Northern Nut Growers Association, report of the proceedings at the sixth annual meeting | Page 7

people both in the
consumption and the production of nuts.
New York as a Great Forest State
Twenty-five years ago New York was one of the leading
lumber-producing states of the Union. Today some twenty other states
produce more lumber than comes from the forests and woodlots of New
York. Statistics given out recently by the United States Census Bureau
and the Conservation Commission of New York show that, out of the
land acreage of over thirty-two millions in New York, but twenty-two
millions are included within farms. This leaves something over eight
millions of acres outside of farms and presumably non-agricultural. The
forests of the Adirondacks and Catskills and the woodlots of the
rougher hill counties in the southern and southwestern part of the state
come within this vast area of eight millions of acres. Without doubt
with increasing population there will come some increase in the use of
what are now non-agricultural lands for the practice of agriculture, but
with three hundred years of agricultural history back of us in this state
it does not seem likely that there will be much change in the relation of
non-agricultural to agricultural land during the next half-century.
Out of the twenty-two millions of acres of farm lands in the state but
fifteen millions are actually under cultivation, leaving, therefore, from
six to eight millions of acres within the farms of the state but lying idle.
That is, we have a Massachusetts enclosed within our farms which is
non-productive as far as direct returns are concerned. Yet there is really
no waste land in New York, as every square foot of the state which is
covered with any soil at all is capable of producing good forest trees. It
is this great area of idle land enclosed within our farms which seems to
have unusual promise in the development of nut culture in the state.
There is a great deal of land now idle in the form of steep hillsides or
ridges or rocky slopes upon which we may grow with comparative ease
our walnuts, butter-nuts, hickories, hazelnuts, in the wild form at least.

The fact that the state is in really rather serious condition financially
should be a strong reason for our association to urge upon the farmers
of the state the planting of nut-bearing trees that the returns from the
farms may be increased by annual sales of nuts which should in the
aggregate in the next fifty years be a large sum of money. It has been
estimated that the total debt of the State of New York, that is, the state,
county and municipal debts, are equal to $47 for every acre of land,
good and bad. On top of this condition the legislature last year laid a
direct tax of eighteen millions of dollars upon our people, and there is
every indication that it will be several years before it becomes
unnecessary to lay a direct tax either larger or smaller than that put
upon us last year. There is ever-increasing competition among the
farmers of the state as the standards in animal, milk and fruit
production are ever increasing. In view of the amount of idle land and
of our financial condition it seems to be an unusually opportune time
for those interested in nut culture to bring before the farmers and other
landowners of the state the idea of planting nut trees, the products of
which will add to the annual income from the land.
The State of New York is Somewhat Ignorant of the Value of its Forest
Lands
When the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse began its
studies of forest conditions in New York in 1911 it turned its attention
immediately to the very large areas of farm woodlots and woodlands
within farms. There has been a good deal of general information
current among our people regarding the forest conditions of the state,
but there is really very little accurate information except such little as
the college has secured since 1911. As a first step in the taking of stock
of our forest resources and especially the amount of timber in our farm
woodlots and what is coming from these woodlots in the way of annual
return to their owners, the State College of Forestry in 1912 began, in
co-operation with the United States Forest Service, a study of the
wood-using industries of the state. This study has resulted in a very
comprehensive bulletin issued by the College of Forestry upon the
wood-using industries of the State of New York. From these studies it
was determined for the first time that New York was spending annually

over ninety-five millions of dollars for products of the forest.
Unfortunately for the state, we are sending over fifty millions of dollars
of this vast