292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



State for the past five or six years has been working at 

 establishing a phmtation of pine and smaller growth along 

 the seaward side, to anchor the sand and prevent further 

 encroachment upon the town. A similar work was under- 

 taken some years ago on the coast of France, and with entire 

 success, and the work at Provincetown has thus far gone on 

 prosperously. This is forestry of a thoroughly legitimate 

 order, although it is not a plan to grow timber for market. 



Massachusetts has therefore made a good beginning in 

 State forestry, but it is all purely of a protective nature. 

 Inasmuch as we luive no great tinil)er area like that in New 

 York, there is no reason for the State to enter upon the cul- 

 tivation of commercial timber. The application of this 

 branch of forestry should be left in this State to private 

 enterprise ; and it is safe to predict that, if our own citizens 

 do not undertake it, outside capital will eventually come in 

 and begin operations. There is at least one such company 

 established on Massachusetts territory to-day. It controls 

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

 tiating for the purchase of more. It has even been reported 

 on good authority that they hope to buy the whole town- 

 ship. Primarily this company was formed for the establish- 

 ment of a game preserve ; 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 



