FORESTRY. 



EDITED BY DR. B. E. FERNOW, 



Director of the New York School of Forestry, Cornell University, assisted by Dr. John C. Gifford of the same 



institution. 

 It takes 30 years to grow a tree and 30 minutes to cut it down and destroy it. 



PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



Forestry is a word that is becoming 

 familiar to nearly every reader of news- 

 papers or magazines, but probably few 

 people stop to consider its real meaning. 

 It is a subject claiming more and more 

 the attention of scientists, sought and 

 studied in our colleges, and ranking as a 

 profession with that of the lawyer, physi- 

 cian and other of the higher orders. 



There is nothing new in the forests them- 

 selves, but the treatment of them is 

 opening a new avenue of employment for 

 ■hundreds. Neither is it to be- a work 

 wholly of a scientific nature. It bristles 

 with practical requirements at every point. 



From Mother Earth to the mill, or to 

 that handsome piece of parlor furniture or 

 delicately tinted writing paper, bearing the 

 water mark of "linen" but perhaps only a 

 few brief days made from the forests, may 

 be termed a branch of forestry. 



To forestry our land owners are giving 

 an increasing interest, studying how best to 

 grow, preserve and continue the vast for- 

 ests of Maine. Only a few years ago the 

 man who advanced the idea of forestry 

 was the laughing stock of the old woods-' 

 man, who allowed "there would be wood 

 enough as long as man existed." Those 

 were the days before the great vats and 

 grinders of the ever increasing pulp mills 

 had commenced to devour the forests to 

 an extent that sent out a warning of 

 alarm. 



Soil which is adapted to the growth of 

 spruce may be as profitable to its owner or 

 his heirs as that which is wholly suited or 

 particularly chosen for its crop-bearing 

 qualities. Rich indeed is the owner of 

 soil suited to the growth of both crops 

 and trees. Land that is non-agricultural, 

 on account of being hilly or rocky, often is 

 the best soil for the growth of spruce, and 

 on it trees will grow to merchantable size 

 in 40 to 50 years. By merchantable size is 

 meant a tree having a diameter of 12 to 15 

 inches breast high. The yield is estimated 

 to be 1,000 to 20,000 feet an acre. 



A forest should be crowded when young 

 to promote upward growth, as a tree that 

 stands alone grows too much to branches 

 and does not yield good timber. Much 

 care should be taken in the cutting of our 

 forests ; only that timber which is sizeable 

 and merchantable should be removed. The 



smaller should be left to grow, thereby 

 solving the problem of preserving the for- 

 ests, but still handling them to a profit. 

 Only the average growth should be re- 

 moved from a tract each year. 



It has been ascertained that the average 

 annual growth of the State forests of Sax- 

 ony, which are nearly all non-agricultural 

 land, is 225 feet an acre, board measure. 

 There are 432,300 acres of such forest; 

 therefore the total annual growth of the 

 whole forest is 97,200,000 feet, which quan- 

 tity of timber can annually be cut without 

 impairing the forests. The forest proper- 

 ly treated increases rather than diminishes 

 in value. Saxony, which takes the lead in 

 forestry, derives a net annual revenue of 

 $4.50 an acre from her State forests. 

 France, from 2,100,000 acres of productive 

 forest, derives a net annual revenue of 

 $1.91 an acre. Prussia, from 6,000,000 acres 

 of State forests, has a net annual revenue 

 of $1.50 an acre. The aggregate of the 

 State forests of Germany is 10,000,000 

 acres, from which is derived an annual net 

 profit of $23,000,000. The forests of Ger- 

 many support 3,000,000 people. 



Prof. Chas. S. Sargent, of the United 

 States government, says in his report on 

 the forest trees of North America: "The 

 condition of the forests of Maine is inter- 

 esting. They show that forest preserva- 

 tion is perfectly practicable in the Atlantic 

 region, at least when the importance of the 

 forest to the community is permanent. 

 The existence of the State depends on the 

 maintenance of the forest. The great for- 

 ests of pine can not be restored, but the 

 preservation of the few remnants of these 

 forests is not impossible. The forests of 

 Maine, once considered practically ex- 

 hausted, still yield largely and continuous- 

 ly, and the public sentiment which has 

 made possible their protection is the one 

 hopeful symptom in the whole country 

 that a change of feeling in regard to for- 

 est property is gradually taking place. The 

 experience of Maine shows that where 

 climatic conditions are favorable to forest 

 growth, the remnants of the original forest 

 can be preserved and new forests created, 

 as soon as the entire community finds for- 

 est protection essential to its material pros- 

 perity/' 



While practically a new work, consider- 

 able progress is being made in forestry in 



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