. Bulletin. Agriculture -- New Hampshire. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 337 70 percent of the total land area supports some form of tree growth. The original forest of the region was composed of a mixture of soft- woods and northern hardwoods. There are still evidences of this ty])e of growth in the wildland sections of Columbia. Logging for saw- timber reached its peak about 1900, and most of the old growth stands of any value have been cut. In recent years the main product has been pulpwood because the pul]:) mills can utilize much smaller mate- rial requiring less time to grow,
. Bulletin. Agriculture -- New Hampshire. Agricultural Experiment Station [Bulletin 337 70 percent of the total land area supports some form of tree growth. The original forest of the region was composed of a mixture of soft- woods and northern hardwoods. There are still evidences of this ty])e of growth in the wildland sections of Columbia. Logging for saw- timber reached its peak about 1900, and most of the old growth stands of any value have been cut. In recent years the main product has been pulpwood because the pul]:) mills can utilize much smaller mate- rial requiring less time to grow, \vhcreas lumber requires large trees grown on a long rotation. Figures obtained from the recent forest survey' indicate that very little timber over 80 years old remains in the three towns (See Figure 2). By far the largest acreage falls with- in the 41-80 year age class. About half of this acreage supports a sufficient volume of timber to be considered merchantable according to the standards set up for the forest survey. ^ The farm woodlands of the area fall roughly into three general classes: (1) even-aged spruce and fir stands originating on abandoned agricultural lands ; (2) northern hardwoods and spruce-hardwoods ; and (3) nearly pure stands of sugar maple. Of much less immediate significance are the scat- tered stands of aspen and THOUSANDS OF ACR£6 T paper birch which have fol- lowed cutting of other spe- cies, and the cedar and tamarack found on wet sites. The condition of the growing stock varies great- ly on difi:"erent holdings. The fact that half the acre- age in the age class that should be merchantable contains less than two thousand board feet per acre indicates that cutting has been heavy. Because nature has been unusually generous, repeated cuttings have not resulted in barren areas such as exist in other parts of the State. The in- herent ability of the local species to reproduce either , from seed or sprout assures regeneration of a sort. When advanced
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