Norwich bulletin., 1912-05-22
CONNECTICUT FORESTS,
Government Bulletin Full of ussfuT'
 Information on the Subject.
(special to The Bulletin )


 ests. Not only have they yielded a : great and increasing quantity of rail road ties. telephone and telegraph { poles, lumber, and other products, but indirectly they have been perhaps the chief factor in the success of some ot the states most valuable industries. One of these brass manufacturer, owes its present supremacy largely TO the cheap, abundant and constant sup ply of wood fuel. Lime and charcoal burning, brick manufacture, and other important industries have in like man ner profted from the forest. An i'm mense amount of firewood is used an nually for household consumption.
 Compared with the production of fuel wood, the lumber output of Con necticut is remarkably small. Thus, In 1908, while the lumber cut amount ed to 137, 1855, ,0e0 board feet valued at s2,S52,1S6, the total freWood consump- tiOn in the state was estimated al 495,S70 cords, which, at an average price of s445 per cord, had value Ot S2,204,S Assuming two cords to the 1000 board feet-a conservative equiv alent-the fuel wood consumption IS comparable to a lumber cut of AL 685 eco board feet It is thus appar- ent that while the cord wood cut was
  lumber cut, its actual value was about six and one half per cent. less. The drain upon the forest for cord wood IS far in excess of that for all other pur- poses combined.
 It is not, however, in the mere quan- tity of wood removed that this drain is most serious Almost all of the cord wood cut consists of small and rapidly growing trees, of relatively small present worth. but capable or | furnishing within comparatively few years, poles, lumber or other products | of greater value than cord wood or 1 even than ties. Disregard of this po- 1 tential value of the forest inevitably results in wastefu use and depriyes | state and owner of the just returns on ! their woodland investments.
 | Connecticut, like most of the other northeastern states, imports much the greater part of its lumber The sources from which this is obtained are themselves rapidly becoming de- pleted, and with the advancing lumber prices which mark this decline the home production of lumber will in crease in attractiveness to timberland owners.
 The productive capacity and conse- quently the value of Connecticut for ests are fully described in the bulletin
 Even-aged hardwoods may be termed the characteristic forest of Connecti- cut. These types are, from the stand point of forestry, al once the mos valuable and the most interesting II the state. From them all but a smal portion of Connecticut's domestic wO0C supply is obtained. The tree of al
 others which has contributed to thii | rpp1uptior ig E'11liV pnp- ll9
 of the standing timber in Connection
 is of this species. Chestnut is practi
 cally the only tree in the state uset
 for telephone and telegraph poles;
 furnishes the greater supply of rail
 road ties and is the principal sourc
 of firewood Next to it in impOrtanc
 are the oaks principally the blacl
 oaks Among the other species, whic
 are less abundant are the hiekorj
 red maple, white ash, and, of less i'm
 portance, aspen cherry, butternut an bassWood. The value and, in fact, tn } very existence of second growth hard } wood stands depend largely upon tn
 prolific sprouting capacity of the spe
 cies which compose them. Much C
 the greater part of the present Con . necticut forests originated fror sprouts. This is particularly true . chestnut Indeed there is reason believe that the amount of chestnu
 in Connecticut has increased sine : cutting began, chiefly through it's pro l digious sprouting capacity combine with it's rapid growth.
 The average WOOdlot owner in Con
 necticut says the bulletin, has only
 vague idea of the actual value Of m |, timber. His sales are usually mad : "by the lot" and he receives a lum a sum for all the timber on a given are ' with little regard to the exact amour i and value of the different product
 obtainable Not only are both own'
 and purchaser in many cases ignoraI , of even the approximate yield per acr
 but they fail to consider probable e1
 pense of logging and manufacture ( striking example of loss to the oWn'
 which maybe entailed by such hal d hazard methods is that of a sale s or eight years ago of Tot" of virg
 hardwoods for $2000. The purchas'
 cut from it white oak which brougl
 him &2,000 held the land four or ii' O wears. and finally sold it for 5000 y Doubtless this is an extreme case. bl Il there are many which, while not Il Il VolVing as large an amount of pro o and loss, have yet failed to net u = owner anything like the true value ' his timber.
 The amount of lumber brought in
 the state annually Is shown by u e tables in the bulletin to have great e exceeded the annual cut of the sta e itself. Yellow pine from the sout T. cedar and fir from the Pacific coal d white pine and spruce from northe II New England form the bulk of t n imports, although considerat -i amount of hardwoods, including ches
 nut and oak. is also brought in.
 In 1909, the lumber cut of Connect i- cut exceeded that for any previo n year for which there is record. Y l. total cut is shown to have been 16s m S71 900 board feet, of which l24,122.0 n was hardwoods and 44,249,0O0 sol ' woods. Chestnut comprised over le per cent of the cut of hardwoods al n oyer 20 per cent. of the total, the tot v cut of chestnut being 77,604,0OO boa -o feet.
 The Bulletin is illustrated with
 number of half-tones made from ph
 tographs taken in different parts of
 state. most of them, however, made ,+ the timber between Waterbury a
 West Cheshire.
 . i 0NcTEP HRNWFpS