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FEBRUARY, 1897. O +

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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

December, 1894, and January, 1896,

Thirteenth and Fourteenth Annual Meetings,
at Washington, |
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AND AT THE SUMMER MEETINGS AT

Brooklyn, N. Y., and Springfield, Mass. LAY
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GUGGENHEIMER, WEIL & CO., PRS., BALTO., MD.

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NOTE. —

The following interesting papers complete the publica-
tion of the proceedings of the Association to date, with the
exception of a few communications which were of interest only
at the time of reading. It has been necessary, in order to keep
the publication within prescribed limits, to abridge some of the
papers very considerably, but the editor has endeavored to pre-
serve, as far as might be, the individuality of the author and to
retain principal lines of argument as well as all statements of
fact.

For convenience of reference, a subject index of the volume
is included herewith.

en

125

PAPERS READ BEFORE THE

American Forestry Association

AT THE ANNUAL MEETINGS OF 1894-1895.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE DESTRUCTIVE
EFFECTS OF WINDS AND THE PRO-
TECTION AFFORDED BY WOOD-
LANDS AND WIND-BREAKS.

By Professor F. H. Kinc, Madison, Wis.

We have in Wisconsin large tracts of land with soils of a
light, sandy character, or sandy loam, which are now being de-
veloped for potato culture, and upon which fair yields of an
excellent quality are had; but the clearing of these lands in
large fields, as is now being done, has developed the fact that
they are liable to serious injury from the drying and drifting
action of winds.

One of these sections, at Plainfield, was visited, on May 7th,
when the destructive effects in question were in progress.
There had been, on the 5th and 6th, what was described as a
heavy rain, but no records are kept at the place, the nearest
being at Stevens Point, in the same county, twenty-one miles
distant, where the rainfall on these dates was .33 and .42 inches.

126

The 7th was clear and cold, with a strong northwest wind, and
during this and the following day, in spite of the recent rain,
the fields at Plainfield and vicinity had drifted so badly that on
the morning of the 8th, the loose soil, with which grain had
been covered, whether with harrow, seeder or drill, had been
so completely driven from many fields as to _ leave
the kernels entirely naked, the plants lying flat upon the
ground, hanging by their roots and whipping in the wind. In
many other fields, where the drifting had not been so bad, the
oats, which at the time stood about three inches high, were
cured like hay close to the ground, and even the leaves of dock
sorrel, which in places stood among the grain, were blackened
and so dry as to crumble in the hand.

The drifting of soil was so bad on some exposed fields that
forty, and even eighty acres of grain seeded to clover were al-
most completely ruined, the loose soil being removed so en-
tirely that the marks of the bottom of the shoe-drill could be
seen Over entire acres of ground. But the point to which I
wish to call special attention here is the fact that wherever a
field lay to the leeward of any sort of wind-break, the de-
structive effects of the winds were either wholly avoided or they
were greatly reduced. On making a careful study of the dis-
trict it was found that even grass-fields and fences lying to the
west and north of grain fields, had, without exception, exerted
an appreciable and sometimes very marked protective influ-
ence—so much, indeed, that fields were found in the condition
indicated by Figures I, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in the chart. (Explain
chart.)

Cornfields, too, drift badly at times when the corn is small or
just coming up, and how full the air is of dust at these times is
indicated by these two photos., both taken looking across the
same field on the same day, one view being taken when there
was a lullin the wind. (Show photos.)

After making these observations, the influence of the wood-
lands and wind-breaks in question upon the rate of evapora-
tion to the leeward of them was studied, and in making these
investigations I used a modification of the Piche evaporome-
ter, with disks large enough to carry sheets of filter paper 5.9
inches in diameter, the water receptacles being ordinary chem-
ical burettes graduated to tenths C. C. and having diameters

127

of about .4 ofaninch. Six of these instruments were used, and
they were hung in the open air, exposed to sun and wind, at a
height of one foot from the ground. The first set of observa-
tions were made on a piece of ground planted to corn, lying to
the south of a grove of Black Oak having a mean height of
12 to 15 feet. The corn was not yet up, and there was at the
time a gentle breeze from a little west of north, the sun shining
during the time. At first the six instruments hung at distances
of 20, 40, 60, 80, 100 and 120 feet from the woods, and the fol-
lowing table gives the evaporation during fifty-six minutes:

Station A, 20 feet from woods...... 11.0 C. C. evaporation.
‘ B, 40 “ “ Lett Velen IL1 “ “
“é C, 60 ““c 7% ob tv. aera 11.3 “oc ai
ae 1D 80 “ “ td) II 2 “oe “ec
“ce E, 100 “cc “ce kd” eae II 9 “ec “ce
“ F, 120 “c “ce if | oe I2 9 “ “ec

These results show but a small difference in the rate of evap-
oration until 100 or 120 feet distance is reached, but at 120 feet
the rate of evaporation was 17.2 per cent. greater than at 20 feet.

Three of the instruments were next set 280, 300 and 320 feet
from the grove, where the amounts of evaporation in one hour
were as follows:

Evaporation.
Station A, 20 feet from woods...... Ee
“ce B, 40 “ce “ hid ec ES 11-6 “
ss co * tee ca siaheinte 5 Yea ac
gaa GC
“ec D, 280 ce “ec sail a ee 14 5 “e
“ E, 300 “ “é Ys Peer 14.2 “c
“e F, 320 “ee “ce ee 14 7 oe
ABA Cok,

Here it will be seen there is but little variation in the amount
of evaporation at the three outer stations, but the mean evap-
oration at these is 24 per cent. greater than at the three inner
ones.

On May 31, another trial was made to the south of a Black
Oak grove 80 rods square, where the trees averaged perhaps
15 to 20 feet in height. The first two instruments hung above

128

ground seeded last year to clover and timothy, but only tim-
othy had come where the second instrument was placed. The
remaining instruments were upon an adjoining field of oats,
which at the time stood about 4 inches high. There was in
progress a fair breeze from nearly due north, and the sky was
clear. Here too, as before, the disks of the evaporometer hung
one foot above ground. The differences in the amount of
evaporation were iound to be as follows:

Evaporation.
Station -.A,. 20 eet, 2s seein. eects phi
i By *AOO ia! oe oe bond icieueletonts te atele hieceieiaicts 14.3
» GCA200 MELE Literate recreates steve te 15.7
7% 1 DEE. 10.0F ae AE aly KORA SAO 18.5
PE GAOOW) a Ba mater serlew tole Steltse pie Sauter 18.5
Fe SOO Phan a torats toys centaiole otters o'o pce tole 18.3

Here it will be seen that there is an increase in the amount
of evaporation until 300 feet is reached, but beyond and includ-
ing this limit the rate became constant. At 300 feet the rate
of evaporation was 17.7 per cent. greater than at 200 feet, and
66.6 per cent. greater than at 20 feet from the woods.

Trials were also made to the leeward of a very scanty hedge-
row and of a clover field, these two sets of observations being
made at the same time and at corresponding distances to the
southward, the wind being rather strong, a little east of north
and chilly. The sky became overcast just as the instruments
were set up, and it sprinkled a very little at one time.

The scanty hedge-row was a strip of blue grass 16 feet wide,
in which there were scattering black and bur oak from 6 to 8
feet in height, with a few attaining a height of 12 feet, but the
distribution of these was so irregular that there were many open
gaps of 20 to 40 feet. And the instruments were set up behind
a clump of six trees spanning a length of 40 feet, there being a
gap of about the same width on either side. North of this
wind-break was a naked field 80 rods wide, being planted to
potatoes at the time, across which the wind blew before reach-
ing the hedge, while the evaporometers hung above a field of
oats in which the grain was about 4 inches high.

The clover field lay adjacent to and west of the potato field,
and bordering the oat field referred to above on the north, and
had a width, across which the air passed before reaching the

129

instruments, of 780 feet. The two sets of observations are,
therefore, comparable, and the observed results are as follows:

Evaporation.
Hedgerow. Clover.
Station A, 20 feet from margin........ 10.3 9.3
4 Byers. Bs SOUR. arcmin aod 12.5 12.1
7 Co goo!" a oS WE EP ae 13.4 13.0

Here, again, there is a very evident influence upon the rate of
evaporation exerted by both the clover field and the hedgerow,
the evaporation at 300 feet away being 30.1 per cent. and 39.8
per cent. greater than at 20 feet distant from the hedgerow and
from the clover respectively. So it was 7.2 per cent. and 7.4
per cent. respectively less at 150 feet than at 300 feet for the
hedgerow and for the clover.

In view of the observations here presented, it appears to me
that we have in hand a case in which both the reservation of for-
ests and the planting of trees may be urged as an expedient
not only for increasing the immediate crop production, but for
maintaining at a smaller cost a fair degree of fertility for the
soil. In our State, and in parts of Northern Michigan, we
have large tracts of land which, owing to the small natural
water capacity of their soils, are, when unaided, on the verge of
barrenness, and yet which are capable of producing remunera-
tive yields of potatoes and of other crops which mature with a
relatively small amount of water, but I feel confident that the
tendency of these soils to drift and to suffer from drouth makes
it expedient, if not necessary, to hold portions of it as forest
reserves, and the observations here presented lead me to feel
that were these lands to be cultivated in narrow north and south
fields, leaving, and even planting when necessary, belts of tim-
ber primarily to break the force of the wind and to increase the
relative humidity of the air which passes across the fields, the
total agricultural output might easily exceed what would be
possible were the whole surface cleared and tilled, unless irri-
gation were resorted to. At any rate, I can but feel that here is
a practical problem which those interested in the reforesting of
lands may well give serious study.

Then, again, nearly the whole timber district of the northern
half of our State has now been so thoroughly deforested by
man, fire and winds, that the near future must witness a large

130

influx of agricultural population; so that if anything is to be
done in the direction of forest reservations, this is the time for
steps to be taken. Indeed, large land-owners already have
agents in Europe negotiating the establishment of colonies
within our borders, and such a colony of Finns has been so
planted on the shore of Lake Superior.

WOOD-LANDS AND WATER-FLOW IN
NEW JERSEY.

By C. C. VERMEULE, 71 Broadway, New York.

As consulting engineer of the Geological Survey of New Jer-
sey, I began, in 1890, by direction of State Geologist John C.
Smock, a full investigation of the water-supply resources of
that State. The importance of the subject is shown by the fact
that in 1894, 1,114,403 inhabitants of the State consumed an
average supply of 107,840,361 gallons of water daily. My
studies covered four years, and gaugings were made of several
typical streams, which were compared with cotemporary rain-
fall measurements made by the State Weather Service. It
became necessary to investigate most of the causes which affect
stream-flow, and among them the influence of forests. The
results of these studies are given in the Report on Water-
Supply, published by the Survey in 1894. I wish to present to
you here, briefly as possible, what these studies showed as to
the effect of forests upon stream-flow.

In order that you may know the nature of the forests under
discussion, I will say that during the progress of the topo-
graphic survey, from 1880 to 1887, a survey was made of the
forested area of the State. Practically all New Jersey up-land
will produce a spontaneous forest growth if left uncultivated;
consequently, all up-land not cultivated or occupied by towns,
was classed as forest. As we use the term, therefore, it in-
cludes all from stump and brush-land up to a good growth, 50

131

or 60 years old, with very little older. Although there is of
late a marked tendency to acquire larger holdings, this forest is
mostly held in small lots, a few of these lots being cut each year;
consequently, all ages from brush up are uniformly repre-
sented. The upland area of the State being 4,494, 567 acres, the
surveys referred to show that, not including isolated tracts of
less than ten acres, 2,069,819 acres, were in forest, or about 45
per cent. Southeast of a line drawn from Sandy Hook to
Salem, this forest is nearly or all coniferous—pine on the high-
land and white cedar in the swamps, the latter being quite
dense, but the upland timber is scattering, not usually thick
enough to shade the earth. The soil is light sand and gravel.

In the northern portion of the State the forest is nearly all
deciduous, oak and chestnut predominant, with hickory, beech,
birch, maple, red-cedar, etc., in good proportion. This timber,
being mostly held in small lots, is not extensively cut off at any
given period, but the various holdings are usually cut about
once in thirty to thirty-five years, this being found to be the
most profitable age for chestnut. In the past there has been
some cutting for fire-wood, hoop-poles and charcoal at younger
age, to the injury of the growth. This practice is decreasing.
The deciduous forest growth is healthy; the southern pine
growth suffers much from fires. The percentage of total area
in forest varies with the surface geology, being greater on the
glaciated than on the unglaciated portion of the same geolog-
ical formation. On the glaciated portion of the Archaean
highlands, on the Kittatinny mountains, and the Tertiary pine-
lands of Southern New Jersey, from 80 to 100 per cent. of the
whole area is forested. Kittatinny valley has less than 20 per
cent., the glaciated red sandstone country 20 to 60 per cent,
the unglaciated less than 20 per cent., the clay and marl country
about the same. A large part of the basin of the Raritan river
and most of the country drained by the branches of the Dela-
ware below Trenton, have less than 20 per cent. of their area in
forest.

There has been little change in forested areas for many years.
The census shows an increase of only 330,000 acres of culti-
vated land since 1850. Probably for the last quarter of a cen-
tury the land abandoned to grow up in forest has fully equalled
in area the land newly cleared for cultivation. The economic

132

survey of the forests now in progress indicates that the period
of maximum deforestation was about 1850.

In order to have a safer basis for conclusions as to stream-
flow than would be furnished by my four years’ series of stream
gaugings in New Jersey, all the long series measurements of
flow available for streams of New England and the Middle
States were collected and studied. My conclusions, conse-
quently, apply to these water-sheds as well as New Jersey.

The following series of measurements were thus used: Sud-
bury river, Massachusetts, 16 years long; Connecticut river,
8 years; Croton river, N. Y., 14 years; Passaic, N. J., 17 years;
Tohickon, Neshaminy and Perkiomen creeks, Pa., each 7
years; Potomac river, 6 years. These streams have from 7 to
53 per cent. of their catchments in forest. In New Jersey, in
addition to the Passaic series, I was furnished a series & years
long on the Hackensack, and measured the flow of a dozen
other streams for periods of 4 years or less. These have from
13 to 88 per cent. of their catchments forested, so that the range
was wide enough for safe conclusions. A difficulty appeared,
however, in the fact that the percentage of forest usually varied
with the surface geology, and the latter affects stream-flow toa
greater extent than forests. Taking evaporation to mean the
difference between total rain-fall and total run-off of the
streams, the important fact was developed by these studies that
the amount of rain evaporated is never directly proportional to
the total rain-fall, as is often assumed to be the case. Evapora-
tion is increased slightly for increased rain-fall, but rapidly
with increased temperature of the atmosphere. Stream-flow
was found to be mainly a function of rain-fall and temperature,
and little or no effect upon the total yearly run-off was trace-
able to forests or other vegetation, or to topography. For in-
stance, the Sudbury catchment, with 14 per cent. of forest; the
Croton, with 30 per cent., and the Passaic, with 44 per cent., all
having about the same mean temperature and similar topog-
raphy, show the same total flow-off for a given annual rain-fall.
The vegetation on the unforested portions of these catchments
is much the same in each case. We find here no effect upon
evaporation, from forests. The Connecticut, with 53 per cent.
of forests and temperature 2.7 degrees lower, shows much less
evaporation and larger flow than the above streams, but the

133

Potomac, with about the same forest as the Connecticut and
higher mean temperature, shows much more evaporation, the
latter in each case varying with the mean temperature without
regard to the amount of forest. Neshaminy creek, in Penn-
sylvania, having 7 per cent. of its area in forest and the remain-
der under a high state of cultivation, shows Io per cent. more
evaporation than the Sudbury, which can only be accounted
for by temperature. The Passaic and Raritan, in New Jersey,
each drain a little over 800 square miles. The Passaic has 44
per cent. in forest, the Raritan 13 per cent., or nearly the same
as the Sudbury. It shows 4.3 per cent. more evaporation than
either the Passaic or Sudbury. The Hackensack, like the Rar-
itan, lies on the red sandstone plain, but has 60 per cent. of for-
est, nearly five times as much as the Raritan, but it shows about
the same evaporation—about 4 per cent. more than the Passaic,
with 44 per cent., or the Sudbury, with only 14 per cent. of for-
est. This is exactly accounted for by the temperature. Again,
the Great Egg Harbor and Batsto, streams of Southern New
Jersey, have 88 per cent. of their catchments forested with pine
on upland and cedar in swamps, but this large proportion of
forests and small area cultivated does not prevent an increase
of 14 per cent. in evaporation over that of the Sudbury, Croton
and Passaic, or of Io per cent. over the highly-cultivated Rari-
tan catchment. The increase of evaporation is again ac-
counted for by increased temperature and uninfluenced by
forests.

I know of no more accurate way to compare the relative
evaporation from forested and deforested areas, than by meas-
uring the rain-fall and the amount of rain flowing off, provided
the observations are long enough continued and begin and end
with full ground-water. In this way we obtain natural condi-
tions, and include both direct evaporation from the soil and
also the water drawn up by vegetation, much of which is ex-
haled into the atmosphere. The loss into the earth which does
not re-appear in the natural drainage channels, may, under or-
dinary circumstances, be neglected. This method is certainly
far preferable to the attempts to measure evaporation on a
small experimental scale, which have frequently been made,
and the results of which are often quoted. Some of these meas-
urements entirely neglect the large draughts of moisture made

134

by the trees of the forest. All of them fail to obtain the same
conditions which prevail naturally over large areas of forests.
I am, consequently, forced to conclude, from my studies, that
the effect of our New England and Middle States forests upon
the total flow-off of streams, hence upon evaporation, is not
important enough to be shown in the measurements of stream-
flow.

A further analysis of observations on the Passaic catchment
indicated that while the total average annual evaporation for an
annual rain-fall of 45.00 inches was 22.70 inches, the portion
of this taken up by vegetation alone was but 6.03 inches, or 27
per cent. of the whole, indicating at once the minor importance
of vegetation. The powerful influence of the temperature of
the air upon evaporation may be appreciated when we recall
the well-known fact that the moisture which may be held in the
air is doubled for each increase of 20 per cent. in temperature.
Again, Mr. Desmond Fitzgerald made observations from 1875
to 1890, at Boston, which indicated an annual average evapora-
tion from water surface of 39.20 inches, whereas, observations
of rain-fall and stream-flow on Sudbury water-shed for the
same years show an average evaporation from the earth’s sur-
face of 23.14 inches only. The air was, therefore, able to take
up 16.06 inches more moisture from the water than it obtained
from the land; hence, it is to be considered the powerful factor
in determining evaporation. Again, in support of our con-
clusions, if evaporation is so much less from forested than from
cultivated areas, as is sometimes claimed, should not forests be
found thriving in full variety and luxuriance far beyond the
limit where rain-fall becomes too light to support other vegeta-
tion?

Next we have to consider the effect of forests upon the great-
est and least flow of streams: A careful investigation of re-
corded greatest and least flows per square mile of catchment,
yields no results, indicative of any important effect due to for-
ests. The maximum freshet usually occurs either when the
ground is frozen and a warm rain comes on a heavy covering
of accumulated snow, or else in summer, when an unusually
heavy rain falls upon ground already saturated. The rate of
flow-off is then mainly determined by the topography of the
catchment. So the lowest flow occurs when the stream has for
a long time been drawing upon stored ground-waters, and has

135

drawn down such waters to a point far below where they can be
influenced by any surface conditions. The rate of flow is then
affected mainly by the capacity of the earth of the catchment
for holding water and its rate of yielding up the same. ° It is a
matter not of vegetation, but of surface geology; therefore for-
ests can have little effect upon either the greatest or the least
rate of flow of a stream.

Thus far our results are negative, but very beneficial effects
were nevertheless observed from a good covering of forest
upon the catchment. It became evident from these studies of
stream-flow that streams were often supplied for many months
entirely from water stored in the ground. For seven months
in 1880 and eight months in 1881, the Passaic river was thus
supplied. With only rain enough to make good the evaporation
our New Jersey country will yield up in nine months ground
or spring water equal to from 2.29 to 7.59 inches of rainfall.
Small, barren, red sandstone catchments yield the least water,
and the sand and gravel of the Tertiary formation the most. If
the rain falls uniformly from two to two and one-half inches per
month may be taken into the ground, and discharged thence to
the streams. The entire rain-fall of an average year, less the
evaporation, could be thus taken into the earth, and none need
flow over the surface to the stream. Anything which affects
the capacity of the earth to take up water, and the rate of dis-
charge of the same to the stream, therefore, affects the stream-
flow by making it more or less uniform through the year. If
the surface is forested, a mass of absorbent humus is present;
the tree roots, fallen trunks and mosses all obstruct the flow of
water over the surface, and hold it until the earth can take it up.
The roots increase the friability and absorbent power of the
earth; the water is held and absorbed in large quantities, and
slowly fed out to the streams.

Cultivation also, like forests, increases the absorbent power
of the earth, and well-cultivated areas will, I find, take up as
much water as forested areas. Here, however, drains are pro-
vided and water courses opened to hasten drainage of the
ground-water into the streams. As a result, the discharge of
streams after a rain is quicker, freshets are more frequent, the
dry periods longer. This is admirably illustrated in the case
of the Passaic and Raritan. The former has 44 per cent. of its

136

catchment forested; the latter only 13 per cent., the balance
being well drained and highly cultivated. Each will draw
about four inches of water from the ground in nine months, but
during’ the first three months the Raritan discharges 2.52 inches
of this, the Passaic 2.10 inches, or 17 percent. less. During the
last three months, however, the Raritan discharges .70, the Pas-
saic .87 inches, or 25 per cent. more. The Passaic, conse-
quently, has a much more equable flow. During four years,
freshets exceeding 10 cubic feet per second per square mile, oc-
curred but five times on the Passaic, against thirteen times on
the Raritan, whereas the Raritan sank below 2 cubic feet per
second per square mile, an average of 271 days each year; the
Passaic only 245 days. While in the case of these particular
streams this result may be due partly to surface geology, the
same facts were observed throughout the list of measured
streams. Those having the largest proportions of forest upon
the catchment invariably show the best sustained dry season
flow, although the total run-off is no greater.

Our Southern New Jersey streams have the most forest, and
are remarkably steady, the dry season flow averaging double
that of the northern rivers. This is undoubtedly due in large
part to the great absorbent power of their sandy catchments,
but a critical study of their daily flow reveals the important
contribution of the cedar swamps to this result. Should these
be cut off the streams would suffer, becoming much more un-
reliable.

It will be seen that as between cultivated and forested catch-
ments, therefore, our gaugings indicate the same total run-off
for a given rain-fall, but a much more uniform discharge, fewer
floods and shorter dry periods on the forested areas. Forested
streams are consequently more valuable and reliable for water
power, and for water-supply they require less storage reservoir
capacity to provide for a given daily draught. The waters are
also much less likely to become muddy or otherwise contam-
inated.

The worst condition of all for a catchment is barrenness.
Barren earth is non-absorbent; the water fails to penetrate it
and oxidize its fertilizing constituents. Heavy rains run over
the surface, washing off all of the loose material, and barren
conditions once inaugurated perpetuate themselves. There is

137

always danger of such conditions setting in when slopes or
other areas unfit for cultivation are deforested. There is a spe-
cial danger of it where forest fires are prevalent. The effect of
barrenness upon stream-flow is to produce flashiness. We
have a few small red sandstone areas in New Jersey in this con-
dition. The streams dry up for weeks in succession, to become
torrents when rain falls in considerable quantity. As com-
pared with barrenness, cultivation is harmless to the streams.
Our aim, therefore, should be to keep all unfit tor cultivation
clad with forest.

Such are the effects of forests on stream-flow indicated by the
most accurate stream-gaugings available for New England and
the Middle States. While they fail to indicate any effect upon
evaporation, or upon the very highest or very lowest rate of
flow, they do show what is quite as important, a more equable
flow, fewer floods, and shorter periods of extreme low water
upon well-forested catchments.

THE CONSERVATION OF SOIL AND WATER
SUPPLY OF HILL COUNTRIES IN
CULTIVATED AREAS.

By Tuos. J. McKie, M. D., of Woodlawn, S. C.

The striking remark of Humboldt—‘How foolish do men
appear, destroying the forest cover without regard to conse-
quences, for thereby they rob themselves of wood and water,”
was never more applicable than it is today in so far as concerns
my own State, particularly the middle and upper counties lying
inorabovethe granite belt. Here the surface is for the most part
hilly, and the soil composed of a thin sandy loam with a sub-
stratum of rock or clay more or less nearly approaching the
surface, and affording a most favorable field for the wasting
influences of the heavy rains which are frequent and often de-
structive to both soil and crops in that otherwise favored re-

138

gion. It is here that may be seen the wildest display of this
foolishness of men who are invited to the little less than criminal
destruction of the liberal productiveness of this virgin soil
which yields abundant crops with little labor and small risk,
either from unfavorable season or careless culture. And but
for the prodigality of nature which is so abundantly displayed
in the rapid reproduction of other though less effective covering
to the soil, the latter portion of Humboldt’s proposition would
already have been proven in many sections of this favored land.

The treatment of the surplus rain-water is perhaps deserving
of quite as much attention as forestry proper, and is equally
important in considering the husbandry of our water supply,
itself inseparably connected with the consideration of the
question of forestry.

The deforested and despoiled fields, though blotted out from
any directly productive consideration, are yet the chief factors
in the problem of reduced water supply and excessive overflow,
with most of the dire consequences resulting therefrom, and to
that extent, at least, should become an adjunct to our forestry
system and receive a share of our attention.

In the cotton-belt the idea has long and generally prevailed,
and has been extensively practiced, that it is a poor plantation
on which enough cannot be produced to buy another with. Cut
down and wear out, and cut down a second field or farm while
the first is being exhausted, the forest being considered an
incumbrance rather than a treasure, as it costs both time and
labor to remove the timber, valueless by reason of its abun-
dance. Such has been the effect of this destructive policy that
today many sections of this highly favored country are barren
of primeval forests, the place of which has been taken by broom
sage, gullies or Old Field Pines, which have such firm hold that
reclamation is well nigh hopeless as to most of it. To the treat-
men of land of this description it is desired to call more par-
ticular attention.

Each State has its laws for the protection of the citizen, for
preserving health, laws against cruelty to and maltreatment of
animals and laws to protect the land and forest from his neigh-
bor, but none that I am aware of to protect the land or forest
against the owner himself, while nearly all of health, happiness
and prosperity depend largely upon this protection. Govern-

139

ment ownership is not, perhaps, the best way of accomplishing
this, neither can unrestrained license, even with his own, protect
a man against himself. When he begins to use, or rather
abuse, his liberty in a way detrimental to posterity, the time
has arrived for the interference of law. A system or rewards
and penalties might be enacted by the Legislature of each State
by which this wise purpose could be-accomplished. For the
best protected farm in each county of any given State
a premium might be offered proportionate to the value of the
farm itself. For neglect of this protection a penalty should
attach for injury done either to the public or individual by such
neglect. Taxes on forests might be remitted as a further in-
ducement to their preservation. While it is the pabulum fur-
nished by nature to both vegetable and animal kingdoms, water
is also the great destroyer which takes away much of the
wealth of the world. With proper attention from States and
individuals, the evils arising from floods and freshets may be
controlled or greatly mitigated.

The washing of hillsides, the overflow of bottoms, begin with
the first accumulation of water at the tops of the hills, and here
is the place to begin to correct or check the evil which is in
proportion to the accumulation. To accomplish this, two
things are necessary: The one is by horizontal culture to dif-
fuse the water as much as possible, cause it to spread out, and
cover as much surface as may be, and thus weaken its force at
any given point and cause the excess to pass through rather
than over the soil. The second is not unlike the first—retard
the surface flow by a thorough system of terraces, which, when
properly arranged, give on each hillside a succession of levels
from top to bottom, effectually preventing excessive accumula-
tions of water at the bottom. By stretching a line between any
two points at top and bottom of any given declivity, and then
drawing a succession of angles along the same line, like a stair-
case, you have an apt illustration of the idea intended to be con-
veyed. The advantages gained by this method will at once
become apparent: The soil is saved by reduction of gravity,
the arrest of the downward sweep of water and soil, and the
increased time in descent allowed in the delay for a deposit of
surface soil while being carried downward towards the valleys
and streams below. It is not difficult to understand how this

140

retardation may be thus accomplished, or to conceive of its ad-
vantages when extensively applied. Delays, therefore, are not
always dangerous, but in this case highly salutary. Having
opposed these obstacles to the flow of surface water, and at the
same time having well provided against accumulations, both
at the top of the hill and along the entire declivity, we are better
prepared to deal with the excess or overflow which must event-
ually reach the bottom. Here, as the question appears to me,
other and yet graver errors have been committed in the man-
agement of farms, and still more in the diminution of the evils
of floods and freshets. It is believed to be ruinous, as it is un-
wise, to even attempt to confine these overflows within the limits
of an ordinary ditch or embankment. Experience has fully es-
tablished the fact that sooner or later water will find its way
through or over these at some point or other, and all who have
ever visited a hill country can bear testimony to the ravages
which have resulted. To remedy this evil, old ideas must be
abandoned. It is not to be understood that drainage and
ditching is to be ignored or dispensed with; on the contrary,
both should be practiced more extensively in order to carry
out more fully the leading idea of diffusion and delays. Ditches
through low land, creek and branch bottoms, are a necessity
for drainage and successful cultivation. In cutting a ditch the
mistake of piling earth to increase its carrying capacity should
be avoided. Like water, it must be spread out over the surface
of contiguous land. Overflow, then, must be accepted as a
necessity, and should be utilized as a benefaction to the soil they
cover as a conveyor of fertilizers derived from water and silt.
The wise farmer will use every legitimate means to retard the
current of overflows through his premises. The means by
which this may be accomplished after the excess has reached
the bottom, as it appears to one who has given time and
thought to its study and practice, may be made more apparent
by picturing to the mind a piece of bottom land through the
lowest part of which there runs a central ditch by which the
ordinary flow of water is conveyed, this being without side ele-
vation or embankment reaching above the common level of the
contiguous land, field or pasture, as the case may be. Run-
ning into this from both sides and at suitable distances, which
should be regulated by the prevailing fall of the main ditch, and

141

extending back to a terrace at the foot of the adjoining hill,
cross ditches giving fall enough to avoid stagnation are made,
with the earth taken from the ditch evenly distributed on its
lower side and raised high enough to prevent overflow. By
this arrangement it will be perceived that the entire bottom is
for the time being given up to the occupancy of the body of
water which diffuses itself evenly over the surface of the soil
between these cross sections and embankments, giving time
to throw down a portion of its rich sedimentary deposits, and
so delayed in its downward course as to reduce the damage of
overflow to a minimum while enriching the soil at the same
time. Timbers may be made to take the place of these cross
ditches when convenient or plentiful. In preventing or stay-
ing the waste of cultivated land the necessity of clearing new
fields is to that extent obviated, and to an equal extent the forest
is spared. The unsightly aspect of galls and gullies is remedied,
the cultivation of the soil is made easier, it wears longer and
produces more abundantly, thus making a step towards in-
tensiveness. It also utilizes the waste of the hills to build up
the valleys. Still another and scarcely less important consid-
eration is not to be lost sight of in dealing with hill farms and
forests. If every farmer living on the water-shed of a given
river will go earnestly and industriously to work to constitute
himself a true husbandman in saving his own possessions, in
getting the very most of every shower of rain in the way this
paper indicates, we will hear less of the ravages of freshets and
less of the evils of drouth. He will at the same time place the
strongest possible barrier between the occupants and indus-
tries of river borders and the dangers of freshets. No one will
fail to see the benefits which must arise from such a system or
doubt the means when applied as preventives for cures of the
many evils which now threaten the prosperity if not the life of
our common country.

142

THE ADIRONDACK FOREST.

By Mr. VERPLANK Co.vin, Albany, N. Y.

It is nearly twelve years since, by request of the then Gov-
ernor of this State, I addressed the first American Forestry
Congress, at the first meeting in Cincinnati. At that time the
presence of Governor Cornell and Ex-Governor Seymour
(both earnestly interested in forestry) had been hoped for, but
the official duties of the one and the delicate health of the other
prevented their attendance. Many of the practical questions
of governmental forestry were then matters of doubt, if not of
dispute.

Even the propriety or feasibility of State care of forests was
questioned by some public men; but the demand of the people
for forest preservation has enforced the trial of administrative
plans. The legislation establishing the Adirondack Reserve
is so recent and accessible in the statutes that it need not be re-
cited. Your request that I should address you means that you
wish me to communicate some of my personal observation and
knowledge relative to the great Adirondack forest acquired
during the quarter of a century that I have devoted to the sur-
veys in this region.

Shall I tell you of these forests as they were? Ass they are?
As they should be?

As they were when I began the exploration of the remote
portions of the wilderness at the close of the civil war—I cannot
think of them without regret for their then grandeur and beauty.
At the close of the civil war the Adirondack region was a
wonderful forest—a cathedral of trees. A great portion of the
forest was then practically unknown. Its thousand lakes were
supposed to number only one or two hundred. Whole valleys
and mountain ranges of primeval forest existed—yes, valley
after valley, and range after range—which had never echoed to
the sound of a jumberman’s axe. The moose was not yet ex-
tinct. The wild trumpeter swan sunned his snowy plumage
on the shallows of the northern rivers. The wild pigeons, in
flocks that darkened the sky, made here their nesting ground,
breaking the limbs from the trees by the weight of their tumult-

143

uous masses. Eagles, hawks and owls fattened on rich food.
Partridges or ruffled grouse and the black or Canada grouse,
and other rare and beautiful birds, were here. The beaver cut
down trees and built log dams and houses of brush and mud.
Wolves, bear and panther were frequently met with, the wolves,
indeed, so audacious and dangerous as to venture out into the
settlements, killing sheep and howling near the cabins of fron-
tiersmen. The true source of the Hudson river was unknown,
and other Adirondack rivers were indicated upon maps by
dotted lines, representing a “supposed course” of the stream.
So wild, so magnificent, so untouched and unknown was the
interior of this great forest as late as 1865.

Forests of majestic pines yet grew upon the banks of the Up-
per Hudson. The pine was yet the chief sought timber of the
lumbermen. | Magnificent trees, towering above all the forest,
stood masters among the dark spruce and Hemlock forests,
which, below, were embowered in unbroken masses of hard-
wood or deciduous timber. The lake shores for miles were sym-
metrically margined with perfectly-formed forests of Arbor Vi-
tate (the “white cedar” of hunters and guides). The great Sphag-
num swamps were decorated with dark-green Balsam trees,
surprisingly uniform in shape, as though trimmed by artifice of
man to the form of spires of innumerable chapels. Except near
settlements, forest fires had left hardly a scar on the sides of the
richly-timbered mountains. There were no railroads in the
Adirondacks in those days, nor on either side of it. Even the
shores of Lake Champlain and the valley of Black river had
yet to hear the roar of the railway train. Stages, as open
wagons were called, went to some settlements on the borders
of the forest once or twice a week. These “stages” traveled
night and day on a journey over fearful roads, and the wearied
traveler felt happy that only one day in the week was stage day.
Corduroy roads, rudely made of logs, rarely having any cover-
ing of earth, were the causeways through the swamps, and over
the hills the wheels struggled with huge boulders for the right
of way. Each stage driver had his axe, for trees, fallen across
the road, had frequently to be cut away.

I remember, in 1870, traversing the new road from North
river to Indian lake, then recently opened. It was October.
On either side was a dense forest of trees of enormous size.

144

Between these was only the single track of the new road, so
deeply sunken into the soft “wooden soil” as to reach the hubs
of the vehicles. At 2000 feet above the sea the pines had mostly
given place to the Black Spruce and Balsam, decorating a leaf-
less forest of gigantic Yellow Birches and huge Beech trees.
The mightiest Hemlock trees were dwarfed by comparison with
the great uplifted columns of the spruces, and the rough, scaly
trunks of those Yellow Birches supported topmost branches
which fairly swept the clouds.

Six years later I passed that way again. Only by the topog-
raphy could one recognize the country. The great trees were
chiefly gone. Forest fires had followed the axe, and tall, black-
ened columns—the lofty and horrible head-boards of the dead
forest—were the chief reminder of what had been. Bad man-
agement, or lack of management, had permitted this section of
the great forest to be destroyed, for the giant hardwood trees
had not been cut or lumbered. They had been wasted by fire
because there was no one to save them or prevent it. It is not
known how these fires originated. It is more likely from hunt-
ers’ camp-fire than from a lumberman’s carelessness. How-
ever it happened, they are gone! There was no forest manage-
ment.

Ten years more pass away. The dead and blackened trunks
of the old forest have mostly fallen or are more solitary, and
have grown gray with many winters of exposure to the storms.
But the area of burnt forest has increased vastly. How or
why no one can explain or understand. Hundreds of square
miles are now bare of forest, showing the rough, grizzly ledges
of native rock. At midsummer, here and there, columns of
smoke are seen to rise one mile, three miles, ten miles away—
a dozen of them—where there is still forest, and you are told
“some hunter has made a smudge,” or “probably someone with
a shotgun and wadding of paper” has unconsciously fired the
forest.

Such is the Adirondack forest as it was and as it is in the low-
lands and accessible portions—chiefly lumbered over now, and
the remnants in many places burnt away. Yet in the interior
and mountain districts there remain vast sections still un-
touched by lumbermen and undevastated.

145

It was in a remote interior valley, where the symmetry and
beauty of the forest was most remarkable, a region free from
underbrush, with beautiful, open, sunshiny glades, naturally
planted with clusters of small but well formed evergreens,
where crystaline trout streams led through dark forests or wild
meadows to beautiful lakes, that I first (thirty years ago)
thought of the Adirondack park and forest reserve. Since
then I have urged it, written of it, spoken for it, and today it is
a reality.

In my report to the Legislature on the Adirondack Survey
in 1873, I especially urged the acquisition by the State of those
forests at the sources of the Hudson, which include the high
Alpine district of our mountains.

This portion of the Adirondack forest is unique. The spruce,
the balsam, the birch, which grow in such dense forests upon
these Alpine slopes, had they memories, could tell of days when
George the Third was King; when Washington was unknown;
perhaps of times before either Indian or white man had climbed
these peaks. Yet these trees are scarce three or five feet high,
but aged and gray—the patriarchs of the forest—spreading out
their interlaced boughs, matted together in impenetrable chap-
aral, where the explorer must walk upon the tree-tops if he
climb at all. Higher the air is thin, and cold and piercing. A
mile above sea level the forest trees have shrunk to shrubs.
Arctic willows, Lapland lichens and Greenland mosses and
small boreal plants are the only evidences of plant life that re-
main.

But in the deep valleys, half a mile below, where the white
billows of the clouds go floating, are forests where, if the trees
are small, they are, nevertheless, densely set, twenty-five feet
in height, but scarce a foot apart, so close at times that a dog
can scarce make his way among them, while the ground is one
mass of humus soil, soaking with rain and the moisture of the
clouds, frequently knee-deep with bright green sphagnum—a
peat moss so soaked and saturated with water as to justify the
name of hanging-lakes to these mosses on the mountain sides.

This is the Alpine and Sub-Alpine forest, the preservation
of which I so strongly recommended in my report of 1873 and
since.

146

This section of the forest has not greatly changed. The lum-
bermen have penetrated into the upland valleys, but have not
reached any of the high peaks. Only the large timber has as
yet been taken. In 1873, between the Schroon and Raquette
rivers, North Elba and the Boreas or Old Carthage road, there
was nearly 500 square miles of primeval forest. There still re-
main nearly 100 square miles of these Adirondack Alps un-
harmed by the fire or by the axe. This, with the Whiteface
mountain district, preserved by a private club or association,
covers nearly all the Alpine forest of New York, but this Mount
Marcy district has chief value as containing the sources of the
Hudson.

There should be no delay now in the preservation of this
rare forest and its springs of living waters.

Of the forests of the lake region, it may be said that of those
located above 1500 to 1700 feet above the sea, the choicest por-
tions are now either in the hands of the private parks or clubs,
or of the State. This is the chief region of timber and game.
At Raquette lake, at points on the headwaters of Moose river,
are sections of forest which no lumberman has yet cut—as wild
in places as when Columbus discovered America.

In the discussions which led to the establishment of our for-
est preserves one of the chief arguments used was the ultimate
value to the State of the timber upon these lands as a reserve
for forest administration. The general agreement of high au-
thority and experience appears to be in favor of the utilization
of the already lumbered districts of the forest, so far, at least, as
to meet the expense of their maintenance, if not of their cost.
Yet those tracts of wild and picturesque forest, including the
larger lakes, like the Raquette, the Saranac or the Au Sable,
especially those sections which have never been lumbered, can
be preserved intact as a memorial and evidence of the ancient
forests, and the application of the European system may be
confined to those natural lumbering districts in the border of
the forest which have already been cut over, but have now a
new growth of merchantable timber upon them. The taxes of
this State may perhaps ultimately be lightened to the extent of
$2,500,000 per annum from the present deforested border lands
of this region, now nearly bare of timber.

147

Let the forests be restored on the burnt and barren districts
of the Adirondacks and scientific lumbering be confined to these
border tracts which have been cut over again and again, which
appear to be natural lumbering districts. Let the primeval,
untouched forests of the remote interior and Alpine district
ever remain inviolable, and New York will possess a forest
magnificent in its ancient grandeur, practically useful—the safe
health resort of thousands yet to come. ~

THE FORESTRY LEGISLATION OF NEW
HAMPSHIRE.

By Prof. JaMEs F. Cotsy, Hanover, N. H.

Legislation for the protection of the forests of New Hamp-
shire is recent in origin, tentative in character, and small in vol-
ume. The reasons for this are found in the economic history
of the State. When white men began their settlements within
its present borders, New Hampshire was covered with a dense
forest of finest timber. Apparently the only unforested areas
were a few sedgy swamps, a few Indian corn fields, and the
higher elevations of the White mountains. The white men
came, not to remain hunters and fishers, but to subdue this
wilderness and to establish an agricultural and industrial com-
monwealth. Trees were no less an obstacle to this end than
granite boulders. The first step, therefore, to the economic ad-
vancement of the successive bands of settlers who pushed their
way from Dover, Portsmouth and Exeter into the central and
western portions of the State toward the middle of the last cen-
tury, and finally to its northernmost border, soon after the close
of the Revolution, was the felling of forests to make room for
farms. So gradually was this done, that it was not until the
close of the rebellion, during which the State sold for a mite the
last of its public domain, that any apprehension appears to have
been felt lest too much of the forest of the State might be re-

148

moved, and the proper economic proportion between its tillage
land, its pasture and its forests be disturbed. Slowly this ap-
prehension has spread, and with it has come a demand for for-
estry legislation. The large dependence of the growing man-
ufacturing interests of the State upon the supply of water power
and the Report of the Commissioners on the Preliminary Ex-
amination of the Water Power of New Hampshire, published
in 1870, emphasized this demand, though it was not until 1881
that the State instituted an official inquiry into its forest re-
sources. So far, all its legislation upon this subject has been
simple and experimental, though during the past fourteen years
the State has instituted three commissions to make investiga-
tions into its forestry conditions, which may give the material
upon which to base a more elaborate and definite code of for-
estry law.

The legislation which has thus far been adopted is limited to
the following subjects:

Protection Against Forest Fires.

The more general provisions relating to this subject are
found in the Public Statutes, 1891, and are as follows:

“Towns may make such by-laws respecting the kindling, guarding
and safe-keeping of fires, and for removing all combustible materials
from any building or place, as the safety of the property in such town
may require; and may appoint in such manner as may be be prescribed
in such regulations, all such officers as may be necessary to carry such
regulations into effect, and affix penalties not exceeding ten dollars for
any offense, to be recovered in such manner and to such use as the
town may direct.” (General Laws, chap. 47, sec. 8.)

“If any person shall willfully and maliciously burn any stack of corn,
hay, grain, or flax, or any fence, or pile of boards, lumber or wood, or
any trees or underwood of another, he shall be imprisoned three years,
or fined not exceeding one thousand dollars and imprisoned not ex-
ceeding one year.” (Chap. 277, sec. 3.)

“If any person, with intent to injure another, kindles, or causes to be
kindled, a fire on his own or another’s land, and thereby the property
of any other person is injured or destroyed, he shall be fined not ex-
ceeding $2,000, or imprisoned not exceeding three years.” (Chap. 277,
sec. 6.)

“If any person shall kindle a fire by the use of firearms, or by any
other means, on land not his own, he shall be fined not exceeding ten
dollars; and if such fire spreads and does any damage to the property
of others, he shall be fined not exceeding one thousand dollars.”
(Chap. 277, sec. 4.)

149

“If any person, for a lawful purpose, shall kindle a fire upon his own
land, or upon the land which he occupies, or upon which he is laboring,
at an unsuitable time, or in a careless and imprudent manner, and shall
thereby injure or destroy the property of others, he shall be fined not
exceeding one thousand dollars.” (Chap. 277, sec. 5.)

“Whoever shall inform the prosecuting officers of the state of evi-
dence which secures the conviction of any person who willfully, malic-
iously, or through criminal carelessness has caused any damage by fire
in any forest, woodlot, pasture or field, shall receive from the State a
reward of one hundred dollars. The State treasurer shall pay the same
to the informer upon presentation of a certificate of the attorney-gen-
eral or solicitor that he is entitled thereto.” (Chap. 277, sec. 7.)

“The proprietors of every railroad shall be liable for all damages
which shall accrue to any person or property by fire or steam from any
locomotive or other engine on such road.” (General Laws, chap. 160,
sec. 29.)

The court has held that this law makes the liability of rail-
roads absolute like that of insurers, and that the concurring
fault or carelessness of the plaintiff, in leaving combustible litter
scattered about his premises, or in leaving his property in an
exposed situation, furnishes no excuse or defense in case of
such burning.

To the above statute provisions may be added the common-
law doctrine, that anyone who, by carelessly kindling or negli-
gently tending and guarding a fire upon his own land, causes
injury to the property of another, by the escape of such fire, is
liable in damages to the extent of the loss inflicted.

The comment of the Commission of 1885 upon these statutes
now requires little amendment, and may here be abridged.
(See Report of Foresty Commission for 1885, pp. 95-96.)

That Commission expressed its doubt, in which their suc- .
cessors will concur, whether the statutes above quoted have had
any appreciable effect in curtailing the number or destructive-
ness of forest fires since they have been in force. The first of
these statutes, though capable of wider application, always
seems to have been regarded as intended only for the protec-
tion of buildings and property in the compact parts of towns.
Instances are few, if any, in which it has been applied to the
protection of woodland or forest. Even if so applied, this
statute must prove inadequate because it allows local option,
and forest fires require uniformly rigid treatment.

150

No conviction under any one of the four sections quoted from
Chapter 277 of the Public Statutes has come to our knowledge.
It was the unofficial opinion of a distinguished Justice of the
Supreme Court of New Hampshire, lately deceased, Hon.
William S. Ladd, that this was due to the popular judgment
that the offense involved no atrocity, to the difficulty of its de-
tection, and to the lack of adequate reward for the performance
of such service.

The above statute relating to railroads is deemed by compe-
tent judges to have stimulated these corporations to take due
care against causing or spreading forest fires. The common-
law liability above described has been effective in restraining
persons of pecuniary liability in the use of fire upon their own
premises. Suits by injured parties to recover the damage thus
caused are of frequent occurrence, and are often successful.
(See Report of Forestry Commission, 1885, pp. 95-97.)

Despite these provisions of law, statutory and common, both
the first and second Forestry Commissions recommended the
adoption of more stringent laws for protection against forest
fires. In 1893 the Legislature first acted upon these recom-
mendations, and (An Act for the Establishment, of a Forestry
Commission) enacted the following:

“SECTION 3. The selectmen of towns in this State are hereby consti-
tuted fire wardens of their several towns, whose duty it shall be to watch
the forests, and, whenever a fire is observed therein, to immediately
summon such assistance as they may deem necessary, go at once to the
scene of it, and, if possible, extinguish it. In regions where no town
organizations exist the county commissioners are empowered to ap-
point such fire wardens. Fire wardens and such persons as they may

.employ shall be paid for their services by the town in which such fires
occur, and, in the absence of town organizations, by the county.”

Two years’ experience has convinced the present Forestry
Commission that this law must prove ineffective. That Com-
mission, in its report for 1895, pp. 35-36, says:

“There is little fault to be found with the manner in which the select-
men of towns have discharged their duties as fire wardens, and that
part of the law which clothes those officials with the power to protect
the forests of their towns against fire, appears to require only slight
modification. That part of the law, however, which relates to the pro-
tection of the great forested areas, which are found in the unincor-
porated townships of the northern counties of the State, should, in the
opinion of this board, be amended. The provision by which county

151

commissioners were empowered to appoint fire wardens for places
where no town organizations exist has been wholly inoperative, and,
despite the frequently renewed and often vigorous and personal: pro-
tests of this board, not a single fire warden for such places has been
appointed under the provisions of that act.

“Thus what appears to us to have been the plain intent of the framers
of that act has been nullified by the neglect of the county commission-
ers to give effect to its only administrative feature. The only excuse
given for this neglect, so far as we know, is fhat the cost of protecting
these areas of forest ought not to be borne by the county, but that it is
the duty of each man to protect his own forest.”

To supply the defect thus discovered in the administration of
the law, the last Legislature, by an act of March 29, 1895, pro-
vided as follows:

“SEcTION 1. It shall be the duty of the forestry commission, upon
application by the owner or owners of any tract of forest land situated
in a locality where no town organization exists, to appoint a suitable
number of special fire wardens for said tracts, to define their duties, to
limit their term of employment, and to fix their compensation. The
expense attending the employment of said special fire wardens shall be
borne one-half by the party or parties making the application for their
appointment and one-half by the county in which said tract of land is
located.

“Approved March 29, 1895.”

The territorial area of Northern New Hampshire, in which no
town organization exists, is relatively large, and much of it is
heavily timbered. Hence the enactment just quoted, if wisely
administered, promises a larger measure of protection than has
ever before been supplied against the ravages of forest fires in
the localities where it is most needed.

Investigation of Forestry Conditions.

In order to obtain information to serve as a basis for forestry
legislation, the State has authorized the appointment in succes-
sion of three Forestry Commissions. The first temporary
Forestry Commission was authorized by the act of June 29,
1881, which provided that:

“The Governor, and such associates as he may appoint to act with
him, are hereby constituted a commission to institute an inquiry into
the extent to which the forests of New Hampshire are being destroyed
by the indiscriminate cutting of wood and timber for transportation to
other States; also, the effect, if any, produced by the destruction of our
forests upon our rainfall, and consequently upon our ponds and streams,
and into the wisdom or necessity for the adoption of forest laws.”

152

This Commission, which expired by limitation in two years,
was by the act of September 15, 1883, extended for an addi-
tional term of two years. Its report, submitted to the Legis-
lature in 1885, treated of the five following subjects:

1. Forest areas.

2. The forests of New Hampshire in their relation to the |
amount of rainfall, the water supply, and the climate of the
State.

3. The trees and shrubs composing the New Hampshire for-
ests, their distribution, relative abundance, and utility.

4. Forest management and reforesting.

5. Forest fires.

It is not improper to add that this report is one of the most
valuable of those that have been made upon this subject in any
State of the Union, and that the subsequent Forestry Commis-
sions of this State are greatly indebted for the thoroughness.
with which this investigation was conducted. But public in-
terest was not yet awake to the necessity of further specific
legislation for the protection of the forests. The gradual en-
croachment of the lumberman’s axe upon the White mountain
forests, several destructive fires along the lines of summer travel
in that region, and the realized close dependence between
water supply and the growth of our manufacturing interests
contributed to keep alive agitation and sufficed to lead to the
establishment of a second temporary Forestry Commission.
This Commission was appointed in accordance with the act of
August 16, 1889, which reads:

“WHEREAS, The preservation of the forests of New Hampshire is
essentially necessary, not only for the prosperity of our vast manufac-
turing interests, but also to preserve and increase that natural pete
of scenery so attractive to our visitors; and

“WHEREAS, The hills and mountains in this State are being rapidly
denuded of timber and rendered unsightly by the acts of private par-
ties owning the same; therefore,

“Resolved, That the Governor, with the advice of the Council, is.
hereby authorized and empowered to appoint a commission consisting
of three able and discreet men, who shall examine and ascertain the
feasibility of the purchase by the State of the whole or any portion of
the timber lands upon the hills and mountains in the State, near sum-
mer resorts, or bordering upon the principal sources of the water sup-
plies needed for manufacturing purposes, with the view of preserving

the same as public lands and parks, and report their finding to the next
session of the Legislature.”

153

The report of this Commission, presented to the Legislature
in 1891, was based upon a careful examination of the mountain
regions of the State, and contained in its first half an analysis of
the functions of mountain forests, under four heads:

1. The preservation of the mountains themselves by clothing
them with soil.

2. The supply of timber.

3. The formation in the soil of natural storage reservoirs for
the retention and distribution of water.

4. The production and maintenance of such conditions of the
soil, water, atmosphere and scenery of the region as are highly
favorable to human life, health and enjoyment.

And in its second half statistics and discussions relating to the
leading natural resources of the State, its agriculture, timber
supply, manufactures, the attractions of its scenery for tourists
and summer visitors, the railroads in the State, roads and paths,
forest fires, and the inter-dependence of our leading industries.

This Commission recommended:

1. That the large expense involved in the condemnation by
the State for public purposes, by the exercise of the right of
eminent domain, of very extensive areas of its mountain forests,
and the undefined limit of the legislative power to authorize the
same, render it unwise for the State to proceed far in that direc-
tion, and that it confine its action to tracts of small extent, and
to those whose condemnation is undoubtedly demanded by the
public welfare.

2. That a permanent Forestry Commission be appointed,
whose duties should be substantially those now prescribed (An
Act Establishing a Forestry Commission, 1893) for the exist-
ing Commission.

3. That the penalties for the careless or wilful firing of woods
or forests be increased, and that the selectmen of towns be con-
stituted fire-wardens for their respective towns, and that in
localities where no town organizations exist county commis-
sioners should act as fire-wardens.

These recommendations respecting fire-wardens also were
embodied in the act above cited of 1893.

This second temporary Commission appointed for two years
was, by the act of April 10, 1891, extended for an additional
term of two years. Its second report, submitted to the Legis-

154

lature in 1893, contains an extended discussion of the various
phases of the forestry question in its relations to the permanent
interests of the State, and-concludes by suggesting the follow-
ing remedies to prevent the further squandering of the forested

wealth of the State:

“1 That, as favorable opportunities offer, the State should purchase
of their owners such tracts of denuded land as it may be deemed ad-
visable for the State to acquire, and forever after hold and manage them
in such manner as the general interests of its people require.

“5. That, as favorable opportunities occur, the State should purchase
of their owners tracts of forest from which all trees of a stipulated size
have already been or may be subsequently removed by the seller; said
lands to be forever after held and managed by the State in such manner
as the general interests of its citizens require.

“3. The resumption of ownersip by the State through the exercise of
its right of eminent domain, of important tracts of land, like mountain
passes and mountain summits, to be forever after controlled by its
government, and devoted to the enjoyment of the public.

“4. That, as favorable opportunities occur, the State should purchase
of the proprietors of such forest property as it may wish to control,
agreements restricting the owners and their heirs, administrators, and
assigns, forever, to cutting of such trees only as are above a stipulated
size.” ;

The third, and present Forestry Commission, was intended
to be permanent. It was constituted in accordance with the
recommendations of the second temporary Forestry Commis-
sion, Outlined in its report for 1891. The act establishing this
present Commission, approved March 29, 1893, provides that
the Commisison shall consist of the Governor, ex officio, and
four other members, two Republicans and two Democrats, who
shall be appointed by the Governor, with advice of the Council
for their special fitness for services on this Commission, and be
classified in such manner that the office of one shall become
vacant each year.

“SECTION 2. It is the duty of this commission to investigate the ex-
tent and character of the original and secondary forests of the State,
together with the amounts and varieties of the wood and timber grow-
ing therein; to ascertain, as near as the means at their command will
allow, the annual removals of wood and timber thereupon and the dis-
position made of the same, by home consumption and manufacture as
well as by exportation in the log; the different methods of lumbering
pursued and the effects thereof upon the timber supply, water power,
scenery and climate of the State; the approximate amount of revenue
annually received from the forests of the State: the damages done to

155

them from time to time by forest fires, and any other important facts
relating to forest interests which may come to their knowledge.”

Some of the investigations prescribed by the above enact-
ment have been made; others are in progress. A statement
of the results of the former has been submitted to the Lgislature
in the Forestry Reports for 1893 and 1894.

The law creating the first Forestry Commission provided
that its members should serve without compensation or expense
to the State; the law creating the second Commission author-
ized the payment out of the treasury of the State of $1000, or so
much thereof as might be necessary for the payment and serv-
ices of said Commission; the law creating the third Commis-
sion provides that one of said Commissioners shall be elected
by his associates secretary of the Commission and receive a sal-
ary of one thousand dollars per annum. The other members
shall receive no compensation for their services but shall be
paid their necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of their
duties, as audited and allowed by the Governor and Council.

The laws creating these Commissions have required that
they make reports to the Legislature, and that these reports be
printed for distribution. The information thus supplied to the
Legislature was needed before that body could act with ade-
quate knowledge of the evil alleged to be done by forest fires
and the lumberman’s axe. Now only the rise of a strong pub-
lic opinion demanding the adoption of more scientific forestry
seems to be needed to secure further enactments.

Public Parks.

Since the beginning of the forestry agitation in New Hamp-
shire numerous plans have been suggested for the acquisition
by the State of the whole or some parts of the White mountain
region, and occasionally of some outlying mountain peaks, and
their dedication to the uses of public parks. The large pecun-
iary outlay which such reservations would involve, and the un-
willingness of agricultural communities to increase their pres-
ent undue burden of taxation for what many of them would
deem the especial benefit of the leisure classes, who during the
summer flock to the mountains from town and city, have thus
far prevented the establishment of such reservations. Their util-
ity as object-lessons in scientific forestry also is appreciated by

156

few. Still a beginning of such legislation was made in 1893.
The Legislature then enacted (An Act for the Establishment of
a Forestry Commisison, Sec. 4) that:

“Section 4. Whenever any person or persons shall supply the nec-
essary funds therefor, so that no cost or expense shall accrue to the
State, the forestry commission is hereby authorized to buy any tract of
land and devote the same to the purposes of a public park. If they can-
not agree with the owners thereof as to the price, they may condemn
the same under the powers of eminent domain, and the value shall be
determined as in case of lands taken for highways, with the same rights
of appeal and jury trial. On the payment of the value, as finally de-
termined, the land so taken shall be vested in the State and forever held
for the purposes of a public park. The persons furnishing the money
to buy said land shall be at liberty to lay out roads and paths on the
land and otherwise improve the same under the direction of the forestry
commission, and the tract shall at all times be open to the use of the
public.”

Thus far no persons have furnished sufficient means to en-
able the Forestry Commission to exercise the beneficial power

thus bestowed.
Arbor Day, Shade Trees and Forestry Meetings.

Arbor day has not been made a legal holiday in New Hamp-
shire, but its observance has for several years been invited by
official proclanfation, and its observance is becoming custom-
ary, especially by the public schools.

The legislation of this State in relation to the planting, culti-
vation and protection of shade and ornamental trees requires
only briefest mention. The Public Statutes, Chap. 40, Sec. 9,
state that “towns shall have control of the shade and orna-
mental trees situated upon any lands within the limits of the
town appropriated to public uses, and may make regulations
from time to time for the planting, protection and preservation
of such trees.” Chap. 50, Sec. 10, gives like power to City
Councils. Chap. 59, Sec. 13, allows an abatement of taxes to
any person who shall plant and protect shade trees upon any
highway adjoining his land. Chap. 81, Sec. 5, forbids the
stringing of wires to the injury of shade trees without the con-
sent of the owner, unless upon order of the selectmen, after
hearing, and Chap. 147, Sec. I, authorizes the formation of cor-
porations for “the planting, cultivation and protection of shade,
ornamental and forest trees.” This legislation was supple-

157

mented by an act approved March 28, 1895, which provides
that:

“SECTION 1. The mayor and aldermen in cities, and the selectmen
of towns, are hereby authorized as hereinafter provided in this act, to
designate and preserve trees standing and growing in the limits of
highways, for the purposes of shade or ornament, and to designate not
more than one such tree in every sixty-six feet where such trees are
growing, and are of a diameter of one inch or more.

“SECTION 2. Said mayor, and aldermen, and selectmen shall at such
seasons of the year as they deem proper, designate such trees as are se-
lected by them for the purposes set forth in this act, by driving into the
same, at a point not less than four nor more than six feet from the
ground, and on the side toward the highway, a nail or spike with a me-
tallic washer, hung thereon, on which shall be stamped the seal of the
State of New Hampshire, together with such numbers or figures as
will enable said officers to keep a correct record of said trees. Said
washer shall be procured by the secretary of the Forestry Commission,
and furnished by him to said officers as may be required by them for
the purposes of this act. But nothing in this act shall prevent said offi-
cers from removing said trees whenever in their opinion the public
good requires it. Said mayor and aldermen, or selectmen, shall at
least once each year renew such nails or spikes and washers as shall
have been destroyed or defaced, and may also designate in the same
manner as hercin before directed, such other trees within the limits of
the highway as in their judgment should be preserved for ornament or
shade.

“SECTION 3. Whoever shall wantonly or intentionally injure or de-
face any tree thus designated or any of said nails, spikes or washers af-
fixed to said trees, shall forfeit not less than five, or more than one hun-
dred dollars, to be recovered by complaint, one-half of which fine shall
go to the complainant, and one-half to the city or town wherein the
offense was committed.”

The act of March 29, 1893, establishing the present Forestry
Commission, requires it to “hold meetings from time to time in
different parts of the State for the discussion of forestry sub-
jects.” This branch of forestry work, though inaugurated by
the second Forestry Commission, under the leadership of its
able president, Hon. Joseph B. Walker, and its indefatigable
secretary, Rev. J. B. Harrison, flagged for lack of audiences.
During the past two years audiences have been easily found by
the present Commission, through the enthusiastic co-operation
of the Patrons of Husbandry and the State Board of Agricul-
ture, which have placed this topic on the programmes for their
regular meetings. The New Hampshire College of Agricul-

158

ture and Mechanic Arts also has aided in the public discussion
of this subject by including in its “Institute Course” for 1893-4
a short series of lectures on Forestry.

Such briefly has been the forestry legislation of New Hamp-
shire. The vital interest of the State in this subject is evidenced
by the fact that a larger acreage of its soil can profitably be de-
voted to the cultivation of trees than to the raising of wheat or
any other cereal, by the probability that the completed returns
for the census of 1890 will show that its lumber and saw-mill in-
dustry is second to none in the State, by the judgment of ex-
perts that from an economic view the present system of cutting
pursued by the lumbermen is doing incalculable damage, and
by the universal opinion that the deforesting of the White
mountains must rob the commonwealth of its greatest natural
beauty. It is apparent that the legislation described is inad-
equate for the proper protection of this vast interest upon which
must depend so largely the future prosperity of this common-
wealth.

PUBLIC MISAPPREHENSION OF THE
FORESTRY QUESTION.

By J. B. Harrison, Franklin Falls, New Hampshire.

The careless and wasteful methods of treatment of our forest
interests and resources, which have been common in this coun-
try, have always had close and vital relations to the general
contents of the American mind—that is, to the whole body of
ideas, theories, opinions, beliefs and assumptions which belong
to the intellectual life of our people. They are features and
products of our mental conditions and environment, and be-
long naturally to the stage of civilization and development
which we have reached. We have used our other great nat-
ural resources in very much the same way. We have wan-
tonly wasted, and, in many instances, completely destroyed
valuable sources of supply for fish and game. The supply of

159

water for the irrigation of vast tracts or arid land in the western
part of our country has been, and still is, seriously threatened
by the national indifference to injuries to the mountain sources
of the rivers from which this means of wealth must be drawn.

Here in New England our principal mountain streams are be-
ing choked and polluted by sawdust and other sawmill refuse,
and are being transformed into sewers. Their waters, if they had
been kept pure, would be worth millions Of dollars to the dwell-
ers in the great towns between the mountains and the sea, and
especially to the vast populations which are gathering in the
shore lands of Massachusetts and other States. The great
White Mountain springs should naturally supply millions of
the people in the Atlantic coast cities with pure water for do-
mestic purposes, but the streams from these sources are al-
ready indescribably foul and noisome, and their polluted waters
carry disease and death to the unfortunate people who have to
drink them.

Our mountain landscapes are needlessly defaced and vulgar-
ized, and the attractiveness of our scenery is being steadily re-
duced, obliterated and destroyed, although this scenery is the
source of an actual annual revenue of many millions of dollars
for our people.

The general treatment of springs and of small or local sources
of water supply, by individual proprietors, is nearly everywhere
such as to destroy them entirely, even where they would have
a definite and important money value. In New England thou-
sands of such springs have been extirpated. There was formerly
a spring at the head of nearly every ravine which leads down
from the higher land to the inter-vales, or bottom lands, along
the rivers; often a spring every few rods, sending down a never-
failing stream of the purest water to help maintain the equable
flow of the mightier current through the valley below.

These springs were usually situated where the ground could
not possibly be cultivated, as it was too steep for any kind of till-
age. Ifa small area around each spring had been left to the
growth of timber the perpetual supply of this product would
have been permanent. But the usual course of treatment is to
cut off all the trees and bushes, and when the brush has be-
come dry, to burn the ground over, so as to destroy all possibil-
ity of the reproduction of tree growth at that place.

160

In consequence, the slopes above and around the spring soon
begin to break away, the surface soil slips down, and the sand
or gravel of the hillside spills out and smothers the spring, often
filling and burying the entire nook or glen in which the spring
was situated. There are now hundreds of these small deserts
along our river inter-vales, where once all was verdure, fresh-
ness and beauty. Some scientific men hold that all the deserts
on our planet have been created by human agency. I do not
know whether this is a correct opinion, but my fellow-citizens
in New England are still engaged in the business of desert
making.

Our treatment of the soil itself, the greatest of all our natural
resources, has been to a very great extent wasteful, reckless and
unintelligent. My neighbors burn their fields over every spring,
wherever their is a sufficient film of grass, weeds or stubble to
lead the fire over the ground. This burns out the fertility of a
thin stratum of the surface, and this is ploughed under each
year, and at the same time a new layer of the soil is turned up
which will be subjected to the action of fire at the opening of
the following season. The land thus treated grows whiter and
sandier, as cultivation progresses. The owners buy increasing
quantities of “commercial fertilizers,” and complain of the
diminishing fertility of their fields. Not long ago I saw almost
the whole length of the valley of the Red River of the North
ablaze with burning wheat stubble and straw.

Every year scores of people are burned to death in this coun-
try, and property of the value of many millions of dollars de-
stroyed, by fires which might easily have been prevented. The
causes of such fires belong to two classes—those of faulty con-
struction of buildings, and those of inadequate care of stoves,
furnaces and fire-places. It is a little cheaper to build houses
and stores, so as to invite the resistless spread and dominance
of any fire once started and so we build them in that way.

Very often a great fire would have been preventd by the em-
ployment of night watchmen. But that would cost three or
four dollars a night, perhaps; so the owner or occupant hopes
it will be all right, and takes the chances, and the building burns.
Multitudes of our people think there is no actual loss when
property in any amount is destroyed by fire, if it is fully insured.

161

The ideas, notions and practices of our countrymen in rela-
tion to our forest interests and resources are not exceptional or
peculiar. They are of a piece with the general intellectual
character and possessions of our people. “The spendthrift’s
childlike faith in the inexhaustibility of his patrimony“ is a
strong belief in the general American mind, and it is a potent
influence in our national character and action.

A large proportion of the intellectual possessions of the
American people consists of notions, ideas, theories, assump-
tions and beliefs which will not bear any searching analysis.
This is not only true of the masses who work with their hands
for wages, who have little time or opportunity for culture, but
it is true also, to a great extent, of most of our “educated peo-
ple” as well. Since our civil war no exigency has arisen to
compel us to “take account of stock,” or to examine and revise
the mass of incoherent and undeveloped “views” and fancies,
which have in various ways come to be taken for granted, and
which now fill a great deal of room in the average American
mind.

Chief of all these, and most important in its bearing on our
methods of managing our national resources, is the fantastic
trust in the omnipotent power of science to deliver us from all
need of care, toil, economy and foresight, and to make good all
the losses caused by wanton waste and stupid destructiveness.
We destroy, instead of preserving, forest conditions on our
mountains, because the mass and average of the American peo-
ple believe that science is almost certain to provide adequate
substitutes, not only for food and timber, whenever such sub-
stitutes are needed, but for everything else which we waste and
destroy.

We look to science to bless our disregard of economic and
moral laws with all the rewards of wise and orderly living. The
natural effect upon character of such a belief is the breaking
down of moral distinctions and the emancipation of the mind
and will from obligation, and this effect is already widely man-
ifest. The full consequences of this mighty transformation in
thought and character will probably unfold themselves grad-
ually. But the people who cherish this entirely unscientific
trust in science are very numerous; they are our fellow-citi-
zens; they have votes, and their dreamy faith in unrealities ap-

162

pears not only in our treatment of our forest interests and re-
sources, but in national legislation and policy regarding other
important departments of our national life.

Our forestry problem in this country, like most of our other
serious problems, is largely a psychological problem. Any
great and permanent gain in our methods of dealing with our
natural resources must be based upon, and result from, a sub-
stantial improvement and advance in popular thought; and
this can at the present time be brought about more readily than
has ever before been possible. We need more effective agen-
cies and methods than have yet been brought into operation
for the education of the American mind. We should continue
and extend the use of all the means which have been found effi-
cient for the diffusion of knowledge and the propagation of
ideas, and should employ some additional methods, adapted to
more rapid and thorough operation.

Mr. Bryce, in his admirable book, ‘““The American Common-
wealth,” remarks that “associations are created, extended and
worked in the United States more quickly and effectively than
in any other country,” and he recognizes their value as ‘‘organs
for focusing and propagating opinion.” The American For-
estry Association is exactly such an organization as Mr. Bryce
had in mind. Such an association can take any substantial
idea, which admits of brief and clear statement, and can put it
into the minds of all the people of the country, so that they will
think about it and talk about it. Of course, we must have
money for printing and postage in order to undertake such
educational work, and it is much to be regretted that some of
the rich men of this country who have gone on founding miser-
able little colleges where there were already too many, should
not have preferred the much more effective and valuable edu-
cational work which I have here indicated.

The American people are accessible and teachable in a very
high degree. Never were there anywhere in any former time
seventy millions of people so ready to be impressed and influ-
enced by anybody who cares enough about any substantial
idea to try to propagate it, and who, in his efforts for that ob-
ject, will show respect for the natural laws and methods for
the propagation of ideas. There is no special, inherent or in-
surmountable difficulty to hinder or obstruct the educational

163

work which is so greatly needed in this country to promote ra-
tional methods of treatment of our forests and »«:er sources.
It would be a great benefit to our national inicrests in many
ways if the American Forestry Association were enabled to
undertake and prosecute this work of universal popular educa-
tion regarding the whole subject of forest interests, resources
and functions in this country.

There is a pressing requirement for some more specific and
adequate plan and order of exercises for the observance of
Arbor Day. When the day was to be celebrated for the first
time here in the Eastern States, very few of the persons who
kindly arranged the order of exercises knew much about for-
ests and trees, except that they were the source of our lumber
supply, and very few had any definite notion of the objects for
which the day was instituted. Asa result, we have a great deal
of oratory and music and sentimental poetry on Arbor Day, but
very little instruction; and, usually, no care is taken of the trees
planted on that day, so that most of them are dead when the day
comes around again.

The trees should be planted before hand, by some competent
person, when it can be done carefully. A man can plant a tree
properly with half a dozen school children watching him, and
they may thus learn how to do the work themselves. But no
man is likely to plant a tree rightly when two hundred people
are looking on, impatient for the more sensational features of
the Arbor Day programme. When we consider the careful,
unhurried manner in which a tree should be planted, it is ob-
vious that music and oratory are not much more suitable ac-
companiments than they would be for the work of milking a
cow. Inthis State, and in some others in New England, Arbor
Day has been used in several instances, both last year and this,
by those who are opposed to the movement in behalf of the
rational treatment of our mountain forests, as an opportunity
to attack the very objects for which the day was instituted.

We need a kind of “Ritual” or “Liturgy” for our observance
of Arbor Day—a responsive reading, in which the audience can
take part with a leader. This, with a brief preliminary general
statement, would enable us to make sure in all cases of having
the primary and essential facts, ideas and objects with which
the day is concerned, plainly set before the people in attend-

164

ance, and especially before the children and teachers of our
public schools. Everything should be plain, with no attempt
at oratory or eloquence, no sentimental vagueness, no statis-
tics: they put people to sleep.

IN PATHLESS WOOD.

By Epwarp L. BertHoup, Golden, Colorado.

For nearly two years in our early twenties we lived in the
hot-house forests of New Grenada; the last year of our resi-
dence was in a shingle-roofed frame house built of Maine pine
lumber, on a clay bluff over forty feet in height, rising from the
water’s edge of Chaques river. Except for the railway clear-
ing, which gave a vista of about one-fourth mile each way, we
were surrounded by a vegetable wall of deciduous and palm
trees, linked by a tangled mass of liemas and prickly under-
growth. Terrestrial plant growth, and the gay parterres of
varied flowers so common in the northern woods and groves,
were almost totally wanting; and even in the few open savan-
nahs the variety of genera was limited. To get a fair idea of the
peculiar species of herbaceous growth one was compelled to
look upwards, and his search was fructuous and ever-changing;
plant growth, checked or eliminated by the dense opaque shade,
became arboreal and parasitic, while the floral treasures of the
enormous lofty trees were out of reach from the botanical col-
lector. With all this exuberant growth was a legion of insect
life, flying, creeping, buzzing and scavengering in every direc-
tion, enlivened with the harsh screams of parrots and parro-
quets and toucans, doves, tropicals and gallinaceae. The re-
cesses of these giant woods teemed with life and growth, but
rendered an excursion intolerable to the unacclimated.

We will not attempt to describe the almost untold variety of
parasitic growth of orchids, heliconias, arums, cacti and
ferns that each tree carried in profusion; nor to attempt to

165

name their endless changes of form, perfume, foliage and color,
which defy computation. It is enough for me to say that we
were dazzled, as well as depressed, over the mixtures of plant
life which seemed abnormal, yet so bizarre as to lose the seal of
quiet beauty that the lovely flora of the northern woods of the
United States, or of the secluded valleys and mountain tops of
our Rockies exhibit everywhere. We seemed at the equator
to be carried back to the forests of the carboniferous age, for
along the river Chaques the multitudes of saurians, the huge
snakes, the quiet tapir, timid in his solitude, the water teeming
with fish, gave a good idea of the jungles of a former age, while
around the clearings and savannahs the few scattered fruit
trees were alive with monkeys reveling in liberty, the putative
ancestors of coming races of men, the undeveloped fathers of
future tribes of American aborigines.

Yet this magnificence of tree and plant growth was wanting
in restful pleasure and minute beauty, conveying a sense of
feeling that this was a war of destruction between animate and
inanimate life, in which man and animate life were largely in-
ferior, and the survival of the fittest not yet determined.

Turning from this digression on the aesthetic view of trop-
ical vegetation, I will introduce my reader to a bit of woodland
reminiscence, such as yet can be occasionally seen and enjoyed
in a Rocky mountain forest, on some of the affluents of South
Platte, such as the valleys of Clear or Bear creek, about lati-
tude 39 degrees, 35 minutes north. In the words of Longfel-
low, here is “the forest primeval,” at an altitude above the more
temperate valleys of the foothills, yet more than 2000 feet below
that varying factor, the line of tree growth.

The forest is composed of the several species of pine, spruce
and Douglas Fir, with Aspen groves and a scanty growth of
alders, birches and willows on the more marshy borders of riv-
ulets, eked with an occasional clump of Vine Maple or Dog-
wood. The groves are generally composed of tall trees in the
full vigor of growth, and in such close proximity we were con-
stantly obliged to force ourselves between their trunks side-
ways. Subdued and restful was the impalpable music of the
forest; no insect could be heard except an occasional deer fly,
while overhead squirrels, wood-peckers, cerulean jays, Clark’s
crows, cross-bills and pine finches kept up a clatter of subdued

166

music and rapid blows, varied with the notes of a large wood
pigeon or the booming, sad call of doves; by and by we are
startled by the loud rush through the trees of a timid dusky
grouse disturbed from its bearberry patch, while in an open
' glade we see the recently scratched up holes of some errant
bear digging its favorite valerian roots, or the twisted and
tangled top of an Aspen sapling, a mark of the playful work of
an elk polishing his antlers; all bear the impress of insouciant
first creation, before man, the egotistical last creation, brought
death and fell destruction upon animate and inanimate nature.

But listen!—a loud crash is heard; we hasten to ascertain
its origin; a venerable fir tree, an ancient of days, has reached
the apogee of its existence— dry and withered, its bark wrin-
kled with age, a giant of the forest whose shattered head has
faced the storm of numberless ages, now lies prone in its soft
bed of leaves and humus. Overborne by the weight of self, and
deeply decayed, its woody fibre deprived of cellular strength, it
has returned to the earth, from whence it came.

But another surprise awaits us; this ancient fir has most
unmistakably run the full course of local life; presumably we
shall see around it a group of its descendants ambitious to over-
top the forest, like their prone ancestor; to our surprise we find
none; the Aspen, the pine, the Spruce, surround the site of the
dead monarch, with maybe one or two struggling saplings of
fir, which are silently and imperceptibly elbowed out of their
paternal grave and seem to be considered by the more vigorous
growth around as orphans unworthy to succeed their decay-
ing grandsire; and we can here say that in the Rockies, as well
as. inthe San Juan and Wahsatch mountains. Aspen groves die
when a size of from 14 to 24 feet diameter is attained by them,
and fall down, preparing a rich, fertile bed for a succeeding
generation of pines and spruces, nature’s rotation of tree crops.
With trees, as with other created inanimate and animate beings,
the cycle of life is limited; eternal life no more belongs to them
than to anything else in creation; and when ,after growing for
50 or 100 or 500, or even 1000 years, a time arrives when their
powers of assimilation become more and more difficult and
weakened, their time is not far off, and from sheer exhaustion
and weakness they totter and fall, their course has run.

167

This is no ideal picture I have drawn; when,J lived on the
banks of the Chaques river, or in the interior forests of the Jot-
hums of Panama, daily and nightly the spontaneous fall of old
forest trees was heard, and although they were covered with
leaves and parasites, and seemed as vigorous as their neighbor,
yet they crumbled to pieces, weakened and decayed almost to
the bark.

Heretofore we have, in our Rocky Mountain forest, given to
our readers what we might call the aerial romance of the forest,
but we have not spoken of the voices of the forest in the night,
when animal life has gone to rest. These are various and at
times cadenced, the friction of two crossed limbs, the grating
of two tree trunks inclined in different ways, the switching, dis-
tant moaning of the night breeze in the pine tops, the strident
whistling of a current of air transverse to a rotten knob-hole,
or wood-peckers boring in a decayed tree, all mingle, and elicit
attention during the wakeful hours of camp life, and at times,
lulled to a whisper, seem the voices of distant denizens of the
forest glades, or conferences of the unseen spirits of the air,
whispering over the appearance of strange visitors. Shake-
speare, I think in “Tempest,” alludes to the voices of the forest
when he speaks of the fairy Ariel enclosed in a tree—‘Thy
groans did make wolves howl.” Two hundred years ago or
thereabouts, Cotton Mather said that the devil was the “landlord
of the wilderness;” while the good, honest Hollanders in New
York State believed in “spooks” roaming around the secluded
dells and woods of the Hudson and Mohawk. For ourselves,
we stoutly maintain, like Darwin’s Fuegian, that there are no
“devils” in the Rocky Mountains; in fact, the old landlord of
the wilderness has thrown up his lease and departed for lower
altitudes.

One more point which we have touched concerns the humble
floraofour Rocky Mountain trends and ridges—a flora, though
exiguous, yet attaining a brilliancy, a beauty of form, and in
some species a deliciousness of perfume that excels the helio-
trope, the mignonette, or New Orleans violet. As to color, what
can be more gorgeous than Parry’s Primrose, or the bright
crimson of the Painted Cup, the delicate blue of the Mertensia or
the azure of Larkspur, and the velvety brown and yellow of the

168

Erysimium, all stealing their brilliant hues from the rays of an
intense sunlight?

Once I heard an unlettered miner, enthusiastic over the beau-
ties of a snowy range nook, where Myosotis, Silene, Phlox,
Gilia, Saxifraga, and Sedum Sibbaldia gemmed the rocks,
none over an inch high,exclaim: “I’ll be dog-goned if them ain’t
dandies!”—his most hyperbolical expression of their minute
beauty. Creeping under the trees, or gemming the green
moss, the Twin Flower (Linnea borealis), the Kinnikinnick, the
several Pyrolas, Moneses with perfume perfectly indescribable,
the Ladies’ Slipper, the Dudecatheon, lovely Calypso borealis,
the red Geum, with hosts of Gentians, Pediculares, Calthas and
dwarf Kalmias, to be appreciated must be seen in their native
habitat, a good setting for this miniature garden.

When, however, we reach in a Rocky mountain forest the
limit of tree growth, a limit which varies over 1600 feet accord-
ing to location of slope, in reference to the sun, and to prevail-
ing winds, we find far above the present limits in numerous
places the decayed remnants of former forests that extended
higher than present rules, while whole groves of firs and Cana-
da Balsams uprear their ancient moss-covered summits at the
limit of tree growth, yet scarcely one sapling is found a strag-
gler in the ancestral shade.

This, we confess, we cannot satisfactorily explain, unless we
assume that a slow movement of elevation is still going on in
the lofty ranges of our Nevada. Either this, or a slow lower-
ing of yearly and winter temperature, which would accompany
increased elevation, may account for this phenomenon.

This narrative in truth gives the impressions that twenty-five
years ago could be all experienced in a two days’ trip. Today,
alas, the forest primeval is fast disappearing. The picture I
have attempted to trace of the peculiar features then seen in
these secluded nooks and valleys has undergone changes in
many of them that are the fell destructive results of fire and the
wasteful destruction of the itinerant sawmill—the meanest and
least defensible, dishonest occupation that anyone can under-
take—where, under color of settlement, valuable timber, the
property of the nation, is taken for the sordid gain of one to the
detriment of thousands, with its accompaniment of forest fires
intentionally kindled to burn the refuse timber left after log-

169

ging, in order to reach more timber to purloin from the public
domain. Can our Representatives stand by and look on, and
give no remedy for this public wrong, which, in its future influ-
ence on cultivation and water supply, is ruinous and disastrous?
One hour’s work can destroy a valuable tree which takes a
full half century to grow, and one forest fire destroys the vege-
tative power of a given area that a century cannot restore.

CO-OPERATIVE FORESTRY.

By Georce B. JAMEs, Boston, Massachusetts.

The true preservation of the forests lies in conserving their
growth, utilizing mature and marketable products, and in a
management which shall secure a proper rotation of valuable
trees, and an annual income, permanent in character.

Individual ownership of woodlands is the bane of American
forestry. In the old world the preservation of the forests is
considered one of the first interests of society, and consequently
one of the first duties of government. With us our republican
form of government has not yet assumed that paternal charac-
ter which would guard the forests, conserve the rain-fall, and
modify the climate.

Rational forestry demands methods covering generations,
far-reaching, comprehensive—beyond the limits of a single
generation. The policy of the individual in dealing with tree
growth requiring a century or two for maturity is apt to be nar-
row, wasteful and short-sighted. His selfish interests or neces-
sities demand an immediate slaughter of all the forest growth
under his control. Either his experience or his education de-
termine that one crop from his forest area is all he seeks. He is
then willing to abandon his land, or sell it for a mere song.

Co-operative ownership of forest areas secures permanency,
methodical work, with results beneficial alike to the commun-
ity, as well as to the individual.

170

An object-lesson in forestry is needed by present owners of
woodlands. They need to.see an exemplification of proper
methods. They have much to learn in the wise management,
proper cutting and maintenance of subsequent growths of their
wooded areas. In the era of forest abundance it seemed unnec-
essary to the average lumberman to give any thought to future
supplies. Approaching scarcity and advancing values render
them willing listeners to the gospel of rational forestry. A few
co-operative ownerships of forest areas, managed with intelli-
gence, and inspired by public spirit, would work like leaven in
lifting the whole industry from the slough of waste and improv-
idence to the higher plane of intelligence and remuneration.
The present generation of lumbermen should be taught that
there is a better way to utilize their forest areas than that which
they have employed in the past.

Co-operative ownership and management of forest lands are
well exemplified in the workings of several clubs in the Adiron-
dack Mountains. Here pleasure and profit have combined in
showing proper methods in utilizing forest products. The
original investments in the stock of these clubs have been
largely augmented by increasing values. Such operations
have done much to attract the attention of the general public to
the value of associated effort in the ownership of forest lands.
Preservation of forests must come about largely by the abso-
lute purchase of lands either by nation, State or associated cap-
ital. Public policy dictates the conservation of the forests; yet
we have no national or State laws which enforce such a policy.
Hence for the present we must depend upon co-operative work
and ownership in this important matter. Public-spirited citi-
zens are banded together in associated effort for the health,
morals and progress of the community. Similar plans of co-
operative work are necessary in setting examples of effective
forestry practice. The public is fast coming to understand the
importance of the forests in the nation’s economy. The next
step must be to unite patriotic citizens in the good work of their
preservation.

Here and there a wealthy individual devotes time and money
in the establishment of a park, preserve or forest reservation.
The example is good, and stimulates further development on
similar lines. More effective work may be accomplished

171

through the voluntary contributions of one hundred or one
thousand associates, whose aggregate subscriptions may be
sufficient to buy one thousand or five thousand acres of availa-
ble and accessible forest lands, to exhibit the teachings of intel-
ligent forestry. It ought not to be difficult to secure the active
co-operation of five thousand individuals out of a population of
70,000,000 people. :

No class of property is more attractive at present cost, none
more certain to advance in future value, than forest lands.
American forest lands are now selling at prices far below Eu-
ropean values, and yet the consumption of forest products in
this country is many times greater than that abroad. We are
already engaged in the rapid slaughter of the last half of our
original forest areas. In the old world forest lands are se-
lected by rich families as entailments. Future generations will
profit by these wise investments.

The immense increase of wealth points to a higher range of
values in real property, and consequently to diminished in-
come. The attention of wealthy men should be called to the
desirable nature of investments in well-selected woodlands in
this country. Associated effort has developed our railroads,
canals, mines, navigation and manufactures. Corporations are
absorbing individual industries, thereby cheapening produc-
tion, increasing the output and placing many important articles
of daily use within the reach of men of moderate income.
Fierce competition is reducing profits to the smallest percent-
age. There is need of other fields to conquer, and investors
are looking about to seek investments which promise security
and income. Would that the forest products of the country
could be grown and handled and manufactured with the same
capital, skill and method as prevails in the cultivation of cotton,
wool, sugar, and their subsequent conversion into products for
almost universal consumption!

No other industry has received so little attention at the hands
of associated capital as the ownership and care of our forests,
and yet none presents a better field to the investor. Its prod-
ucts are staple, necessary and salable; its growth under proper
conditions continuous and remunerative. Ripe trees are be-
yond immediate competition, as their mature growth demands
a hundred years or more. New uses for forest products are

172

developing; the demand for wood pulp and paper alone con-
suming half of all the spruce cut inthe country. Managed with
skill and care, our forests would yield double the present har-
vest in a term of years. Intelligent ownership, backed with
sufficient capital, would give our American forests such a
money value as to present one of the most tempting investments.
within present reach of co-operative desire. Co-operation in
forest ownership would make available men of the highest skill,
education and experience, as managers, the most improved
machinery and transportation facilities for marketing forest
products. In all these ways co-operative effort would have the
advantage over individual operations, hampered by insufficient
means, inferior machinery, and uneducated managers.

The establishment of clubs, Alpine societies, forestry associa-
tionsand co-operative ownerships of our most important moun-
tain forests will prove healthful, remunerative and patriotic.
Around such an organization would crystallize a mighty move-
ment, which would eventually influence State and national leg-
islation, guardianship and ownership. A healthful public sen-
timent needs to be created in forest matters. This sentiment
must have a rallying point in practical work, associated owner-
ship and visible results.

Our forestry associations should not confine their important
work alone to the spoken word and the printed page. Too
much dependence has been placed upon the sentimental side of
this question. This is all important at the start, but soon loses
its convincing power in the minds of practical men, without
some display of actual results. Without some plan of co-op-
erative ownership eloquent protests against present forest man-
agement are allin vain. The force of example is most potent.
Our forestry associations must show the courage of their con-
victions in the ownership of even limited areas of woodlands.

Let us imagine the power and influence which the American
Forestry Association could exert if, in addition to its present
valuable work, it could formulate and secure the subscriptions
of thousands of public-spirited investors in co-operative hold-
ings of forest lands. Such an important work is worthy the
careful consideration of the association. Let it systematically
seek subscriptions from citizens of every State in the Union,
and let an appeal be made to the leading citizens of our Repub-

173

lic to stamp the enterprise with their approval and their liberal
contribution. Such a co-operative movement would have a
mighty influence for good. It would enable the best minds in
the country to inaugurate a forest policy, adapted to our soil
and climate. It would eventually result in the establishment
of a forestry school, broad, wise and patriotic. It would show
to the country that the American Forestry Association could
lead a movement illustrating the advantages of practical for-
estry, as well as the cultivation of the sentimental or aesthetic
side of the forestry question.

THE RELATIONS OF INSECTS AND BIRDS TO
PRESENT FOREST CONDITIONS.

By Pror. A. D. Hopkins, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Forests under natural conditions, or, in other words, those
unaffected by the advent of civilization, appear to be under the
control of certain laws of nature which govern the vegetable
and animal species therein in such a manner that a harmonious
balance is usually preserved. No species of the vegetable
kingdom is allowed to suffer severely from the undue increase
of its enemies in the animal kingdom. Few, if any, species of
the animal kingdom become extinct on account of a failure of
their food, or from the attack of their natural enemies. A con-
tinued battle of the species exists, but it is a war in which none
are conquered and none are conquerors, each species battling
for its existence makes possible the existence of some other
species; thus a balance is preserved.

This may be the rule under natural conditions, and all may
go well until the unnatural conditions following the advent of
civilization brings about a change. Then nature’s laws are
broken, obscure species of insects and plants come to the front,
and others which were formerly abundant disappear. In the
confusion, certain enemies of plants are for a time exempt from

174

the attack of their enemies, and are left free to commit desper-
ate ravages upon some species of vegetation; others, from a
lack of a sufficient supply of their natural food, change their
habits, and infest plants of an entirely different character; thus
they escape for a time their enemies, which had previously kept
them within proper bounds; others are introduced from foreign
countries. Their enemies having been left behind, they invade
our forests unmolested, except by man, until some of their old
enemies are introduced, or they acquire new ones here.

When the process of clearing the land commences, new con-
ditions are presented to the forest insects which are most favor-
able to their increase. The girdled trees in clearings, the logs,
stumps and tops, and the injuries to standing timber by fire, all
contribute to their multiplication, some of them changing their
habits from that of infesting diseased and dead timber, to that of
attacking the living, and through their numbers they are ena-
bled to kill trees on their own account.

Some ten years ago, when the West Virginia Central &
Pittsburg Railroad was being built through a portion of the
spruce forests in our State, the timber along the line com-
menced to die from the attack of insects, and the trouble con-
tinued to increase and spread during the next three years until
thousands of acres of some of the finest timber in this State was
killed. Only four years ago an invasion of the destructive Pine
Bark Beetle, starting somewhere near the line between West
Virginia and Virginia, in Rockingham or Hampshire counties,
spread like a conflagration over these and adjoining States
wherever the pine grew. The pine timber on hundreds of
square miles was killed, causing a loss of property having a
value of more than a million and a half dollars. Similar devas-
tations have taken place in Maine, New York and New Bruns-
wick, and in the forests of Germany and France. Most, if not
all, of these destructive invasions were occasioned by unnatural
conditions brought about through the influence of man.

With the existing conditions in our forests, as previously
mentioned, the opportunity offered for the breeding and mul-
tiplication of forest tree insects being most favorable, we are
confronted with the problem of preventing damage and loss
from the ravages of the obnoxious kinds.

175

Never was there a better time to study the intimate relations
of forest-tree insects to certain forest conditions. Neither can
there be a better time to obtain knowledge of the characters and
habits of forest-tree insects, with a view of utilizing this knowl-
edge in the future system of forest management, which must
necessarily follow this age of forest destruction.

With reference to the relation of birds to certain forest con-
ditions, I realize that I will be trespassing upon a sacred and
much lauded faith among our people, that birds are our great-
est friends as insect destroyers, when I say, that from my own
observations, I am ready to conclude that in the end they have
very little, if any, beneficial influences in the prevention of in-
sect depredations in our forests. That insectiverous birds ob-
tain the larger share of their food from the insect world, and
that they devour immense numbers of insects and other small
forms of animal life, no one candoubt. They are not, however,
our friends to the extent that they will devour those only which
we look upon as injurious. In truth, they make no choice be-
tween those which are beneficial and those which are injurious.
They capture alike the parasites of the injurious species, the
parasite of the parasite, as well as the injurious species; hence
it would appear that in the end no good is accomplished. They
merely take the food nature has provided from the ranks of the
insect armies of opposing forces, and neither one force or the
other thereby gains an advantage.

One class of birds known as Woodpeckers, which, by the
way, are recognized above all others as exercising the greatest
benefit to mankind in the destruction of wood-infesting insects,
are not so beneficial as we have been led to suppose. My at-
tention was forcibly called to this fact during an investigation
with reference to beneficial forest-tree insects in Germany in
1892, where I was seeking for an enemy to introduce against
our destructive bark beetles. I determined that a certain
species, a Clerid Beetle, was by far the greatest enemy of Eu-
ropean bark beetles, and was successful in finding a forest in
which they were common. I was surprised, however, to find
that the Woodpeckers were the greatest enemy of the Clerid.
The larvae, pupae and adults of this beneficial insect had oc-
curred in great numbers in the bark of small pine trees that had
been broken by snow the previous winter. They had destroyed

176

most of the bark beetles which had infested these trees, and
had gone into the outer bark near the base of the tree to make
their cocoons in which to pass the winter. It was in those trees
only which had escaped the attack of Woodpeckers that I suc-
ceeded in obtaining specimens. In some places not one in-
fested tree in twenty had escaped the birds, and in those they
had attacked, apparently not a Clerid in one hundred had es-
caped them. This observation led to subsequent investiga-
tion with reference to the habits of Woodpeckers, for the pur-
pose of ascertaining their true relation to injurious insects and
to trees. It has been determined that they do not peck holes in
the bark of healthy growing trees (a common habit with some
species) for the purpose of obtaining insects, but do so for the
purpose of securing the inner bark and sap for food. I have
seen trees that had died on account of the quantity of bark that
had thus been removed from around the trunks. I have re-
cently discovered that an injury to the outer sapwood, caused
by them while thus engaged, results in a common and quite
serious defect in the wood of different kinds of trees. I have
also determined that what is known as Curly Poplar, a curled
and wavy condition occurring in the wood of Tulip Trees, is
the result of the punctures in the bark made by these birds.

FOREST FUNGI—ANTHRACNOSE OF POPLARS.

By Dr. B. D. Hatstep, New Brunswick, N. J.

Forests do not escape the attacks of fungi, for nearly every
tree has one or more of these parasites preying upon it. Among
the most conspicuous of these fungous enemies are those that
produce gall-like structures of the stems. Of such are the “ap-
ples,” so-called, of the cedar trees, that are brown enlarge-
ments of the small branches, and become covered with large
yellow, gellatinous horns in spring time.

177

Other conspicuous twig enlargements are the black knots
upon the stems of the cherry. Both these and the galls upon
the cedar have an economic importance beyond that of the for-
est, for the fungi producing them grow upon orchard trees.
Thus the cedar galls give rise to the leaf rust of the apple, while
the black knot is often very destructive to cultivated plum and
cherry trees. :

It is, however, to the leaf parasites that attention is more par-
ticularly called at this time, for of late some kinds of forest trees
have suffered greatly. During the past few years the Syca-
more or Planetree (Platanus occidentalis) has been almost de-
foliated by a species of anthracnose known to science as Gla@os-
porium nervisequum, (F1.) Sacc. This fungus has been studied
by European and American mycologists, and its habits are
fairly well known, and recorded in the books. An account of it
may be found in the Journal of Mycology, Vol. V. So preva-
lent has this leaf-blight become that the Sycamore trees present
an unsightly appearance, not only the foliage, but the young
twigs becoming blighted by the fungus.

A similar anthracnose (Glaosporium saccharinum, E. A. E.)
has increased upon the maples until they, especially the Acer
saccharinum, show their foliage in a half dead condition early
in the season.

In like manner the oaks have their foliage blighted. The
white oak (Quercus alba) often has its leaves brown by the at-
tacks of (Glaosporium canadense, E. A. E.), so much so, in fact,
as to suggest the work of a fire, and, of course, is quite de-
structive.

It is seen that the three last-mentioned diseases of forest
trees are all caused by members of the same genus, and they
produce results upon the foliage and young twigs that are quite
similar.

Special attention is now called to a blight of poplars that is
due not to a Gloeosporium, but a fungus so closely related as to
be in a neighboring genus: namely, Marsonia populi, (Liv.)
Sacc.

The most evident thing in connection with this blight is the
killing of the small lateral twigs, and the portion of the main
stem where these twigs join it. When this dying of the grow-
ing layer of the main twig is extensive the tree is ruined. The

178

dying of the bark in patches along the main stem was the first
thing observed by the nurserymen, and at first sight it seemed
likely that the destruction observed was due to Bacteria which
made their entrance at these points; but a further study of the
disease, and an examination of the plants in full leaf made it
evident that the trouble begins in the foliage and then descends
through the leaf stalk to the small side branches, and then on to
the main stem.

This fungus, one of the anthracnoses, most likely makes its
entrance through the openings (stomata) of the leaves, and
spreads from there by means of minute filaments which occur
through all parts of the leaf and other portions of the plant. A
leaf that is badly anthracnosed shows minute specks over its
entire surface, and does not give the appearance of many of the
other sorts of leaf blights where the disease seems to start from
a single point. The spores of the Marsonia are produced in
great abundance in the little specks upon the leaf, and are
poured out upon the surface, and then washed away by the
rains, or carried, when dry, by the winds, so that there is ample
opportunity provided for the spread of the anthracnose of the
poplar.

It is evident that a plant which has the twigs so diseased as
to be almost lifeless is of no commercial value. It is possible
that, by cutting the affected side branches, the main stem
will recover fom the injury it has received, and thereby a good
plant may finally be produced; but as in many other cases of
this kind, when a plant is diseased, it is quite apt to have the
threads of the fungus so thoroughly scattered through its tis-
sues that there is great probability of its remaining a blighted
or anthracnosed plant throughout its life.

This Marsonia is common in Europe upon several species of
the genus Populus. It also grows in this country upon a number
of our poplars, both wild and cultivated. The wild poplar
(Populus alba) is particularly subject to this parasite.

The presence of the Marsonia populi in the dying twigs of the
nursery poplar trees was demonstrated microscopically, July
14, 1894, and there remains little doubt, if any, that the de-
struction among the nursery poplars is this anthracnose.

179

THE PREVENTION OF FOREST FIRES.

By Gen. C. C. ANpREws, St. Paul, Minnesota.

A Report on Forestry, by Dr. Hough, published by the
United States Government in 1877, devotes several pages to the
fearful ravages of forest fires in several of the States. Official
reports by the Chief of Division of Forestry, Department of
Agriculture, pulished in 1887, 1888 and 1890, also devote at-
tention to the same subject, and show that the loss from forest
fires in the United States amounts to the enormous sum of
$25,000,000 a year, a sixth part of which is occasioned by fires
started by railroad locomotives. The subject will be found
frequently treated of in other official documents and in the col-
umns of the various forestry periodicals.

Attention has been freshly drawn to the subject by the dread-
ful forest fire which raged in July, 1894, in Northern Wiscon-
sin, devastating especially the county of Price, wiping out the
town of Phillips, its county seat, and causing most pitiable dis-
tress to a great number of people and the loss of many lives.
It is difficult to imagine the horror of such a catastrophe. It
is difficult to imagine the dismal appearance of the blackened
ruins, the chaos of obstruction such a fire leaves for a genera-
tion or two, or the apprehension, terror and suffering of inhab-
itants whose lives it endangered.

This recent calamity calls to mind the awful forest fire which
raged in Northern Wisconsin and Michigan during the first
half of October, 1871, and which destroyed not only many
million dollars’ worth of timber and other property, but the
lives of 800 people. The London Daily News, in an editorial at
the time in regard to it, used the expression “That terrible phe-
nomenon of the Western World, the forest fire!” Well, in-
deed, might any enlightened writer exclaim, “That terrible phe-
nomenon of the Western World, the forest fire!” These fires
occur with greater or less intensity every year, and are treated
as a sort of nine-days’ wonder—deeply lamented and quickly
forgotten. For the American people thus to allow such ca-
lamities to habitually occur, without adopting any adequate

180

means for their prevention, causes our country to be regarded
as in some respects only semi-civilized.

Of course, forest fires sometimes occur in countries which
maintain systematic care of forests, but not so frequently nor
to the extent that they do in this country. In such countries
as Germany, France, Austria and Sweden the public forests
are administered so as to yield a steady net revenue of about
4 per cent., without any diminution or deterioration of the forest
but rather an increase of its resources. Their principal means of
preventing destructive fires are the constant watching and pa-
troling of the forests by guards, or foresters, who reside in their
respective divisions. I have pleasant recollections of observing
the clean and thrifty appearance of forests in each of the coun-
tries mentioned. An outline of the prevailing system of man-
agement is about as follows: The public forests are divided
into districts, sub-districts (Reviere) and divisions. A district
may embrace a large geographical area—a province or part of
a province—and is in charge of a forest inspector. A sub-dis-
trict, which includes several divisions, is in charge of a director,
and a division, usually comprising 1200 to 2500 acres, is in
charge of a forester, who resides in his division in a dwelling
belonging to the government, and who personally, or through
an assistant, keeps watch of everything in his division pertain-
ing to the forest. He also attends to its economical details, to
the building of roads, to the protection of valuable game and the
destruction of noxious animals. He has received a forestry
education; he is a government official, of humble rank, it is
true, but his position is partly scientific; it is permanent, and
he is proud of it, and looks forward, through efficiency and
fidelity, to being ultimately promoted. His division is pro-
vided with good roads. Underbrush is not allowed to accu-
mulate; in some places belts of deciduous trees are grown, or
openings left to prevent the spread of fire. Trespassers of all
sorts are excluded. It is personal presence, watching and
patroling, and the enforcement of reasonable regulations, that
prevent fires. But should a forest fire occur, he is already in-
structed how to proceed for its extinguishment. There are
good means of communication, and he can promptly summon
assistance. It is made the duty of all neighboring inhabitants
to lend their help. Women and children with wet brooms are

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sometimes his effective assistants in beating outa fire. Ifa fire
has gained considerable headway, he can pretty quickly have a
belt of timber felled in its path; or, he can meet it by an oppos-
ing fire. In those countries which carefully administer their
forests there appears to be a moral sentiment against any act or
neglect that would cause a forest fire.

The laws of our separate States are not wanting in penalties
against setting forest fires, but they are ineffective. We shall
never prevent these terrible calamities until public forests in our
country are systematically cared for as they are in the coun-
tries above named. The pecuniary gain, to say nothing of en-
hanced national reputation, that would be derived from pre-
venting great forest fires, would pay the cost of management
twenty times over. If we are not above going to a new country
like Australia to borrow an election law, why should we so long
refrain from borrowing of the old, enlightened countries of Eu-
rope a few well-tried regulations for the care of forests?

Granted that much of the timber land which is being devas-
tated by fires is private property, and cannot be subjected to
government management, that, however, should not hinder
the government from adopting measures for the prevention of
fires in its own forests. Should the government succeed in
such measures, its example would be followed by private own-
ers. Ifthe government would adopt reasonable measures for
preventing fires in its own forests, it could more effectively in-
sist that railroad companies should employ guards to extin-
guish fires set by locomotives, or that appliances should be used
to prevent their setting fires.

Shakespeare says:

‘Wise men ne’er wail their present woes,
But presently prevent the ways to wail.”

Forestry friends have been wailing forest woes for many
years. As one step for preventing “the ways to wail,” I would
suggest that this Association adopt a short memorial to Con-
gress substantially like the following:

“To the Congress of the United States:

“Your memorialists, the American Forestry Association, respect-

fully represent that forest fires annually cause great damage to the tim-

ber lands of the United States, and are frequently attended with a great
deal of suffering and loss of life; that such fires could be very largely

182

prevented by the adoption of forest management such as has proved
successful in Germany and several other European countries; and we
would respectfully ask that suitable legislation for this object may be
enacted.”

I would also suggest that a committee be appointed by the
Association to request the President to consider this subject
in his next annual message.

ECONOMIES IN RAILWAY TIES.

By E. E. Russet, TrRatmMan, A. M., Amer. Soc. C. E.
New York.

At the meeting of this association at Philadelphia, in 1889, I
had the pleasure of presenting a paper on “Economy in the
Consumption of Timber for Railway Purposes,” referring to
the necessity for such economy and the ways in which it might
be effected. In the present paper I propose to deal briefly with
economies in the use of railway ties, which are an important
item in the total consumption of timber for railway purposes.
In the first place, let us take a few statistics to whet our appe-
tite for more practical information. In 1892, the amount of
forest areas in the United States was about 500,000,000 acres;
on an average, 100 ties are obtained per acre of forest, so that
264 acres must be cleared to supply ties for one mile of new
track at 2640 ties per mile. To this we may add 314 acres for
ties for renewals. To insure a permanent supply at this rate
of consumption, it is estimated that there should be maintained
113 acres of growing timber to each mile of track. The total
length of railways is nearly 180,000 miles, or 230,000 miles, in-
cluding double and side-tracks. With an average of 2500 ties
per mile, this represents a total of 575,000,000 ties in service.
The annual consumption of ties for construction and renewals
is between 75,000,000 and 90,000,000; while the annual con-
sumption of ties and sawed timber for bridges and trestles rep-
resents about 500,000,000 cubic feet of round timber. This is

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exclusive of timber for telegraph poles, stations and buildings,
fences, cars, etc.

While the aggregate consumption of timber amounts to a
serious figure, as can easily be shown by such simple estimates
as above given for ties, it is hardly necessary to point out to
members of the American Forestry Association that this con-
sumption represents but a part of the total annual removal of
Standing timber and reduction of the timber resources, owing
to the reckless and wasteful methods of cutting, the illegal cut-
ting of timber on government and private lands, and the de-
struction by forest fires. In view of these facts and figures, and
in view of foreign experiences in forestry work, I am impelled
to strongly urge the prompt adoption and firm enforcement of
a forestry policy by the government, placing the whole control
and repletion of the forests in the hands of competent men, who
will see that the timber resources are managed in the interests
of the legitimate consumers of the present and future.

Now let us turn our attention to the specific question of rail-
-way ties. Economy in their use may be effected in several
ways: I. By care in the selection and use of new ties; 2. By
‘care in renewals (so as to insure that each tie is allowed to give
its full life); 3. By treating the tie by preservative processes, so
as to enable the wood to resist decay; 4. By protecting the
wood from the cutting and abrading action of the rail by tie-
plates; 5. By the substitution of other material for wood.
‘These we will take up in the order given, merely glancing, how-
ever, at their salient points, since a thorough discussion of each
would form a paper too long and too technical for this occa-
sion, my intention being principally to call attention to the
practical economies which benefit all concerned, but which are
not sufficiently well realized.

1. Selection and Use of Ties—On some railways, and in cer-
tain sections of the country, the ties supplied from neighboring
sources are found to be deteriorating in quality, owing to the
fact that the best timber has already been cut. All sorts of
wood are used for ties, and the advisability of using the former
kinds and qualities depends upon the local prices and the condi-
tions of traffic. Ties are too often considered, even by railway
officers, as a comparatively unimportant item in the expense
account of maintenance, but in fact the average cost of the re-

184

newals on many roads already exceeds that of the rail renewals,
and is still increasing. The increase is due to several reasons:
A, gradual increase in price, due to exhaustion of local sources
of supply; B,the marketing of the best timber, so that the poorer
qualities are cut for ties; C, insufficiently rigid inspection and
acceptance of inferior ties; D, greater local rot and cutting
under the rails, due to increased wheel loads and traffic; E,
“spike killing,” caused by re-driving loose spikes. The last
two causes are especially noted on curves. It has been a very
common impression that young timber was more durable than
old ,and less liable to decay, but really young timber—that is,
before the heartwood is well developed—is less durable than
older heartwood timber. Sound, mature, well-grown trees
yield more durable timber than either very young or very old
trees. In hardwood, rapid growth timber is the better; while
in coniferous wood, slow growth is the better. The ties should
be cut at the most suitable time of the year, and allowed to
season for some months. The objections to sawed ties, as
compared with hewed ties, are believed to be largely a matter .
of local experience, and not to be of general application. The
specifications for ties should be carefully and intelligently
drawn up, and the inspectors instructed to see that the ties con-
form closely to the requirements. At the same time it should
be borne in mind that if good ties are wanted, a good price
should be paid for them; and it is false economy to buy a lot of
ties because they are offered cheap. The cost of putting in and
taking out is the same, and with the cheaper ties this cost is in-
curred more frequently, besides which the increased frequency
of renewals is detrimental to the maintenance of good track.
Ties accepted but not needed at once, should be stacked or
piled, the bottom row resting on poles or blockings, as, if laid
direct upon the ground, several of the lower rows will be af--
fected by fungus growths. The common practice of pulling
a tie into place by striking a pick into it should not be permitted,.
as it opens a place for rot to start. In re-spiking ties in the
track, the old holes should be filled with wooden plugs, sand,
tar or rosin. ‘Ties will wear out more quickly on curves, and
decay more quickly in poor ballast which does not drain well.
It will be seen by these notes that there is room for the exercise:
of care in the selection and use of ties.

185

2. Renewals of Ties—The renewal of ties forms a larger item
in the maintenance expenses than is generally supposed, not
only on account of the direct work of renewing and replacing,
but also the attendant work on the track, and, as noted before,
the cost shows a tendency to increase. If the higher officers
are parsimonious and habitually cut down requisitions for ties,
the track foremen will leave many doubtful ties in the track;
on the other hand, if requisitions are filled without question,
there will be a tendency to remove ties that have not served out
their full life. In many cases a marked economy has been ef-
fected by checking the too common practice of taking out ties
prematurely. The foreman should make a count (not a gross
estimate) of the number of ties to be renewed on each mile of
his section, and should mark such ties, but he should not be
permitted to take them out until the road-master or engineer
has made an inspection. Records should be kept of the annual
renewals, and if any one year a specially large requisition is
made, the reason should be called for. It is a good plan to
notch or mark the tie to indicate the year when laid, and then in
renewals it can be seen how the ties average as to life.

3. Preservative Treatment—tTies are renewed mainly for two
defects: A, natural and general decay; B, wear, abrasion, and
consequent local rot under the rails. The principal object of
the preservative process is to arrest decay, but some processes
also harden the timber, thus aiding to prevent failure of the
second kind. The principal of most of the processes is to ex-
tract the sap from the tie by a vacuum, and then to force into the
wood a fluid (such as creosote, chloride of zinc, etc.), which will
fill the cells and prevent fermentation and decay. In the vul-
canizing process, however, it is claimed that the sap itself is
changed to a preservative compound already within the wood.
For all impregnating processes the timber should be thor-
oughly seasoned before treatment, and it is waste of time and
money to hastily treat unseasoned timber required for imme-
diate use, though this is sometimes done where preservatives
have been adopted, but where bad management or delay if au-
thorizing requisitions have prevented the contracts for ties
being placed at the proper time. Some four or five large
Western roads are using treated ties extensively. On the
Southern Pacific Railway, which has tie-preserving works of its

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own, the number of renewals per mile decreased from 243 in
1891 to 240 in 1892, and 205 in 1893, while the requisitions for
1894 amounted only to 145 ties per mile. Of 4000 creosoted
Virginia pine ties laid on the Central Railway of New Jersey
in 1876, there were 1000 still in service and in good condition in
1894. One of the great advantages of the preservative process.
is that they enable timber otherwise useless to be made avail-
able, a treated tie of cheap wood being in some cases cheaper
and of longer life than an untreated tie of better wood. Con-
sidering the economies to be derived in economy and efficiency
from the use of such processes, it appears somewhat strange
that progress in their introduction has been and still is com-
paratively slow.

4. Protection by Metal Tie Plates—The cutting of the tie
under the rails decreases the hold of the spike and shortens the
life of the tie, especially on curves. Direct pressure of the rail
on the tie would have no effect beyond a slight compression of
the wood, but the cutting is due to the slight motion of the rail
in its wave action and deflection under loads. This motion
abrades and tears the fibres (causing opening of moisture),
thus hastening local rot, and on heavy grades this is aggravated
by the use of sand on the engines, which is ground between
rail and tie. One of the most important and practical of mod-
ern implements in railway track has been effected by the in-
troduction of metal tie-plates between the rail and tie, and as it
involves only a small first cost, while its effects in economy in
ties and track cost is apparent, it has been adopted on several
hundred miles of track. These plates not only increase the
life of soft (and cheap) though durable ties, but also effect a
direct economy in renewals and maintenance of way. At the
same time they add to the permanence and security of the
track by giving a durable and uniform bearing to the rails, and
lessening the disturbance of the track for renewals. On curves
they are a great safeguard, as they prevent the tilting of the
rails and the cutting of the tie by the outside flange. Without
the plates much extra work of maintenance is required on
curves to keep the track to gauge. With heavy traffic on a line
with many sharp curves, the use of tie-plates has been found to
effect an economy in maintenance expenses of 50 per cent. in
ties and 75 per cent. in labor. Thin, flat plates will bend and

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get loose, and make a disagreeable clattering noise under
trains, and the plates must not be too large, or they will make a
rough-riding track by interfering with the wave motion of the
rails, causing the ties to rock in the ballast. The plates should
be firmly fixed to the tie to prevent rattling, and this may be
effected by fastenings more secure than the ordinary spike, or
by ridges and flanges on the bottom of the plate which will bite
into the wood. The former plan is most used with the heavy
plates adopted in foreign practice, while the latter is most used
here with lighter plates. These lighter plates are sufficient in
themselves, but it is much to be desired that improved fasten-
ings should be used with them.

Economy in the use of ties in the ways noted above results in
economy in other directions: First, by increasing the life of
the tie, it reduces the number to be purchased for maintenance;
second; it may enable cheaper and inferior woods to be made
practically equal to the ordinarily more expensive and better
timber; third, it reduces the maintenance work on the track,
not only by reducing the number of ties to be renewed, but also
by lessening the disturbance of the track which such renewals
involve; fourth, the more permanent condition and surface of
the track are conducive to greater hauling capacity of the en-
gines and better riding of the cars. In France, for instance,
the annual consumption of ties for maintenance was reduced
steadily from 170 ties per mile of single track in 1883, to 84 per
mile in 1888, this being due to increased care in selection, im-
proved methods of renewals, the use of the creosoting process,
and the introduction of better fastenings, better ballast and
heavier rails.

STREET PLANTING AND SHADE TREES.

By Henry C. Biss, Springfield, Mass.

We have driven out our trees and the peaceful rest of their
shade. Let us bring them back, for it is easy with modern
means to get tothem. If people knew how easy it is to plant
trees, and if they realized how valuable these shade trees come
to be for perhaps a century, more persons might be induced to

188

join in the work. Nearly one hundred years ago someone
planted a double row of elms on a street that bears the name of
the tree in my own town. “I cannot imagine how a man with
greater ease and certainty could have added so much to the sum
of human happiness. The grand elms on Court square, in this
city, could have been planted in a day, but the loss of these old
trees would put the city in mourning for a year. In one day I
have gone into the swamps, with but two men to help, and
taken up seventy-five elms. In two more days these trees could
be planted with the same assistance. Of course, you must first
find the swamp, but this usually requires but a little prospect-
ing.

At first care should be taken to determine the line for the
trees, and to that end boundaries must be carefully looked up.
Casual paths must be ignored. The trees will be likely to fix
things for many years, and new paths are easily made. In the
village of Mittineague, in order to have the trees at a uniform
distance from the margin of the road, it was necessary to put
some directly in the common footpath. The people, however,
kindly cared for the trees, and scarcely any suffered on account
of their location.

In taking trees from wet ground, you will usually need but
an axe, for trees in swampy or wet ground have no tap root,
and the fibrous roots are usually bunched near the trunk. Cut
the turf, or ground, about a foot out from the tree all around.
In nine cases out of ten, the tree can then be pulled over, and
with a few more blows of the axe you can separate it entirely
from the ground. You will then have your tree with a bunch
of root fibres and wet earth about as large as a half bushel bas-
ket. Now go to the other end of the tree, and no matter how
cruel it seems, cut off its head, say 10 or 12 feet from the roots.
Never mind if people say it looks a bean pole, in two or three
years its head will come out all right. The roots having been
cut off, it should not be left with branches; besides this, with
branches the tree is wracked by the wind, and the new root
fibres are liable to be torn off.

If the soil is sandy or of gravel where it is to be put, dig a
hole for the tree as large as a half-barrel or half-hogshead, and
bring enough rich earth from the gutter or the meadows to
nearly fill the hole, then put some of the better earth at the bot-

189

tom, and jaunce the tree up and down until it has fitted itself to
a place; spread out the small fibres or roots and pack the earth
closely around them; be careful and not jam off the tender
roots with your boot or with sticks. Fill the earth in slowly,
and carefully stamp or tamp it down tothe top. Do not let the
roots get too dry, and be careful not to pour on too much water.
The native earth should not be washed off from the root; it is
a god plan simply to sprinkle the root with water, instead of
pouring it on from a pail.

With these precautions your trees will be pretty apt to live.
Turn the turf upside down around the trunk, for mulching.
The trees at the north end bridge of the city I brought in from
the western part of West Springfield, in 1881, and they are
planted in sand or gravel filling, but each tree had its own small
load of earth at its roots, taken from the adjoining meadow.

The effect of locality is well illustrated with this year’s plant-
ing. The trees on the north side of this street were taken from
the same place, and planted at the same time, with the same
care; but the trees with the southern exposure have out-
stripped them in growth. The North End bridge elms were
part of 105 that we put out the first year. In my diary of 1882,
when I brought in 150, I noted that all but five of the previous
planting were alive. Several, however, afterwards died, and
this leads me to say that furnace cinders should not be dumped
at the foot of shade trees. Some of the West street elms were
killed that way; and the large elm near the Canoe Clubhouse
is dying from the same cause. The elms on Tubbs Hill, in
Springfield, some 75 in number, are also planted in sand and
gravel filling; but each tree was supplied with good earth at the
root, and nearly every one lived. I think I put nearly every
one of these into the ground with my own hands. I mention
this only to show that ten minutes’ care at the right time may
save the tree, and may stand for a hundred years of shade.

One word as to the place of planting: Do not neglect the
streets with poor houses; if they remain poor, they will need
the shade all the more. J do not know of a more depressing
sight than a poor, sun-scorched tenement in a large town; a
cabin in the shade of the forest may, in comparison, be a palace,
and to a great many more attractive. It is the surroundings
and conditions that make the distinction.

190

Springfield is fortunate in her shade trees, and the grandest
of all her elms. Mr. Phillipe, in his excellent article, quotes
Colonel Foot as authority for the statement that nowhere in
Europe do elms flourish and attain such large size as in Spring-
field. They are here for your inspection, and the place where
the tree falls; there it does not prevaricate.

In my own town there was formerly the elm of which Oliver
Wendell Holmes speaks m his “Autocrat.” This tree meas-
ures 27 feet around its trunk at the smallest part. On Elm
street, in this city, you can see today an elm that one foot from
the ground measures 33 feet around; higher up it comes to be
20 feet, and next to the branches is 32 feet around. There is
a large elm on the grounds of D. B. Wesson which it is said
measures 26 feet, 5 feet from the ground. There is another
magnificent elm on South Main street; in fact, you will en-
counter there magnificent trees in all directions. It is said
that the elms on the main street corners of Court square were
good-sized trees at the time of the Revolution.

The Druids never loved the oaks better than the dwellers of
this valley have loved their elms. They bordered the meadows
when the first settler came, they stood by his rude fort, and they
stand today by his factory. Strong, self-poised, defiant of
storm and responsive to sunshine, they represent the people
they have sheltered. On some of these massive trees now liv-
ing hung the sign of King George. From flint-lock to gatling
gun, from stage coach to electric cars, they have been the silent
bystanders and spectators or human progress.

Another shade tree, which attains in our soil an enormous
size, is the Buttonwood, of the Plane tree family. Mr. Emer-
son speaks of a tree in Rhode Island which in 1839, one foot
from the ground, measured 24 feet around. The second in
size, according to the same authority, stood in a highway in
West Springfield, and measured 16 feet, 6 inches from the
ground. These massive trees spring out at odd places along
our roads and streams. I used to suppose that they were com-
mon country trees, without pedigree or family history, that had
fallen into the procession of trees and vegetation, which Holmes
says eventually take up their line of march toward the city, to
see what people have been doing in their old haunts. I have
found, however, that this tree with a common name has a his-

191

tory to be proud of. Cimon planted them in Athens. Pliny
admired them, and says they were brought across the Ionian
sea to shade the tomb of Diomedes. No tree was so great a
favorite with the Romans; they planted them in their public
ways, and nourished them with wine. It is said that Horten-
sius arranged to give Cicero a continuance in court in order
that he might go and water with wine his trees at Tuscalanum.
This tree seems to belong in a warmer climate, or else has not
got thoroughly acclimated, for it often gets nipped with the
frost, and further set back in its usual tardy leaving out.

I have wondered how it happened that locust trees came to
have been planted as shade trees in so many dooryards, appar-
ently some 30 or 40 years ago. I find, however, in reading
Emerson’s work on the trees in Massachusetts, that these trees
had been recommended as having many uses and as being val-
uable and ornamental. I presume people took this advice and
planted them. They have, to a considerable extent, spread out
in localities, but the beauty and value have, I think, not been
realized.

Then comes the maple. For general purposes, including
shade, perhaps it rivals all, and none would be missed from
Massachusetts more. It attains to large size in this locality,
and it is said, on our hills takes the place of the oak. With the
autumn foliage upon them these trees are beautiful beyond de-
scription. We have in Massachusetts five species, the Red, the
White, the Rock, the Striped and the Mountain. There is an-
other tree deserving more attention as a shade tree than it has
received, and that is the beech. This tree casts a dense shade,
is clean, has few enemies, and it is said is never struck by light-
ning. They grow abundantly on our mountains, and can easily
be planted in our parks. The horse-chestnut has also come to
be notably a shade tree, and one of the finest specimens in the
State is to be found near the courthouse. When it flowers in
the spring, it reminds you of a grand public Christmas tree.
The willow family is still represented among our shade trees
to some extent, in its own proper species and in the common
poplar.

I have confined myself to these few statements as to shade
trees. A full list of our trees is published in the report of the
City Park Commisisoners. I wish someone would publish a

192

hand-book with plates for the easy identification of trees.
Many of them are readily distinguished; as, for instance, any-
one who can count can distinguish the white pine, with its
bunch of five needles; the pitch pine, with its bunch of three,
and the red pine, with its bunch of two.

LEGISLATION FAVORING THE PLANTING
AND PROTECTION OF ROADSIDE
TREES IN MASSACHUSETTS.

By Wo. S. SHuRTLEFF, Longmeadow, Mass.

For many years there have been on our statute book provis-
ions for supplying the waste by decay, design and accident, in
our ornamental and shade trees. And lately many aesthetic
and prudent persons have so forcibly and persistently pre-
sented the importance of preseving our roadside forest—
friends to the wise men who go annually to the East, where the
gilded dome directs the sun to the proper rising point—that
statutes have been enacted and laws made, with penalties ap-
pended, for staying and punishing this senseless slaughter and
for replacing the victims of our past prodigality and fool econ-
omy. It only remains with those who approve of this legisla-
tion to join with its authors in enforcing these provisions.

It is permissible, and perhaps necessary, to state these laws
as they now stand on our statute book.

Chapter 54 of the Public Statutes provides:

Section 6. “The Mayor and Aldermen, Selectmen, Road Com-
Planting. missioners, or any municipal officer of a city or town

to whom the care of the streets or roads may be en-

trusted, may authorize the planting of shade trees therein wherever it
will not interfere with the public travel or with private rights; and
shade trees standing and trees planted pursuant to such license shall be

deemed and taken to be the private property of the persons so planting
them, or upon whose premises they stand, or are planted.”

193

$ “Whoever wantonly injures, defaces, tears or de-
ection 7.
stroys an ornamental or shade tree, shrub, statue foun-
Penalty. tain, vase, or other plant or fixture of ornament or
utility on a street, road, square, court, park, public garden, or other
enclosure, shall forfeit not less than five, nor more than one hundred
dollars, to be recovered by complaint, one-half to the complainant, and
the other half to the use of the person on whose property or within
whose premises the trespass was committed.”

“In a city in which the City Council, and in a town
in which the inhabitants accept this section, or have
accepted the corresponding provisions of earlier statutes, the Mayor
and Aldermen or Selectmen may set out and maintain shade trees upon
the public squares and highways at the expense of such city or town,
which may appropriate annually for that purpose a sum not exceeding
twenty-five cents for each of its rateable polls in the year next preced-
ing that in which such appropriation is made.”

Section 9.

Section 10. “No person shall cut down or remove an ornamental
Trees not to be cut OF Shade tree standing in a highway, town way, or
down, etc. street, without first giving notice of his intention to

one of the Selectmen or Road Commissioners, or to
the Mayor:—And if the Selectmen or Road Commissioners, or Mayor
and Aldermen desire to retain the tree, they shall give notice of such
desire to such person within ten days thereafter; and the damage caused
by retaining said tree shall be determined in the same manner as in the
case of damage by an alteration in such highway, town way, or street.”

“If a person cuts down, removes or injures such tree,
in violation of the provisions of the preceding section,
or of the rights of a city or town acquired thereunder, he shall suffer
the penalty provided in section seven, and the same shall accrue to the
city or town.”

Resolve of Chapter 32 of 1886:

“Resolved, That His Excellency, the Governor, is
requested to set apart in each year the last Saturday
in April as Arbor day, and to issue his proclamation recommending
that it be observed by the ................ people of the Common-
wealth in the planting of trees, shrubs and vines, in the promotion of
forest growth, and culture in the adornment of public and private
grounds, places and ways, and in such other efforts and under-
takings as shall be in harmony with the general character of a day so
established.”

And this is now in effect and working good. So it appears
that the framers of our public laws recognized that the aesthetic
as well as the useful and protective and profitable had claim to
their attention, for it is to be observed, and it is meaningful,
that they included ornamental with shade trees; and therefore

Section II,

Arbor Day.

194

it has been admitted that the preservation of the beautiful is of
public interest and benefit, and by affixing a penalty, it is de-
clared, and by subsequent action in the courts, it is determined
that the destruction of the beautiful, in this regard at least, is a
crime, for penalties only follow offenses. Damages may be
recovered by suit for trespasses and private torts, but penalties
are only imposed upon public offense.

But the law-makers have gone further. Urged by many
persons who deplored the rapid thinning out, by decay or de-
sign, or through corelessness, of our wayside trees, the Legis-
lature of 1890, provided as follows:

Suction |, “The Mayor and Aldermen of the cities and the Se-
lectmen of the towns within the Commonwealth, are
hereby authorized to designate and preserve, as here-
inafter provided in this act, trees within the limits of
the highways for the purpose of ornament and shade (observe the aes-
thetic ornament), and to so designate not less than one such tree in every

33 feet where such trees are growing and are of a diameter of one inch
or more.”

1890, Chap. 196.
an
Chap. 49 of 1891,

“Said Mayor and Aldermen and Selectmen shall, be-
tween the first day of September and the 31st day of
December in each year, designate such trees as are se-
lected by them for the purposes set forth in this act, by
driving into the same, at a point not less than four nor more than six
feet from the ground and on the side toward the center of the highway,
a nail or spike with a head with the letter M plainly impressed upon it.
Such nails and spikes to be procured and furnished by the Secretary
of the Commonwealth (now by amendment, 1891, Chap. 49, ‘the Secre-
tary of the Board of Agriculture’) to said Mayor and Aldermen and
Selectmen as required by them for the purposes of this act.”

Chap. 196. Sec. 2.

Marking Trees.

“Said Mayor and Aldermen and Selectmen, between
the first day of September and the 31st day of Decem-
ber of each succeeding year, shall renew such of said nails and spikes
as shall have been destroyed or defaced, and shall also designate in the
same manner as hereinbefore stated such other trees as in their judg-
ment should be so designated to carry out the requirements of this act.”

Renew Mark,

“Whoever wantonly injures, defaces or destroys any
tree thus designated, or any of such nails or spikes af-
fixed to such trees, shall forfeit not less than five dol-
lars, nor more than one hundred dollars, to be recovered by complaint,
one-half to the complainant, one-half to the use of the town wherein the
offense was committed.”

Chap. 196, Sec. 3.

“This act shall not apply to ornamental or shade
trees whose preservation is now provided for by Chap.
54 of Public Statutes and acts amendatory thereof.”

Chap. 196. Sec. 4.

195

And to provide for carrying out this act, in 1891 the Legisla-
ture passed Resolve, Chap. 72, as follows:

“Resolved, That there be allowed and paid out of the
Commonwealth a sum not exceeding one hundred dol-
lars, for the purpose of furnishing nails or spikes, as provided for in
Chap.49 of Acts of 1891, entitled ‘An Act Relating to Preserving Orna-
mental and Shade Trees on the Highways.’ Said nails or spikes to be
procured and furnished by the Secretary of the State Board of Agri-
culture.” -

Appropriation.

In 1892, by Chapter 147, it was provided:

“The officials charged with the duty of marking
ornamental and shade trees for their preservation
within the limits of highways, under the provisions
of Chapter 196 of the Acts of 1890, may make and renew such marks at
such seasons of the year as they deem proper.”

Enlarging time for
marking.

In order to protect the roadside trees, Chapter 403 of Acts
of 1803 was passed. It is as follows:

“Whoever affixes to any tree in a highway, public way or square, a
play-bill, poster, notice, advertisement, or printed paper of any de-
scription, or cuts, paints, or marks on such tree, without first obtaining
a written permit from the officer having the charge of such trees in a
city or from the Selectmen in a town, shall be punished by fine not ex-
ceeding fifty dollars and not less than five dollars for each offence.”

Now, there is probably no one present who cannot aid in the
carrying out the purposes of these acts to a complete accom-
plishment of their beneficence. It is probable that each person
here can influence the officers in the government of his city or
town or village, to diligence in enforcing these laws, and alac-
rity in availing themselves of their provisions. Every one of
us can arouse enthusiasm and energy that shall beget action in
some other one or more of our fellow-townsmen, and through
them our whole community.

Let us each consider him or herself a committee of one to
“see to” this matter. Let us persist and insist by entreaties,
by argument, with prayers, if necessary, and swears, if unac-
complishable otherwise, and labor with, and belabor if need be,
all our Mayors, our Aldermen, our Selectmen, our Road Com-
missioners, our neighbors—everybody who can help to take
hold of this matter and see to it.

The air is burdened by unsyllabled Amens! But amens,
though good as encouragers, are not efficient. Action will be.

196

But there is a step in further advance to be taken. And
some of us can perhaps set an example as well as present an
argument in favor of that step.

The statute and laws which have been quoted are well
enough as far as they go, but they do not go far enough. Nor
can they. For they cannot invade personal rights, unless by
the exercise of the right of eminent domain more largely than
would seem advisable, perhaps.

They cannot provide that whenever a forest owner along a
highway changes his woodland to arable or pasture land he
shall leave a proper reasonable belt of trees alongside the road-
way, upon his own land, so that the road may not be deprived of
shade and the wayside view of beauty; but we can do it with our
own, if we are woodland roadside owners, and our neighbors
who are such owners may be persuaded to do it.

To effect this, after or with the enforcement of the quoted
acts, is the duty of the day. Let us all address ourselves to it,
and, with others or alone, circumtramp our woodland ways,
and, finding out where work may be needed and action taken,
direct the attention of the improvement societies of our towns
or villages to the subject and object, and arouse such feeling
and create such a public opinion, by meetings or otherwise, as
will convince the wayside woodland owner that he can be a pub-
lic benefactor, and at the same time benefit himself by sparing
the shade or ornamental trees along his front, to fringe with
beauty the road that would otherwise be a weary way.

It will not be a hard task to effect this. Many land owners
now adopt the practice of so fringing roadways; it should be
universal; and we can almost assert that in many cases where
the contrary has been done, it has been through thoughtless-
ness.

The beauty, the utility and the future profit of such a plan
seem so plain to be seen and expected, that one could hardly
fear failure in advocating it. But there is no time to lose.
Every day there is danger that damage may be done that half
a century will not repair. If every man and woman here pres-
ent will give a little time and energy to this beneficent object, it
will be accomplished. The man who plants a tree in a proper
place is a benefactor prospectively. He who leaves one in its
natural, proper place, is a benefactor instantly.

INDEX TO TITLES AND AUTHORS.

Adirondack Forest: Verplank Colvin .

Andrews, Gen. C. C.: Prevention of Forest Fires

Barrett, W. W.: North Dakota . .

Berthoud, Edward L.: In Pathless Wood ;

Bessey, Charles E.: Notes on the Sand Hills and Pine
Forests of Nebraska ;

Bliss, Henry C.: Street = ee aaa Shade Trees

Bush B. F.: Missouri

Colby, Prof. James F.: The F ati Ecnisation of ee
Hampshire ; co arent Fed

Colvin, Verplank: Mennidicls Rorest :

Conservation of Soil and Water Supply of Hill idiccees
in Cultivated Areas, T. J. McKie, M. D.

Constitution and By-Laws .

Co-Operative Forestry. George B. James

Destruction and Repair of Our Natural Resources. Fokus
PLacey, SG... .

Dubois, Senator Fred. T.: The Need of a Boma Polis
for the Western States :

Economies in Railway Ties. E. E. Rassell Teubnan

Eliot, Charles: Notes on the New Public Forests near
Boston ; a Agu eee aeine

Forest Fungi, Aatkracnos af Poplars. Dr. B. D. Hal-
sted . al ae

Forestry Laginbition ok Hew Fanipshive: Prof. James
¥. Colby iii W...-. ree

Gifford, John: New cae i

Halsted, Dr. B. D.: Forest Fungi Anthracnose of Pop-
lars . We Ae

Hammond, E. W:: Forestry ‘Conditions 3 in Oregon ;

PAGE,
142

179
103
164

83

187
81

147
142

137
21
169
55

47
182

114
176

147
93

176
103

198

Harrison, J. B.: Public Misapprehension of the F —
Question

Higley, Warren Frdeves a Poreary imislation in
New York

Hobbs, John E.: The eee ai the Piucipal Fores e
Maine, the Condition of Forestry and the Forestry
Movement . .

Hopkins, Prof. A. D.: The Eehaeus ee onecks and pinde
to Present Forest Conditions

Hopkins, Prof. A. D.: West Virginia

In Pathless Wood. Edward L. Berthoud

James, George B.: Co-operative Forestry

Jones, W. Goodrich: Texas

King, Prof. F. H.: Observations on the Besinucdan Ei
fects of Winds and the Protection Afforded by Wood-
lands and Windbreaks nee tg ae

Kinney, Abbot: California .

Lacey, John F., M. C.: The Baste iction na Rape it
Our Natural Resources

Legislation Favoring the Plinkae = NByotdcuie of
Roadside Trees in Massachusetts. Wm. S. Shurtleff.

McKie, Thos. J., M. D.: The Conservation of Soil and
Water Supply of Hill Countries in Cultivated Areas

McLouth, L.: South Dakota

McRae, Thomas C., M. C.: National Forestry feaerth tetas 62

Members, List of

Mohr, Dr. Charles: Alan

Morton, Hon. J. Sterling: Remarks at Fomut Wrekin Asa.
For. Assoc. and Nat’l Geogr. Soc., 1896,

Moses, G. H.: Forest Conditions and Forestry Probleme
in New Hampshire ;

National Forestry Legislation. Pheri CS McRae, M. i.

Need of a Forest Policy for the Western States. Senator
Fred. T. Dubois : see

Notes on the New Public Forege Near: Ppatdn. Charles
Eliot

Observations on thie Destrnouye Effects bt Winds pall
the Protection Afforded by Woodlands and Wind-
breaks. Prof. F. H. King 4

PAGE.
158

99

79

125

192

137
107

5
66

45

125

Officers for 1896.

Pammel, Prof. L. H.: love

Parsons, Geo. H.: Colorado eS eee

Prevention of Forest Fires. Gen. C. C. Andrews

Proceedings, Special Meetings, Brooklyn, New York,
and White Mountains, 1894. . Tate Pie

Thirteenth Annual Meeting, 1894,” ?

Special Meeting, Springfield, Mass., 1895,

Fourteenth Annual Meeting, 1896

Proctor, Hon. Redfield: Vermont . ae

Public Misapprehension of the Forestry eshte: B.
Harrison :

Publications of the Rae Fe peeary. eeeaiien f

Putnam, H. C.: Wisconsin

Relations of Insects and Birds to Present Worest Candi
tions. Prof. A. D. Hopkins

Rothrock, Dr. J. T.: The Forestry ae in Soe
vania :

Shurtleff, Wm. S.: feeree sion Eeorine ae Branine al
Protection of Roadside Trees in Massachusetts

Street Planting and Shade Trees. Henry C. Bliss

Tratman, E. E. Russell: Economies in Railway Ties .

Troop, Prof. J.: Indiana

Vermeule, C. C.: Woodlands aint Watertaw in New
Jersey .. eran

Woodlands and esterlow 3 in New fay. C. C. Ver-
meule

130

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