The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-11-05

do to check indiscriminate and murder
Gus destruction, to encourage fores
husbandry, to disseminate the literature
of forestry and awaken an interest il
the subject it will be wise and states
manlike to do, regarding the matter il
its purely material aspect-only one
and in some respects the least, of its
many phases.
The solicitude of the state should
not be exhausted on its existing for
ests. There are hundreds of thousands
of acres of waste lands in the state
made waste by the recklessness OF
shortsightedness of former generations
of forest destroyers. These lands are
worn-out pastures overrun with brakes
and weeds, rough rocky hillsides OF
SUBMITS and mountain declivities
grown up to sumac, brush and briers
sandy slopes and plains, the former
home of extinct pine forests ant
swamps or marshes, once the sites OF
luxuriant growths of cedar and tama
rack. The cutting of the forests which
once covered these bleak and inhospit
able hillsides and mountain slopes may
have yielded temporary financial adj
vantage, but the latter effect is last
ing, if not irreparable, injury to the
state. The reclamation of these waste
lands is one of the material problems
with which the state should be con.
cerned. Other communities have solved
the problem by clothing similar wastes
with forest growth. For this purpose
the European larch has been largely
used. 1t is native of central Europe
especially the Alps, and is near rela.
tive to the tamarack or American larch
1t is cultivated both as an ornamental
and timber tree, of remarkably rapid
growth and great durability. The
houses of Venice, it is said, are built on
larch piles, many of which though in
use for centuries show no signs OF
decay" "For out-of-door work it is
the most durable of all descriptions OF
wood" Larch posts have been known
to stand for nearly fifty years. The
dukes of Athol in Scotland have planted
more than twenty-seven million larches
occupying over sixteen thousand acres
Land in Scotland clearing matured
crops of larches has been sold for from
$3.50 to $4,000 an acre when the land
was originally worth only from 50 to
"a an acre." Some plantations have
been set in the western states. A
native of the Alps and Apprentices and
fourishing in Scotland, it should feel at
home in the rugged ravines and on the
rough hillsides of Vermont. Hundreds
of thousands of acres of sandy barrens
along the coasts of France have been
reclaimed by tree planting. Fine forests
of pine are waving to-day where less
than century ago there were reaches of
sterile sand and they are source of
revenue to the government, by whose
fostering care they were planted and
protected. Thousands of acres of sandy
barrens on Cape Cod, in Connecticut
and in New Jersey, have been reclaimed
by process similar to that employed in
France. The seed of the pitch or Scotch
pine are planted very much like corn
and forests raised in about twenty-five
years. Lands which could be bought
for from about twenty-five cents to fifty
cents an acre, have been sold for
from $40 to $40 an acre after a crop of
pine has been well started. Scores of
individual instances are cited of well
attested success from living persons
still engaged in Embarrassing on these
sterile tracts. 1t is not attended with
appreciate expense, and it would
seem as if the success achieved else
where in New England would warrant
and should encourage similar expert
ments in Vermont. Forest husbandry
and the recuperation of lands valueless
except for timber culture afford fine
field for the display of practical states
manship. The matter is of vastly
greater consequence to the present and
future welfare of the state than many
things which so deeply engross the
attention of people and government.