12 COMMERCIAL IMPORTANCE OF WHITE MOUNTAIN FORESTS. 



THE HARDWOODS. 



Throughout the White Mountains the hardwoods form a large 

 portion of the standing forests at elevations below 2,000 feet. 

 Above this elevation yellow and paper birch are found in mixture 

 with spruce, but seldom in commercial quantity. On the lower 

 slopes and in the valleys the soils are deeper and richer, and give the 

 deeper root systems of the hardwoods an opportunity to develop. 

 Maples and beech, with the birches, are the leading species. Aspen 

 is abundant on cleared areas and burns. As this is a short-lived 

 tree it is not found in the old forest, and its presence indicates that a 

 clearing has been made either by wind, fire, or the ax, within, at 

 most, one hundred years. 



Owing to distance from market the hardwoods in this region have 

 not as yet been seriously exploited. Aspen has been cut to a consid- 

 erable extent for pulp and excelsior, because when peeled it floats 

 and can be driven down the streams. Near the railways birch and 

 maple have been used to some extent for flooring, but the attention 

 of the operating companies appears to have been occupied hitherto 

 with cutting the virgin spruce, which has been far more profitable 

 than hardwood operations. Birch is used in the manufacture of 

 bobbins, for which there are in the White Mountain region nine 

 mills requiring 10,845 cords (1903) to produce 47,000,000 bobbins — 

 this term including speeders, quills, and rolls. The product is 

 rough bobbins, as none of the mills finish them. The larger part of 

 the output goes to the U. S. Bobbin and Shuttle Company, whence 

 it is distributed throughout the country. Several mills produce shoe 

 pegs, also from birch, a product used almost entirely abroad. 



The most extensive hardwood stands are located on the southern 

 and southwestern slopes of the mountains, and some of these have 

 been culled for saw logs, but by far the greater portion of the hard- 

 wood lands have been lightly cut, if at all, and are in fair condition. 

 If cared for and cut in a conservative manner they may afford a 

 resource of very great value for generations to come; but as prices 

 advance, and these forests are cut exclusively for present revenues, 

 fire and erosion will do for them what they are doing for the spruce 

 slopes, and make many of them unproductive for long periods of 

 time, if not permanently. There is here a great opportunity to make 

 these forests serve the growing needs of the people throughout the 

 Northeastern States, but they must quickly be taken in hand before 

 they have been despoiled. Their value at present is largely 

 determined by the price of cordwood. 



The following table shows in a striking manner how the demand in 

 the country at large is turning back to the eastern mountain forests 



[Cir. 168] 



