1906 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



257 



land College, Nebraska, and in the 

 Leonard School of Pharmacy. In ad- 

 dition to his duties as superintendent 

 of schools of Glocester, Mr. Mowry is 

 a member of the faculty of the Pente- 

 costal Collegiate Institute, Scituate, 

 and a member of the American Chemi- 

 cal Society. 



In speaking of the opportunities and 

 possibilities that lie in the unimproved 

 and abandoned farms of Rhode Is- 

 land, the new commissioner recently 

 said : 



"There are in this State about 268,- 

 000 acres of unimproved and aban- 

 doned farm land. Much of it has al- 

 ways been unsuitable for agriculture 

 and a great deal of it has now reverted 

 to forests. The shifting of the gram 

 and meat producing industries west- 

 ward has greatly lessened the require- 

 ments of tillage and pasture land m 

 the State, but it is none the less im- 

 portant that the large area of unim- 

 proved land should be put to the best 

 possible use. 



"A great deal of the land is ledgy 

 and some of it is so poor that it should 

 be allowed to produce what it can na- 

 turally while more of it should prove 

 remunerative if devoted to forest 

 planting. The natural afforestation is 

 slow and many times unsatisfactory. 

 Twenty years and more elapse before 

 the land is covered with trees and 

 many of these are of the less valuable 

 species. This delay is unnecessary 

 and may be avoided by forest planting. 

 and many instances to pine and hard 

 woods at a small outlay, has produced 

 four or five times as much valuable 

 timber per acre in forty years as would 

 have been produced by natural affor- 

 estotion. 



"The long investment discourages 

 the planter, but he should keep in mind 

 that the land so planted is increasing 

 in value and is released from taxation 

 for a period of fifteen years. In the 

 rugged ridges, where forest planting 

 would be unprofitable and where we 

 now find tbe forests of evergreens 

 mixed with hardwoods, forest man- 

 agement wmibl greatly improve the 



value. There is a very small percent- 

 age of the woodland in the State that 

 is producing as large a money return 

 as it is capable of doing. The import- 

 ed pine, maple, oak and other woods 

 range higher in price than native pro- 

 ducts because the latter has become in- 

 ferior in quality and dimensions. 



"The nation's supply of white pine, 

 which is our most useful tree for com- 

 mercial purposes, is fast decreasing, 

 and the valleys of Rhode Island's 

 many small rivers, which art too light 

 and sandy for profitable tillage, form 

 natural places for the best production 

 of this species. The largest speci- 

 men in North America that I know of 

 is found in the town of Glocester, but 

 within the past few years many acres 

 of this land has been cut off. Very few 

 if any of the mother trees are left and 

 the land is growing up with birch, 

 scrub oak and brush. 



"With better laws to protect the 

 planters from forest fires this area 

 could be made again to yield a heavy 

 growth of timber, and if taken in time 

 under forestry methods the tree weeds 

 now occupying, the ground would 

 serve as a shade and protection to the 

 pine seedlings. In States like Michi- 

 gan nature has produced only about 

 5,000 feet per acre of pine, while ex- 

 periments in New England have 

 proven that five times that amount can 

 be grown per acre and harvested by 

 the man who in youth plants the pine 

 seed." 



Forest 



Instructor 



Wanted 



An assistant to the di- 

 rector of the recently 

 created School of For- 

 estry at Colorado Springs, Colo., is 

 wanted. His duty will be to give ele- 

 mentary instruction in forestry. The 

 salary will be $1,200 a year, with a 

 prospect for advancement if the work 

 done is satisfactory. Applications for 

 this position should be made to the 

 Forester, United States Forest Ser- 

 vice, Washington, D. C. 



The Kohala I )itch, the 

 biggest irrigation enter- 

 prise of the kind in the 

 Hawaiian Islands, was opened June 



Irrigation 

 in Hawaii 



