THE TIMBER SUPPLY. 9 



The mills are located chiefly in northern New England, where 

 spruce grows. In addition to that used to supply local demands, a 

 large part of the product is shipped to Boston and thence redis- 

 tributed. From Boston there is a coastwise trade to New York, to 

 southern ports, and to South America and the West Indies. Some 

 goes directly to Lowell, Worcester, and other New England cities. 

 The average value of saw logs at the mill, per thousand feet, in New 

 England is $8.93. The approximate value of the raw material at 

 the mills, therefore, for one year (1907) is $8,300,000. On the market, 

 at an average price of $25 per thousand board feet, the product is 

 worth over $23,000,000. It becomes evident that the preservation 

 of this industry alone is important. Its future depends entirely 

 upon the care with which the supplies in the northern forests are 

 protected. 



METHODS OF LUMBERING SPRUCE. 



Spruce lumbering is carried on chiefly by the large paper and 

 pulp companies. Until ten years ago operations were confined 

 mainly to the valleys, where the timber could be obtained easily, 

 but as timber grows scarcer and prices advance, logging is carried on 

 higher up the mountains. On high slopes, where spruce is found in 

 pine stands, clean cutting is invariably practiced, and now extends 

 over hundreds of thousands of acres. A large portion of the trees 

 felled on the slopes are not used, as those under 6 inches in diameter 

 are too small for profit in the making of pulp; but all are felled in 

 order to take away more easily and cheaply the trees of merchant- 

 able size. The larger trees are rolled over the prostrate trunks of 

 their neighbors to the logging roads, which are constructed at inter- 

 vals of about 150 feet on the mountain side. When the logging is 

 complete, the slope has been shaved as by a razor, and the debris is 

 left in inextricable confusion. It invites fire, which almost invari- 

 ably follows, and consumes not only the debris but also much of the 

 soil, which is composed of vegetable humus. This profoundly 

 changes the character of the soil and the character of later forest 

 growth. Repeated fires in the mountains destroy the capacity of 

 the soil for growing trees, and even destroy the soil itself, leaving 

 only barren rocks. Many thousands of acres have been crippled 

 seriously in their power to produce another forest crop. 



At the lower elevations, below 2,000 feet, where spruce grows in 

 mixture with hardwoods, it may be entirely removed and the re- 

 maining hardwoods will afford a sufficient forest cover. Fire is less 

 likely to spread through this hardwood timber, although if the slash 

 is heavy it not infrequently does so. A severe fire in a dry season 

 is not checked by hardwood forest, especially if the woods are filled 

 8053— Cir. 168—09 2 



