The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1908-02-13
Abandoned Farms Are Becom-
ing Woodlands as Result
of Forestry Efforts.

Forests are creeping back over
abandoned farms in many parts OF
the east. When wornout fields can
no longer produce agricultural crops.
nature takes them back and clothes
them with trees again to give them
shade and rest, and slowly restore
fertility to the soil. This is more in ev
idence in the first settled parts OF
Virginia perhaps than any where
else in the country for the reason
that a longer time has passed since
the original forests were cleared and
the second growth has had better
opportunity to take the land.
In James City County, Virginia, the
first permanent English colony in the
United States was established three
hundred years ago, and in that old
county the whole cycle of eforestation
and re-forestatlon may be studied.
The threads OF American history lead
back to the beginning at jamestown.
in 1907 when not a,rorest tree had
fallen beneath the white mans ak
Agriculture for long period push
ed the forests back and plantations
covered the country; then the forests
came again and crowded agriculture
out. A hundred years before the
Revolution tobacco plantations oc-
cupied the hest parts of tidewater
Virginia and had pushed up the
rivers into the Piedmont region.
Continuous bodies of cleared land
embraced thousands of acres. Near
ly every large plantation had a river
frontage and a wharf, and ships car
ried the tobacco directly to Europe
and brought merchandise back. It
would be difficult, perhaps impossible,
to determine with approximate accu-
racy the proportion of clear land to
the forests in tidewater Virginia fifty
years before the Revolution, but
there can be no doubt that there was
mare cleared land then than now.
Written and printed records relating
to the early history of that region
are fragmentary and hard to find,
but the encroaehing forests of second
growth furnish record the truth
of which none can dispute.
Many great Virginia plantations
of colonial times have contracted I'M
der the pressure of surrounding for
ests giving up field after field to the
pine seedlings, until small openings
now make the sites of former es-
tates, and all else is woods-second
growth or third growth. The early
settlers found a soil of great fertility
They drew upon It as though 1t would
last forever. 1t yielded tobacco and
corn for generations, and made for
tunes for the planters. But the re-
suit was Inevitable. The soil wore
out. A few patches of land are point
ed out in James City County, and also
in nearby districts, which have been
under continuous cultivation for
nearly or quite three hundred years
Jamestown Island, the site OF the
very earliest settlement, still produces
corn, hay and peanuts. But such
places are few. The majority of the
Oldest plantations have partly or
wholly gone back to forests.
Few, II any. of the primeval forests
remain in tidewater Virginia, but
large trees of second growth exist
A sycamore more than two hundred
years old, and known to be OF sec
ond growth, was cut this year on the
site OF building burned during Ba-
cons Rebellion of 1876, and many
other trees as large are growing
where tobacco was cultivated two
centuries ago. The forest in its hun
ger to occupy again is no respecter
of historical PAGES. 1t is slowly TAX
ing the entertainments at Yorktown
where the British made their last
stand, and the tablet marking the
very spot where General o'Hara sur
rendered the sword OF CORVALLIS
then an open field, would soon be in
visible If the AK were not frequently
called into use to clear away the
encroachlng woods.
Until recently the Ioblo1ly plne.was
looked upon as almost worthless for
lumber The trunk is mostly sap
wood, subject to quick decay. In
clearing loblolly land the wood which
could not be disposed of for fuel, was
usually burned on the ground. Re
Gently, however. a new value has
been given to that neglected timber
Experiments and tests by the United
States Forest Service show that many
neglected woods may be treated with
creosote and other preservatives, and
be rendered immune to decay for
many years. Loblolly pine yields to
the treatment in the most satisfactory
manner. A wide field OF usefulness
is open to it. The burning loblolly
log heap will soon be a thing OF the
past. The preservative treatment,
which is cheap and not difficult,
makes this wood suitable for cross
ties, mine timbers, telephone poles.
piling, and many other purposes.
Business men have quickly seen
possibilities for this old field pine A