134 YEAKBOOK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



necessary only to encourage natural reproduction. To-day the possi- 

 bility of natural reproduction on such land has gone, and only by 

 planting may the stand be renewed. Within the next ten years, unless 

 there is a marked improvement in the methods of handling forest 

 lands, the reproductive power of the forest will be impaired to such an 

 extent by fire, stock, and other injurious agents that planting will 

 become a necessity over still greater areas. 



REGIONS IN WHICH FOREST PLANTING is NOT PRACTICABLE. 



Forest planting is not practicable in those regions which are as yet 

 well timbered, and in which the reproductive power is sufficient to 

 renew the stand as the trees now standing are cut away. Broadly 

 speaking, this includes in the South the hardwood region of the South- 

 ern Appalachians and the pine belt from Virginia to Texas. In the 

 Northeast it includes the spruce forests in New York, Vermont, New 

 Hampshire, and Maine; it includes also sections elsewhere, as in the 

 Allegheny Mountains. In the West it includes the heavily timbered 

 portions of California, Oregon, and Washington, and smaller sections 

 elsewhere. 



REGIONS IN WHICH FOREST PLANTING is PRACTICABLE. 



In other parts of the United States than those named above there 

 are some sections in which the supply of timber is wanting or is becom- 

 ing insufficient to meet the demand, and in which natural reproduction 

 is not sufficient to insure a second crop. Fortunately, it is possible to 

 discuss the question according to the geographic divisions the Eastern 

 States, the Middle West, and the Western States. For these regions 

 it must be considered whether it will pay better to use for other pur- 

 poses the land and the capital invested in planting, and import the 

 lumber needed from other regions; whether the land can be protected 

 from fire and other dangers; and whether satisfactory returns may be 

 reckoned upon. 



PLANTING IN THE EASTERN STATES. 



In the Eastern States planting at present ma}^ be considered under 

 the following heads: Farm wood lots, impoverished farm lands, and 

 cut-over nonagricultural lands. 



FARM WOOD LOTS. 



It is the experience of both the practical farmer and the forester 

 that it pays on every farm to maintain a wood lot for the production 

 of timber for farm uses. The wood lot furnishes fuel, posts, poles, 

 logs, and lumber; it shelters from wind the buildings, orchards, gar- 

 dens, and fields, and in summer it furnishes shade. It is universally 

 recognized as an essential component of the well-balanced orderly 

 farm. 



The wood lot pays well, even if it has to be located on valuable 



