The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-06-09
WILL
FAR REACHING
Middlebury College, State
and United States I'm
proving Lands
MANY THOUSANDS
OF TREES PLANTED
Plans Under Way for Better Protec-
ton of Mountain Lands by Patrol
men-Trail TO Cancels Hump to Be
Improved This Summer.

| 1t is seldom that the will of Yer
mont man has had as far-reaching an
| influence as that of the late Col Joseph
Battell of Middlebury For many
| years he had been collecting wild
/ lands, much as a school boy collects
| postage stamps, and, like some stamps
collected only from sentiment, many
of these tracts have become very val
liable owing to the growing scarcity of
timber. These large holdings have now
been divided through gift and bequest
among Middlebury college, the state of
/ Vermont, and the United States gov
i eminent.
Some three or four years ago Col
Battell gave to the state a tract COM
lprising' about 1900 acres on Camel s
| Hump, including the summit which has
an elevation of over 1000 feet. The
western slope of this mountain, con-
tanned in the gift, is covered with first
class spruce timber, and its preserva-
tion by the state will assure the con-
tinuance of the mountain as a point of
interest. Even now the camp kept at
the top by the Camel s Hump club of
Waterbury is annually visited by full
ly 1000 people. The eastern slope of
the mountain, situated mostly in the
town of Duxbury, was badly burned
over in 1908, shortly after numbering.
There is here one of the largest tracts
| of waste land in the state. Two years
ago the state forestry department
planted few acres of this brush land
| with spruce and pine. The success OF
the experiment has been so encouraging
that the work has been continued this
year, and 10000 Norway spruce have
| been planted on this area during the
| past few weeks. A crew of p meI
were camped about half way up til,
mountain in tents furnished by thu
state militia. These together with thu
trees had to be taken up by OK teams
as the wood roads are too rough 70
II horses During the summer a man vii
| be kept on the mountain looking on
for fires. improving the trail. etc.
II That the lands left to Middlebur,
II college are also to be conserved is wei
shown by the beginnings already mad
II by the executors of the estate, Presi
| dent John M. Thomas and Mr.. Bovce
II In a large holding of 10000 acres Their
are naturally many small openings nm
fit for agriculture. With the advice o
the state forestry department the eS
ecutors have adopted the policy of re
foresting sueh areas and have jus
completed the planting of about $500
trees. both pine and spruce, raised III
der the direction of Prof. Lambert o
Middlebury college. Plans are ais
under way for the better protection o
the mountain lands from fire by tn
, construction of the telephone lines an
the employment of patrolmen in cC
operation with the state forester.
The lands left by Col. Battell to tn
United States government include Lii
i coin mountain, or Ellen mountain, q
. he called it because of his admiratio
for Ellen s Isle in Scotland. This
one of the finest mountains of the stat
and one which well deserves MOI
ed visits than it receives. The state TO
e. estry department will shortly make a
n examination of these lands at the T
S quest of the United States forestr
service. A report will be made to Ii
as government as to the location of Ii
he lands, the character of the timber upo
an them, their accessibility by roads, ct
lis Upon this report the government wi
ry probably base its policy of manag
en- ment