Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1872-10-21
FOREST CULTURE.


that are devoid of forests, and that the
practice of forest planting is likely to
become general there. European coun-
tries felt the necessity of forest planting
many years ago, and England and Scot
land can boast their thousands of acres
of majestic pines, larches, and oaks at
home, and their extensive groves of ma
hogany and other valuable woods abound.
Germany has imported thousands of dol
lars worth of seed of the valuable red |
wood from California, and the young for
ests growing from them are the pride of
the nation. Germany has also establish
ed special departments for forest culture
with the schools necessary to educate the
officers in their duties in cultivating and
protecting trees. In the United States
the tendency towards forest planting is
of slow development, the owners of the
soil being more ambitious to look upon
their hundreds or thousands of acres of
waving wheat OF rustling corn; but of
late years a more general attention has
been given to the subject, which is of
more Importance than would appear at
the first glance State aid in States ly-
ing west of Mississippi, and offers of
premiums by county and town authori-
ties, has given considerable encourage
ment to this object. .eGfEsa
In some parts of the country forest plant
ing in the opinion of many observers, is
changing the climate aud capabilities of
the regions, by maintaining the proper
hygrometric and electic equilibrium for
successful farming 1t is stated, in cor
roboration of this theory, that in sec
lions of New York where the forest trees
have been removed, wheat now often
fails, from winter-killing, although the
soil is not exhausted and is abundantly
, fertilized by the use of the most approx
ed rert1Ilzers. In the Northwest where
the rapid denudation of forest trees is
going on, forest planting is becoming
quite common as remedial and produc-
e tive measure. One firm in the northern
: part of Wisconsin is extensively engag-
2 ed in sending out trees from the native
: forests to the prairie States. In l069-70
Y the house referred to forwarded not less
t than twelve million trees. The average
e number of trees required for an acre, as
e usually planted, is about one thousand
+ and it is supposed that about one hun.
It bred millions of such trees are planted
o annually in the prairie States. But al
e this rate one hundred and fifty million
: trees would plant only one hundred and
J. fifty thousand acres annually Throughout
lie all the West. Experience has also dem
ic onstrated that the expense and care o
l. cultivation is about ten dollars yea
1t per acre, while the profits of culture ar
g amply remuneratiye One farmer ha
st been known to sell an acre of fores
to trees. fifteen years old, grown from tn
lg seed, for one thousand dollars. 8
i, Another important consideration i
be connection with forest culture is the re
ar lation which it bears to maintaining a
y. adequate supply of wood, both for man
ufacturing and domestic purposes, in tn
&c future. The vast forests of hard an
u pine timber in this country will nc
Nc last forever. They decrease with tn
H. increase of civilization and in som
sections, forests are rapidly giving gu
DIS What the lumbermen do not send I
Gu market, fires help to destroy. Previou
ny to the settlement of Northern Wisconsin
ne for instance, which was not many yea
lal ago, there were ten million acres of Ian
'nl north of the forty fourth degree of mort
NE latitude, covered with timber valuab
no for lumber and fuel. Now, at least on
half this growth has disappeared. III
nd same calculation is applicable to 9TH
NJ timber growing sections, and, at Il
- present rate of consumption, valuab
Ids timber will be scarce at no distant da
ION Hence the necessity Of forest culture
nd replace the constant denudation.