FOREST PLANTING IN THE UNITED STATES. 135 



agricultural land; but as on nearly all farms there is variation in fer- 

 tility, it pays better to use the best land for farm crops and locate the 

 wood lot on the less valuable portion, if that can be done without inter- 

 fering with any of its important uses. 



In the Eastern States the wood lot usually consists of a remaining 

 portion of the original forest. Year after year the trees have been 

 cut for fuel and other purposes until in the average wood lot the stand 

 is now far from perfect. Not realizing the injury resulting from 

 pasturage, the farm stock (horses, cattle, and sheep) have been per- 

 mitted to range at will among the trees, with the result that no young 

 trees have come up to occupy the ground as the mature ones were 

 removed. The prevention of reproduction has been the most potent 

 cause of decline in many wood lots. So important a factor in farm 

 thrift is deserving of better treatment. Stock should be rigidly 

 excluded and every means taken to encourage natural reproduction. 

 But in places where natural reproduction takes place slowly, planting 

 will be necessary. It is a good plan to permit natural reproduction 

 to do its best, and where it fails, to plant. Where the surface of a 

 wood lot has become compacted by long and continued tramping, and 

 covered by a dense sod, it will be very difficult to renew the forest 

 even by planting. Many times it will be better to start another wood 

 lot by planting in a different place, and then, after a few years, to 

 clear up the old one and turn it into other uses. The main thing is 

 never on any farm to abandon the principle of the wood lot. If 

 natural reproduction fails, plant; if one site becomes inhospitable to 

 tree growth, try another and keep trying until the wood lot is success- 

 fully established; for on the best farms there should not fail to be 

 from 5 to 20 per cent of the land in timber. 



IMPOVERISHED FARM LANDS AND CUT-OVER NONAGRICULTURAL LANDS. 



In the Eastern States are extensive areas of both of these classes of 

 land. It is true that in some regions natural reproduction is coming 

 about satisfactorily. For example, abandoned farm lands in the North 

 are here and there being covered by White Pine and Spruce; in Vir- 

 ginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey with Scrub Pine and hard- 

 woods; and in the South Atlantic States with Loblolly Pine. Where 

 the process is going on rapidly enough, no thought need be given to 

 planting. But there are wide areas in all of these States where 

 natural reproduction is lacking, and where the land, long since cut 

 over by the lumberman or abandoned by the farmer, is unproduc- 

 tive and a burden to the owner. (PI. II.) The questions are: Can 

 these lands be planted with assurance of a profitable return ? Can the 

 capital locked up in them be made productive? While a few of the 

 States are owners of this class of land, a it is mainly a problem for the 



Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut. 



