The Forest Resource 



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The Forests of the Past 



SOME 300 YEARS AGO, when settlement by 

 white men began, nearly all of New Hampshire 

 was covered by forests. The early settlers cleared 

 timber off land they needed for crops. They felled 

 huge quantities of fine timber, but only a small part of 

 it was put to any use. Most of it went up in smoke. 



The forests gradually gave way to a teeming com- 

 munity of small farms and villages. There were no 

 large cities, no industrial populations. Almost every- 

 one was engaged in farming. By present standards the 

 farms were small and very poor ; back in the hill coun- 

 try, land was tilled that would not be farmed at all 

 today. 



About 1830 many farmers turned to raising beef 

 cattle and sheep. More land was cleared, this time 

 for pasture. By 1855 only about half of the State's 

 total land area was covered with forests (5) . Mean- 

 while, the railroads came to New Hampshire about 

 the time the hill-country farmers turned to stock rais- 

 ing, and they were responsible for far-reaching changes 

 in the economic life of these people. The rail- 

 roads brought in cheaper foodstuffs and fiber from the 

 West. Manufacturing cities grew up rapidly, and 

 scores of New Hampshire towns lost people to them. 

 Reluctantly but steadily, year after year, the hill-coun- 

 try farmers abandoned their land. 



These abandoned farmlands were good timber- 

 growing sites, and the forests reclaimed them. But 

 because of the condition of the soil and other factors 

 such as grazing, these "old-field" forests had some 

 unique characteristics. Instead of the original mix- 

 ture of softwoods and hardwoods, much of the land 

 reforested to pure stands of softwoods. In the south- 

 em part of the State and in the Connecticut River 

 Valley, the old-field stands were predominantly white 

 pine. In the northern sections and at some higher 

 elevations, spruce took over in the old fields. 



The rapid industrial expansion of New England in 

 the early 1800's had a lasting effect on the forest re- 

 source. It created a demand for timber products 

 such as never had been known before. After 1830 



lumber production went up dizzily. The steam saw- 

 mill, replacing the old waterpower mills, helped the 

 boom along, and the railroad and other new equip- 

 ment made possible large-scale logging operations. 

 The railioad also opened up eager new markets for 

 New Hampshire timber — even as far south as New 

 York City. 



Lumber production reached its peak in 1907, then 

 began to decline, chiefly because the better and more 

 accessible stands had been depleted by cutting. Pro- 

 duction fell below 300 million board-feet in the twen- 

 ties, and it did not rise above this level until 1939 

 (fig. 8) . Salvage operations after the 1938 hurricane 

 gave production a boost; then came the demands of 

 World War II. 



The pulp and paper industry grew up along with 

 the lumbering industry. By 1907 the pulp mills were 

 consuming wood at the rate of 430,000 cords per year, 

 most of which came from the spruce-fir forests in the 

 northern part of New England. As previously men- 

 tioned, the pulpwood production trend has been up- 

 ward since 1932. 



The history of New Hampshire's forests shows the 

 strong preference for softwoods. Pine, hemlock, and 

 spruce have been preferred for lumber, and spruce 

 and fir for pulpwood. Hardwood timber was often 

 left standing to take over the land after the softwoods 

 had been cut. Much of the lumber produced in re- 

 cent years has come from the old-field softwood stands. 



The Forest Area Today 



Now forests again dominate the landscape in New- 

 Hampshire. The nonforest area has shrunk to 16 

 percent of the total land area (table 1). Today all 

 but two counties — Rockingham and Strafford — are 

 more than three-fourths forested, and even these two 

 counties have more than 70 percent of their land area 

 in forest. The commercial forest land of New Hamp- 

 shire covers 4.7 million acres — 81 percent of all the 

 land in the State. 



Only a small part of the forest land is not suitable 

 or available for commercial timber growing. This 



Forest Resources of New Hampshire 



