THE

Natural Resources of New Hampshire.

AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE

| ANNUAL FIELD MEETING

OF THE

| New Hampsuire Board oF AGRICULTURE

HELD AT

Boar’s Heap, Hampton, Aucust 27, 1891.

BY

| JOSEPH B. WALKER.

/

) CONCORD, N. H.:

| IRA C. EVANS. PRINTER, 13 AND 15 CAPITOL STREET.
| 1892.

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Natural Kesources of New Mampshire.

AN ADDRESS

DELIVERED AT THE

ANNUAL FIELD MEETING

OF THE

New HAMPSHIRE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

HELD AT

Boar’s Heap, Hampton, AuGusT 27, 1891.

BY

JOSE TH EF VV AGL reE RR.

CONGORD, Ne Ess
Ina C. EVANS, PRINTER, 13 AND I5 CAPITOL STREET.

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THE NATURAL RESOURCES OF NEW HAMPSHIRE,

BY HON. J. B. WALKER.

Some years ago, in the days of our genial Adams, this
Board’s first secretary, I was engaged by him to deliver at
one of its institutes an address upon the subject of Forestry.
When he reported this fact to his chief, the present chair-
man, the latter remarked with some surprise, ‘‘ Forestry, for-

b

estry, nobody cares anything about forestry.” To say that
this remark put my sweet temper into a state of violent ebulli-
tion, is to state the fact in the mildest possible terms. At
length, however, when the harmless boiling had subsided, I
became convinced that Uncle Moses was right; that, for once
in my entire life, I had got ahead of my time, and that while
I was in one respect like John the Baptist, a voice crying in
the wilderness, I was in another, entirely unlike the great
forerunner, for he had followers and I hadn’t.

But while Mr. Humphrey’s remark was true twenty years
ago, it is not so to-day; a fact which affords gratifying and
important evidence of the growth of our agricultural intelli-
gence.

If New Hampshire were to-day, for the first time, put into
our possession, as was Eden into the control of Adam, ‘to
dress and keep it,” our first inquiry, doubtless, would be,
‘s what shall we do with it?”” To answer as best I may this
great fundamental question, so important to all our interests,
I am in your presence to-day.

A survey of our State shows that we have a territory
nearly two hundred miles long, with a greatest breadth of

|

about one hundred; embracing an area of about six million
(6,010,880) acres of diversified surface, lying at elevations
which vary all the way from the sea level to an altitude of
nearly a mile and a quarter above it, consisting of multitudi-
nous water areas, amounting, according to one official author-
ity, to a million acres, but which I venture to place at one
half that number; of much good arable land, and of far more
of a rougher kind, which has never yet tolerated culture, and
never will.

This is our inheritance, not a great, but a very respectable
one. Are we equal to its full development? What shall we do
with it? Yes, what shall we do with it? This question is not a
new one, first asked in our day. It was propounded by John
Mason, the first proprietor of New Hampshire, more than
two hundred and fifty years ago. It has been asked over and
over again, by the nine or ten succeeding generations which
have occupied it, and been variously answered by each in its
time. It has come down to us and we cannot evade it. To
what uses can we most profitably apply these six millions of
acres of which we are now the guardians. This is the great
question of to-day.

Some of the earliest settlers of the. State said, ‘‘ establish

’

here the fur trade,” and it was done; but the catching of
beavers, and muskrats, and skunks, and woodchucks, proved
a meagre business and was discontinued, for the want, possi-
bly, of a Legislature to attract by suitable bounties game from
outside our lines.

Others of the earliest inhabitants, of ardent thirst. perhaps,
suggested the making of vineyards, and vines were planted
on the sunny banks of the Newitchewannock. But this busi-
ness proved unprofitable. Modern experience indicates that
had they established breweries instead, their ventures might
have proved more remunerative. But they probably would
have been premature, for there were not then in all New Eng-
land parched throats enough to swallow a thousand barrels a
day.

Mining was proposed, and search was made for precious

5)
and useful ores; but in vain. These have never yet been
found in plentifulness sufficient to return a new dollar for an
old one. The history of mining in this State from 1623 to
this year of our Lord, 1891, has been one of uniform failure,
and at times of sad personal disaster to those who have pur-
sued it.

Others said, look at these broad forests which everywhere
cover the ground; and saw mills were erected upon the Pis-
cataqua and its tributaries. The manufacture of building
timber and plank, pipe staves and masts, was commenced and
prosecuted with vigor. Ships also were built and in time the
lumber interest became the leading business in many localities.
Resulting from this came a considerable export trade of for-
est products to West Indies, Southern Europe, and to our
mother country.

But when in time, the importation of foreign corn for the
support of the people proved too costly, and its transportation
for grinding, to and from the wind-mill at Boston, too oner-
ous, local agriculture was suggested. From that day, down
almost to the present, New Hampshire has been regarded as
an agricultural State.

Such were the leading answers given by our progenitors
to this important question. ‘* What shall we do with our
domain?” [again put it to you to-day. Let us summon into
activity our broadest wisdom and answer it as best we can.

If our friend, Colonel Weare, is present to-day, as he
usually is at these gatherings in his neighborhood, he will be
likely to say, ‘¢ agriculture has been our chief support for two
centuries. Improve its methods, enlarge its operations and
let it remain such.” But nature has restricted our farming
to less than one half of our territory, we have never plowed
more than one sixth of it, we have never pastured more than
one quarter of it and we never can, to any profit. Our agri-
cultural operations cannot be much extended beyond their
present limit of some two millions and a quarter of acres. To
attempt it would be to contend with nature, in an effort sure to
prove as vain as it would be foolish. What, therefore, shall
we do with our remaining three millions of acres?

6

A partial answer to that question is sure to be, utilize our
ubiquitous water power and establish manufacturing industries
in all sections of the State, from Indian Stream to the mouth
of the Piscataqua. And in this proposition there is truly
much wisdom. Whileour manufacturing interests are already
of great importance, we have but very partially utilized the
natural powers offered by the streams to be found in every
town in the State.

Some twenty years ago, following the example of her sister
State of Maine, New Hampshire made a slight effort to ascer-
tain the locations and amounts of her water powers. A com-
mission was appointed by the governor and council, who made
a cursory examination of the subject, anda preliminary report,
in 1870, which embodied many important facts.

We learn from this that nearly fifteen hundred streams of
varying volumes have been laid down upon our state and
county maps, and that, in answer to a circular sent to the
towns by the commissioners, asking for the number of water
powers in each, returns were received from ninety-one of the
two hundred and thirty-eight, or thereabout. These were as
follows:

21 towns in Rockingham county returned . . 48 powers.
6 ee Strafford 66 se : 24 20 66
5 a Belknap a % ; 2 200 es
4 66 Carroll 6 se ; = 20 ee
9 66 Merrimack 66 66 ; - 94 66

12 66 Hillsborough ‘ 66 . > 138 66

12 66 Grafton “6 6c . aatSor =*
4 66 Sullivan se 66 : = 236 66
12 “6 Cheshire 66 66 ; + 132 66
6 ot Coés UG Zo ‘ aso

QI 751

The officers of many of these towns accompanied their
returns with the remark that they were imperfect, and that
they had made but partial lists of the water powers in their

(i

several towns. Yet, these averaged eight and a quarter
powers to a town. Upon this basis, New Hampshire has
nearly two thousand water powers (1,963), a number doubt-
less much below the actual one.

Those on many of our streams have never been utilized at all.
Indeed, thus far, New Hampshire has availed herself in but
a small degree of this vast natural force which has been so
generously placed at her disposal. The full utilization of it
would treble our population, more than treble our wealth, and
increase proportionately our industrial and political impor-
tance. And yet, we had invested in manufactories in 1880,
over fifty millions of dollars ($51,112,263) which yielded an
annual product of nearly seventy-five millions ($73,978,028) ;
four or five times that of our farming. Manifestly, we are
destined hereafter to become more of a manufacturing than of
an agricultural people, if, indeed, we are not already such.

But when we shall have utilized all the water power in the
State, and surrounded their sides with prosperous villages,
there will still remain some three millions of acres

a strong
half of our area — waiting to be improved. What shall we do
with these, or rather what can be done with them to render
them the most productive? The Almighty has made them for
something, but for what? This is gne half of the whole great
question which asks an answer just here and now, with the
deep resounding sea on one side of us, the plains and mount-
ains on the other, and the blue vault of heaven bending over us.

In my own humble opinion there is but one sensible answer to
this inquiry. The rugged sides of many of our mountains and
hills, scattered everywhere over the State, spurn the plough
and will yield neither grass, roots, nor grain. Left to themselves
however, they will grow wood and timber perpetually,
the crop which nature assigned to them when the State
emerged from the universal flood which had covered it fora
period of whose duration we have no knowledge. That is the
crop and the only one which they have borne since man has
known them. It is the only one which they are willing to bear.
Is it not as well to allow them to do as they will and govern
them in the line of their aptitudes?

8

Early one morning, some years ago, as the late Mr. Thomas
B. Leighton sat upon the piazza of his Appledore House, just
across this bay at the Shoals, and had taken from his mouth
the long horn, with which by gentle tootings, oft repeated, he
was wont to arouse his guests, your speaker said to him,
«¢ what do you do when they won’t wake up?” ‘I accept the
inevitable and let them do as they will.” We may wisely, I
think, adopt this policy in our treatment of this large half of
our domain. For we cannot raise grapes on thorn trees, or
figs on thistles, or maize on the shaggy sides of Mount
Washington, which will produce trees in abundance and for-
ever.

Now, in case we shall follow the leadings of nature, what
may we reasonably expect as the annual return of these rough
acres? Each of these three millions ought to produce five
thousand feet of timber every forty-five years, amounting to
fifteen thousand millions of square feet, worth in the woods,
at five dollars per thousand, seventy-five millions of dollars, or
one and two thirds millions ($1,666,666) per year, aside from
the wood of which no mention has been made. We regard this
estimate a reasonable one, and its realization easily possible.

But look a little farther. When this lumber has reached
its ultimate condition by manufacture, its value will have been
increased all the way from two or three to a dozen times its
original amount, from four or five to ten or fifteen millions of
dollars, according to the uses to which it may have been put.

This increase we are now giving very largely to manufact-
urers outside our lines, by exporting most of our lumber in the
log or in partially manufactured forms, and thereby reserving
to ourselves but a small fraction of its final value. In
other words, we are selling raw material, to which foreigners
apply their labor and make fortunes, which we may and ought
to secure to ourselves. Communities grow rich but slowly, if
at all, by the exportation of theirraw products. Our Southern
States are learning this lesson very fast, and it will enure to our
profit, if we also hasten to do likewise.

Thus far, our woods have yielded us but a small portion of

9

the wealth which they would have done had their capacities
been developed as they might have been. Properly managed,
where they are now aflording occupation to dozens of people
and supporting inconsiderable hamlets, they would give
employment to hundreds, often to thousands, and convert
these hamlets into populous villages and thriving towns.

No great interest in New Hampshire has been so recklessly
administered as has that of very many of our forests. The
private interests of proprietors only, or rather what they
deemed to be such, have been consulted. Formerly, and to
some extent now, in the northern part of the State, no trees
below certain minimum sizes were or are cut. Under this
system, no immature timber is removed, the ground is shaded
and its moisture preserved. As a consequence, the young
growth is for the most part saved. Fires are comparatively
few and their ravages not frequently extensive.

But when, at dry seasons, fires have started upon lands
from which the entire growth has been removed, their arrest
has been well nigh impossible, and every thing upon them,
living and dead, has been destroyed. In some cases, the soil
itself even has been consumed, and only one sad scene of
awful desolation has been left to tell the story of mismanage-
ment and neglect.

Last season, the speaker followed up a valley of the White
Mountains, some seven or eight miles, which had_ been
thus made frightful. The fire-bleached ledges which flanked
its entrance instantly’ suggested the horrible inscription which
Dante, in his ‘*‘ Inferno,” has placed above the entrance arch
of hell, —

‘* All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”

In this devoted valley, some five years ago, from crest line
to crest line of the mountain ranges which wall it in, raged
for days devouring flames which consumed every living object
upon its surface, save here and there a few trees which the
wet ground protected, and the limpid stream which defied
their power, —the whole scene there unfolded to view aflord-

10

ing a marked example of the eflects of drought, denudation,
and careless firing combined.

As one wanders through that valley, gazing up and down
its desolated sides, and pauses here and there to look upon
the pure waters of the stream which divides it, he may realize
as he has never done before, the sharp contrast of the black-
ened horrors of the eternal pit with the ‘‘river of water of
life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
the Lamb.”

But forest fires and denudation do not affect injuriously the
forest alone. Their disastrous etlects are felt by all our other
great industrial interests as well, for these are all more or less
inter-dependent upon one another. This remark applies par-
ticularly to the agricultural and manufacturing industries of
the State. Whatever tends to diminish the water supply or
to render it variable and uncertain, is detrimental to these, to
a marked degree.

It is a mistake to regard the lakes and ponds of New Hamp-
shire as her great reservoirs. These are her forests. The
former are simply catch-basins which hold the stores which
the latter have received from the clouds and yield as wanted
under the gentle but constant pressure of gravity. Fires con-
sume the covering of leaves and mosses which give them their
retaining power, and convert their surfaces to blank areas of
rock and sand, down which the rains flow as readily as
showers down a roof.

Denudation causes them to freeze early in autumn. Asa
consequence, the entire precipitation of winter rests upon an
impervious bed, exposed to evaporation and removal by sun
and wind, whereby much of it is lost. Whatever of it
remains until spring, melts before the frost leaves the ground,
and is converted into torrents which plow the plains with
destructive violence, cover fertile fields with barren débris
and in headlong haste cause devastation wherever they go.

There is another great interest, not yet mentioned and of a
comparatively recent date, which is particularly sensitive to
a maladministration of our forests. I refer to the summer

11

visiting interest. This is omnipresent throughout the State.
We all of us know more or less about it, but, in the absence
of exact statistics, have a vague and inexact idea of its magni-
tude; yet, our personal observations are sufficient to indicate
its great importance and that its future development bids fair
to materially increase the value of our real estate, to awaken
from their lethargy scores of our now too quiet villages, to
improve our social condition, to render more attractive our
homes, and attord us local markets where ultimate prices may
be realized for the surplus products of our farms and gardens.

Mr. John Lindsey, of Lancaster, remarked some years ago
that he remembered when the combined annual receipts of all
the White Mountain houses were but twelve thousand dol-
lars ($12,000).

Mr. Edward Hungarford, in the present August number of
the ‘* Century,” tells us that the White Mountain hotels and
boarding-houses now have accommodations for eight thou-
sand persons, and that Bethlehem alone can take care of three
thousand. According to his estimate, no less than three hun-
dred and twenty thousand (320,040) persons visit this part of
the State every year. But reduce his estimate one third, cut
the number down to two hundred thousand (200,000), and
assign to each an expenditure of five dollars while there (and

>

who can run the gauntlet between ‘* Boots” and the bell boy
on one side, and the gentlemanly clerk and the invisible pro-
prietor on the other, for a less sum/?), and this number will
be found to have left behind no less a sum than one million
dollars, besides the amounts paid to railroads and stages for
transportation.

The industrious secretary of this Board of Agriculture tells
us that, in response to his circulars sent out in 1889, to the
hotel and boarding-house keepers in New Hampshire, asking
the several amounts of their gross receipts for that year, he
received returns aggregating five millions of dollars, five times
as much as the value of one of the ordinary annual corn crops
of the State.

These figures abundantly show that New Hampshire pos-

L. of C,

12

sesses strong attractions of some kind, which bring within its
borders every summer the throngs of men, women, and chil-
dren that appear among us. What are the attractions?
They are not those of Mecca or Lourdes to which multitudes
go as pilgrims impelled by-religious motives. They are not
those of New York or Leadville, nor those of the prairies and
the plains, whither men and women go to make money, for
visitors do not come here to worship, but to have a good time.
They do not come to make money, but rather, to spend it.
They are an amiable, well-behaving crowd, with shekels in
their pockets which they are willing to part with for a fair
consideration. ‘Their numbers increase rather than diminish,
and they penetrate every town and almost every school dis-
trict in the State. What attracts them?

Among the attractions influencing this great throng are:

1. Pure Atr. When, in July and August, a few weeks of
rest and recreation are offered to men and women who spend
eleven months of the year in close streets and furnace-heated
apartments, they naturally seek God’s open country and the
fresh air of the hills and mountains, upon whose sides many of
them first saw the light. However perfect the ventilation
which art, guided by science, has introduced to the crowded
stores and offices and work shops of our large towns, their
atmosphere can never equal that of the highlands of the open
country, or of the surf beaten shore where the pulse-beat of the
wide ocean invigorates the weakened pulse-beat of man. In
these sultry months, New Hampshire offers to all who pine
for freshness and space, invigorating breezes brought upon our
coast across the arctic current, or strengthening ozone wafted
over all our inland country from the great storehouses of the
frost king in the far north-west.

2. Pure Water. Next to pure air, pure water is essential
to the physical welfare of man. When large numbers of peo-
ple settle upon limited areas, the obtaining of this is a matter
of no small difficulty. They are obliged, consequently, as the
best to be had, to use waters of inferior quality. But this
necessity does not destroy their relish for those, clear

13

as crystal, which our mountains distill from the clouds and
transmit everywhere through rock-bedded channels for the free
use of all who care for them. It rather increases it.

He who has been obliged to drink the indifferent waters of
the great cities will appreciate the worth of our mountain
streams. He who has journeyed from Jersey to Florida, over
the great sand belt which lines the Atlantic coast, and noticed
the turbid character of the streams which cut through it to the
sea, will understand the surpassing excellence of the white
waters of granitic regions. He who has attempted in vain to
allay his thirst with the flat, tasteless waters of the prairies,
knows how to value those of our New Hampshire springs.
Next to the living waters of eternal life, springing in the regen-
erated heart of man, are the crystal streams of our hills and
mountains.

3. Lhe Accesstbility of our Position ts a Third Attrac-
tion. The great Creator of all things has seen fit to place the
White Mountains and their ten thousand surrounding hills
within the bounds of New Hampshire. That of Mount Wash-
ington is the highest mountain summit on the east side of this
continent, north of North Carolina. In July and August, ten
millions of people may reach it between the sunrise and the
sunset of a single day. Luxurious railway trains from all
directions converge to it, as did the great highways of the
Czesars to imperial Rome.

4. Love of the Fatherland. Thousands of choice men
and women during the last seventy-five years have gone from
the home of their nativity to seek fortunes abroad. Large
numbers of them of the first or second generation, attracted to
their fatherland by an interest which can be better felt than
expressed, come back from time to time to visit kindred and
scenes hallowed by the associations of other days. Not a few,
with the means which enterprise has gained for them, are
building summer homes here and there, all over the State.
The love of country life is a characteristic of our race, which,
if circumstances allow, is sure to manifest itself in the acquisi-
tion and improvement of landed estates. There is no property

14

so precious to a man who has English blood in his veins as a
piece of God’s fair earth, extending from the point where
gravity centers to the realms of illimitable space.

5. Our Scenery. But the strongest attraction of any,
probably, is that afforded by our scenery. I spent a winter
some years ago upon the flat lands about the Gulf of Mexico,
and became familiar with the floating bogs of its northern
shore, with their gradual elevation to marshes, and still higher
sand plains farther inland. They proved exceedingly monot-
onous and uninteresting. And when, at length, I started
homeward upon the great Mississippi and watched, league
after league, from the steamer’s deck the rich bottoms through
which it flows, that depression of spirit which monotony and
ennui engender became painful. But when, at length, the
little bluff upon which Natches stands came into view, exhil-
aration succeeded, for it seemed a gate post of Paradise.
Indeed, there is very little to interest in the vast sedimentary
plains which stretch, in some sections of our country, in all
directions to the horizon, reminding one only of former
submergence and of pre-historic monsters which the gecl-
ogist only cares for.

But when the traveler rises to higher regions, where omnip-
otent Power has bent the pliable strata of the earth’s crest
into mountain and valleys, and clothed their sides with forests
of perpetual green, an interest is awakened which never flags.

What the Alps and their outlying foot hills are to Switzer-
land, the White Mountains and their notches are to New
Hampshire. Its mountains and valleys have made that little
country of central Europe the sanitarium of the continent. If
we improve, as we may, our grand opportunities, similar
attractions will make our gallant State an important health
resort forever.

The sum of what I have thus imperfectly said is this:

We have in our little State of New Hampshire a respectable
heritage, affording some half a dozen leading resources, which
are valuable, just in proportion to the wisdom and energy
with which they are developed.

15

1. We have an agriculture whose products may be doubled
or trebled, if the farmer will but rise to the level of his oppor-
tunities. 5 ;

2. We have water power, of which only a tithe or less has
been utilized, sufficient to give us high rank as a manufact-
uring State, if it be utilized as it may be.

3. We have forests covering half our area, which will yield
us annually and perpetually for the simple taking, crops of
wood and timber, whose manufacture may give profitable
employment to large numbers and increase greatly the popu-
lation of the State.

4. We have scenery unsurpassed in many respects by that
of any other State, which in consequence of its attractive
power has just as much a cash value as the soil of our fields
or the granite in our quarries. If any one doubt this let him
try to buy the summit of Mt. Washington or the old man of
the mountain in Franconia Notch.

These and other resources to which I cannot now allude,
thus far but partially developed, have hitherto given us a fru-
gal living. Utilized as they may be, they will make us rich.

In a word, I can best illustrate my idea of our present situa-
tion as owners of this heritage by quoting the remark of a
canny old Scotchman who once called upon me to see my
farm. As we rode over it he complimented the different sec-
tions and I became so inflated with sweet satisfaction as to
endanger the button-holes of my jacket. But his parting
words produced a sudden collapse and removed the strain.
These I have never forgotten. Said he: ‘*You have a
very good farm, Mr. Walker, but you don’t half carry it on.”

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