Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-03-08
vermont's Wealth in Her + orests


that any estimate of the wealth we
possess in them today will be valuable
tomorrow only as the record of condi-
tions already changed. However a
comparison of the condition of our for
ests today with those of 80 years ago,
shows conclusively that if we continue
our present method or lack of method
in dealing with them we shall in another
so years have few forests on which to
place a value.
Therefore question of far greater
Importance than the value of Vermont's
forests today is, what her forests are
to be in the future. And this suggests
both the extent and the quality of our
future forests and whether or not the
state and the individual or both are
warranted in attempting to preserve
their present and to increase their fu-
ture productive power.
There are two ways of increasing
production: To increase the forest
area by paintings, and to increase the
output of the original area by care in
management. Now, if man has an
acre in potatoes and wants a big crop
would it not be better policy for him
by careful cultivation TO make sure of
good crop on his first acre rather than
to neglect that acre and plant a second?
In other words it will pay the farmer to
resort to planting only in cases of
waste land which is not reproducing
itself by natural methods.
Some of the benefits to the state of
good forests are: Sources of useful
products, conservation of water, pro-
lection against erosion, increased abil-
ity of the soil to hold water, and these
benefits have been conceded to be of
sufficient Importance to warrant the
state in adopting an official policy of
forestry which provides for acquiring
and maintaining state forests and for
instructing Vermonters in forest man.
agement.
Let us then consider the benefits of a
good forest policy to Individual owners
If every farmer in the state felt salts
fled that in return for proper manage
ment his forest would assure him a
yearly revenue, how long would it take
him to decide on such policy? A great
majority of the forests in this state are
in farm woodlots. These woodots
should supply fire wood for the farm
and timber for repairing the buildings,
furnish wood or lumber to bring in a
little ready money annually and give
winter work to the farmers team.
Any natural woodlot of average or
reasonable size would, under proper
management, and if not already too
badly injured, make this return to the
farmer; for our soil is one in which the
reproduction of trees is natural and
rapid
The reason so many woodlots do not
now yield regular dividends is because
they have already been injured by in
discriminate and haphazard cutting
Two instances of extreme abuse have
come to my attention. Ten years ago
one lot had fair growth of maple and
beech with scattering old growth
spruce; there was an underground of
suppressed and scrubby hardwoods we'll
sprinkled with sprue seedlings. The
large hardwoods and spruce were cut;
some of the small spruce were cut be-
cause they were in the way and more
because the choppers thought they were
in the way, others were taken for
"bushing" roads and the rest for bank
ing houses. Last year the farmer
wanted cord wood to sell. He found
the scrubs so tangled in network of
hard wood sprouts that cutting was not
a paying proposition. The inevitable
result is that the land will be left idle
for 10 or Is years while the inferior
trees and the inferior sprouts battle
with each other, and after long period
without return, the farmer will have
a poor growth of hardwood. In this
case the much decried 'Iandskinning'
of the lumberman would have been
preferable, for it would have removed
the scrub hardwoods or forest weeds
and given the sprouts a chance.
Suppose the farmer, with an eye for
reproduction, had begun ten years ago by
cutting the scrub underground to market
as firewood, then year by year had
felled his hard and soft wood logs with
care not to disturb the growing spruce,
and sold them for profit; he would now
have left fair stand of second growth
spruce which if properly managed might
continue to yield yearly revenue.
Another instance of mis-management;
a Christmas tree dealer persuaded one
farmer to sell all spruce in two pastures
for 5000, using the argument that cut.
ting would clear and improve his
pasture. Now in the first place the