THE REFORESTATION OF CUT OVER AND IDLE LANDS IN 



NEW YORK. 



A LARGE PART OF NEW YORK BETTER SUITED TO FORESTRY THAN 

 TO AGRICULTURE. 



Out of the 34,000,000 of acres in the State of New York over 35 

 per cent or 12,000,000 of acres are better suited for the growing of 

 timber than for any other purpose. This is the verdict of the Census 

 Bureau for the Great State of New York. It is difficult indeed to 

 appreciate what this large area of land means, but if it were one 

 unbroken forest, it would cover the States of Rhode Island, Connecti- 

 cut, Massachusetts and extend for forty miles across the southern 

 part of Vermont and New Hampshire. Or it would cover in our own 

 State practically all of the section north of the New York Central 

 Railroad. 



Statistics show also that out of the 22,000,000 of acres enclosed 

 within the farms of the State, but 15,000,000 are actually in agricultural 

 crops. This means that there are 7,000,000 of idle acres in the farms 

 of New York which should be made productive. It is probable that 

 not all of this large area is actually nonagricultural, but without ques- 

 tion there is an area larger than the State of Massachusetts enclosed 

 within our farms and permanently non-productive. Of the 12,000,000 

 of acres outside of the farms and referred to above, it has been 

 shown that less than half contains merchantable timber, about four 

 million and a half of the twelve millions of acres are covered with 

 more or less valuable growth but non-merchantable; there are then 

 nearly two millions of acres with no valuable growth at all, really in 

 the form of waste lands. 



NEW YORK HAS NO REAL WASTE LAND. 



It is a misnomer in a way to call these essential forest lands waste 

 lands. To-day New York is land poor in a sense and yet these very 

 lands will in time become a source of large profit to the State. 

 Forest land in Europe not nearly as well adapted to the production 

 of forests as much of the forest areas of New York is producing 

 as high as $3 to $5 per acre per year. It may be many years before 

 our waste lands will be producing so high an annual return as this 

 but with reasonable care these lands will soon begin to be productive 

 and in time will bear a large share of the burden of the support of 

 this great Commonwealth. 



[5] 



