THE FARM OF THE FIRST MINISTER. 3 1 



which the late Colonel Clough of Canterbury used to speak in 

 early meetings of this honorable Board. Until then they will 

 be likelv to stand. 



To every New Hampshire farm should belong such an area 

 of forest as will afford to its owner as much winter occupation 

 as his individual circumstances may suggest. Besides getting 

 therefrom his household fuel, he can spend time profitably in 

 thinning and pruning his trees, thereby converting much of his 

 growing wood to timber. From a thrifty lot well cared for, the 

 owner, sooner or later, may annually sell more or less mature 

 trees and receive therefrom an income quite as reliable as that 

 afforded by any other crop produced upon his farm. 



It is a lamentable fact that all the older nations of Europe 

 gave no care to their forests until they lost them. Not until a 

 wood and timber famine had come upon them with all the dis- 

 astrous accompaniments of denudation did they plant new 

 ones. It is a more lamentable fact that the people of the 

 United States with all their experiences to warn them should 

 persist in following their example. For we are not only reck- 

 lessly wasting our forest covering, but, with a madness almost 

 incredible, are allowing fire to follow the axe and destroy the 

 scant remnant which this insatiable implement may have 

 chanced to spare. Conflagrations have been allowed to sweep 

 over entire townships and obliterate in their progress entire vil- 

 lages with more or less of their inhabitants. 



Mr. Bela Hubbards says in an able article in the March, 

 1S95, number of the Poptila?- Science Monthly: — "Voyagers 

 upon the upper lakes in August last, [1894] were involved in 

 clouds of smoke which settled over the waters. These were 

 often so dense as to render navigation dangerous and to occa- 

 sion frequent collisions. They obscured the sun, which ap- 

 peared a dull, red ball in the sky. This smoke extended as far 

 east as the Atlantic and south to Georgia. The cause was soon 

 apparent ; forest fires were raging in the lands about the lakes. 



" By these fires in Lower Michigan property to the extent of 



thousands of dollars was destroyed ; in the Upper Peninsula 



the burned area is reported at over one thousand square miles. 



"But these devastations were insignificant compared with 



those in Wisconsin and Minnesota, in each of which states the 



