Dormant Wealth in Idle Acres 



Bulletin X<>. IV l.y 1'rof. J. \\. Stephen. M . S. I-'., contains complete 

 information on this subject, application. 



... 'Inhere are over li million acres of forest land in the State 

 of-rVew Yor^>* -A .l5i Sgt* portion of it is absolutely idle. The 

 arribufft of timbe*r*"tbaVcould be grown on that area in fifty 

 v ; : t rs hi^!i .iba irnagjnan'ftn. In round numbers, the entire 

 Cfopt i^K^v^stt-J ^au M-V*^ liijie, would be surhVient to supply tlie 

 whole Vnited Sta'tes * fo*r 'upward of ten years. The United 

 States uses 56 million board feet of sa\\n lumber per annum. - 



The exact number of New York's idle acres is not known; 

 but we do know that a single acre of second grade land, 

 planted to pine, \vill yield over 40 thousand board feet of 

 lumber in fifty years, because plantations made in New York 

 and other eastern States in the early seventies are here to-day 

 to prove it. The plantation sho\\n on the cover of this leaflet 

 measured 30 thousand feet to the acre, and there is no record 

 of its ever having been cared for in any way from the day 

 it was set out. 





500.000 \\IHII. I'IM TRANSPLANTED KOI K YI-AKS 01 



The Time for Action is Here 



There never was a time when reforestation was not prac- 

 tical and advisable. To-day it is more than that, it is indis- 

 pensible. New York could hold out a little longer than most 

 states, in spite of her millions of idle acres, because she has 

 large reserves of timber locked up and protected by law. But 

 the time would not be long before she would arrive at the 

 place where the country in general now finds itself. The situa- 

 tion is this: 



"Three-fifths of the timber <we once had in the United, 

 States is gone. Over two-thirds of our original forest area has 

 been culled, cut-over or burned. Of our virgin forests, one- 

 sixth remains. More than eighty million acres have been 

 devastated, and, so jar as production is concerned, are practi- 

 cally desert, If'e (ire mtting woods of all kinds from our 

 forests more limn jour times faster than it is being replaced by 

 growth. \ot only is there less wood year by year and day by 

 day in the L'nited States, but there is less land growing wood. 

 We are living beyond our income and destroying our invested 

 capital at the same time."'-'- 



That the need is recognized by the more thoughtful citi- 

 zens, and by forestry organizations, departments and educa- 

 tional institutions throughout the country, is apparent from the 

 recent activity in forest planting. The memorial tree move- 

 ment is a step in the right direction, but it finds its most prac- 

 tical expression in the establishment of a forest plantation. The 

 College of Forestry, in addition to planting many thousands of 



i This figure is according tn tin- IK si available estimate's. The 



Conservation Commission reports IJ5.0IM! acres in need of immediate 

 reforestation on the State preserve. Tin- College of Forestry estimates 

 that then- are seven million idle aeres on the farms of the State alone. 



- l-'rom I'. S. I>ept. of Agriculture Report on Senate Resolu- 

 tion .ni. 



:: From a reeent article 1>> former I . S. Forester (iirTord Pinchot, 

 l-'eh. North American Keview. . 



