548 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



on fully saturated ground and swamps full of water — 

 but who wants to restore that condition? Cultivated 

 fields will not absorb as much water as forest bramble. 

 There will be more soil washed away from a plowed 

 field than a meadow or forest, but of what value would 

 the forest be if there were no cultivated fields to support 

 the people who create commerce, build cities, and 

 what use or value would there be for forest products? 

 Of what advantage is it to let timber that is valuable 

 stand and deteriorate? 



Much has been said about the wanton destruction of 

 the forests in the West on lands which were not at the 

 time necessary for settlement. If it had not been for 

 cheap lumber in the West during the last half of the last 

 century, there would have been more hardships, more 

 difficulties in the settlement and subjugation of that vast 

 country. The plains were timberless except the few- 

 trees, worthless for timber, on some oasis, or fringing thf 

 larger creeks or rivers. Cheap lumber brought from 

 other points was a necessity to build the shack or shanty 

 shelter of the pioneer in a stoneless country and to fence 

 the fields before the day of barbed wire. 



Cheap lumber has been a great factor in the upbuild- 

 ing of our country, and cheap lumber must mean careless 

 and wasteful methods of lumbering because you must take 

 only the best and easiest to get. 



While past methods here and present methods in some 

 environments and under some conditions have been and 

 are justifiable, there is no justification or excuse for the 

 continuance of some of those methods. So long as the 

 bad efifect of any method is overbalanced by the benefit to 

 the community, then that method is justifiable. When it 

 ceases to be more beneficial than harmful it should change. 

 That time has come when many improved methods can be 

 adopted to the advantage of all, and whatever you expect 

 to be adopted must be of some advantage to the state and 

 to the community, and it would be a good business propo- 

 sition, to reforest and protect all the hills not utilizable 

 for other purposes. 



IT is useless to advocate the general reforestation of our 

 hills as a work of the small individual owner or 

 farmer in any large way for many reasons. Where- 

 ever land is more valuable for any other purpose, it would 

 not be reasonable to expect it ; where it would be profitable, 

 few of the dwellers on the hills have the capital to invest 

 in the planting or are able to carry the plantation for a 

 prospective profit fifty or sixty years ahead, and even if 

 they had the capital it could, as a rule, be used to greater 

 immediate advantage. 



Reforesting and conservation on a large scale is a state 

 proposition, or a proposition for large timber-using cor- 

 porations. A corporation, which is a perpetual individ- 

 ual, could well aft'ord to replant where necessary or allow 

 it to reforest itself to such an extent as would cover de- 

 preciation, or restore current exhaustion, and in this way 

 provide for future needs. This is now being done by 

 many pulp and other like companies for the annual 

 supply of ties. 



The farmer, the individual, can conserve in a small 

 way on his wood lot or sugar orchard, or can even re- 

 forest by using his otherwise idle moments and in this 

 way capitalize them. In a small way each can conserve 

 and protect, beautify and improve his surroundings, while 

 at the same time supplying his present needs and provid- 

 ing for the future. Such a policy, consistently followed ^ 

 in a few years will surprise yoti by its extent and magni- 

 tude. Clear up the brushwood to give the new growth a 

 chance to grow, cut and trim out the matured and sur- 

 ]ilus growth, so that it will not be using the soil food that 

 should go to the other trees ; protect your own lots and 

 help protect your neighbor's from fire. 



Cultivated fields and light-soiled pastures should be 

 protected from unnecessary washing or gullying so that 

 as little soil as possible is carried off to fill the brooks or 

 make some delta thousands of miles away. All that is 

 needed is a little common sense, thinking and observing 

 and doing what is necessary to be done when the need 

 is first noticed. Every one of these sand wastes we 

 have around here started first from a break in the soil 

 and could have been stopped before any considerable 

 damage was done. 



Each farm has its peculiarities. A little thought and 

 study will determine how many of these new notions or 

 how much advice coming from all sides is of benefit or 

 can be made use of, but one must first have full informa- 

 tion of what has been done and what is being done. It 

 is just as foolish to consider any proposition, without 

 knowing what is going on, as it is not to consider it at all, 

 or to blindly follow every latest fad, or to stick sullenly 

 and blindly to old-fashioned ideas. 



AX'YTHIXG will come out all right if it is ap- 

 proached from a practical standpoint, and brains 

 ■ and experience and, above all, observation are 

 used. Know what is going on ; follow the good and 

 discard the bad. 



If reforestation and conservation on a large scale is 

 the work of the state — how is it best to go about it? 



\'ermont, with its beautiful vistas of hills, valleys, 

 lakes and streams, or its broad panoramas, with distant 

 background of superlative landscape, will always be 

 sought by those in search of vacation and recreation. 



There are wilder, more majestic and sublime or awe- 

 inspiring sections of the country, but none more beautiful 

 in its combination of cultivated and rugged variety. The 

 greater the development, the greater will be the beauty 

 and the possibility of that reposeful enjoyment which so 

 many prefer to imposing grandeur. 



Certain states, as well as the United States, have es- 

 tablished reser\-ations for conservation and preservation 

 purposes. 



The hills and ni(iuntain-\alley streams of Vermont 

 were once and should be the home abiding place of all 

 kinds of useful wild life. 



Burned-over moimtain-sides and sawdust have dried 

 and filled up many of our streams. Illegal hunting and 

 fishing have done the rest and have virtually destroyed 



