35 



trols at present some 5,000 acres in one township, and is negotiat- 

 ing for the purchase of more. It has even been reported on good 

 authority that they hope to buy the whole township. Primarily 

 this company was formed for the establishment of a game pre- 

 serve ; but it is known that they are already planning to start a 

 forest, which they hope to make commercially valuable. 



"Why not encourage such foreign capital to come in and do 

 such work?" some one may ask. If they will consider the best 

 interests of Massachusetts, it would surely be wise. But who 

 wants to see acres of trees growing on land that is more valuable 

 for agricultural crops? Forestry does not seek to ruin a country 

 and turn it back from civilization to wilderness ; the science of 

 forestry is diametrically opposed to any such practice. 



Our problem in Massachusetts is to keep what we have, and to 

 improve it ; hold fast to our tillage, and grow good crops thereon ; 

 hold on to our wood lots, and improve them ; and, finally, make 

 those old barren pastures, too poor to keep a sheep alive, and 

 those low places, too wet for grass, grow marketable wood of 

 some kind. 



Let us see for a moment what our woodland represents to-day. 

 By the last census, that of 1895, our wooded area is given as nearly 

 1,500,000 acres, and its value as almost $24,000,000. While this 

 is a gain in woodland area in ten years of more than 71,000 acres, 

 its valuation shows a shrinkage of something over $1,300,000 in 

 the same period of time. In thirty years the value of our wood- 

 land has increased some $440,000, and the acreage increase shows 

 almost identically the same figures. Judging by the census re- 

 turns, the character of our woodlands appears to have improved 

 on the whole in the ten years from 1885 to 1895, but the deprecia- 

 tion in value of more than $1,300,000 seems to indicate that fur- 

 ther improvement is possible. 



The same census shows that we have in permanent pastures, 

 swamps and other waste country, some 250,000 acres less than in 

 1885. That in itself looks promising ; but when we compare the 

 values for 1885 with those of 1895, it is seen that there has been 

 a falling off of almost $4,000,000. This would make this land 

 worth more than $15 an acre, which is pretty high for waste 

 country. The loss is not offset by a gain in arable land, for a loss 

 is shown in that class, and with a gain in valuation, notwithstand- 

 ing. The gain of 71,000 acres in woodland is not enough to bal- 

 ance it. Some of it may have gone into residential property, but 

 still the tremendous loss in valuation remains. 



Our farmers have an opportunity to make good this loss by 

 making these lands, which are no better thana burden to-day, 



