450 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A PASTURED WOODLOT SHOWING POOR SOIL COVER AND ABSENCE OF YOUNG 



GROWTH, DUE TO OVER-GRAZING. 



problems of State forest work. After 

 all the means enumerated have been 

 used to the limit, people will be found 

 who have never heard that there was 

 a State Forest Organization. 



The plan of examining woodlands 

 upon application and giving advice to 

 the owners has been carried on in 

 Maryland, as in other States. Since 

 the adoption of this plan about 28,000 

 acres of woodland have been examined 

 and advice given as to its management. 

 These areas are widely scattered over 

 the State and each serves in a way as 

 an object lesson of practical forestry 

 applied in a manner to meet the needs 

 of the individual case. This work has 

 been supplemented by the establish- 

 ment of five demonstration forests in 

 as many different counties for the pur- 

 pose of carrying out in a more definite 

 way certain plans of forest manage- 

 ment. These demonstration forests be- 

 long to private landowners who have 

 agreed to manage them under the di- 

 rection of the State Forester. In this 

 way the State can offer demonstrations 

 of applied forestry without having to 

 acquire the land and so far the plan has 

 worked very satisfactorily. 



One of the easiest ways to interest 

 the average landowner in forestry is to 



get him started along the lines of tree 

 planting. Trees grown in a State For- 

 est nursery and sold to him at cost is 

 an inducement. The demand for such 

 stock is usually much greater than the 

 supply. In this way a man may be 

 perfectly willing to plant trees on good 

 agricultural land, when under the most 

 favorable conditions no profit can be 

 reasonably expected, while he may 

 have a hundred acres of burned over 

 mismanaged woodland, which if pro- 

 tected properly and managed would in- 

 crease the yield to three or four times 

 what he now receives. As a purely 

 business proposition much of the pri- 

 vate planting that is done is open to 

 serious question, but inasmuch as the 

 landowner insists upon doing it and it 

 really advances the interest in forestry 

 the vState is not without justification in 

 encouraging the enterprise. At any 

 rate forest planting in the east, or else- 

 where, under certain conditions is a 

 good thing and if we as foresters en- 

 courage the would-be planter to re- 

 strict his planting to locations where 

 fire protection can be assured and to 

 soils not suitable for more renumera- 

 tive crops, and to trees of rapid growth 

 and early maturity, no permanent harm 

 will be done to the individual or to the 

 reputation of the forester. 



