■ Proceedings of Seventeenth ^N^oemal Institute 203 



in tree planting when otherwise it would be idle. Fall planting 

 is especially advantageous to the farmer. In making plantations, 

 he should consider what kind of trees will be most useful to him. 

 If he requires fence posts, he may plant black locust, which will 

 attain a size sufficient for this use in about fifteen years. If he 

 is already plentifully supplied with timber of this character, then 

 he may plant a valuable timber species which will increase the sale 

 value of the land, even though it is not yet matured at the time he 

 wishes to sell. 



The extent of forest planting by farmers in this state may be 

 seen from the following figures: Out of a total of 15,000 acres 

 reforested with trees sold by the Conservation Commission since 

 1909, 9,000 acres, or 3/5 of this area, have been planted by farm- 

 ers. A classification of purchasers and the number of acres re- 

 forested by them as follows: 



Municipalities, 3,300. 



Private corporations, 1,900. 



Wealthy land owners in the Adirondacks, 975. 



Schools, GOO. 



Railroads, 150. 



Farmers and all others purchasing trees, 9,600. 



In discussing tree planting by fanners, we must divide the 

 farmers into two classes: 1. The farmer who is out of debt. 2. 

 The farmer whose farm is mortgaged. The census of 1910 gives 

 us the following figures: there are 166,674 farms in New York 

 State operated by owners; of this number, 72,311, or 43 per 

 cent, are mortgaged — 43 per cent of the farmers are paying inter- 

 est at the rate of 5 or 6 per cent on a portion of their capital. 



For the farmers who are in debt only moderate investments in 

 tree planting are to be recommended. These could be confined 

 to the planting of trees for fence posts or other small sized tim- 

 ber products which will mature within a few years; or, when it 

 is possible to start a plantation by utilizing labor otherwise un- 

 emph)yed, the initial cost of establishing a plantation of valuable 

 timber species may be kept low enough to make such an invest- 

 ment profitable on account of the increased value which it will 

 give to the land. 



