No. 4.] FOHIOSTKY IN MASSxVCHUSKTTS. 41) 



8il0,()()0 cords of fuel wood, valued at over $4,000,000, the 

 valuation per cord being over $5. 



From the State census in 1885 we learn that there were 

 cut on farni», besides 75,000,000 feet of log material, valued 

 at a little less than $10.50, over 400,000 raih-oad ties, valued 

 at about 38 cents, and nearly ()00,000 cords of cordwood, 

 valued at a little less than $3.20 per cord. The total cut 

 was valued at $2,573,000. In 18M5 the census taker fails 

 to publish the itemized wood product ; only the total value 

 is stated, nameh', less than half the value of 1880, with 

 $2,780,000, from which we may judge that practically the 

 same amounts of wood were cut as in 1885. 



In 1900 the value of forest products cut on farms had 

 sunk to $1,945,000, — a decrease to only 30 per cent of the 

 value of 1880. There are no "data at hand which permit a 

 sure interpretation of these changes, but we are safe in 

 deducing from these figures, in connection with other informa- 

 tion, that a continuous deterioration of land and forest con- 

 ditions is taking place. One-half the State is rapidly sliding 

 down in economic taxable value. One-half of the State has 

 either become or is rapidly becoming waste or inferior brush 

 lands, when it should be a continuous value producer. 



There are, we will admit, here and there well-kei)t wood- 

 lots and attempts at reforestation, of which it is pleasant to 

 make note and to make much of; but I venture to assert 

 that not 10 per cent of this natural woodland area of the 

 State receives any attention, with a view of improving the 

 quality or increasing the quantity of its production.* 



What does this deterioration mean to the State at largfe ? 

 Fii'st, the material wealth of the State and its taxable prop- 

 erty is reduced by as much as remains unproductive of these 

 wild lands, or less productive than it could be. With a 

 population approaching in density the most populated dis- 

 tricts of civilized nations, being more densely populated 

 than England, the pioneering days are or should be over for 

 Massachusetts, and the time has arrived for a stable policy 

 with reference to the use of soils, as well as in other direc- 



* The census of 1895 finds 10,280 acres of artificially planted or sown forest, 

 as against 5,900 acres in 1885. 



