316 * BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



commercial pickers. Moreover, the revival of interest in forestry is so 

 marked in Massachusetts this year that it points to reforestation on a 

 broad scale in the near future, and this will be attended by an in- 

 creasing demand for the white pine seed. Tree owners who are 

 alive to their prospects will prepare for this demand by saving this 

 year's crop, since the white pine seed will retain its vitality for 

 several years, if given normal conditions, — not too moist or exces- 

 sively dry. 



There is no time to lose this year, nor time to make elaborate prep- 

 aration for systematic picking. Collect the seeds somehow, by the 

 means that first suggest themselves, and the market will turn them 

 into cash. One way is to run a long ladder up the tree; another 

 is to go into the sections where lumbering is going on, and collect the 

 cones as the trees are felled. Boys may climb up with small bags 

 thrown over their shoulders and pick from the large branches with- 

 out difficulty, about the same as apples are picked. After the cones 

 are gathered, they may be dried where squirrels and mice are kept 

 from them, and then thrashed until the seeds fall out. The practice 

 of using a bag to put cones in is convenient, as they may be flailed 

 in the bag during spare moments, and the seeds fall out where they 

 are readily separated from the waste. 



To turn this waste crop into ready cash is not the only inducement 

 in store for the land owner. It makes reforestation so comparatively 

 inexpensive, producing the seed at the cost of cheap labor, instead 

 of at $4.50 per pound, that there no longer will then be good reason 

 for allowing waste land to remain idle and non-productive. Under 

 its new policy the State of Massachusetts gives direct aid and counsel 

 to any land owner who desires to seed his waste land. Communica- 

 tion on this subject may be established with the Massachusetts State 

 Forester, Prof. F. W. Rane, State House, Boston, and he will be 

 pleased to meet the farmers and to give practical advice. He says 

 that of the vast amoiant of lumber used in Massachusetts probably 

 95 per cent, is imported from other New England States, from the 

 west and from the south. Massachusetts certainly is capable of 

 growing more than 5 per cent, of the lumber it uses; in fact, it is 

 destined to become a lumber State that will closely approximate its 

 consumption with its production, and the production of a seed crop 

 at reasonable cost is the first important step in this movement. 



An Opportunity to reforest Waste Lands. 

 Reforestation is so vital to Massachusetts and to her country popu- 

 lation that it will be placed on a systematic basis in the near future. 

 Preparations are now being made, under authority of an act of the 

 Legislature of 1908, appropriating $5,000 for this year and $10,000 

 annually thereafter. With this money the State proposes to buy and 

 reforest idle land, and has already addressed itself on the subject 



