Many of our states are taking an active interest in forestry and are buying tracts of land of low value for state forests. New York is taking the lead in the work of planting forests, but even here the amount done is much less than it should be. The state forester says that one million trees are planted each year while twenty millions should be planted.
The National Conservation Commission reported that the entire United States should plant an area larger than the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia, in order to supply our future needs, but that we have actually planted an area less than the state of Rhode Island.
This, then, is the lesson we should learn in regard to our forests: To guard against waste in cutting and use, fire, and insects, and to plant trees until our future supply of timber is assured, till the head-waters of our streams are protected and our waste lands made into valuable forest tracts; till every farm has its wood-lot, and every community its fruit and shade. It is a work in which every one of us may take some part and from which good results are certain to come.
ORCHARDS
Another phase of tree-culture that does not, strictly speaking, come under the head of forestry, but which should be considered here, is the cultivation of orchards, either for home use or for commercial purposes.
In a few sections, fruit is the most valuable of all crops. Oranges in Florida and California, peaches in some of the southern states, and apples in the northwest, are more profitable than any field crops, and their cultivation is made the subject of careful scientific study. But there are many other states where the raising of fruit in commercial quantities is almost altogether neglected, and to which almost all fruit is shipped from other sections. This is particularly true in the rich corn and wheat producing states of the Mississippi Valley.
The early settlers each planted an orchard for home use, and these produced the finest quality of fruit in abundance; but usually, after being planted, the trees were left to take care of themselves, while the farmer's time and attention were given to his fields of grain.
As time passed, plant diseases and insect pests increased, winds broke down many of the unpruned trees, frosts often blighted the entire crop of fruit, and the uncultivated, sod-choked trees produced fruit that was less in quantity and poorer in quality each year.
In recent years the highest grade of apples have all been shipped from the West. These are grown on irrigated land; a high price being paid both for the land itself and for the water-privilege, and the orchards are seldom more than ten acres in extent. Wind and frost may cause as much damage here as in the eastern states and plant diseases and insect enemies are equally liable to injure the crop.
But here orcharding is carried on in a scientific manner. The small size of the orchard makes it possible for the owner properly to care for every tree, and each one must be made a source of profit. Every condition that tends to affect the crop is carefully studied, and the remedy found and applied.