Putnam patriot., 1925-02-13
WASTE LAND CAN
 BE MADE VALUABLE
Planting Trees Would Boost Windharn County and Pro-
 duce Needed Timber
White Pine Suggested.-Neea not
 Fear Biistcr-Rusa


 In his address to the National Com ference on Utilization of Forest Pro duets. held st Washington. D. C.. No vember l9, 1924, President Coolidge said:
 ''The era Of free. wild timber is reaching its end. as the era of free. wild food ended so iang ago. We can ne longer depaBd an moving frem one primeval forest t5 another, for al ready the sound of the axe has pene- trated the last of them. We like to think that 1t took three centuries to harvest these immense forests. l. is comfortable Co believe that they will last indefinitely still. But in reality We have cut most of our timber. not in the past three hundred. but in the past seventy-fye year, Co serve the great expansion of popalation and in dustry. and there k no reason to ex- Dect a decline ia the rate of cutting as long as the forests last. We do not know the forest situation down to the last acre ard board foot. but we know it we'll enough to make Us think and act.
 End of Free Timber
 There Is nc easy road out of this improbable situation The end Of free timber is in sight. World cempe- tition for the world supply will leave no large dependable source of imports open to us. The use of substitutes hardly keeps pace with new uses for wood; there is no likelihood that We can become woodless nation even if we wanted to. When the free timber Is gone We must grow our wood from the soil like any other crop. Strange as 1t may seem. the American people, bred for many generations Co forest life, drawing no small measure of their wealth from the forest. have not yet acquired the sense Of timber as crop. These immense stretches of cut-over land. mostly too rough or too sterile for tilling. have not awakened us to their vast potential worth as growers of wood. Fully one-fourth of our land area ought to be kept in forest-not poor. dwindling thiekets of scrub. but forests of trees fit for bridges and houses and ships.
 Applies to Our County
 Although his speech was of nation- wide significance. what the President said is directly applicable to Windham County. There is an immense amount of waste and unimproeed land in the county which will and ought to be growing timber. and most of 1t is more suited to that purpose than to any other use. There k much cut-over land and second growth foreSt needing care and improvement in order to make 1t produce the largest amount and best quality timber.
 Improvement cuttings Tn second growth forest to remove poor trees and inferior species. and to stimulate the growth of the better trees. should be made. This work can be done in the winter when other work on the land is slack, and the wood cut may be used for fuel.
 Cost Is Slight
 Waste land can be planted at slight cost. and white pine k as good as any species Co plant, as it grows fast and produces large volume of timber on q given area. 1t should be tended as a crop by removing weevil-infeeted tips as soon as the weevil appears in late spring or early summer, and burn ing these tips. Trimmings should be made at proper intervals to remove the weaker trees and give the stronger proper space to grow to maturity.
 One need not hesitate to plant white pine from fear of the blister-rust dis ease, IS this disease can be controlled if land and timber owners will coop crate in removing entrants and goose berries, wild and cultivated. within pine growing sections. Boost Wind ham County in forestry as we'll as in other forms of interest.
 HERBERT J. MILES,
 Federal Blister-rust Control Agent.