THE DARTMOUTH COLLEGE GRANT

The Dartmouth College Grant is a tract of twenty-six thousand acres, about forty square miles located in the extreme northern part of New Hampshire It borders eight miles on the state of Maine, and with its northern boundary about twenty miles; soiiith of the tip-top corner of the state, it lies thirty-two miles from the nearest rallway (Colebrook, N. H.), and forty-two from the most accessible (Berlin, N. H The latter place is the postoffice of the Grant, two days being necessary for the round trip of the carrier, in "College farm" is the headquarters of the Grant. It seems very distant from civilization in the middle of this grea forest, yet there are attractive farms up the Magalloway River, which with the outlet of the Rangeley Lakes' forms the Androscoggin River, at, Errol, the near est town to the Grant.

The roads are usually good, especially the snow roads in winter In summer an automobile may reach the Grant without serious inconvenience Through the thirteen miles of unbroken woods south of Errol, the state is building one of its lines of automobile road. One may come into the region through the famous Dixville Notch, visit the Gran and the Rangeley Lakes, and go out through the thirteen-mile woods, and thus get into the heart of the great wilderness north of the White Mountains

The gift of the Grant was made to Dartmouth about one hundred years ago, at a time when several similar Grants were made to educational institutions. All of these Grants except that made to Dartmouth'were sold long ago and are now being held chiefly by the large lumber companies.

Of mountains there are five above two thousand feet, one of which, Mt. Dustin, on the southern boundary, is above three thousand. The Magalloway River flows over one corner of the Grant; but the Diamond Rivers are the glory of the region— the Swift Diamond and the Dead' Diamond, the one flowins? from west to east, the other from north to south; the one dashing eight miles over a rocky bed, the other deep for the most part, and cold, affording on its sinuous course nearly twenty miles of water fit for a canoe. The two rivers join on the Grant and flow through a rocky glen into the Magalloway. "Up Diamond" is a term well-known to lumbermen.

The entire region is a great forest, unbroken, save for two farms of about one hundred acres each; the Davis farm at the entrance to the property at the southeast corner, and the College farm" on the middle of the Grant, both used as camps in logging operations. Over mountains and valleys the forest continueshardwoods, spruces and firs, with some white pine on the lowlands. As yet the hardwoods have no value, because they cannot be floated out to market, but with the growth of population and the advancing scarcity of timber throughout the country the time may not be far distant when, with the coming of a railway, many million feet of hardwood lumber can be put upon the market. Spruce, fir, pine, also hemlock and poplar, when peeled, will float, and these for many years have been driven out, down the river to the saw mills and pulp mills at Berlin and at Rumford Falls. The annual drive in early spring on the first flood waters is an interesting event.

Long ago, about logging .operations began on the Grant. At first the great white pines, three to five feet in ameter, were taken. Later spruce me to have a lumber value which continues, and still later, fifteen to twenty years ago, spruce and fir began to be used for paper pulp. Only within the last few years has fir been used m large quantities. During all this time a very large amount of coniferous timber has been removed, but much still remains.

Seven years ago the College placed the Grant under forest management, the objects being to produce a larger return, to take advantage of the rising prices by producing a valuable future crop, [missing text] incidentally to show what results [missing text] be obtained from a tract cut over [missing text] extent of this property. The first [missing text] building was erected, roads [missing text] graded, bridges built, a telephone [missing text] installed, by which, for the first [missing text] became possible to call quickly [missing text] a crew to fight fire, and a fire trail was built across the central portion of the Grant. To prevent sending teams, seventy miles out and back, for supplies, the farms were developed to produce hay, grain, and potatoes for the logging crews. A nursery of seedling forest trees was started, from which fifty acres have now been planted to young forest.

Two main problems confront the Grant: To remove at a profit the remaining coniferous trees that are mature, chiefly those abandoned as not worth while by previous logging operations ; and to prevent fire. In previous years there have been two great fires on the Grant, each covering one thousand acres; one about 1890 and one about 1860. In each area there are portions that have not recovered. It is here that the replanting is done. In cooperation with the State and Federal authorities, the Grant is now patrolled in dry seasons, and campers and fishermen are warned off.

The.Dartmouth Grant is wild land, in a sparsely settled country, well-watered, picturesque, and abounding in the many forms of undisturbed wood life.

The farm, located near the center of the Dartmouth Grant

Dead Diamond River, within the limits of the Grant