REPORT ON FORESTS. 3 



Union, a blast furnace in Jersey,, consumed in 12 to 15 years 

 the wood from nearly 20,000 morgen* and must be abandoned in 

 consequence of the want of wood. It is true that this cleared 

 land was afterwards settled in farms, but it was not of much value 

 because of the lack of wood. * * * The timber in these 

 mountainous regions consists for the most part of deciduous 

 trees, and mostly of oak, which does not appear to be of very 

 rapid growth in America. * * * There are no forest 

 game regulations ; no forest officials in America. Whoever 

 takes up new land acquires full privileges with all on, over 

 and under it. It would not, therefore, be easy to teach the 

 peasants and land-owners by law how to husband their wood 

 so that their great-grandchildren may have a stick of wood 

 upon which to hang their tea-kettle. Want and experience 

 must here replace magisterial foresight. As yet there is no gen- 

 eral want of timber. Only in the towns wood is dear because 

 cutting and hauling make the cost four to five times that of 

 standing timber." Thomas Gordon in 1834 said that an "im- 

 mense forest covers probably four-fifths of the alluvial district ; 

 and forty years ago a large portion of it was not worth more than 

 from six to ten cents the acre. * * * They have risen from 

 ten cents, to an average price of six dollars the acre ; and, where 

 very well timbered and convenient to market, bring from fifteen 

 to twenty-five dollars. * * * In the sandy region are 

 extensive swamps which bear the beautiful and valuable white 

 cedar, much sought for fencing, and which sells readily at from 

 one to three hundred dollars the acre."f These historical 

 accounts show that there was lumbering at an early period in the 

 settlement of the State and that the original timber was large 

 and valuable. Gordon in the above-mentioned description of the 

 State refers to the pine belt as having been largely cut over, 

 owing to the demands of the furnaces, forges, glass-works, and 

 the many steamboats on the rivers. Much valuable wood was 

 consumed as fuel, and the original forest disappeared almost 

 wholly from the lands near navigable waters. The rich agricul- 

 tural districts had been nearly all taken up in farms at the begin- 

 ning of the century, and from that time the progress in clearing 



* Morgen = German acre = T % acre. 



t A Gazetteer of the State of New Jersey, by Thomas F. Gordon, Trenton 1834, pp. 2-3. 



