INFLUENCE OF THE FORESTS ON WATER POWER. 21 



On one of the branches of the Pemigew asset, the East Branch, in 

 Lincoln, forest destruction has gone far. The operating company 

 does not expect any future return after the primeval forest is gone. 

 It cuts clean and has no care for the future of the forest. From 

 50,000 to 75,000 acres are already laid bare; on most of it nearly 

 every tree has been cut, save the hardwoods of little present value 

 in the valleys. A fire of 9,000 acres' extent in September, 1907, 

 was but a beginning. It has become almost literally true that, 

 where until recently stood a primeval forest, after cutting there 

 remains standing scarcely a pole on which a bird can build its nest. 

 With a masterly business management railways are constructed 

 through these valleys and removed when the forest has been ex- 

 hausted. 



During the last three winters extensive cutting has been done also 

 on Moosilauk Brook, which is known as the Lost River, the axmen 

 having stripped the timber ruthlessly from this remarkable natural 

 curiosity. On the opposite side of the valley in Thornton Gore 

 another extensive block of timber has been removed, chiefly by 

 clean cutting. As little by little these operations are extended, and 

 fire does its finishing work, the result upon the flow of the Pemige- 

 wasset becomes apparent. The work is too recent in its greatest 

 extent for results to be reported fully in stream measurement, 

 but the mark has been made, as shown clearly in the accompany- 

 ing chart. That this cutting will have immediately marked effect 

 upon the water powers in the lower Merrimac River at Lowell and 

 Lawrence is doubtful, because the companies owning these powers 

 control the great lakes of the Merrimac system — Winnepesaukee, 

 Squam, and Newfound lakes — comprising together a surface area 

 of 103 square miles. These lakes have a vast storage capacity, 

 controlled by dams at their outlets, which are opened sufficiently to 

 offset in large measure low water in the main lower stream. It is 

 believed, however, that the conserving power of the forest is greater 

 than that of the combined lakes. There is a progressive evil effect 

 from forest destruction, which in time may prove overwhelming, for 

 the wounds upon the primeval forest at high elevations are very 

 slowly repaired. The forest on the upper reaches of this river have 

 been cut closer than any others in the mountains. In the long run 

 nature has her way, and the efforts of man to prevent it on a large 

 scale are always expensive and sometimes fruitless. 



The articles manufactured on the water powers of the Merrimac 

 are somewhat less varied than those on the Connecticut, being 

 chiefly cotton goods, but the investments of capital are very large, 

 estimated at Lawrence to be about $15,000,000, with a greater 

 amount at Lowell, and a somewhat smaller amount at Manchester. 

 The total investment on this river is conservatively estimated at 



[Cir. 168] 



