8 College of Fores try 



be possible to use methods of natural reproduction that will make 

 unnecessary any large amount of planting. The reforestation of idle 

 or barren lands by replanting is expensive and it is hoped that as 

 Forestry develops in the State that less and less of it will be neces- 

 sary. The fact that over 3,000,000 acres or nearly 10 per cent of the 

 States are covered with no growth of value should be cause enough 

 for active agitation and real beginnings in reforestation. The great 

 area of ten per cent of the State should be returning from six to 

 eight millions of dollars annually with only very ordinary forest 

 management. In the County of Onondaga alone there are 70,000 

 acres of unimproved land and it is very safe to say that over 15,000 

 of these must be replanted if they are to be made in any way pro- 

 ductive. They will be absolutely nonproductive if left barren as they 

 are not adapted to agriculture of any kind. 



IDLE LANDS WITHIN FARMS OF THE STATE. 



Too much of the real idle land of this State is found enclosed 

 within our farms. There are very few farms which do not have 

 from 10 to 40 acres that are better suited for growing timber than for 

 any agricultural crop. Often, if these lands are stripped of their tree 

 growth they will soon begin to wash and at once become a menace 

 to the more valuable lands lying below them, therefore, when the tim- 

 ber is cut, the land should be replanted at once to forest trees. One 

 objection to planting a forest is that it takes considerable time for the 

 trees to become of value. This should have less weight in the con- 

 sideration of the farmer than it has. It is coming to be recognized 

 that thrifty growing trees have a definite value however small they 

 are. We do not expect or want good agricultural land to be used for 

 the production of trees, but a few acres of drifting sand or rocky 

 hillside will give a bad impression of the farm as a whole. A pros- 

 pective buyer will be greatly influenced in his valuation of the prop- 

 erty by the barren and unsightly portions, perhaps more strongly 

 influenced than by the actual amount of fertile land, thus it will be 

 seen that a good growth of forests on the idle lands of our farms 

 would be of value from an aesthetic standpoint and regardless in a 

 way of the actual value of the growing stock. With the constant de- 

 mand for poles and posts and other timbers on the farm, it will be 

 possible to draw very early indeed upon the planted timber for a 

 return. Then too, many of the farms in the State could be made to 

 produce as a bi-product obtained by thinning from the planted forest 



