The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1912-02-26
CURRENT COMMENT
Forestry and Farming For "Greater
Vermont"

! Some of us have been accustomed to
| lock to the summer visitor or some 9TH
err extraneous influence to impart to us
that "jolt," which we imagined would
| help us to realize Greater Vermont"
Others of MS have longed for the adj
vent of foreign capital TO help us de-
velop our natural resources, oblivious
of the fact that millions of our own
capital which ought to be encouraged
to help develop our farms and to start
industries and to improve our water
power, is now helping to do these very
things for other sections Of the country
at the expense OF many of the flower of
our youth.
We are now suddenly discovering that
we have the remedies for most of our
Ills, and the means Of supplying most of
our needs in our own hands.
We quoted President Theodore n.
Vail in a recent issue to show how,
for the development of Vermont, the
headwaters of our streams should be
conserved through reforestation, and how
our soil should be made to produce
more abundant harvests.
Yesterday at the annual meeting of
the Forestry Association of Vermont,
there were developed number of facts
which serve to show that the farmers
of Vermont must wake up to their
own interests, and seriously as well as
promptly, tackle the various problems
confronting them.
Commissioner of Agriculture o. l..
Martin announced that he had just re-
ceived word from Windham county of
the collection of less than ten bushels
of nests of ;he dread brown tail moth,
which, if allowed to hatch, would have
meant millions of moths set loose in
Vermont.
This is one of the problems which
must be promptly taken up by the leg
islature the coming autumn and made
the object of larger appropriations for
warfare against the pest, for it will
be much less expensive to guard against
it than it will be to exterminate it. In
the meantime the department of agri-
culture will spare no expense in the eff
fort to collect these nests wherever
traces of them are discovered and farm
e-s who find nests ensconced in curled
leaves should promptly notify the de-
partment of agriculture or the depart
ment of forestry.
This is one direction in which the ex-
penditure of a thousand dollars this year
may save hundreds of thousands of dol
lars. Massachusetts, has made enormous
appropriations for this purpose; New
Hampshire is already fighting the pest,
and it is coming in upon us from the
east as well as from the south.
President Allen NJ Fletcher of the
Forestry association said that in his
estimation one of the best ways to carry
out the practical suggestion OF Mr.. Vail
would be to secure certain extent of
land near the headwaters each year,
making a small appropriation for this
purpose. 1t was developed that the In
ternational Paper company figure upon
an average annual income of six per
cent. upon land on which young trees
have started to grow, and which can be
purchased in the vicinity of five dollars
an acre. This is another practical way
in which the farmers of Vermont can
come to their own rescue.
It should not be inferred from this
that the forestry department of Yer.
mont is without income from its invest
ments. for in number of instances it !
has sold timber in the shape of trees
that needed to be thnned out or that
for various reasons needed to be taken |
out of the forests making some tracts |
If Vermont is to reap
the fullest possible benefit in this d. |
rection, it must gradually extend its !
forestry work, for this development can
not all be accomplished at once, and !
the appropriations must necessarily be |
small. owing to the multitude of calls /
upon the state exchequer
Forestry has made splendid progress
in Vermont since it was first taken up 4
eight years or 50 ago. when an appro- /
priation Of the tremendous proportions |
of $500 was made to start the depart |
ment.
To-day the announcement is made by |
State Forester HAYES that over two I
hundred different individuals in Vermont /
have bought trees for planting from our
forestry department, and as soon as our
farmers realize that many Of their waste