86 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Woodland. — The unwise treatment of woodland is a very 

 important part of our subject, and under the title of forestry 

 occupies mucli attention in the minds of the people, in the 

 census returns and in legislative debate. The term forestry 

 is a broad one, and the very word forest conveys to our 

 minds the idea of a more extensive growth of trees, and of a 

 larger size, than that covered by the term woodland, com- 

 monly used in this part of the country. Indeed, the diction- 

 ary definition of forest is given as "a large tract of land cov- 

 ered with wood of native or original growth, that has never 

 been cleared nor cultivated, and difiers from woodland mostly 

 in extent." 



The unwise treatment consists in careless cutting of wood 

 and timber, the lack of eflbrt under the law to prevent forest 

 fires, and the neglect to preserve what we have and to provide 

 for the future. The great and reckless destruction of the 

 wood and timber in various parts of the country by clearing 

 and by fires, must soon induce some positive and prohibitory 

 action in the Federal and in State Legislatures. 



Our own Legislature, in 1882, in response to numerous 

 and very urgent petitions and appeals from people in various 

 parts of the State, especially at the east, forprotecton against 

 forest fires, passed an act adding to the statutes already 

 existing, going as far in stringency as was thought prudent, 

 to protect owners of woodlands against loss by fire, a thor- 

 ough enforcement of which by the owners of woodland would 

 go far to prevent the destruction of their property. 



A few items show the immensity of some parts of the 

 lumber business, as interesting to us, proportionately, as to 

 any part of the country. In the country at large, it takes 

 about thirty years from the growth of about 75,000 acres of 

 land to furnish annually the ties for the railways running in 

 the United States. The numl)er of ties required for a mile 

 is about 2,500, and on that average there are about 250,000,- 

 000 in use through the country at this time ; these are con- 

 stantly decaying, their average life continuing Imt from five 

 to seven years, and consequently we must have from thirty to 

 fifty million new ties every year to maintain our present rail- 

 ways in constant use, beside the new ones continually pro- 

 jected and constructed. The number of ties on an acre of 



