The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-12-02
LECTURED ON FORESTRY.
State Forester HAYES Presented I'm.
Portant Subject In Interesting
Light Before Large Audience.

OJdle fOIeSteI AuSllu II lldMcSi VI
Burlington, delivered very plthy
and interesting lecture on forestry
before a large audience in Kellogg
Hubbard Library hall Tuesday night
under the auspices of the Study Club.
The size of the audience, in fact, was
highly satisfactory and a distinct
compliment to the work which Mr..
Halves represents. The speaker was
very ably introduced by Mrs. Robert
Bliss, of the club, and gave, with the
assistance of Col. A. G. Browns stere-
optican, operated by B. E. Buzzell with
very handsome set of slides, sum-
mary of the chief and most important
phases of forestry work as 1t is now
treated.
The first aim of the forester is to
perpetuate forestry. If timber is
wasted with prodigal hand, lumber
will be scarce shortly. This country
will cut none for export, putting the
AK into only that which we ourselves
consume and prices will, naturally,
be as alarmingly high as European
prices are today. The second aim is
to make forestry more profitable,
more satisfactory a source of income
to the farmer and lumberman; third,
to preserve the water supply and
employ the forests for water storage
and to prevent drouth; and fourth,
phase which embodies less of the
commercial aspect and more of the
distinctly aesthetic, to preserve and
enhance the beauty of the forests as
health and pleasure resorts.
The difference between the lumber
man and the forester is that the
| former gets the most that he can of
his yield today with no thought for
tomorrow while the forester works
constantly with an eye toward the
yield ten years, twenty, or thirty
years to come and employs his AK
to the purpose of gaining the largest
yield possible for the longest possible
| period of years. The custom of cut
! ting trees recklessly and fearlessly
and leaving the tops on the ground
chokes new growth, supplies finder
for forest fires, which more than any
other phase of the forestry question
except, perhaps, that of the length
of time necessary to develop a for
est discourage the average student
of trees. 1t is the aim to secure a
harvest from the second growth with
out planting and to apply tried meth.
DDS of forestry toward the secure.
ment of a higher quality of lumber
and more abundant timber.
The improvement of the forest re.
gions by thinning is as important as
is wedding in other agricultural pur-
suits and pays more satisfactorily
for the reason that weeds are waste
but the superfluous timber, judicially
thinned out, can be easily marketed
in most instances.
The trees must have sun and elbow
room as most any growing thing anG
overcrowded dense forests are many
times less productive of large re-
suits than are well thinned, carefully
pruned regions.
Vermont has over one Thousand
abandoned farms or waste lands
which ought to be yielding profits al
forest presentations. Last spring
the State nursery at Burlington sen
out about 100000 seedlings to the
counties of the State and the result.
are being watched closely. Only
per cent have died.
Forester Halves dwelt upon the re
cent purchase in Plainfield of a mum
Der of acres of land for a preser
walton, a purchase which he hoped
is but the beginning of a number O.
such purchases which will be put t.
the worthy employment of instruct
ing Vermonters in the utilization o.
every inch of available land for such
purposes. Hardly a farmer but has
some bit of waste land which coult
be thus profitably put to work Yer
mont stands above New Hampshire
and 18th among the States in setting
aside forest presentations.
1t was quite evident from the ma
ture of Mr.. Halves lecture last even
ing that Vermont possesses a wide
awake, energetic forester who is full
of the knowledge of Vermont and
the farmers opportunity in turning
even the most dreary stretch of waste
landto account. He preferred the ait
of the State department to every cit
izen interested in forestry subjects.
The Study Club is to be congratu
lated upon it's effort in securing &
speaker whose subject was intelli.
gently treated and of interest tc
even the casual student of forestry
in its numberless phases.
Members of the Study Club served
as ushers.