The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-09

HuCuOOs EOlOou pubChOiJ 10 icbO vi
pioneer barbarism, and there are COM
panies and individuals who still cling TO
bsrbarous and mercenary antipathy to a
growing tree and to forests. The only
thing, in their eyes, for which trees are fit
is to be cut down and converted into cord
wood or lumber. Whole tracts of country
are being skinned by these mercenaries,
left prey tossweeping fires and to briers
and useless brush. Forest preservation
and timber farming are subjects of serious
study, and should become the subjects of
more serious attention, for many reasons
very intimately affecting the material and
physical welfare of the country. THE
WAToHMAN has occasionally called atten-
ton to this matter, and, as time goes on,
forest preservation and culture must more
and more become one of the great eco
nomic questions for the consideration of
states and of the nation. The article in
question was taken from an exchange, the
name of which we regret to say we have
| lOSI. LII IL as lOllOWb
ain the West are large forests not
much injured by the axe, and in the Mid
die and Western States many farms have
wood lots of fair area, in which large and
valuable trees are growing but most of
these are being thinned out, while in
many cases the land is being cleared of
every vestige of timber, in an insane de-
sire to add to the acreage of plowed land
Even in the older states something of this
is seen. Within week the writer has
seen in Central New York men busy in
cutting thrifty naples, birches, ashes,
cherries and other trees, sound and of fair
age, that the logs might go to mill and
the land be used for growing costly crops.
The theory was that this land will pro-
duce better crops than can be grown on
the old, worn-out soil; and the fact is that
the logs are worth from five to twenty
dollars per thousand feet at the saw-mill.
Once this very land was covered with
bird's.eye maple, wildwood, ash and lin
den trees, which would to-day readily sell
for twenty dollars per thousand feet; but
the noble great trees were burned by the
thousands that the land might be cleared
for cultivation. 1t would be moderate
estimate which would place the yield per
acre of such timber at twenty-five thou
sand feet. At half the price the logs are
now worth, an acre of such timber would
be worth $3.50; but the land itself, 6 inn
proved they call it, is worth less than one
quarter that sum. Of course it seemed to
be necessary, half century ago, to de-
stroy that timber that room might be
made for growing food for the people
who did not know that nature had left
enough cleared land ready for the pillow,
and wonderfully fertile, in the West, to
furnish food for all the people of America,
and more. But this generation has the
experience of two or three hundred years
to guide it, and surely should be able, in
the light of that experience, to avoid the
more serious errors which have been
made. Yet it has gone eagerly along in
the paths followed by the pioneers, and
while it may not destroy as many trees by
burning them on the land, it is sending
the larger ones away in the form of fuel
or of lumber, and destroying the smaller
ones. The work of destruction is going
on in several states, particularly in Mich.
gan, Wisconsin and Missouri. To-day
the timber on those lands is worth more
than the ground it stands on will sell fol
when the trees are gone. Ten years hence
the timber will more than have doubled
in value, if the population and the needs
of the country continue to increase in the
ratio of growth of the last ten years
Shrewd capitalists see that the future
will make timber lands more profitable
than almost any others and they art
quietly and quickly buying good timbered
lands in large blocks, especially in the
South. For the country this is for
tunate, as these men will not repeat the
} folly of past decades by destroying thu
| forests. They clearly understand that nj
crops they could produce on their land
: would give greater return, orrequire les
labor, expense, and care, than will thu
timber which is indigenous. They hav'
! only to guard their property from timbe
, thieves, and cut out few of the larges
and best of their trees where they are
crowding the younger ones, and thus eacl
year get very liberal interest upon thei
investment. Meantime the soil upol
: which the timber stands increases il
-. value, while each year adds to the marke
|. value of the timber it produces.
3 there nothing in these facts of inter
, est to the general farmer? Is not tn
8 fact that single walnut, or ash, O
t maple, may be worth more as it stand
:, than an acre of the ground it stands or
!. suggestive of better plan than tina
n so generally followed by landowners i
= the timbered states? Is it not true tha
n timber-culture can be made one of tn
8 most profitable of all branches of farming