Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1883-03-14
Forestry.

people is being constantly called to the
rapid destruction of the woodlands Of the
country for the various uses to which tim
Der can be applied, and the proftableness
and necessity of tree culture. According to
some computations, twelve years will so
nearly use up the timber that there will be
q scarcity of merchantable lumber, yet other
intelligent observers have no fears Of such
result. If this land that is now being
chopped over should be occupied by farms
and farmers. and the wilderness become the
abode of thrifty population, there would
be less adverse criticism, as an increase OF
population is an increase Of the value of a
country and well titled acres are more prof
table than acres of trees. The facts are,
however, that the denuded acres, whether in
Maine, Vermont or Michigan, are in great
degree left to a natural growth of small
timber or laid waste by destructive fires, and
in either case do not promise future crop
Of timber in many years equal to the first.
The great lumber region of Vermont is in
Essex county, where several townships are
unorganized, where large areas are in the
possession of lumbermen, and where it is es-
timated that eighty million feet will be cut
this year. Yet all over the state there are
some mountainous woodlands, and every
saw-mill is stocking up as heavily as posi-
BILE and many farmers are selling all the
timber they have time to cut. We must not
expect this activity to continue. The out
come will be that the market for lumber
will be overstocked, prices will fall below
the cost Of production, men who do bust
ness with borrowed capital will be the first
to fail, and only the wealthy companies who
can float their logs to their mills at small
cost will continue to run their mills; and
then there will be few years when the
woodlands will do much to recover their
beauty and usefulness and their general
value. The usefulness of forest is believed
to be its effect upon the climate in promot-
ing rainfall and shielding the land so that
water is longer retained and springs and
streams are made more uniform in their
flow. It's value as marketable property de-
ponds upon the varieties of wood growing
and its size and rapidity of growth. The
opinion generally entertained, and probably
a correct one, is that in Vermont valuable
timber grows slowly. In some states beau
tiful pine trees grow in twenty or thirty
years. The land where the boy plowed and
raised corn is in his manhood covered with
merchantable pine timber. Pine sows its
own seed, is rapid grower and valuable
timber, but it is not at home in Northern
Vermont or in the hills and mountains Of
Southern Vermont. 1t thrives in the Con-
necticut and Champlain valleys. Spruce
from the seed is a slow grower, very branch
ing, aud in comparatively open ground gives
but little promise of paying interest on the
value Of land. Hemlock is still worse invest
ment. In woodlands where spruce are care
fully cut, those left six inches through will be
nice timber in twenty years. Whatever the
allurements may be in other states, Vermont
timber-planting does not promise speedy
wealth. The cultivation of walnut and
chestnut is possible only in the southern
part. If land is not pastured with cattle
the Seeding trees will be sugar maple,
birch, elm, poplar, cherry, Eastwood, beech
ash, spruce, fir and hemlock. II cattle
browse the young wood the deciduous trees
will be mostly destroyed. 1t is possible
that the forestry commissioners recently
appointed will point our attention to trees
that are now undervalued, but the average
Vermontsr would plant naples, and for va
riety Of wood keep the cattle out and lie,
nature plant and grow the seedlings. A
few enthusiastic lovers of trees will plant
apple trees of hardy varieties and get the
income every year, and let those raise wood
whose farms are too big for their tillage
care. The poplar tree is rapid grower
and desirable for paper making. but is moi
highly esteemed for frewood. Growing
trees is the slowest and most unproftabl,
farming that can be recommended, yet Il
the farmer owns his land and has othe
ways and means 10 live and pay his taxes
he can about three times in hundre,
years harvest his crop. z.EJ.