4IO 



FORESTRY IN NEW ENGLAND 



the forests the quahty of the wood produced and the actual 

 amount annually grown can be greatly improved over present 

 conditions. 



In order to learn what results in the way of increased growth 

 and better wood production may be secured through forestry, 

 it is necessary to turn to the countries where forestry has been 

 in practice for considerable periods of time, and where accurate 

 records of the results are kept. No tracts in New England have 

 been under treatment long enough to furnish the desired infor- 

 mation. Certain of the European countries provide the best 

 illustrations for our purpose, and in the following table the aver- 

 age annual growth per acre is given, together with the forested 

 area on which based, for several countries. 



ANNUAL GROWTH PER ACRE IN CUBIC FEET, TOGETHER WITH 

 THE FORESTED AREA FOR VARIOUS COUNTRIES.i 



Country. 



Austria. . . . 

 Belgium. . . . 

 France .... 

 Germany. . 

 Holland. . . 

 Hungary. . . 

 Switzerland 



Forested area. Annual growth, 

 cubic feet. 



23,996,266 

 1.303.735 



24,021,587 



34,989,675 

 617,567 



18,692,000 

 2,140,012 



' The figures are taken from Bulletin No. 83 of the U. S. Forest Service, entitled " The Forest 

 Resources of the World." 



The annual growth per acre is seen to range from 37.9 to 58.2 

 cubic feet. It should be remembered that in these European 

 countries the classification of lands into those suitable for agri- 

 cultural and forest use is farther advanced than in New England, 

 and that while in the latter region some soils suitable for agri- 

 culture are still forested, this rarely occurs in the European 

 countries, where only the poorest grade soils are forested. 

 Hence the forested areas of the European countries may be 

 expected to have a somewhat lower productive power than those 

 of New England. Some of the countries with the poorest and 



