FORESTER'S REPORT. 57 



Report of the State Forester. 



ALFRED GASKILL. 



SUMMARY. 



New Jersey must induce forest owners to practice forestry 

 Curtail cordwood and increase lumber production. Enough forest 

 is being planted. Shade trees of increasing importance. Many 

 new Shade Tree Commissions. County roads may now be tree- 

 bordered. Shade Tree Book for all who want one. State aid. 

 State forest reserves growing in value. Fires on reserves few, 

 products increasing, tree planting unnecessary. Tree pests. 



The Forest Commission's policy of giving fire control precedence 

 over all other lines of effort is proving its own advocate. As the 

 fires cease forest property becomes more secure and owners see 

 some reason in undertaking forest management. Our effort is, 

 and must be, directed chiefly towards inducing private owners to 

 practice forestry because the State cannot expect to own or control 

 more than a small fraction of the two million acres that comprise 

 our total woodland. The map, Fig. i, indicates the magnitude 

 of our interest, yet if we have forestry at all it must be forestry 

 supported by the people who own the forests. 



The strongest inducement held out to forest owners who would 

 look for good returns from their investment is found in the fact 

 that in this country no lumber has yet been sold at the cost of 

 production, except perhaps small quantities in strictly local markets. 

 This means that lumber prices must advance until timber crops 

 replace the virgin store upon which the country is now drawing. 

 That an owner who gets a forest started while land values and 

 forest values are low has an advantage needs no demonstration. 



New Jersey's forestry work concerns itself largely with the 

 future, with such effort as shall convert our burned and battered 

 forest remnants to highly productive forests. And this aim is 

 helped, not hindered, by the interest of many owners in forest 



