FORESTS AS AN INVESTMENT 



By HON. SIMEON E. BALDWIX 

 Governor of Connecticut 



"-y- WISH Arbor Day could be the 

 occasion of considering anew the 

 importance of forestry to the 

 business interests of Connecticut, and 

 what can be done towards multiplying 

 our woodlots in the smaller towns. We 

 need more forestation for two objects 

 to study and preserve the natural 

 flow of our streams and rivers and to 

 raise wood to sell. There are, our 

 State Forester tells us, 1,000,000 acres 

 of land in this State fit for nothing but 

 forestation. You can use them for 

 pasturage, but they do not produce 

 enough in that way to make grazing 

 pay. But if judiciously planted, they 

 can grow profitable crops of timber and 

 wood pulp for paper making. 



.Crops that are fit to market only 

 after a growth of 25 or 50 years are 

 not so attractive at first sight as crops 

 that are gathered every year. For- 

 estation can be so conducted as to yield 

 annual crops, but it is not so conducted 

 in Connecticut now. We have a Forest 

 School at Yale, where they teach the 

 business to others. We have some State 

 woodlots, State owned, which we are 

 trying to bring into that condition 

 eventually. It is the thing for us to 

 aim at. 



But it is not a bad proposition to 

 practice forestry even on the old plan 

 of felling the timber only after a. long 

 period of years and then cutting it off 

 clean. Brush land comes cheap, and if 

 it does take long years to cover it with 

 trees worth cutting for lumber, not 

 much capital is thus left inactive, and 

 not much care is necessary yearly, ex- 

 cept at times that otherwise there would 

 be nothing in the way of profitable em- 

 ployment in farming to occupy. Trees 

 can be thinned out in winter and any 

 time on off days. It is a good way of 



Trees grow while 



sleep. ?hey grow faster than money 



savings bank, and there is no 



dangei defalcation or experiments 



in high finance. 



Let the hills along the upper Housa- 

 tonic valley become more and more 



336 



HON. SIMEON E. BALDWIN, GOVERNOR 

 OF CONNECTICUT 



barren and more and more of their top 

 soil will run down every year until it 

 is all gone, and the even flow that is 

 natural to the forest-fed river gives 

 to a succession of freshets and nothing 

 between them. Remember, gentlemen, 

 that in our manufacturing and mercan- 

 tile establishments, with their call for 

 packing boxes ; our railroad industries, 

 our building operations, large and 

 small, Connecticut offers to her land- 

 holders a nearby and constant market 

 for all the lumber they can produce. 

 Here is the land, 1,000,000 acres, fit 

 for this, and fit for nothing else. Here 

 is the power in 1,000,000 population 

 capable of turning it at small cost into 

 profitable forests. Here is the market, 

 right at hand, always with a short haul. 



