No. 4.] FARM FORESTRY. 289 



POSSIBILITIES FOR FARM FORESTRY IN MASSACHU- 

 SETTS. 



BY ALLEN CHAMBERLAIN, SECKETAUY MASSACHUSETTS FORESTRY 

 ASSOCIATION. 



Notwithstanding the innumerable articles which have been 

 printed b}^ the daily and weekly press of the whole country 

 during the past five years on the subject of forestry in gen- 

 eral, there still exists in the minds of many only a vague 

 idea of the true meaning of the subject. This misunder- 

 standing cannot be attributed to the fact that agitation in 

 favor of forestry is new to this country, for it has been 

 urged in this State of Massachusetts by individuals and 

 societies for more than one hundred years. The failure to 

 make the proper impression seems to be due to a too gen- 

 eral treatment of the subject so far as the country at large 

 is concerned, and in our own State to a too limited prop- 

 aganda. All this talking has not been entirely in vain, 

 however, for there have been and still are farmers in ]\Iassa- 

 chusetts and in New Hampshire who have applied the science 

 of forestry in part to their woodlands, and with profit to 

 themselves and to their children. But the day of widely 

 applied forestry is only just at hand, and our farmers are 

 beffinninij to ask how it can aficct them and their wood lots. 

 That the farmers are generally becoming interested is the 

 most hopeful sign of the century, so far as this subject is 

 concerned. 



Although the subject has been agitated for so long a time, 

 the first general public awakening to it was caused by Presi- 

 dent Cleveland's proclamation, in February, 181)7, by which 

 21,000,000 acres of government-owned timber lands were 

 set aside as permanent national forest. For a time the 

 people in those western States where these reservations 



