mercial use until our grandchildren are running this country." 'it 'is 

 the work for tomorrow and for the future of our country. I take it that 

 the trees that are planted as a result of this meeting which will come 

 to their full growth perhaps in a hundred years from now will be the 

 breathing spots and play grounds. We are not spending very much money, 

 but we are getting results, buying up small tracts of forests, putting state 

 parks here and there over the State. 



I am glad to have you here. I congratulate you upon the great work 

 in which you are engaged because of what it means to the future of our 

 country. It is a public question. But you can't afford to grow forests 

 on land worth two or three hundred dollars an acre. It don't pay and 

 private owners can't do it. 



I really know so little of this question and some of you men here are 

 so much better able to speak upon the subject than I am so I am going 

 to give you a chance to talk. I thank you. (Applause) 



MR. WOOLLEN: Governor Cox and Governor Lowden have found it 

 impossible to be present. We will now have the satisfaction of listening 

 to Mr. Edmund Secrest, Forester of Ohio. (Applause) 



MR. EDMUND SECREST: Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the con- 

 vention, I am certainly glad to be with you this morning to tell you some- 

 thing of forestry conditions in Ohio. 



Ohio is a state of relatively small farms, the average of which is 

 eighty-eight acres. The lands in farms, or forest tracts aggregate twenty- 

 six million acres and of this area approximately one million, three hun- 

 dred thousand acres, or five per cent, could be utilized in some form of 

 agricultural development. There are three million, five hundred thousand 

 acres of woodland in the State of which some five hundred thousand 

 acres are in large buildings, other than farm lands in southeast Ohio. 

 The average farm woodland is twelve acres in extent. The composition 

 of the native forest is predominantly hardwood with occasional sporadic 

 coniferous areas in the Ohio river countries. 



The farm woodlands on eighty per cent, of the State's area are on 

 land of considerable agricultural value. These tracts are being encroached 

 upon directly by clearing for tillage or pasturage, and indirectly by live 

 stock grazing. It may be expected as a matter of course that woodlands 

 on lands of high productive value will gradually lessen in extent, with 

 more intensive agricultural practices superinduced by a greater demand 

 for farm products, and the decreasing size of farms. The woodlands of this 

 type were representative of the most valuable hardwood forests of the 

 country. It is from them that much of the raw material for the wood 

 using industries is obtained for they contain the great bulk of the remain- 

 ing original forests of the State. First quality white oak, red oak, yellow 

 poplar, white ash, black walnut and elm came from the most productive 

 soils, and strange though it may seem, the farm woodlands of central and 

 northern Ohio contain the original stands, while those of the inherent tim- 

 ber soils of southern Ohio passed over a half century ago. A logical land 

 classification would place this class of farm woodlands within the zone 

 of agricultural production. On the other hand, their passing will require 

 time for there are many landowners who cannot be persuaded to part with 



