COMMERCIAL FOREST PLANTING IN NEW 



YORK STATE 



By PROFESSOR SAMUEL N. SPRING 

 Dept. of Forestry, N. Y. State College of Agriculture, Ithaca, N. Y. 



CONCERNING Forest Planting in 

 New York State, Professor 

 Spring spoke as follows : 



The question on the program, " Is it 

 desirable to begin general reforestation 

 of idle lands of the State?" is not one 

 which can be satisfactorily answered 

 by a mere yes or no. It cannot be 

 answered without detailed study in the 

 field and a very careful consideration 

 of the many factors and policies that 

 are involved. 



What data we now have is more or 

 less fragmentary or localized. Rather 

 sweeping estimates have been made of 

 the area requiring reforestation. No 

 doubt seems to exist in many minds 

 that there are large areas suitable only 

 for forest production, but there is need 

 of much more intimate knowledge. 



First, the national aspect must be 

 considered. This has been presented 

 before two associations in the past 

 year, the summer conference at Sunapee 

 of the ^Society for the Protection of 

 New Hampshire Forests and the f Fifth 

 National Conservation Congress re- 

 cently held at Washington. The neces- 

 sity of reforestation on an extensive 

 scale on nonagricultural land in order 

 to meet at least in a measure the future 

 needs of the nation for timber was 

 strongly advocated. It is then reason- 

 able to assume that the people of New 

 York State wish to do their part in fur- 

 thering national prosperity which is 

 founded upon the highest productive- 

 ness and best use of the land in all the 



States. New York as a State is fully 

 able to enter upon a plan of reforesta- 

 tion whenever a sound basis is fully es- 

 tablished by facts and a rational policy 

 presented. 



Reforestation is, then, a part of the 

 forest policy of New York State and 

 must be considered, not separately, but 

 as an important phase of forest con- 

 servation. The part which the State 

 should take in forest planting should 

 measure up to its interest in maintaining 

 an adequate timber supply and the 

 economic use of nonagricultural land. 



This leads to the consideration of the 

 present natural forest area in New 

 York State and the area of unused 

 lands suitable only for forest produc- 

 tion. 



Agricultural statistics of the State, 

 gathered and compiled by the Bureau 

 of the Census in 1910, present some in- 

 teresting figures. 



Farm land is divided into (i) improved 

 land, (2) woodland, and (3) all other unim- 

 proved land. . . . Improved land includes 

 all land regularly tilled or mowed, land pas- 

 tured and cropped in rotation, land lying 

 fallow, land in gardens, orchards, vineyards, 

 and nurseries, and land occupied by farm 

 buildings. Woodland includes all land cov- 

 ered with natural or planted forest trees, 

 which produce or later may produce, fire- 

 wood or other forest products. 



The approximate land surface of the 

 State is 30,498,560 acres. Of this area, 

 72.2 per cent, is in farms. The follow- 

 ing statistics show the general nature of 

 these farms : 



* "A Plan to meet our Needs for Wood Timber," bf Dr. B. E. Fornow, American 

 Forestry, Vol. 19, No. 3, p. 521. 



t Report of the Sub-Committee on Planting, 5th National Conservation Congress, 

 Washington, 1913. 



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