APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 25 



from fire and the high taxes on lands with standing timber, it does 

 not pay to cut hghtly and protect the land for a second crop. Hence 

 the lumberman cuts the timber as heavily as possible, gets as much 

 money out of it as he can, and then transfers his operations to another 

 tract. It is the same principle as the mountain farmer adheres to 

 when he abandons a worn-out field for a new one. 



Lumbering is attended with almost as much waste as ever. Actual 

 measurements in average operations of hardwood tie making show 

 that from 75 to 82 per cent of the whole tree and from 43 to 73 per 

 cent of the logs used is wasted. We realize that the waste is enor- 

 mous when we consider that probably 20,000,000 ties, each contain- 

 ing 2| cubic feet, are cut in this region every year. Railroad ties are 

 only one product. The manufacture of lumber and the making of 

 telephone poles and cooperage stock are attended with v/aste almost 

 as great. 



The only industry that uses the forest without much waste is the 

 tannin-extract business, which, while using up the mature timber, is 

 open to objection in that it takes the chestnut and oak forests almost 

 clean, young trees and all. 



Several active influences are thus constantly operating to reduce 

 the area and deteriorate the quaUty of the Southern Appalachian 

 forests. Clearing, destructive lumbering, and fire are far the most 

 prevalent and damaging, but grazing, mining, and insects con- 

 tribute to the injury in a local way. Although the area of the forest 

 is much less than formerly, these agencies are at work more actively 

 than ever before. Their combined influence, if unchecked, is suffi- 

 cient practically to obliterate the commercial forest of the Southern 

 Appalachians within the next sixteen years. All that is needed for 

 this result is a continuation of present conditions. 



CONDITIONS IN THE WHITE MOUNTAINS. 

 TOPOGEAPHY. 



The White Mountain region is drained by five large rivers^the 

 Connecticut, the Pemigewasset, the Saco, the Androscoggin, and 

 the Kennebec. The watersheds of these streams form a very rough 

 and rugged region broken up into many short mountain ranges sep- 

 arated by deep, narrow valleys. The White Mountains proper, the 

 most rugged and elevated portion, cover about 812,000 acres. Seventy- 

 four peaks reach a height of over 3,000 feet, and of these eleven 

 are over 5,000 feet. The tallest. Mount Washington, rises to an 

 altitude of 6,290 feet, and is among the tallest peaks east of the Mis- 

 sissippi Eiver. 



A characteristic of the topography is the great irregularity of 

 arrangement of the mountains. With the exception of the Presi- 

 dential Range, there are no long ranges. The greatest number of 

 peaks are in irregular groups, or isolated. The three main ranges, 

 the Presidential, the Carter-Moriah, and the Franconia, have a gen- 

 eral northeast and southwest direction. 



The Presidential Range is the most important. In it are included 

 nine of the eleven peaks with elevations above 5,000 feet. It is pop- 

 ularly considered as extending only from Mount Madison on the 



