200 



practically the entire state of Connecticut was densely wooded. 

 Certain areas, of course, such as salt marshes and lakes, together 

 with many swamps, rocky ridges, and sand plains, have never 

 been covered by forests, and even before the advent of civilization 

 there were doubtless considerable tracts, at least in the lowland, 

 which in a more or less primitive way had been brought under 

 cultivation. Almost the first task that confronted the settler 

 was to dispose of the forest, and the work of destruction then 

 inaugurated has continued almost incessantly for nearly three 

 centuries. To be sure, the indiscriminate devastation which 

 characterized the pioneer days was gradually discontinued when 

 timber began to acquire a merchantable value, and in the Colonial 

 period the forest resources of the state were a potent factor in 

 the success of shipbuilding and other local industries. Even 

 today there are numerous important lines of manufacture, 

 notably that of brass, which owe their supremacy largely to the 

 ready availability of a cheap, abundant, and constant supply of 

 fuel wood. In the days of the stationary sawmill many tracts 

 of virgin timber in the more inaccessible localities were left un- 

 scathed, and as late as the middle of the last century there was 

 doubtless a considerable portion of the native forest that never 

 had been encroached upon. But with the introduction of the 

 portable sawmill and the improvement of transportation facili- 

 ties, together with the increasing demand for timber, these 

 remnants have rapidly disappeared, until at the present time there 

 remain scarcely half a dozen patches of reputedly virgin forest, 

 hardly one of which covers an area of more than a dozen acres. 

 It must not be concluded, a priori, that the forests as such have 

 actually been demolished, for it is estimated* that nearly half 

 the total area of the state is still wooded. As a matter of fact, 

 owing to the abandonment of unprofitable farmlands, the per- 

 centage of woodland has actually increased during the past few 

 decades. But the woodlands of today are "second-growth" 

 and may represent crops first, second, third, or even farther 

 removed from the original stands. The probable relationship 



* Frothingham, E. H. Second-growth hardwoods in Connecticut. U. S. 

 Dept. Agr. Forest Service Bull. 96: 12. 1912. 



