Forestry at an Experiment Station. 83 



periences under similar conditions on which to base his advice? 

 Have his ideas been tested in practice ? Probably the owner of 

 that wood-lot cannot afford to conduct an experiment station. Is 

 it not a serious thing to ask him to pursue any policy of which we 

 are not sure, involving as it does an extended period of years ? 

 We tell the farmer that he should regard his timber as a regular 

 crop and should care for it as such. Are we certain we can tell 

 him how best to sow and cultivate and reap that crop ? 



Evidently here are two important lines of work requiring atten- 

 tion. To bring to people's minds, and by forceful object-lessons 

 to impress upon them, what forestry really means ; to work out 

 the details of a practicable system of utilizing our local non-agri- 

 cultural lands to the best advantage : these are two prime needs 

 of the forestry movement in Connecticut. 



It is to take part in trying to meet these needs that the Con- 

 necticut Agricultural Experiment Station of New Haven has 

 added forestry to its other fields of activity. It would seem to be 

 work eminently proper for an agricultural experiment station to 

 undertake in a state where, as in Connecticut, the greater part of 

 the forest area is owned by farmers. 



The Station's work in forestry was commenced in the spring of 

 1901. Five lines of effort have developed : 



1. A study of the forest conditions existing in the State, with a 

 view especially to suggesting feasible methods of improving those 

 conditions. A detailed forest survey of one of the typical regions 

 of the State has been begun. 



2. Experimental and demonstration work in afforestation. The 

 Station owns two tracts of land in the Connecticut River valley 

 in the northern part of the State. One, about 60 acres in extent, 

 is an open sand-plain typical of considerable areas in the State. 

 The other, of about 40 acres, is a wood-lot cut about .six years ago 

 and very severely burned in 1901. The former is to be used for 

 experimental forest planting. Nurseries covering .slightly over 

 one acre and containing perhaps 250,000 seedlings and transplants 

 have been established to supply stock. Upon the final forest site 

 several acres have been seeded, and about 20,000 trees planted. 

 The experiments include methods of nursery practice and care of 

 seed; tests of species ; methods and cost of planting, and of sowing 

 seed on the final fore.st site. 



