HINDRANCES TO SUCCESSFUL FARMING. 87 



land would of course vary with the location and the character 

 of the soil, but at 500 to the acre, not too large an estimate, 

 we should need to cut over from 75,000 to 80,000 acres of land 

 each yeai' to meet this demand. Telegraph poles represent 

 800,000 trees, and their annual repair about 300,000 more ; 

 and 1,500,000 cords of wood are used to burn the bricks 

 and tiles annually made in the United States. 



In our State census "woodland" includes all territory 

 covered with uncultivated trees. Of this, the census of 1880 

 gives 1,230,7(58 acres ; 50,000 acres more than we had in 

 18fi0, and increasing yearly. Figures show that in 1875 we 

 had gi'own careful, cutting over 250,000 cords of Avood less 

 than we did in 1855. There is a well-irrounded belief amone: 

 people quite competent to judge, that the cutting of wood 

 and timber is better regulated, and that there is more wood 

 growing in Massachusetts now than there was forty years 

 ago. This results partly from the fact that thousands of 

 acres, which formerly pastured thousands of sheep, have been 

 given up to the growth of wood, the destruction and terror 

 by dogs having destroyed sheep husbandry. 



The census, too, shows our woodland increasing; for while 

 there has been great destruction by cutting and by fires, es- 

 pecially in the eastern part of the State, the five western 

 counties have in that time increased their woodland over 

 50,000 acres. 



The percentage of loss by fires is much greater in the 

 eastern part of the State. In 1879 nearly 14,000 acres 

 of woodland were destroyed by fire, mostly at the east. 

 Of these fires, fifty-two were set by sparks from loco- 

 motives ; forty came from carelessly fired brush heaps ; 

 thirty-seven were caused by hunters ; nineteen from careless 

 smokers dropping matches, cigars, or burning ashes from 

 pipes; three were from burning charcoal, and eight sup- 

 posed to have been set maliciously or wantonlj^ 



Whatever the cause may be, it is a startling thing for a 

 man to find the flames driving through his lots, perhaps di- 

 rectly toward his buildings, and he only breathes free when 

 he sees it has swept by him or been checked. AVhen it is 

 intended that a lot of land cut over shall again grow into a 

 wood lot, and shall not be sown to rye with a view of bring- 



