314 THE FORESTS OF CECIL COUNTY 



the later ones, ties, telegraph poles, pulpwood, and some lumber. It 

 will thus be no longer necessary to destroy entire woods (Fig. 24) to 

 obtain these materials, as is common to-day. 



These suggestions for growing and cultivating a crop of timber 

 are easily followed on lands where a good forest growth is found 

 (Plate XXYII). On areas with only a scattered growth of inferior 

 trees or brush the problem of growing an improved stand is often 

 a difficult and costly one to solve. There are thousands of 

 acres of land in the county suited to forest growth and un- 

 suited to agriculture. These lands, producing less than a cord of 

 wood per acre, represent idle capital which should bear interest in 

 the form of wood crops. To establish a crop, many of these areas 

 will have to be seeded or planted. This method of starting forests is 

 expensive if undertaken on a large scale. Most of the untimbered 

 areas of Cecil county are small and are scattered through the farm 

 lands. If, each winter, when the work is slack, the farmers would 

 plant a portion of their waste lands with trees, a good crop could be 

 started with but little loss of time and money to the owners. Locust, 

 Tulip-tree, White Ash, Black Walnut, and White Oak are suggested 

 as suitable for this planting. Either seed or young trees may be 

 used. The area of the shore-timber would be doubled if all areas 

 unfit for cultivation were planted with forest trees. 



It is believed that if the forest land in Cecil county were properly 

 treated it would yield annually a neat sum from the sale of material 

 and each succeeding year see its value increased; the wood-consuming 

 industries of the county could be supplied with home-grown material; 

 money which now leaves the county would remain and add to its 

 wealth; lumber industries would spring up and give employment to 

 men in the winter months when work is scarce; and the county would 

 thus be able to support an increased population and add materially to 

 the resources and prosperity of the State. 



