Northern Nut Growers Association Annual Report 1915 | Page 7

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 amount out into other states to the south and to the west for timber which New York is capable of producing in amount, at least, in its forests and on its idle lands. The report shows further that New York is producing very large quantities of pine and hemlock and the hardwoods, and, much to the surprise of those interested in forest conditions in the state, it was shown that a large proportion of the hardwoods come from the woodlots in the farms of the state. This would seem to indicate that there is a real opportunity for the growing of such hardwood timber as black walnut, butternut, and hickory, not only on the idle lands of the state which are not covered with forest now, but also in the woodlots of the farms. That is, it would not be a difficult matter to show the farmers through publications and possibly through public lectures that it