News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-09-18
THAT Wood Lot"


est destroyers in all the world. For
generations we have been taught to
consider the forest as an enemy, to be |
cut down and destroyed, but soon
this inherited habit and ill-directed
energy must find new channels for ex
plotting, for in self defence we must
begin to restore that which we have
so ruthlessly destroyed. We must
teach ourselves to realize the evils Of
such past action. Land in natural
forest, in all the older portions of the
country, is already worth twice the
price of cleared land. The student
of this topic looks on with amazement
at the present apathy of the public
mind, and the attention paid to a sub
iect that must soon be our most press
ing national agricultural question. 1t
is not only a question of the increas-
ing scarcity of forest products, but
there are other and higher topics back
of this, such as the disastrous annu-
ally increasing floods in all our river
valleys, destroying not only farms and
| homesteads, town and cities, but I'M
| dermining the health and prosperity
of the unfortunate inhabitants. And
behind these is that deeper and still
more vital question that is as old as
the history of civilization-the insid-
ious but certain enrichments of the
desert, sooner or later, on all lands
denuded of their arboral covering.
Witness the present condition Of Ar
iona, parts of New Mexico, Utah
and Colorado, and many large areas
in Europe, Africa and Asia.
But what about "That Wood Lot?"
Well, l have not forgotten it. Ihave
been trying to emphasize the need of
more attention to it. Most of our
farmers have reserved certain portions
of their farms in so-called forest land.
In doing this they imagine they have
done their whole duty in staying the
encroachments ofthe desert, affordng
forest products, lengthening the pc
Rod of moisture from rain falls, etc.
But the naked truth is, that, as usual
ly managed, those reservations are no
better than plowed land. Real forest
land, with its forest conditions, will
hold and give up slowly more than
double the amount of moisture re-
tanned by such wood lots. In a,nat-
ural forest it is the low and creeping
plants, the MOSES, the roots, twigs,
and, more than all, the annual coat
of leaves, that retain the moisture
and give it slowly to the springs and
rivers. How is it with the wood lot
1t is usually a woods pasture; the
underbrush Chat would restore forest
conditions when the old trees were re-
moved) is cleared off or eaten off by
the cattle; grass seed is sown, or
come in naturally; the leaves in the
fall drift away, and the trees soon be-
gin to decay, except few varieties
that adapt themselves to their changed
conditions. In short, the wood lot
has efectually and for all practical
forest purposes, lost its character,
and fails to properly exercise the
ameliorating influences Of original for
est land. The moses, the twigs ard
the leaves no longer cover the soil, |
protect the germs of plants or hold
the rain water. Water, in all the
economies of tree life, is something
akin to the circulation of the blood
of animals; it is through and by
means Of water that nutrition and
growth take place. Immense guam
titles are needed, and must be at hand
during the season of growth, or
growth cannot go on. 1t is estimat-
ed that three tons Of water day are
used by the largest trees, and thrown
into the atmosphere in the form of
vapor, and it is this vapor that causes
the cooler and damper atmosphere of
forests, and that exercises SO MANY
important conserving influences in all
the manifold economies of vegetable
and animal life. Hence it NAV he
seen why the floods annually increase
in our river valleys; the water rms
off rapidly, carrying with it soil, nj
trogen, and other fertilizing ingredi-
ents. And it follows that, unless the
forest conditions are, in part, restored.
an increase of disasters must really
follow. There is no occasion for re-
storing entire forests. Groves and
wind breaks occupying, say, one-third
of the surface of the country, with
the natural mountain reservations.
wherein natural forest conditions are
maintained, will be profitable for the
timber, and there is every reason to
believe that the remaining two-thirds
of the land will yield heavier crops to
the farmer than if the whole surface
were cultivated; but stock must be
excluded from these woods, and their
forest conditions must be restored and |
maintained. Then fertility will crown
us with plenty, and the increasing
floods will be avoided.-D. s. Mar
Vin in R1raL Neag Yorker.