The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-04-27
FOREST CULTIVATION.
An Interesting and Timely In
terview with Prof. Smock,
the State Geologist.

of the possibilities of forest cultivation as g.
productive branch of industry in this State.
After a little demur the Preseason consented,
and said:-
ssThere is q more rapidly increasing use OF
lumber for constructive purposes as the
wealth of the country is augmented. The
extension of railways, both electric and
steam, the deepening mines, the new tele-
graph line, arc all large consumers OF wood.
The wants of more wealthy and more highly
civilized communities in the old settled parts
Of the county call for more lumber OF value
in the arts, especially for interior decoration
and finish and for furniture. The demand
for the hard woods of certain kinds has well
nigh exhausted the supply in all our Eastern
and Central belts of States. For white wood,
wild cherry and black walnut, dealers
have to go to the far Southwest and
there to pay high prices. Recourse IS had
to kinds not at all used In past decades, so
that there is scarcely any variety or species
for which there is not now a demand. The
wood pulp mills, for example, are eating
their way into the more inaccessible forest
ed districts. The white pine is we'll nigh
gone from our Eastern States. The spruce
is being rapidly consumed. Whereyer
transportation facilities are at all easy and
not too expensive, wood is being cut for
1uCl. LII gAO OIL cas- nus
only the more distan5 districts in wood, even
as fuel. Were the black walnut and white
wood of some of our Central States still
standing, as, for instance, in Indiana, the
value would be much greater than the
aggregate value of all of their farm ands.
The same generalization is applicable to the
white pine districts of the Eastern States.
These forests nave disappeared forever, I'M
less they be restored by man.
IS WOOD A PROFITABLE CROP?
"In New Jersey the timber cut from some
districts would today be worth more than
the farm land hat has replaced the forest.
This is particularly true of the central and
southern central parts of the State. The
question naturally arises, can timber be pro-
duced profitably, or is wood a profitable
crops The answer is dependent upon loca-
ton with reference to market, accessibility,
lines of transportation and kind and ma
turity or size of wood, and therefore it is
not constant or uniform throughout large
areas of country. The same is true, how
ever, of all products, and wood IS not, there
fore, an exception to the rule governing the
products Of the soil.
1T must further be borne in mind that
wood as a crop which is harvested today is
not thai which has received much attention
or care, but the natural crop. Under care
full management the aggregate for any given
area is capable of being increased largely.
I16I6 COllltS Ill Uu0 duN ctluIACo u PAOROA
mangement-true forest culture, or timber
culture as it may be termed. The natural
growth is generally all cut at once, and the
income from the ground is at the end. I'm
der careful forest control or care there may
be much iudicious trimming and cutting by
selection, and the returns received III this
way exceed the cost of management and con-
troll and be credited to the total income,
thereby swelling at the end the aggregate
received through a term of years or the life
period of the forest.
ssThat timber is the most profitable crop,
and that our land ought to be allowed to re-
vert to forested conditions, is an unfair gen
eralization, due to o~ft-repeated n i'll
digested statements. The rich farm lands
of the world are not likely to be given again
to tree-growing for timber or voc alone.
AS a rule the cleared lands in farms in our
country are to remain cleared and to con-
tinue to be pastures or fields for cropping.
The subject OF forestry suggests the parts OF
every farm and district of country which
are unsuited to tillage or pasturage, as the
ground On which to raise wood. h
where the lodges of rock make tillage
almost impossible, the steep side hills
liable to washes and outlying and loss of
soil, the ravines where cultivation is inn
practicable, and the thin and poor soils
improvement or enrichment is expen-
sive for practical farming, are the lands to
which our attention should be turned. They
ought not to be included in the fields of the
farm or be considered as arabic territory.
They are the domain for wood and their
utilization as woods lots, planted or cared
for i~nteligently, means the addition of so
much productive land in the country. 1t
means also enough land reserved for forest
to protect our hillsides against torrential i'll
effect, to afford a proper percentage
~ a1,a IN fnrdof tn nOT1cO1sUa
climatic features. to protect our streams
in their purity and afford TO some de-
gree natural reservoirs for more equable
flows of waters of these streams and to sup
ply. in part the demand for wood. 1t must
be remembered also that these hillsides and
ravines may produce as much wood as the
best arable lands in the SAME neighborhood
or farm. And these lands, almost valueless
for farm uses, are those which are to be con-
sidered in relation to the subject of timber
growing for profit.
STATISTICS OF WOOD CULTURE.
GAS was said at the outset. there are few
or no examples of forest culture in our
country. What are here given are statis-
tics of wood cutting-the crop which can
be credited to the soil in wood naturally.
81. Cultivation of the locust tree in Mon
mouth county.
IA grove near Holmdel, thirty-six to
thirty-eight years old, cutting off about
twenty years, when fencing timber was
more expensive than it is now and prices
were high, averaged 1000 fence posts to the
acre, and bringing $l,200.
.sOn another farm in the township of At
lantic and near Holmdel, the waste land of
the gullies was planted with scattering trees
between 1918 and 1885. These trees were cut
iii the decade of 1S60-70, and produced fene-
ing timber sufficient for the farm, N the
sales in addition to those used at home
to over $1,000. All of his cutting
was from ground which could not be cHlti-
waited with profit. The land thus set with
locust is now covered with a thick growth
trees, thirty feet in height and growing
This second growth will soon be as
valuable as the best of the first growth. and
will yield at the rate of $1,000 per acre at
prices.
GA farm near Middletown, Monmouth
county, has a grove of twenty acres in locust,
but this planting was made on tillable and
s.Chestnut timber is valuable on account
of its rapid growth to size for cutting, and
the amount of such timber to be had from
an acre. For telegraph poles and for fenc<
ing there is a demand. Chestnut timber
sells at $40 to $50 an acre for a growth of
thirty years, but in many cases much larger |
returns are had, particularly in the south
of the State.
saThe white oak is so much slower growing |
it is impossible to refer to cases of sec
ond growth or of cutting over lands allowed
to grow up in this wood. Generally the
oaks and chestut are found growing to-
A sale of timber in MiddIesex
is reported which yielded at the rate |
of $3.50 profit per acre to the purchaser. |
Sales at the rate of 500 per acre are COM |
and some are known where the yield /
amounted to $500 per acre, but they were
l.-.tA xx-Lf4ta L,1 L. |