58 JAMESTOWN CONGRESS OF HORTICULTURE 



value and little appreciated; the time has come, however, when things 

 have changed and to-day the forest product from the standpoint of an 

 agricultural crop is of as much importance as almost any other crop. 



As the President of this Congress said in his address, this morning, 

 the main questions for discussion are: First, Where are we? Second, 

 What are we doing? and, third, What are our prospects? Now, when 

 we come to the subject of forestry, unlike my predecessor's subject in 

 its being old in the sense of gradual growth, forestry on the other 

 hand is not. W T e are just beginning to realize in this country that the 

 forest product, as I have said before, is a great economic problem be- 

 fore the nation. We have thousands and millions of acres of waste land 

 that heretofore were covered with beautiful forest growth. Particularly 

 is this true in the eastern section of the United States. These lands 

 to-day are practically idle. Heretofore, it has not perhaps been thought 

 profitable to farm them from the tree standpoint, but I am sure the 

 more we look into it, the more we will see where the grand possibilities 

 are. 



It seems to me the thing that is needed as much as anything else in 

 our farming is getting down to some system and having a definiteness 

 of purpose. We must educate the farmers of to-day, from the stand- 

 point of taking, for instance, an inventory of the farm, selecting what 

 are the best lands for concentrated agriculture and horticulture, from 

 market gardening to fruit growing and field crops. There are plenty 

 of lands on most farms, known as barren, stony, rocky, sandy, etc., 

 that will produce a forest growth which will yield a profit in nothing 

 else. I addressed a New England lumbermen's association last winter. 

 Strange to say, in that large organization of men who have been in 

 business for years, many of them, in fact the majority, had not even 

 seen white pine seed. Now, gentlemen, what is needed? It is not the 

 higher problems. When you come to forestry, it is the simple problems 

 that must be demonstrated. People have to be taught that pine trees 

 grow from seed and other equally fundamental forestry principles must 

 be shown. It is the A B C of forestry that is needed the most. 



I find in New England that more can be accomplished in the desired 

 lines of forestry if people can be interested in the fundamentals first. 

 Lumbermen who cannot be convinced at once that thinning is prac- 

 tical and who believe in cutting clear, nevertheless take very kindly to 

 restoration by seeding and transplanting. Once the entering wedge is 

 started ultimate results will follow. The men who purchase stumpage 

 should be encouraged to study the practicability of restocking this land 

 and before they will do this they must be induced to purchase land and 

 all. Show them that in forty years as a long time investment, it is a 

 sure investment and these business men are going to reforest our lands. 

 Particularly is this true in our eastern section of the country where 

 we have Nature as an assistant. Why, if we were to move out from 

 New England, bag and baggage, I believe in fifty to one hundred years 

 we would have a wilderness. What does that demonstrate? It dem 

 onstrates that we have a natural forest country and the condition that 

 we are in is due to the wanton destructiveness of man himself. Our 



