39 8 



Yearboo\ of Agriculture 1949 



from small groves to extensive forests of 

 64,000 acres. Public spirited citizens, 

 chambers of commerce, and veterans, 

 sportsmen, women's organizations, and 

 others have sponsored or founded 

 them. They are owned by counties, cit- 

 ies, towns, villages, and schools. 



VALUES OF TWO TYPES accrue from 

 the public forest the social-economic 

 benefits and the revenues from forest 

 products. The social benefits are more 

 important; they can be measured in 

 pleasure, health, improved standards 

 of living. 



The first cash returns usually come 

 from improvement cuttings, which 

 consist of removal of defective trees 

 left over from previous logging or of in- 

 ferior species that have taken possession 

 of the land. Next comes the thinning 

 of the new stands. The first thinning 

 may be Christmas trees, which are 

 taken out 5 to 10 years after planting. 

 Subsequent thinnings for pulpwood, 

 fuel, posts, and poles come along at 

 short intervals to release the ultimate 

 crop trees from crowding. And so, 

 from small beginnings, year by year, 

 decade by decade, the forest income 

 builds up if it is managed prudently. 



The city of Oneonta, N. Y., started 

 a municipal forest of 1,200 acres in 

 1911. For the first two decades the 



value of the cut averaged $152 a year, 

 but in the third decade the average 

 annual income increased to approxi- 

 mately $600. 



The Troy town forest in Maine, 

 started in 1938, consists of 1,000 acres 

 of abandoned farms. Withdrawn from 

 settlement and devoted to intensive 

 forestry, it has yielded a net income of 

 89 cents an acre a year, compared to 

 the average tax of 33 cents an acre. 

 Six years after the forest was estab- 

 lished, a fund of $4,000 had accumu- 

 lated from the forest receipts toward a 

 new school building. 



The school forest at Minocqua, Wis., 

 consisted of 240 acres of brush land. 

 The first year the school fund was en- 

 riched by $400 received from an im- 

 provement cutting of aspen pulpwood. 



The nature of the benefits to be de- 

 rived from these public forests are such 

 that they deserve a place in modern 

 community planning. 



George A. Duthie is chief of the 

 section of State and community forests 

 in the Forest Service, which he joined 

 in 1909. For 21 years he was employed 

 in the administration and supervision 

 of national forests in Colorado, Wyo- 

 ming, and South Dakota. He is a 

 graduate of the University of Michi- 

 gan. 



ARBORETUMS, PLACES OF BEAUTY AND SCIENCE 



W. H. LARRIMER, ERNST J. SCHREINER 



To the person who has a piece of 

 ground, a few dollars, a love for trees 

 and nature and beauty, a collector's 

 instinct, and an interest in science, we 

 should like to recommend that he start 

 an arboretum. Few things, we think, 

 are more worthy of effort, more pro- 

 ductive of abiding satisfaction and 

 accomplishment, and more enjoyable 

 than a collection of trees of one's own. 



An acre is ample for 20 or 25 speci- 

 men trees and many beautiful shrubs. 

 Five acres is plenty for a really repre- 



sentative collection of trees, which can 

 be underplanted with flowering and 

 fruiting shrubs that will bring bird life 

 and bird songs practically into the 

 home. How much one pays for the trees 

 depends on how much one wants to 

 pay. A few pennies spent for seedlings, 

 to which are added materials started 

 from cuttings and gifts from neighbors, 

 will provide the beginning. 



Almost everyone collects something, 

 and enjoyment people get out of their 

 collection whether trees, stamps, or 



