Errol to Colebrook, N.H.
1903.
June 15
(No 6)
  Throughout that portion of Coos Co. N.H. which
I traversed this afternoon, as well as in the region
about Umbagog and between Upton and Bethel, vegetation
generally is in sad condition. It was first scarred by
frost (on May 23rd when the thermometer fell to 26 degrees and
the ground was frozen stiff in the early morning) and
afterwards parched by the closing weeks of the prolonged
drought which began early in April and was not broken
until June 12th. The heavy rains which have since fallen
have done much to repair this damage but many of
the fields are still brown and much of the vegetation 
has not as yet recovered from the effects of the frost.
The young foliage on the black ashes & black walnuts was
utterly killed & the blackened leaves hung limp & withered;
that of all the beeches, many of the alders and a few of
the yellow birches, canoe birches (but not the gray birches)
and sugar (but not the red) maples was also killed but
has since turned a bright russet color precisely like
that of fire scorched leaves. Few of the other deciduous
trees have suffered obvious injury but the fresh shoots (1 to
3 inches long when strickened) of the younger balsams and
spruces are similarly scorched and reddened giving the
hillside pastures where these young evergreens abound a
singular appearance. The herbaceous plants suffered general
& grievous injury. The leaves of Clintonia & hellebore and
the fronds of the tenderer ferns were nearly all killed
causing sad disfigurement to the roadsides, usually so fresh
& green at this season. Even the grass blades (not only those
of cultivated but also or wiry meadow grasses & sedges) were
frozen quite to the ground and turned russet or straw color.
Before the rains came there was no surface water or even moisture
save in permanent ponds & streams. Forest fires have done