 able way it is probably the extreme cold of winter which limits 

 the chestnut to southern New England and the region farther 

 south. Aside from this matter of extremes it is not so much the 

 winter's cold that is injurious to species, as the late frosts in 

 spring when the young leaves and shoots are still tender, and the 

 early frosts of the autumn before the summer's growth has 

 sufficiently hardened to withstand the cold. The late frosts of 

 the spring of 1910 killed back the new growth of pine and fir 

 in northern Vermont. 



