28 FOREST TLANTING. 



such investments, and the increase of the revenues in the 

 future time. With us, entailments, containing provisions 

 beyond the second generation, are against the law. But, 

 unless the Legislature should find it advisable to exempt 

 this special case for economical reasons from the general 

 rule, the members of a family in a corporative capacity 

 could attain the desired object, and the very rich men 

 could in this way ^irovide for their posterity, and at the 

 same time benefit their country and fellow men. There 

 are in the State of New York many hundreds of thou- 

 sands of acres of sandy lands which scarcely return the 

 cost of cultivation for agricultural operations. For five 

 acres of sand need five times more outlay than one 

 acre of good land, they require nearly five times as much 

 seed and manure as one acre of good land, but they yield 

 not a larger crop than the one acre of good land; in other 

 words, sandy lands, or such infertile lands as are de- 

 ficient in the principal constituents of a fertile soil, do 

 not pay at all to the farmer, because to fertilize them, 

 there would be involved more expenses than in the pur- 

 chase of the most fertile grounds. An exception could 

 only be stated, if the farm be situated in the vicinity of 

 a large city, where additional manure can be procured 

 cheaply, and where the farm products can be sold at a 

 much higher jirice than in the distant country. Were 

 all the unprofitable sand lands in our State to be planted 

 with forest trees, the owners of them need fear no more 

 disappointments in regard to the crops of sandy soil, but 

 could confidently hope that the future would reward their 

 efforts ; under all circumstances they could be assured 

 that their forest planting was a permanent improvement 

 to the farm, and would show its full value at a sale of 

 the farm, this being the time when every farm improve- 

 ment is realized financially. 



