328 FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



The mills are of small capacity, either portable or stationary 

 in character, the former being the more usual. With such a 

 mill the lumberman can move onto the lot to be cut, the topog- 

 raphy making this possible in nearly every instance. The 

 owners of the mills often farm part of the year and saw timber 

 during the remainder. Lack of virgin timber and the decreas- 

 ing size and number of the tracts of timber to be cut is causing 

 the same trend from portable toward stationary mills as was 

 described in the northern hardwoods region. It is so much 

 easier to take a mill onto a woodlot in the white pine region as 

 contrasted to the northern hardwoods region that portable mills 

 will perhaps always hold first place. There are also fewer 

 available water-power sites for stationary mills than in the 

 latter region. 



Market Conditions. — Conditions for the sale of forest products 

 are far better than in the two preceding forest regions and slightly 

 better than in the sprout hardwoods region. Railroads ramify 

 all parts of the region. Most of the area lies less than five miles 

 from railroad lines, but a few points can be found, twelve to 

 fifteen miles distant in a straight line from a railroad. The 

 Maine and Central New Hampshire portions have the poorest 

 railroad facifities. 



The region is characterized by a dense population, the Massa- 

 chusetts section being one of the most thickly settled sections 

 in the United States, with the innumerable large towns situated 

 here. 



As would be expected with such a dense population this is 

 not a timber exporting region. It does not produce enough 

 forest products to supply its own local demands, ^ and large 

 quantities of timber are imported. 



The dense population creates a strong demand for wood, and 

 makes possible a closer utilization than is found in the other 

 New England forest regions. The possibiHty of utilizing small 

 material is often the cause of cutting stands on short rotations, 



1 This does not mean that some products, Uke white pine for boxes, are not 

 shipped outside. 



