GENERAL NOTES , 17 



food might be raised profitably a very large percen- 

 tage of the entire acreage on higher ground already 

 carries tree or bush crops for which we may substi- 

 tute food-bearing nut trees and shrubs. There is 

 but a small percentage of this untillable land except- 

 ing that on bleak, barren mountain tops which can- 

 not be made to carry food crops equal in value to 

 those of the sixty per cent of tillable land of the 

 United States. For example, nearly one-half of the 

 land in Connecticut is considered to be non-tillable 

 land. To my personal knowledge there is little of 

 such land in that State which cannot be made to raise 

 nut crops more valuable than most of the crops 

 which are now raised upon the tillable land in the 

 State. Only twenty-seven per cent of the tillable 

 land in the United States is actually under cultiva- 

 tion, but if we follow the same methods of plant and 

 stock raising in the future it will not be long before 

 one hundred per cent is occupied. As a matter of 

 fact, intensive cultivation of twenty per cent of the 

 tillable land now occupied could be made to produce 

 so much more than it does under present methods 

 that we need have very little anxiety about the need 

 for bringing one more acre of tillable land under 

 cultivation with ordinary crops for some time to 

 come. 



One may ride for mile after mile upon the rail- 

 roads through old settled parts of New York and 

 New England and see on every side worn out sheep 

 pastures supporting many woodchucks and grasshop- 

 pers, that could be made to yield good income. On 



