1902.] FORESTRY FOR THE FARMER. 163 



and a wood lot. Also, perhaps, a tract of open laiid which is 

 yielding him nothing, or, possibly, if used for pasturage, 

 scarcely enough to pay taxes. Mr. Jones has $100 in the 

 savings bank, a sure investment bringing him three and one- 

 half per cent. Shall he withdraw the money and expend it 

 in sowing or planting trees on that waste land? If we can 

 judge from conservative estimates and from actual experiences 

 by some planters, this would in many cases pay him well in the 

 end. Evidently, however, there are very few farmers at pres- 

 ent who are willing to try it. 



But there is another aspect of the question, which should 

 appeal to the Mr. Joneses all over the State. There is that 

 wood lot of his. From it he gets his own supplies. Probably 

 it is so large that he has more than enough to meet his own 

 needs. In that case there comes a time when he sells the 

 timber, and a steam saw mill comes in and strips it clean. 

 The wood lot is then left to itself to make of itself whatever it 

 can. The result is very many times disastrous, usually poor, 

 often, to be sure, fair. But, whether cut by the saw-mill man 

 or simply culled out by the owner as he needs wood supplies, 

 it is very rarely that the lot comes anywhere near doing what 

 it might do with care and protection. 



Perhaps Mr. Jones' lot has escaped fire. Perhaps it has 

 not been cut for some time, and the trees have reached a fair 

 size. Perhaps it would be called a good lot. But look care- 

 fully through it. Estimate what proportion of a dense stand 

 of trees is there, what proportion of what might be grown on 

 that lot. Notice whether the mixture of species present is 

 that best adapted to fill the local market and the farmer's 

 home consumption. What proportion of the trees will be of 

 inferior kinds? How much white pine, the king of American 

 timbers, will you find? Count on a single acre the openings 

 in which one or many valuable timber trees might be grown, 

 each opening representing just so much idle capital, so much 

 lost opportunity, so much waste of nature's resources. And 

 all for the want of a little knowledge, a slight amount of care, 

 a trifling expense, and perhaps largely too because of Mr. 

 Jones' lack of initiative. 



There Mr. Jones' lot stands ; burned over or not, old 

 growth or young, taxes must be paid on it. Interest on the 

 capital represented ought to be paid on it. It is probably poor 



