FORESTRY AND THE STATE LEGISLATURE 277 



perfect as could be wished trees eight inches in diameter and smaller, properly 

 spaced, and of right mixed kinds. 



Fourteen and fifteen years ago every tree of marketable size and kind 

 was cut from this same acreage. That crop of timber was more valuable than 

 the present one. In fifteen years (by 1927) fully as big a crop should be cut 

 as the one of 1912, still leaving the stand of growing timber perfect for the 

 future. 



The poles and bi-products of mine ties and props are the crop from the 

 five acres for one fifteen year period, (forgetting the railroad ties and saw 

 stuff). The net cash value of these poles and top-stuff is $28.75. It figures 

 $38.33 for each acre every year. 



Taxes and interest reduce this about 10 per cent then the timber pays 

 better than wheat, corn, oats, or any rotation of general crops on the best of 

 land. The work required by the timber is less than a quarter of the amount 

 necessary in farming those crops. On rich bottom land the timber growth 

 would be much heavier than on this thin, high, dry soil. Proper planting 

 and thinning of timber trees would increase the growth and the amount of 

 marketable lumber considerably. 



This timber area lies on a slope above the Sharer home. It increases 

 the amount of water available all summer long over its own area and over 

 a large area lying below it. Several springs at its lower edge are never 

 failing. The August freshets flowing from its carpeted surface are as pure 

 as June streams. Game in plenty makes its home among the trees, and the 

 forest increases the beauty of the neighborhood. 



In the light of these facts it would seem that many acres all over the 

 country that were once cleared and are farmed or are lying idle now, ought 

 to be growing timber when otherwise waste land in natural timber, with no 

 care beyond intelligent cutting, can yield almost $40 on an acre yearly, that 

 land certainly should be in timber, and under proper management. Fifteen 

 per cent of every farm in the country should be a permanent forest, no matter 

 how good the soil, while on thousands of farms and on all unproductive land 

 there is no excuse for anything else. 



FORESTRY AND THE STATE LEGISLATURE 



BY W. B. GREELEY 

 OF THE FOREST SERVICE 



'N the course of my few years' experience, I have seen something of the 

 development of the forestry movement, particularly in the Northwest, 

 and I have become convinced that the critical point in the present stage 

 of this great movement, the point of immediate importance, is the state legis- 

 lature. It is a common saying, summed up in one of Mr. Pinchot's latest 

 epigrams, that "forestry has succeeded everywhere except in the woods." We 

 know that there are so many reasons for the backwardness of the private 

 owners throughout the country at large in attempting the application of the 



