The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1917-01-12
IMPROVES THREE THOUSAND
ACRES.
Great Acreage i'm 1916 Put Under
Bettcr-Paying Management by
Board of Forestry.

Some three thousand acres of pri-
Vate forests and WoOdlots in this
State are going TO be in better grow
ing condition in 1917 than they have
been in 1916, or for very many years
before, in fact. 1t has just been learn
ed from the office of the State For
ester that the foregoing represents
approximately the area of State-im-
proved, but privately owned, lands
which have been given thorough ex-
pert treatment by the States for
esters during the past twelve months,
and put in condition of actual and
financial productivity which will show
immediate returns, and source Of
future revenues by no means small.
This woodlot Improvement work
has been going on with accumulative
force for practically eleven years
The first year, back in 1906, when
State Forestry was only lusty be-
ginner, a little of it was done; a lit
tie more of it was done in each year
following until the area of wooded
lands put on a better-paying basis by
the Board of Forestry is numbered by
the thousand-acres. Each years i'm
petus goes on to the next, for new
work is constantly brought to the
fore through preliminary eXamina-
lions made by the State Forester or
an Assistant to determine if possible
just what must be done for individual
bodies of woodland il they are
promptly to be returned to the
healthy, growing condition for which
they were intended, and from which
they have steadily been getting far
Their through unwise cutting and cas-
ual care. Tracts given the prelimt-
nary examination, as it is called,
numbered in 1916 not far from 40, on
some of them work needed and there
fore recommended has already been
done by the State, on it's cooperative
terms of less than cost. On the 9TH
ers, if active improvement work is
needed, it will be given them as
speedily as possible, and nothing
neglected that it is possible for the
Board itself to do.
Such practical activities, important
as they are, do not by any means
comprise the full scope of the Board
Of Forestry's field of work. Forest
fires, at one time a source of incalcu-
liable damage and loss to forests and
forest owners, have been consistently
reduced, and plans are mapped out
for their further prevention and most
efficient control through 1917. No
one who has been witness to the pro-
gress which State Forestry has made,
already, doubts that these plans will
mature, and everything possible done
to safeguard the forest resources of
the State. 1t is unfortunate that they
must constantly be so protected from
human carelessnesS.
Investigations in the field of forest
uses have been undertaken and COM
pleted, and it is intended to promptly
give them to the public in the shape
of yield and volume tables for Mary
land forests and the individual trees
that make them up; practical Wood
Waste Exchange and report Of Mary
land wood-using industries for the
benefit Of producers and consumers,
and the cutting down Of unnecessary
waste by way of better methods; and
a report upon the local opportunities
for willow culture, with a brief re-
sumo of what has already been done
in this field, with the additional en-
enlargement afforded the osier grow
er by the European war.