F FOREST CONDITIONS IN NEW YORK TO POSSIBILITIES OF NUT
GROWING

DR. HUGH P. BAKER, DEAN OF THE NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF FORESTRY AT
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

The forester presumes to come before your organization because he is
concerned with one of the greatest of the natural resources of this and
other states of the Union and not with the idea of bringing information
as to details in nut culture. Possibly nut culture as a business is more
closely related to agriculture than forestry. Forestry is not
subordinate to agriculture in this country but co-ordinate with it.
Together they will come as near solving the soil problems of the country
as is possible for man to solve them.

The forester is interested and concerned with the wild nut trees
wherever he has to do with the forests or forest lands of the country.
Throughout the great hardwood sections of the East there are many native
nut-bearing trees, and in the proper utilization of the trees which make
up the forests the forester is concerned not alone with the lumber which
may come from these trees, but he is concerned as well with the value of
the by-products of the forest and the influence of the utilization of
these by-products upon the forest.

In view of the forester's interest in all of the trees which make up our
forests, my purpose of addressing you today is to bring before you the
question of the most effective use of the forest soils of this state. I
shall also attempt to make some suggestions to your organization in the
matter of interesting the man on the street in nut growing. This
profession and the business of forestry have been passing through a
period of general educational work in this country. Some of the lessons
which we have learned through our efforts to interest the people in
their forests may be of help to you in interesting the 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-agr