l6 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



changed. In these modern days when we compete in the pro- 

 duction of food with the fertile prairies of the west, such land 

 does not pay to farm in the old way. There is a large amount 

 of that old land which will not now be used for farming, and 

 which can be profitably turned into forests. As a matter of 

 fact, many evidences of natural reforesting are to be seen 

 actually going on. There are many places in this State where 

 you can go through a forest and see the old lines of corn 

 rows and potato hills on land that is now covered with trees 

 that have come in naturally. 



Forestry, unfortunately, has been misunderstood by many, 

 perhaps most, of our people. There has always been in this 

 State an interest in the growing of ornamental and shade 

 trees ; this has extensively been called forestry, but it is not 

 forestry. There have been a large number of Connecticut 

 people who have planted ornamental trees, and even some 

 associations which have fostered the idea of tree planting, 

 and have done good work in the planting of trees and shrub- 

 bery by the roadsides and about houses for ornamental pur- 

 poses, and who have called that " forestry." Commendable 

 as that work is, it is not forestry in the true sense, and I wish 

 the term to be correctly understood by farmers. It is a good 

 practice in its way, but it is not " forestry." Forestry is the 

 conservation, care, and profitable use of the woodlands and 

 forests. It is time that there was a change of sentiment in 

 the country at large in regard to this care. The forest lands 

 have been ruthlessly cut off in many parts of the country, and 

 no effort made to reproduce trees to take the place of those 

 that formerly grew there, and the country is poorer because 

 of the neglect. That is the chief reason why lumber is so 

 rapidly increasing in price. The practice has been to go into 

 timbered districts and cut off the wood and then to desert the 

 place: I have visited lands in several states that have been 

 treated in just that way. Moreover, our lumbering has been 

 done in a most wasteful wav. In those states that have had 



