210 Eepoet of Fakmeks' Institutes 



be great change in use of land during the next iifty years. Here 

 I want to sound a note of warning to those good, enthusiastic 

 people who would see the idle of our cities, or the newcomer from 

 abroad, take up all of our so-called abandoned farms. New York 

 has abandoned farms and possibly it has been with these farms 

 as it is with individuals — a simple following out of the law of 

 the survival of the fittest. Should there not be a better knowledge 

 of the exact value of the soils on abandoned farms before we 

 allow people to occupy them with sure defeat ahead — to repeat 

 the tragedy of the abandoned farm. In the Eural New Yorker 

 for November 6 there is a brief but interesting article upon 

 " Some Deserted Farms in New York," and I quote a part of the 

 last sentence : "A few acres can be purchased here with slender 

 savings and homes established on the basis of hope for future 

 independence and freedom." The forester is just as anxious as 

 anyone to see all true agricultural lands used for agriculture, but 

 let us be fair to the man " with slender savings " and let the 

 organizations working for agricultural uplift in the state protect 

 the man who may be exploited by the real estate agent or the 

 enthusiast who believes that any soil will grow an agTicultural 

 crop. 



I have emphasized the necessity of knowing just what we have 

 in the way of forest land and agricultural land in the state. 

 When I came to New York early in 1912, I made a very sys- 

 tematic search, through correspondence and otherwise, for data 

 regarding land conditions, and found, of course, a few fig-ures 

 given out by the United States Census Bureau, by the State Con- 

 servation Commission, by the State College of Agriculture, and 

 others. I was disappointed to find that these figures were general 

 ill character only, and that there was veiw little definite iiiforma- 

 tion which would let us say to a community, a county, or a part 

 of the state, so much of your land is of greater value to you for 

 agricultural purposes, or so much is of greater value for forestry 

 purposes. 



Believing that any definite plans for the practice of forestry 

 in New York, or the consideration of it as an economic problem, 

 must be laid upon more definite information, the college began at 

 once a study of forest conditions in several different counties. 



