502 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



were cut, 286 piles, 148 posts and 385 thousand feet of lumber, 

 including railroad ties which would number about 4,000. On 

 this work the owners have spent $17,327.42, and the State has 

 contributed merely the salary and traveling expenses of the 

 forester managing and supervising. 



Utilization. — One of the important parts of the work has 

 been the disposal and sale of the wood cut in these thinnings. 

 Besides selling the wood cut under our direct supervision we 

 have attempted to aid owners who have cut on their own re- 

 sponsibility. This past year we have negotiated sales to the 

 amount of nearly $5,000. We have contracts for products worth 

 about $20,000, which will be filled as soon as delivery can be 

 made. The owners themselves have sold about $4,000 worth 

 of wood which was cut under our direction. There remains to 

 be sold about $10,000 worth of wood which is already cut. 

 Much of this will be sold as soon as it becomes dry enough to 

 be merchantable. 



These results are only a beginning in what must be accom- 

 plished in the woodlands of the State. The encouraging fea- 

 tures are, first, that most of these operations have been on a 

 paying basis. Only a few of them have resulted in any net 

 expense to the owner. Most of them have shown a profit. 

 From the $17,300 spent last year the returns should be over 

 $23,000, a profit of $5,000. This work has proven that the 

 moths can be attacked in the woodland without the expenditure 

 of large sums of money, as is necessary in the other methods 

 of moth control. The one great need is of capital to finance 

 these operations. The poor man who owns woodland may not 

 be able to do this work, which will yield a profit in the end, 

 because he cannot pay for the wood chopping. However, we 

 hope to overcome this difficulty in a large measure in the 

 future by finding purchasers for the wood before it is cut. 

 Second, this work is on a practical and common-sense basis, and 

 cannot help appealing to the ordinary citizen. Third, this 

 work will result in better and more valuable forests for the 

 Commonwealth in the future. The pine, which is the natural 

 and more valuable species for the land, is being made to sup- 

 plant the oak, which is not best suited for most of the land on 

 which it grows, and which is worth only a tenth as much. 



