WOODLOT FORESTRY. 17 



ECONOMICS OF THE NEW JERSEY FORESTS. 



To apply the lesson of Mount Laurel, it may be observed; that 

 the forests of New Jersey at the present time are composed of 

 what is commonly known as "second growth." In reality, most 

 of them have been cut over three or four times. They have also 

 been repeatedly burned and otherwise greatly abused. Thus 

 while 45 per cent, of the State's land area is forest, the greater 

 part is of little actual value. And the stripping the forests of 

 so much of their valuable saw timber has forced many manu- 

 facturing concerns to cease entirely to depend upon the local 

 sources and to import their log material from other States. That 

 the home market for saw material is satisfactory is evidenced 

 by the absence of any considerable areas of standing timber. 

 The small saw mills, cutting only from 5,000 to 7,000 board feet 

 per day, have long been able to keep pace with the growth of 

 the forest. Whenever an oak or a chestnut tree becomes large 

 enough to make ties, piles or poles, it finds a ready market. 



By properly thinning and caring for his forest, the fanner 

 or woodlot owner can in forty years secure logs which it formerly 

 required from sixty to eighty years to produce. At the same 

 time he can get from the thinning material sold, or used, more 

 than enough to pay the expenses of the attention that the wood- 

 land requires. Timber raising which is not economical is not 

 recommended. Timber culture on a sound financial basis is the 

 only forestry which should be practiced. 



In many localties it has been customary in the past to cut the 

 forests clean every twenty or thirty years to supply the cord- 

 wood market. The practice is wasteful. Forestry demands that 

 the material to be made into fuel shall be drawn from the 

 branches of timber trees and 1 from the defective trees which it is 

 necessary to remove in order to allow the better trees to grow 

 into valuable timber. There will always be enough poor trees to 

 supply the demand for fuel; there is now an excess of them in 

 all parts of the State. Under these circumstances, it is folly 

 to cut trees which have the possibility of producing more value 



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