16 COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF WHITE MOUNTAIN FORESTS. 



her industrial position against the competition of more favored 

 localities. 



The connection between forest cover and stream flow is intimate. 

 The evil effects of forest destruction are profoundly marked in the 

 older Asiatic and European countries, where the pressure of popula- 

 tion upon wood supply has consumed the mountain forests. France 

 is now spending extraordinary sums in an effort to reforest denuded 

 mountain sides, even going so far as to construct walls of masonry to 

 hold back the soil. In cutting a mountain forest few individuals and 

 probably fewer corporations feel that their work makes any difference. 

 They do not realize that Nature is slowly wearing away the mountains 

 down to the sea, and that the forests are the chief barriers to this 

 process. With fire the deterioration is immediate and often complete. 



This relation of forest cover to stream flow is no less substantial 

 in the White Mountains than elsewhere, but the ill effects upon the in- 

 dustries using the water powers are thus far less apparent than in some 

 other parts of the country. Cutting the forest from the steep slopes 

 tends to swell the floods and accentuate low water, but the topog- 

 raphy of New England is such that long ridges extend across it par- 

 allel to the sea, the last one not very far from the coast. These are 

 some distance from the mountains. The streams, before flowing 

 over them, have gathered full force from numerous tributaries, some 

 of which are a considerable distance from the main watershed. To 

 affect this volume of water the cutting must cover a very wide area. 

 The New England rivers, except the Connecticut and the Saco, have 

 an iinrivaled system of lakes, which serve as storage reservoirs. 

 Dams at the outlets of these store large quantities of water that 

 can be let out at will in time of drought. Lake Winnepesaukee, the 

 Rangeley Lakes, and Moosehead Lake make the best reservoirs, and 

 partially overcome the effect of denudation. The mountain run-off 

 areas are about equally apportioned to the five principal watersheds, 

 so that the bad effect of denudation is also divided. 



Yet, on the other hand, extensive denudation at the headwaters of 

 a stream must affect more or less its main current. Moreover, there 

 are found nearer and within the mountains extensive water powers, 

 some of them yet to be developed, that depend directly upon the 

 forest. The Connecticut River has no large lake reservoirs. The 

 Saco has none, except that the water from Ossipee Lake finds its 

 way by a separate channel into the Saco River near its mouth. Fur- 

 thermore, the maintenance of water in the lake reservoirs depends 

 upon the forests. All water powers, therefore, depend more or less 

 upon the mountain slopes. It is upon the steep slopes that floods 

 gather. Their protection from every point of view is important. 



The value of a water power is gauged by low water, for while works 

 may be so constructed as to avoid damage from ordinary freshets, 



[Cir. 168] 



