148 . JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



THR SITUATION 



Notwithstanding the fact that Connecticut was the first State in New 

 England to have a State Forester (1901) and one of the first to purchase 

 State forest land, it is today one of the most backward. The facts are 

 as follows : 



State. State forests. Remarks. 



Connecticut 1,277 No definite provision for future 



purchases. 



Massachusetts 22,000 Act passed in 1920 to buy and re- 

 forest 100,000 acres during next 

 15 years at total cost of not to 

 exceed $3,000,000. 



Vermont 20,000 



New Hampshire 12,000 



Maine In 1919 $15,000 appropriated for 



purchases of forest lands. 



Less than one-half of one per cent of Connecticut's forest land of 

 1^ million acres is under forest management. 



1. As a result of her decreasing forest resources R. C. Bryant states: 

 (a) Hardwood sawtimber will be exhausted in 15 years; white pine 

 in 12 years. This prediction is based on the present estimated stand 

 of white pine divided by the production figures of 1918; but for the 

 hardwoods it is an estimate. Probably the date of exhaustion will be 

 slightly later than predicted because of the timber that is now immature 

 that will become merchantable, and because of closer manufacture ; 

 but these factors may be discounted by more rapid depletion of local 

 stocks because of the increased cost of imports, although present figures 

 indicate a decreasing scale of depletion owing to a diminishing cut. (6) 

 Connecticut consumes 305 board feet per capita and produces but 51. 

 Lumber production decreased 50 per cent from 1910 to 1918. {c) The 

 annual bill to the railroads for freight on forest imports is $3,000,000. 

 This represents fi per cent on an investment of $50,000,000. How 

 much better it would be to have such an investment in growing forests 

 rather than in freight bills ! 



If Connecticut could raise its own raw timber this annual expenditure 

 for freight would be paid to local timber owners and mill men. Prob- 

 ably there would be but little net saving to the forest industry for the 

 better grades of lumber, but undoubtedly lower grades could be sub- 

 stituted for imported products thereby efifecting a saving. But the 



