INFLUENCE OF THE FORESTS ON WATER POWER. 15 



likely to be more so in the future. Up to the present time no method 

 has been devised by which the cutting of private owners can be 

 regulated, and fire almost invariably follows cutting as carried on 

 by private individuals and corporations in the mountains. In 

 New England there are two recognized fire periods — the dry spring- 

 time after the snow has gone and before the new leaves have appeared, 

 a period of from one to three weeks ; and a shorter period in the fall 

 after the leaves have fallen and dried, but before snowfall. The 

 springtime is by far the more dangerous. In about three years out 

 of five it may be necessary to patrol the woods in dry times to prevent 

 the setting of fires in the woods and to put them out if they get 

 started. Once a forest fire gets well under way, it becomes difficult 

 if not impossible to put it out; but small fires can be handled. An 

 adequate patrol of the woods could readily be put in force, though 

 it is expensive and seldom undertaken. The state government can 

 and should do this, with the cooperation of private owners, but so 

 far few States have attempted it. If all the land were under one 

 control, a comprehensive plan could be put into operation, and fire 

 protection be made a part of lumbering. In the National Forests 

 in the West, for example, where slash is properly taken care of, fires 

 that formerly ruined many hundreds of thousands of acres are now 

 of rare occurrence. 



INFLUENCE OF THE WHITE MOUNTAIN FORESTS ON WATER POWER. 



The White Mountains form the great watershed of New England. 

 From them flow five great rivers, the most important in New England; 

 the Connecticut, the Merrimac, the Saco, the Androscoggin, and the 

 Kennebec. On these streams are the great cotton, woolen, and 

 paper mills of New England, the largest in the world. They abound 

 in water powers, developed and undeveloped. A conservative 

 estimate places the capital invested in manufacturing enterprises 

 upon the several falls of these rivers at $250,000,000. In each of the 

 New England States, except Rhode Island, important and flourishing 

 cities have grown up around the falls, with populations of from 

 10,000 to 150,000 people; such cities as Holyoke, Lowell, and Law- 

 rence, in Massachusetts; Bellows Falls, in Vermont; Manchester and 

 Berlin, in New Hampshire; Biddeford, Lewiston, Rumford Falls, 

 Augusta, and Bath, in Maine. Berlin, N. H., and Rumford Falls, 

 Me., both on falls of the Androscoggin River, are still making rapid 

 growth through the development of the paper and pulp industry. 



Upon these water powers New England's manufactures chiefly 

 depend. They are the foundation and source of her greatest wealth. 

 Without coal, and distant from the coal fields, far from the cotton 

 belt, cheap water power has enabled New England to maintain 



[Cir. 168] 



