NINTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE FORESTER. 



Introduction. 



The year of 1912 closes an extremely active season in the State 

 Forester's department. Forestry work generally has met with 

 enthusiastic support at the hands of our people, and it is a pleasure 

 to serve in a public capacity under such favorable auspices. 



We have a natural forest country and should take advantage 

 of such a heritage. The renowned Black Forests of Germany 

 show what can be accomplished by systematic methods, while in 

 this country the State of New York has been farsighted enough 

 to establish a forest preserve, the area of which approximates 

 two-thirds the size of our whole State. I believe it is time that 

 we people of Massachusetts should take steps to secure a forest 

 preserve which might include, for example, the whole beautiful 

 Berkshire country west of the Connecticut River, or our own 

 renowned Cape Cod District. Either of these areas could readily 

 be made into State reserves, and exploited under modern ideas 

 of forestry management similar to the methods now proposed in 

 the Adirondacks. At the present writing, individuals may destroy 

 at their will the forest products, which will take time and great 

 expense to replace. On the other hand, individual effort can 

 accomplish a great deal, as a trip to Lenox and Stockbridge will 

 testify, but of course quicker and greater results would come 

 from State management of such lands. With a progressive policy 

 a Berkshire forest reserve would ultimately outrival anything in 

 Europe, as its location and topography are ideal. 



Although good old Cape Cod is a different forestry proposition 

 altogether, nevertheless its thousands of acres of depleted and 

 waste lands were once covered with magnificent forest growth, 

 and I believe they could be returned through State management, 

 at small expense, to a sylvan condition which would not only be 



