IVoods and Woodlands. 801 



were forests of vast extent, composed of a great variety of trees, twice as 

 many species being found in one of our States, like Pennsylvania or New 

 York, as are found in the whole of western and central Europe, or from 

 the Bay of Biscay to the Black Sea, and from Lapland to Italy. Moreover, 

 the timber was of greater size, and the variety of character greater. We 

 had whole genera of trees, of hard woods like hickory, soft ones like thu 

 tulip-tree or cucumber, and fragrant ones like the sassafras, which were 

 unknown in the Old World. This prodigality of resource almost invited 

 waste. To save woods and timbers to the common mind seemed about as 

 useless as to be saving of the waters of the sea. The prudent and careful, 

 however, foresaw t;[uite early that ultimate want would come, and legal 

 efforts were put forth from time to time to restrain the waste. I know 

 not how early this began, Imt in the " Documentary History of New York," 

 is a paper to the effect that, " Att a meeting held this 29th day off Aprill, 

 1699, in Breucklyn, Benjamin Vande Water, Joris Haussen, and Jan 

 Gerritse Dorlant" were chosen officers to consider the "great incon- 

 venience and lose" that the inhabitants of the town suffered because that 

 unauthorized persons " doe tfall and cutt the best trees and sully the best 

 woods," &c. Laws were then passed and penalties affixed for wasting the 

 timber on the public lands, and from that time to this there has been 

 much talk and many laws to restrain waste. Our forests have decreased, 

 nevertheless, and you know the result. 



In this State, all the lands long ago passed into the private possession 

 of its citizens, and under our laws legal ownership has long carried prac- 

 tically complete ownership, not only of the soil, but of the minerals that 

 lie in it, and whatever grows upon it. And therefore our timbers w'cre 

 cut whenever it seemed to be of immediate profit to the owner. We have 

 practically no traditions of the dearth of wood, nor of the advantage, 

 much less the necessity, of providing for the needs of future years. 

 During the first half century of our national independence, the agricultural 

 importance of this State was much greater relatively than now, when 

 raihvays have placed the fertile West in active competition with our less 

 generous soil, and much laud Avhich paid well as agricultural land forty 

 years ago, is now of relalirelij vastly less value, and I a erily believe that 

 wc have much land in the State which would to-day be three, four, or even 

 five times more valuable as thiiher land than it is now as nominal " cleared " 

 or " improved " land. 



According to the census of 1850, there were in this State of Connecticut 

 2,383,879 acres in farms, of which 7-l'2 per cent, was described as " im- 

 proved." In 18G0, the amount in farms had increased to 2,501,264! acres, 

 of which 741 was called " improved," the relative amount varying by but 

 one-tenth of one per cent. At the next census, in ls7(), the amount in 

 farms had fallen off again to 2,364,416 acres, of which 69 '6 per cent, is 

 returned as "improved," and 577,333 acies, or 24"4 per cent, is returned 

 as woodland; in other words, that still very nearly one-fourth the 

 aggregate area of our farms is in woodlands — surely a very considerable 

 area'j but of course the percentage is less if computed of the whole State 



