St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-01-04
FORESTRY IN VERMONT.
Work Making Rapid Progress on the
Estate Presented by Charles

ed creating State Forestry Depart
ment. AS it was a piece of legisla-
ton having the hearty approval of
the people of the state, the depart
ment came into being strong and full
hedged in its every essential detail
The state authorities looked about
for department head and found
him in Professor Austin r. Halves,
of Connecticut, who knows how to
scale log, to measure a pile of
wood and thin out young growth
of trees.
Once installed as State Forester,
Professor Halves, well backed by the
state authorities, began the work
of providing the means for forest
tree planting, for demonstration
work in the care and cutting of
woodlands and in all else pertaining
to the subject. To increase the
efficiency of the department the
state early in 1909 bought tract
of forest land in the town of Plain
field, near Montpelier, and placed
Department. Scarcely had work be-
gun in earnest on the Plainfeld
tract ere the state in the town of
of gift of an estate in the town of
Sharon for forestry work and ex-
Fermentation for demonstration in
apple orchards and for experimental
vegetable growing; this last under
the direction of the Department of
Horticulture of the State Agricul-
tura1 College.
The gift was absolutely without
condition, requirement or exaction,
and was promptly accepted by the
state and was placed in the care of
the forestry department. The
opening spring of 1910 saw the plans
for it's workings set in operation, and
already these have attained to large
and important proportions.
The donor of the estate was
Charles Downer, a native son of
Sharon, a graduate of Harvard Uni
versity, class of 80, and of it's Law
School of 1892. Mr.. Downer has
retained his residence in Vermont,
and it's people hope he will ever re-
main one of it's citizens.
To the estate he gave to Vermont
has been given the name of the
Charles Downer State Forest. It
contains in excess of three hundred
acres, of which eighty acres are valu-
able, mature wood land; fifty acres
are til1age land that is in a fine
state of cultivation and easy to
work; one hundred and fifty acres
are in pasture, five in twenty-year-
old apple orchard, which area will
be considerably increased, and there
are fifteen acres of swamp. A large
part of the present pasturage area
will be planted to forest trees, the
present plan contemplating the set
ting out of 143,157 of such trees.
Included in the species and varieties
to be planted are white, red,
Scotch and Austrian pine, Norway,
Adirondack and white spruce, bal
sam and red fir, European larcn,
arborital, black locust, black wal
nut, white ash, red oak,
Eastwood and hemlock. Of the
above the white and red pine, the
white spruce, the white ash, red
indigenous to the White River Val
ley Tin which is Sharon) section of
Vermont. The others named are in
troduced trees. White spruce, while
common in other sections of YER
Z mont, is not so in this locality for
the entire White River Valley opens
to the sun in a southeasterly slope
and is as warm and early as are
sections of even southern New Eng
land. The Indian of the
river and valley was Cascadnac,
much used by the people in the val
ley towns as a title to associations,
hotels, estates and the like, just as
Manhattan is in New York and
ShaWmut in Boston.
The waters of the White River and
all it's tributary brooks and rivulets
are of crystalline Wilderness; so
much so that one standing on the
bank of the river can see the m1nut-
est pebble from shore to shore
though the width is more than two
ic a q
of the white and crimson cloverS,
which grow in every nook and cor
ner. Of the trees native to the valley
the rock or sugar maple heads the
list There is no need to plant it on
the Charles Downer State Forest or
elsewhere in this valley, for it
springs up everywhere with the dem
sity of grass in well kept field. The
white ash, red oak, Eastwood, hem
lock, and the canoe-not the gray
birch grow in profusion. The black
introduced tree, but it is to be plant
ed on the state forest, with a view of
ascertaining it's adaptability to Yer
mont lands and it's value in COM
| merce and agriculture. AS to the
black walnut, which it is proposed
also to give a trial on the state
forest, there will be naturally much
interest as to the outcome of its
tests. 1t is rarely if ever seen in
Vermont, even as an introduced tree,
but as such it grows to large size
in Central Massachusetts,.
In the last spring the following
trees were planted on the state
forest: White pine, $4,000; red pine
1000; Scotch pine, 10000, and Nor
way spruce, 5000, or total of 34,-
| 600 trees AS soon as another
spring comes a goodly share of the
remaining 1O9,157 trees will be set
| Those planted the last spring made
in the season very satisfactory
| growth.
| In addition to the forest tree
! planting the state nursery at the
| Agricultural College in Burlington
| maintains a branch nursery at the
| Downer State Forest, and in this are
| today some two hundred thousand
seedlings, number designed to be
| greatly increased next spring; sc
| that eventually the nursery will be
| able to supply land owners In