564 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1406. 



that it is unprofitable to attempt to cultivate. 

 The average farm therefore contains both 

 agricultural land and forest land. In the 

 poorer regions of the state, as in parts of 

 Litchfield and Middlesex counties, the larger 

 percentage of the farms is forest land while 

 in Hartford County the larger percentage is 

 agricultural land. Although three quarters 

 of a century or more ago, three fourths of the 

 land of Connecticut had been cleared for 

 agriculture and grazing, much of this cleared 

 land has since been abandoned as fields and 

 .pastures and left to return to forest. To-day 

 almost one half of the entire area of the state 

 is classed as forest and the area in productive 

 agriculture has been gradually decreasing for 

 a half century. Why has the area of Con- 

 necticut soil used for the production of agri- 

 cultural crops so persistently and so rapidly 

 fallen off and why has so much land formerly 

 cultivated been permitted to revert to for- 

 est? 



During the long period of extension of 

 Connecticut agriculture and reduction of the 

 forested areas, the farmers not only tilled 

 their fields in summer, but they worked in 

 the woods in winter. Only a part of their 

 sustenance and profit was derived from their 

 cultivated fields; a considerable part came 

 from the woodland part of their farms. So 

 long as it was possible to find profitable em- 

 ployment daring the long winter in their own 

 woodlots, a comfortable living for themselves 

 and families could be derived from their 

 farms, but as soon as the woodlots had been 

 culled of all the best timber and nothing left 

 but cheap fuel wood, it was no longer possible 

 to obtain year-long employment and a com- 

 fortable living from the fields alone. For 

 fifty years abandoned Connecticut farms 

 have been in evidence in every county in the 

 state. This abandonment is due to economic 

 pressure forced through the exhaustion and 

 often almost the complete destruction of the 

 productive capacity of the forest land, thus 

 impelling the cleared land alone to support 

 a permanent population which in many cases 

 has been economically impossible. 



When the forests of Connecticut were still 



producing timber in abundance, and agricul- 

 tural extension had claimed the maximum of 

 Connecticut land, land utilization was at its 

 height. It is a long way from our climax of 

 land utilization in this state of fifty or more 

 years ago to what we find today. Not only 

 have we greatly reduced the area in produc- 

 tive agriculture, but our woods, although in- 

 creasing in area, have almost completely lost 

 their capacity for yielding timber of large 

 sizes and of high value. They are for the 

 most part stands of sprouts that have been 

 repeatedly culled and cut over until little but 

 inferior fuel wood remains. Although the 

 state now boasts of nearly one half of her total 

 area as forest, its growing capacity is so low 

 and the quality and kinds of timber so in- 

 ferior, we are forced to send out of the state 

 for 83 per cent, of all saw timber we consume 

 and upon which we yearly pay four to five 

 million dollars in freight alone. Although 

 the forests of the state produce little timber 

 of high gi-ade and of desirable species which 

 command high prices, our woods are filled 

 with inferior species, and low-grade wood 

 chiefly useful for fuel which commands a 

 stumpage price but little higher than that of 

 a half century ago. 



While the forests of the state were produc- 

 tive, industries using wood as a raw product 

 were widely distributed through our villages 

 and towns. Every village had its cooper and 

 its wheelwright. Barrels, wagons, tubs, ox- 

 yokes, and all the various articles made from 

 wood and used in a given community, were 

 locally made from home-gi'own wood in that 

 community. 



Wood from local forests helped to support 

 community life and nearby forests provided 

 employment to supplement farm work. Large 

 areas in this state as well as in most other 

 states can not sustain profitable agriculture 

 unless the intermingled areas of forest land 

 are made productive. The development of 

 agriculture and the development of forestry 

 must go forward together wherever part of 

 the land is unsuited for farm crops. 



In my opinion an increased population on 

 the land in this state can not be attained and 



