1 901.] DISCUSSION. IS 



privileged classes. All through the old times it was primarily 

 a game preserve, or essentially, a hunting ground. Much of 

 the literature of forestry may be found in the literature per- 

 taining to horses and dogs, because of the relation of those 

 two animals to hunting. There has been a change in the 

 meaning of the term, and it has been well shown by Dr. 

 Rothrock what people in this country have come to understand 

 by the term, a woodland, kept either for commercial or other 

 economic purposes, and not merely as a game preserve or 

 pleasure ground. I think this matter of forestry we want to 

 have brought prominently before the farmers of this State. 

 If this is done it cannot fail to be productive of much good in 

 covering with forests the waste places in our State where the 

 original trees have been cut off and the ground is unsuited for 

 profitable farming. 



Some twelve years ago this State wisely chose to have a 

 topographical survey made, and the surveyors, as they went 

 over the ground, marked as carefully as they could the acres 

 of woodland, and from this data a woodland map of the State 

 was made, showing in colors on the topographical map those 

 portions of the State covered by woodlands. A careful esti- 

 mate was made of the area then classed as woodland, and it 

 amounted to 38^ per cent, which is more than one-third of 

 the State. The area of woodland is increasing, for the simple 

 reason that formerly lands had to be farmed that do not now 

 pay. This was a relatively populous State in the early history 

 of the country. Then most of the food had to be grown within 

 twenty miles of where it was consumed. There were not the 

 facilities for quick transportation we now have, and during 

 those times the people of Connecticut had to depend upon 

 their own soil for nearly everything. Then forests were 

 cleared from poor and hilly land which does not now pay to 

 cultivate. Much land that is now covered with mere bnish or 

 with new forest had then to be used for crops. This is no 

 longer necessary, and the old use of hill farms needs be 



