io College of Forestry 



enough Christmas trees annually to more than pay for the thinning 

 and in a sense pay a considerable part of the cost of the plantation 

 itself. The same is true of larger bodies of cut-over or idle land 

 belonging either to the States or to large land owners. In their 

 desolate barren condition, they are of no value to anyone and they 

 are a disgrace to a State as progressive and prosperous as the State 

 of New York. The only way to make them valuable is to start a 

 forest upon them which in time will produce an annual crop of 

 timber. Far-sighted business men are beginning to see the value of 

 young timber and are buying lands covered with promising young 

 growth and holding them until they have a market value. 



IDLE LANDS MADE PRODUCTIVE BY PLANTING OF FOREST TREES. 



It is a fair question to ask each farmer in the State and each land 

 owner whether he has such idle lands as are described above and 

 whether it is not worth while to grow a crop that will not only 

 increase the sale value of the property but will annually make the land 

 more and more productive. Trees are the only crop which will do this 

 and leave the land in better condition than at the start. 



Take for example the case of John Mathers who has a larm in 

 Onondaga County. It contains 20 acres of land in the form of a 

 rocky hillside that is practically useless for agriculture. This piece 

 has a slope greater than io per cent, and therefore should never have 

 been cut-over and left clear in the first place because of the danger 

 of severe erosion. It has long been a question with Mr. Mathers as 

 to what use to make of this barren hillside. As it stands to-day it is 

 a constant expense for taxes besides it depreciates the value of the 

 entire farm because of its unsightly appearance. Every rain cuts 

 deeper and deeper the gulleys on the hillside and carries gravel and 

 rocks farther down over the cultivated fields. The New York State 

 College of Forestry at Syracuse University would like to step in here 

 and co-operate with Mr. Mathers by making a plan or giving sugges- 

 tions for planting of this waste area with such rapid growing ever- 

 greens as the White or Norway Pine or the Norway Spruce. Mr. 

 Mathers being a practical man will want to know the expense and the 

 approximate returns of such a plantation before undertaking the work. 



The expense of such a plantation as Mr. Mathers would want to 

 make would consist of the cost of planting, interest on value of land, 

 taxes on land and timber all carried at compound interest to the time 

 of harvesting. The net returns will be the gross returns less the total 



