APPALACHIAN AND "WHITE MOUNTAIN WATEESHEDS. 27 



AGEICin.TURAL POSSIBILITIES. 



The entire region is essentially a forest country. That the land is, 

 for the most part, better suited to forest production than to agri- 

 cultural use is evidenced by the once cultivated lands which have 

 now come up to forests of second-growth spruce and pine. ^Tiere 

 repeated fires have not kept back the young growth these give good 

 promise for the future. Thousands of acres of once cleared land have 

 been abandoned throughout the White Mountains, and a smaller 

 area of land is now farmed than fifty years ago. Only along the 

 intervales and valley bottoms is good farming land found. 



The farm land in the Saco drainage basin, which contains the largest 

 area of cultivated land in the White Mountain region proper, lies 

 chiefly in the eastern and southern portions. The soU is sandy and 

 poor, and except right along the streams the farming is not good, 

 ihe principal crops are clover and timothy hay, oats, rye, wheat, corn 

 and potatoes, peas and beans. There are a few orchards, usually 

 overgrown and neglected. 



North of the White Mountains proper practically no land has been 

 cleared for agricultural purposes, and in the greater part of this coun- 

 try there are no settlements of any kind save the logging camps and 

 an occasional hunter's cabin or summer hotel or camp. 



FOREST. 



Originally the entire northern region, including the White Moun- 

 tains proper, was covered with a dense forest of conifers. It was pri- 

 marily a spruce country, and the spruce here attained fine dimensions. 

 White pine, too, covered large areas and was rmixed wdth spruce 

 over much of the region. Balsam occurred in mJxture on the upper 

 slopes and the lower, moister localities. There was originally very 

 little fine hardwood forest except south of the main ranges of the 

 White Mountains. 



In the White Mountains proper, red spruce and balsam are the pre- 

 vailing species, and reach the highest elevations on the mountains. 

 North of the White Mountains these ti-ees ^\ith white cedar, and 

 around the Connecticut Lakes with white spruce, are the chief 

 conifers. Lumbering has brought about a great change in the 

 species. Hemlock and white pine, once common at low elevations 

 and along the valleys, are now of but little importance in the forest. 

 Yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech are the commonest of the hard- 

 woods and have greatly increased in numbers on the cut-over land. 

 But little of the original forest is now left. Where there was formerly 

 a heavy stand of spruce and balsam there is now a hardwood forest 

 with a httle spruce in mixture. Where fires have occurred there is 

 a tangle of wild red cherry, yellow birch, and aspen. 



Hardwoods occur on the lower slopes and deeper, better soils. 

 Here yellow birch, sugar maple, and beech are now the characteristic 

 trees, v/ith considerable spruce in mixture. The spruce forms a bet- 

 ter timber tree on these slopes than in any other situations. These 

 hardwood slopes rarely extend above an altitude of 2,400 feet. The 

 forest is, as a rule, dense and clean, with a heavy shade. The ground 

 cover consists chiefly of witch hobble, mountain maple, and mojan- 



