14 COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF WHITE MOUNTAIN FORESTS. 



1903; a fire covering 9,000 acres occurred in the East Branch Valley 

 of the Pemigew asset River in the town of Lincoln in September, 1907. 

 The fires, spreading repeatedly over certain large areas once covered 

 with forests of the best quality, such as Zealand Valley, Cherry 

 Mountain, and Pine Mountain, have so destroyed the productive 

 quality of the soil that practically nothing has grown in twenty 

 years — since the fires first spread over them. The soil is so injured 

 that another forest probably will not begin to appear until after the 

 lapse of a century. Mount Oscar, the three Sugar Loaves, and parts of 

 Mount Hale afford striking additional examples, where the soil has 

 been rendered completely and permanently barren. There are more 

 than fifty thousand acres in the mountains approaching this con- 

 dition. It is probable that the total area burned over in the moun- 

 tain region of northern New Hampshire is not far from 250,000 

 acres. The period in the spring of 1903, April to June, " fifty-two 

 days Without water," was exceptional, but likely to recur at any 

 time. Year by year fires make the mountain region less productive, 

 with more barren and half barren stretches. There is a progressive 

 evil effect from which the mountain tracts do not recover. Though 

 much of the burned land comes up to bird cherry and to popple, or 

 even to more valuable hardwoods, and finally, after very many 

 years, to another growth of spruce and fir, it does not have the 

 vigor of the primeval forest. The destructive result is progressive, 

 inevitable, and portentous. The timber-growing properties of the 

 soil are injured if not destroyed, and the protection afforded by the 

 forest in holding back moisture is lessened. From each of these 

 points of view the protection of the White Mountains from fire 

 becomes a matter of general concern to the country at large. 



CAUSES OF FIRE. 



Chief among the causes of fire are sparks from locomotive engines, 

 either upon the through railways or upon the logging railways. Several 

 of the largest fires have started from the latter. Occasionally fires 

 start from sawmills, especially where there are small mills in the 

 woods to cut up pulp wood for loading on the cars. A frequent cause 

 is the carelessness of individuals in the woods. 



Fire seldom sweeps through virgin forest ; the slash left by lumber- 

 ing is a chief promoting cause of fire, and it is in the slash that nearly 

 all fires originate. A map of the fires in the White Mountain region 

 shows that they have closely followed the cut-over areas. 



PROTECTION FROM FIRE. 



It is the duty of the State to protect forests, as well as town prop- 

 erty or dwellings, from fire — a duty seldom recognized as yet, but 



[Cir. 168] 



