Community Forests 53 



the East. The eastern states should now be 

 making inquiries into the condition of the 

 animal husbandries within their borders. 



(3) The growing of forests. It is to the 

 forest crop that vast areas of the roughest, 

 highest and most unproductive lands of the 

 East are best adapted. As near as I can 

 determine nearly one -third of New York, 

 for example, is in woodland. In some coun- 

 ties, even outside the Adirondack reserva- 

 tion, two-fifths of the land is reported to be 

 in wood-lots. This is a greater area than is 

 devoted to any other crop, and it probably 

 yields less profit per acre ; yet in the census 

 year New York led all the states of the 

 union in the value of farm-forest products. 



As a people, we must re-orient ourselves 

 to the subject of forests. The forest is, or 

 ought to be, considered as a crop. Natural 

 forests are not necessarily the best forests, 

 so far as the production of timber is con- 

 cerned. Nearly all natural forests abound 

 in unproductive areas, and in trees of very 

 slight commercial value, which are as much 



