OTHER RESOURCES 119 



ity of the soil and the nature of the climate, as is 

 the case with the cultivated crops that succeeded the 

 forest. Indeed the original settlers were guided 

 more or less in the choice of their land by the timber 

 growth it bore. 



But to the pioneer farmer bent on producing things 

 to eat and wear and sell, wheat and flax and wool, the 

 trees were mostly an encumbrance to be got rid of — 

 branch and stump and root — as rapidly as possible. 

 The market for timber was small, especially as com- 

 pared with the supply. Hence, one of the earliest 

 sources of cash to the pioneer was the sale of " black 

 ash salts," potash salts, presumably for the arts and 

 for the manufacture of gun powder. The timber was 

 burned on the ground and the potash salt extracted 

 by leaching the aslies. 



A little later New York became the leading state 

 in the production of timber. In 18G0 Albany was 

 the most important timber market in the country. 

 In 1914 Xew York State stood twenty-third and is 

 going down, although still leading in farm forest 

 products. 



The forest resources of an old settled state have 

 a direct relation to the soil conditions. The hand of 

 the farmer crowds back their border from the better 

 to the poorer or less accessible land. Forest land is 

 thin, steep, rough, poor, or swampy, and does not 

 lend itself to the plow. In New York the zealous 

 pioneers who came largely from an even rougher 

 country, New England, reached over the border of 

 the arable land, encouraged by a different set of 



