Proceebixgs of the Farmers' Club. 365 



TI* HE Preservation of Forests a^^d of Wood. 

 Joseph B. Lyman read tke following, paper : 



Gentlemen of the Farmers' Chib.—l propose to read you to-day a 

 few suggestions and a few facts. Tlieyare in a condensed shape, and 

 were made from a good deal of reading, much personal obseiwation, 

 and a number of letters from farmers in diiferent parts of the Union. 



The mischiefs that I hope to do something to stop are twofold ; 

 first, the wanton and avoidable cutting of trees, and the carelessness 

 with regard to wooden structures, by which it becomes necessary to 

 cut timber to meet a useless waste. 



Just now, in the history of our national development, is the time 

 to arrest attention and enforce a -svise and economical legislation on 

 this subject. The Atlantic seaboard has been stripped of its forests 

 to such an extent that one-third of ^ew England would pay better 

 if suffered to grow up to forests than it does now in grazing land ; for 

 a thrifty woodland is better than a poor pasture. In older countries 

 the proper relation between woodland and farming surface has been 

 carefully studied. The French writers conclude that thirty aci:es in 

 100 should be forests. The Germans say that on the sea coast one 

 acre in five is the least, and in the interior every fourth acre should 

 be woodland. According to this rule most of the hill tops and crests 

 of ridges in Yermont, Kew Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 and I^ew York, ought to be given back to forest, from which tliey 

 should never have been redeemed. West of the mountains no more 

 wholesale destruction of forests should be suffered, for the prairie 

 region is very large. In the southwest and also on the shores of the 

 great lakes, many thousands of acres of forests may yet be cut, but 

 it should be done economically, as wood is demanded, not simply to 

 lay bare the surface. We have over 40,000 miles of railway in this 

 country. The average life of a railway sleeper is seven years. There 

 are 2,112 in a mile. The average cost is fifty cents each. Thus our 

 sleepers are costing us $150 a mile every year for each of the 

 40,000 miles in the Union. The sleepers on the English roads last, 

 on an average, fourteen years, and when properly treated with pre- 

 serving substances, tliey last for a century. The wooden stnictures 

 on the farms of this country cost $3,000,000,000 every thirty years, 

 or $100,000,000 each year. By the use of simple and cheap preserva- 

 tives the duration of all this wood could at least be doubled. Thus 

 the care and the saving for which I plead, if generally practiced, 



