Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-04-10
DESTRUCTION IN THE WOODS.

LEO HOS 'ON TN TIE WOOOS.
A correspondent of the New York
Journal of Commerce writes from the
White Mountains that he was recently
surprised by sounds like distant thunder.
which rose at intervals above the steady
roar of the October wind in the woods.
He was lead to make inquiries as to the
cause of these repeated mutterings, and
this is what he learned:
"Some miles down the valley is one of
those glorious mountain torrents which
are, or ought to be, the pride of New
Hampshire. 1t comes out of a gorge in
the hills, leaping from the shadows of
the old forests into the open light of the
valley with more of spirit and freshness
than perhaps any other of all the New
Hampshire mountain streams. am told
that the sounds heard are the explo-
sions of dynamite and giant powder,
wherewith men are blasting out the
rocks in this wild river, reducing its
freedom to canal-like regularity so that
hereafter the forest trees which are the
glory of Moosilauke can be cut and sent
down stream to market. We have no
right to quarrel with the men who are
doing this. They own the forests and
the river, and no one expects them to
make a donation of their lumber and
their river to the public. But it is now
of most pressing Importance that the
State of New Hampshire should exercise
its right of eminent domain and pur-
chase those forests and preserve them.
The work of destruction is going on all
around the mountains. Timber railroads
have been pushed up and into the ra-
vines on the south and north sides, and
now the streams, which, when the des-
troying work is complete, will cease to
flow, are to be compelled to become
their own destroyers.
mo, we cannot, under ordinary cir
cumstances, complain when man cuts
the timber from his own land, even when
he cuts it wastetully. But the forests of
New Hampshire have market value be-
You'd the market price of all the lumber
they contain, and the wild White Noun
tain streams have value beyond their
capabilities of floating the lumber to
market after they have been subdued to
the logger's use. Apart from the func.
ton of these mountain forests in regu-
lating the flow of the streams which
take rise among them, their highest val
ne lies in the charm they lend to the
scenery. Even from material point OF
view the loss of New Hampshire which
the DETACHMENT of this scenery would
cause, by robbing the region of its at
Effectiveness to tourists, would be meal
culable. The native beauty and sublimi
ty of the White Mountains are a source
of revenue which will increase indefinite
ly with the increasing tide of visitors
and it is short-sighted business policy
which permits so productive an inheri
lance to be squandered.'
"What scene of desolation can com
pare with rugged and stony mountain
when denuded of its pines and cedars
Not only is it worthless and unsightly
but 1t becomes an element of danger t,
the valleys which lie at its base. Thes,
valleys form the most productive fields
the SHOWS and rains falling on the noun
tains are no longer held in check as for
merly by the forests, and gorushing dow
the mountain, flooding and in many case
destroying the fields at their base. 1t i
of the utmost Importance to the farming
interests that the mountain forests shoul
be preserved, especially when such con
ditions obtain. With them the noun
tains are objects of interest and beauty
and the fields are secure from the enol
nous floods which occur when they ar
displaced. Preserve the forests Oh tn
slopes adioing the grain fields; they ar
of inestimable value"