A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 735 



as a public function. The New Hampshire laws, however, provide 

 for patrol by private owners of 1,000 acres or more of forest land in 

 any one town or unorganized place, and the Vermont laws provide 

 for assessing a part of heavy suppression costs against owners of 

 unoccupied or unenclosed lands unless these lands had been given 

 protection by their owners. Out of a 1931-32 annual forestry appro- 

 priation of $77,250, New Hampshire made available for fire protection 

 36 percent, equivalent to a per acre protection expenditure of 0.65 

 cent, not including a Federal allotment of $18,012. Vermont's 

 funds for fire protection are 29 percent of its total appropriation of 

 $54,117, equivalent to 0.46 cent per acre of forest land protected. 

 Including funds for protection against insects and tree diseases, 58 

 percent of the New Hampshire total appropriation was for protection, 

 as against 33 percent in Vermont. The functions of the State forest- 

 ers in both New Hampshire and Vermont embrace research, exten- 

 sion, and general education. By " extension " is meant services of 

 practical assistance and advice to private forest owners to extend the 

 practice of forestry. 



In contrast with northern New England, southern New England 

 is highly industrialized and much more densely populated. But while 

 there are no extensive areas of wild lands in large ownerships, as is the 

 case in Maine and to a less degree in New Hampshire, there are por- 

 tions of all three States in which there is relatively little industraliza- 

 tion and in which, also, the major part of the land is unsuitable for 

 agriculture and is in forest. The most extensive area of this kind is 

 in western Massachusetts, which is broadly comparable to the Ver- 

 mont Green Mountain country northward of it. The land-purchase 

 program of the Massachusetts Forestry Department has been largely 

 concentrated in this section of the State. Of the total area of Massa- 

 chusetts, forest lands make up 63 percent; of Connecticut, 51 percent; 

 and of Rhode Island, 41 percent. Were the western part of Massa- 

 chusetts to be considered separately, it would show a percentage of 

 forest land to all land more nearly approaching that of New Hamp- 

 shire. While somewhat different forest policies might be expected 

 in southern New England from those in northern New England 

 because of differences in their forest conditions, the major considera- 

 tion is the greater wealth of these States and their ability, conse- 

 quently, to engage in public undertakings of a larger scope, if they 

 are held to be important for the State's welfare. 



Certainly Massachusetts presents a strong contrast to New Hamp- 

 shire and Vermont. With a forest area about equal to that of 

 Vermont and about 25 percent less than that of New Hampshire, 

 Massachusetts appropriates for its forestry work more than five 

 times as much as New Hampshire and nearly eight times as much as 

 Vermont. More than one half this total is for the maintenance and 

 improvement of the system of State forests, which at present have a 

 total area of 120,000 acres, with the prospect of an increase under the 

 present policy of the State to 150,000 acres. The present State 

 forests form 3.7 percent of the total forest area, and the contemplated 

 eventual 150,000 acres will form 4.6 percent. Connecticut, however, 

 with 3.9 percent of the total forest area now in State forests, con- 

 templates their increase to 15.8 percent. On the other hand, Rhode 

 Island has made the merest beginning toward a State forest system, 

 if it can be called a beginning, with 410 acres now so classed, and no 



