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Secretary of Agriculture report on watersheds

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  • APPALACHIAN AND WHITE MOUNTAIN WATERSHEDS. 35 IMMEDIATE ACTION DESIRABLE. If this is a good programme of action, the Government should undertake its part of it without delay. Some of the States already show a tendency to act in line with it. Maine, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland have already fire laws nearly, if not quite, adequate for the situation. Alabama, in a special session of its legislature, has just enacted a similar law. Other States are showing an interest which indicates action within the next year or two. The Government should not delay. It will clear the situation immensely if the Government will say how far it will undertake to go, and immediately enter upon its work. If the Federal Government is willing to purchase land in the Southern Appalachians to the extent of 5,000,000 acres, and in the White Mountains to the extent of 600,000 acres, it should choose these lands in situations where they will have the most influence upon the protection and management of the two regions. In the Southern Appalachians these lands would not lie in one body. They would lie in no less than ten or twelve bodies, and on different watersheds. In the White Mountains the lands would lie for the most part in one body, which would include the Presidential, Franconia, Sandwich, and Carter-Moriah ranges of mountains. METHOD OF ACQUIREMENT AND. COST OF LANDS. WHITE MOUNTAINS. The timberlands of the White Mountains are in the main held by a few large companies, nearly all of whom are cutting extensively on the spruce stands for pulp or lumber manufacture. The plants of some of these companies represent an investment of several hundred thousand dollars. Manifestly, in negotiating for these lands, in so far as they bear uncut timber, the value of the plant must enter into the consideration. In addition, the stumpage value of spruce ranges from $4.50 to $6 or $7 per thousand. This would give the best stands a value of 175 to $125 or more per acre. It is useless for the Government to attempt the purchase of virgin stands of spruce in these mountains, except on small areas surrounding points of especial scenic interest. These in the aggregate will not exceed 5,000 acres. The hardwoods of the White Mountains, of which there is a large area, have not the value of spruce, nor are they as yet being extensively cut. Their stumpage value is from $2.50 to $4 per thousand, depending upon location, stand, and quality. It is clear that in the main any purchase made by the Government in this region must be on the basis of cut-over lands with respect to both spruce and hardwoods. As a rule the spruce has been cut clean. The hardwoods, where cut at all, are culled so that a considerable stand of young timber may remain after cutting. A considerable portion of the cut-over land has been burned over, some of it so severely as to destroy all possibility of a future stand of timber for many years to come. The cut-over lands have a value ranging from $1 to $6 or $8 per acre, depending upon the condition of the timber growth upon them.
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Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).