Report upon forestry. From the committee appointed to memorialize Congress and the state legislatures, regarding the cultivation of timber and the preservation of forests

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Report or tHe Commitrer Aprointep To MemorraAtizeE Con-
GRESS AND State LEGISLATURES REGARDING THE CULTIVA-
TION OF TIMBER AND THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS.

Tue Special Committee appointed at the twenty-second meet-
ing of this Association, to memorialize Congress and State Legis-
latures regarding the cultivation of timber and the preservation
of forests, would respectfully report : —

That a bill, identical in its provisions with that prepared by the
Sub-committee mentioned in our report at the Hartford meeting,
and which had been favorably received by the House Committee
upon Public Lands, in the Forty-third Congress, was again intro-
duced upon the motion of the Honorable Mark H. Dunnell, of
Minnesota, early in the first session of the Forty-fourth Congress,
and received the same reference as before.

The Chairman of your Committee now reporting was invited to
present its claims before the House Committee upon the Public
Lands, and the full time of one of their sessions was spent in
considering its provisions, Although several of the members ex-
pressed opinions favorable to the subject, the Committee made no
report, and in view of the issues then pending, on the eve of a
presidential election, it soon became apparent that the occasion
would not be favorable for the inauguration of new measures.

Upon this, an amendment embracing some of the features of
the proposed bill was offered by Mr. Dunnell, and through his
efforts was incorporated in an appropriation bill then pending,
under which the Commissioner of Agriculture was directed to
appoint a person to prepare a Report which was to be by him
transmitted to Congress,—upon ‘the amount of comsumption,
importation and exportation of timber and other forest products—
the probable supply for future wants—the means best adapted to
the preservation and renewal of forests—the influence of forests

(3)

4 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

upon climate —and the measures that have been successfully ap-
plied in various countries for the preservation and restoration of
forests.”

The bill embracing this provision became a law on the 15th day
of August, 1876; and a few days after a commission was granted
to Dr. Franklin B. Hough, one of the Committee now reporting,
for the execution of this duty. ;

No instructions were given, beyond those recited in the act, but
in a conversation had with the Hon. Frederick Watts, then Com-
missioner of Agriculture, the latter expressed the wish that the
researches should be made as thorough and practicable as the
means afforded would allow.

Under this authority, various circulars were addressed to several
classes of persons whose business or studies were thought to
afford occasion for knowing facts of public interest having refer-
ence to Forestry, and the replies received in answer to these
evinced a general willingness, on the part of those addressed, to
aid in the collection of information of practical value in their
several lines of business, or fields of observation. Among the
subjects of inquiry were :—the production and use of charcoal-for
metallurgy,— the use of wood for ties and other purposes, by rail-
roads,—the production and consumption of bark and other tanning
materials,— the results of tree-planting in the prairie states,—
experiments in the introduction of species not indigenous, and
statements of the distribution, relative size, and abundance of
native timber trees.

With respect to the importation and exportation of forest pro-
ducts, the Reports upon Commerce and Navigation, which have
been published annually since the organization of the present
government in 1789, afford all the statistics that we can ever
expect to have; and although changes in the headings of tables
(sometimes made unavoidable by changes in the revenue laws),
prevent some important commodities from appearing in continuous
order through the whole period, these reports nevertheless afford
the data for most instructive generalizations. ‘The opportunity
was improved to its fullest extent, and tables were carefully pre-
pared, not only showing year by year the statistics reported, but
various summaries by coasts and grand divisions, and by countries
and colonies, with the view of ascertaining how these exports
were affected by time, the exhaustion of material, or the opening

THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 5

up of new sources of supply, or of new foreign markets, or the
changing vicissitudes of trade, and the fluctuating exigencies of
supply and demand.

In respect to the measures adopted for the maintenance of sup-
plies in foreign countries by the cultivation of forests, inquiries
were addressed to the Forest Administration of several European
governments, and in every instance a courteous and_ sufficient
reply was received, either in the way of written statements, or by
the sending of documents affording the desired information, or
by reference to official reports within reach.

A cireular in the German language was addressed to each of
the Schools of Forestry, and Societies of Foresters in the coun-
tries where that language is chiefly used. These embrace the
greater number of these schools and societies that exist. From
nearly every one of these replies were received, either as written
memoranda, or printed reports, affording the facts desired.

Early in December last, a Report was presented to the Honorable
William G. LeDuc, now Commissioner of Agriculture, and after
due examination it was transmitted by him to the President, and
laid before Congress. It was referred in each House to the Com-
mittee upon Agriculture, the manuscript going first to the House
of Representatives.

The House Committee, after spending several weeks in examin-
ing the subject-matter and estimating its extent, and cost of pub-
lication, unanimously reported in favor of printing an edition of
100,000 copies. Their estimates included the statistical portion,
and fixed the size of the volume at 1,100 pages, which included an
allowance for numerous graphic illustrations, chiefly relating to
the tabular part.

The Report then went before the House Committee upon Print-
ing, where, from motives of economy, it was decided to omit for
the present the statistical tables, and to limit the extent to 650
pages. Under this restriction, the edition was fixed at 25,000
copies, and in this form it passed the Senate Committees, and
without further change was ordered for printing.

The restrictions upon the extent of the volume rendered it nec-
essary to omit altogether the articles upon Forest Administrations
and upon Forest Associations in Europe, and to condense other
portions which were deemed essential to a satisfactory report.
The law under which the appointment was made has not therefore

6 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

been fully complied with, and another Report will be presented at
the next session of Congress, in which other subjects specified in
the statute will receive attention.

It may be proper upon this occasion to notice some points in
reference to the cultivation of forests within the United States,
and to compare the conditions existing here with those found in
European countries where the greatest attention has been given
to this subject.

The lands devoted to forest culture in Europe may be divided
into four classes, according to the tenure of their title : —

1. Lands owned by the government, including in some coun-
tries separate crown-estates, appanages assigned to members of
royal families, and lands set apart for certain public uses.

2. Lands belonging to communes and other local municipalities.

3. The property of churches, ecclesiastical establishments, and
public institutions.

4. Private estates.

Among the first duties of an intelligent government is the pro-
tection of its own property against waste, and the maintenance of
its value. If it affords supplies needed in the public service,
measures should be taken, if possible, for their renewal; and in
proportion as these supplies are essential to the public welfare, or
difficult to procure from abroad in time of need, the task becomes
one of great responsibility, and a proper subject of timely previ-
sion and careful attention.

Hence in every country in Europe where the government owns
forest-lands, systems of management, protection and renewal have
been adopted to greater or less extent. These systems vary in
different countries; in some being little more than prohibitions
against trespass and waste, while in others they include a most
careful attention to every circumstance affecting the welfare of the
growing forest-systems of inspection to insure strict adherence
to the plans that may take a century or more to mature, and the
most thorough provision for renewal, when this growth shall have
been taken off at its full period.

In respect to the second and third of the classes we have men-
tioned, the care bestowed by the forest administraticn varies ac-
cording to circumstances ; in some cases amounting to absolute
control, and in others to a mere general supervision of the local
authorities in charge, and a consent to measures that they may

THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 7

propose. The woodlands belonging to communes and local public
bodies are very often burdened with rights of common usage, orig-
inating in ancient customs or speéial grants, and more or less
embarrassing to the forester. The inhabitants of a commune may
have rights of pasturage, or of feeding swine, or of gathering
leaves and acorns, or of cutting wood for building purposes or
fuel; and some of these wants must be supplied, or great hard-
ship will be endured. .

The management of these common rights renders it necessary
to establish rules according to circumstances, and involves sys-
tems of regulation that have no interest beyond the jurisdiction
where they apply. In many cases the government has found it
necessary to terminate by purchase, or otherwise, certain common
rights that interfere with the future welfare of a forest, such as
those of pasturage, or the gathering of leaves, seeds, and fruits.

As a general rule, the Forest Administration has no concern with
private woodlands. ‘To this there are a few exceptions, as, for
example, where a belt of forest along a frontier is deemed neces-
sary as a means of defense, or along a river liable to inundation,
where materials should be at hand for repairing embankments.
More recently, the fixing of sand-dunes, the erosion of torrents,
the interception of violent winds, or the malarious emanations,
and other cases affecting the general interest, or the public health,
have come to be regarded as proper subjects of regulation by gov-
ernment, although the lands may belong to private owners.

But with these exceptions the owners of woodlands generally
have the right to clear or plant as they please, unless forbidden
on the ground that a public injury may ensue. ‘They may deter-
mine the species planted, fix the period of cutting to suit their
own interest, and deal with their own as they may think proper,
so long as it does not affect the rights of others.

It has been remarked very generally, and in all countries, that
individual proprietors are jealous of interference by public author-
ity with the rights that they regard as their own; and even where
advanced ideas in respect to forest management prevail, as in
Prussia, it is only within a very recent period that measures have
been taken for restricting these rights, upon appeal to the public
authorities, where. the particular interests of others were con-
cerned, and for uniting under one control the management of ad-
jacent woodlands belonging to many private owners, although a

8 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

minority in jnterest might dissent. In fact, the case is scarcely
different with woodlands than with cultivated fields bearing annual
crops, and it would doubtless prove as difficult to control the
planting of private woodlands generally, as it would be to pre-
scribe the kind of grain that should be sown in fields, or to regu-
late the time of harvest.

Turning from this view to the conditions that prevail with us,
we find but two classes of landed proper oy to consider, in relation
to forest culture :—

1. The Public Lands owned by the general government, and in
some instances by states.

2. Private Lands, including those granted to corporations, and
managed by their trustees, being as fully under their control as if
held by individuals.

With respect to the Public Lands, the most that can be attempted
at present, is to establish regulations for the prevention of waste,
and perhaps systems of leasing, or of selling timber rights, as in
Canada,—the title of the land still remaining with the govern-
ment, with a remote and uncertain chance of its escaping fire and
waste until another crop of timber shall have grown. Measures
tending to ensure reproduction can readily be applied in such
cases, and the most approved methods of restoration, as practiced
in Europe, may be adopted—the main question to be considered
being that of the cost, and the profit of the enterprise.

It is also clearly within the power of government, in all future
sales of timber lands, to annex a requirement, as a condition of
the title, that a certain percentage shall forever be kept in wood-
land. It may also, in selling prairie land, require that a part shall
be planted with timber, and be kept forever devoted to this use.
These conditions would be evidently as valid as those in which
mineral reservations are made and other conditions are imposed.

As to placing any new restrictions upon lands already held by
private owners, this is wholly impracticable by any proceeding
short of resumption of title under right of eminent domain, and
payment to the owners of the full value. The re-purchase of land
and its cultivation by the government as forest, would scarcely
find favor with the statesmen of our day.

Since forest products are bulky, and must necessarily reach the
markets by water navigation, or by roads easily guarded, their
exportation beyond the limits of a given district can be readily

THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 9

controlled. Against local use and waste, it is most difficult to
provide, and with a public sentiment favoring this common use,
laws, however stringent, can scareely be enforced.

As regards private lands, including lands in charge of directors
or trustees, the future prospects of forest culture appear to depend
upon interest alone, and these owners will manage their estates as
they find it to their present advantage or future profit. It is rea-
sonable to suppose that they will be quite as jealous of this right
as they have shown themselves to be in countries where less per-
sonal freedom is enjoyed, and that the time is very remote in
which any public authority may dictate when a given field shall be
planted with timber trees, or when it shall be cleared. Fortunately
we are wholly free from the embarrassment arising from rights of
common usage that have so grievously tried the patience of Eu-
ropean foresters, as the title of our private lands is absolutely
vested in the owners.

We regard the time as near, when the question of planting for
profit will very generally engage the attention of the owners of land,
not only in the prairie regions, where the want of timber is among
the first that is felt, but also in the older portions of the country,
where the supply of woodlands was formerly in excess, and where
habits of improvidence and waste must be discontinued, and
methods of economy and prudent forethought must be learned.

The discussions that have been had in Agricultural and Horti-
cultural societies, and through the public press, have done some-
thing, and should hereafter do much more, towards bringing this
subject prominently into notice. In the State of Minnesota a
State Forestry Association has been incorporated by law, and
means have been placed at its disposal for stimulating competition
by way of premiums,— not forgetting in this to excite emulation
among the children of the public schools, and rivalry between
counties, in the work of forest tree planting, and the formation of
avenues of shade trees along the highways.

In many villages in Connecticut and other eastern states, Vil-
lage Improvement Associations have been formed, in some of
which the benefits sought are not limited to the material adorn-
ment of their localities, but to certain other means of intellectual
culture and social refinement, which tend so much to add enjoy-
ment to life, and to elevate and improve the condition of society
generally.

10 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

The tendency of increasing prices in any class of commodities
naturally leads to inquiries into the means by which the supply
may be enlarged, and cannot fail to impress the important truth
that seasonable provision should be made against coming wants.
When this fact comes to be generally realized, we cannot but hope -
that the owners of land will see it to their interest to provide
against future wants by timely investment in sylviculture, sufficient
at least for their own use, and that incorporated companies will
find in this an inviting field for investment for market-supply.

In this work of promoting forest-culture, something may doubt-
less be done by State governments, but rather in the way of inci-
dental encouragement than by direct control. They can offer
premiums to be dispensed by agricultural and other societies ;
they can exempt planted woodlands from taxation, or from in-
creased assessment on account of forest growth, and they can
enact laws for protecting woodlands against careless fires and
other avoidable injuries; they can require and regulate the plant-
ing of trees along the highways, and in places where the public
interest demands; they can provide for some instruction upon
the principles and methods of sylviculture, to be taught in the
public schools, and can aid the higher institutions of the state
in a more thorough course of instruction in this department of
applied science; they can establish experimental stations, and
encourage or direct inquiries tending to the discovery and dissem-
ination of knowledge of practical value, and they can provide
general laws for the formation of companies for planting and im-
proving waste lands by forest culture.

In respect to Forestry as taught in special schools in Europe,
we have to remark, that while everything relating to methods and

“management,—the influences that favor or retard the growth of
trees, or that affect the quality of their wood,—and every means
by which labor can be lightened, or profits increased, has imme-
diate value to us. We have little to learn from their forest juris-
prudence, their codes, or methods of administration, because their
laws and circumstances are altogether different from ours.

At present we could give no employment to a class of men
having the qualifications of those that graduate at the first-class
Forest academies. We need a more general practical knowledge
among the greater number, rather than the higher special training
of a few.

THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 1}

The experience of schools of Forestry in Europe is not without
interest to us, and we should avail ourselves of the lesson which
it teaches without going through the process of proving.

In most cases these institutions are under the control of govern-
ment, and are intended to qualify candidates for the State Forest
Service, in which, when once admitted after thorough instruetion
and due probation, they are sure of employment through life, with
- provision for support when their working days are over. In some
cases, schools of lower grade are maintained by associations of
land-proprietors for the fitting of young men as foresters upon
private estates, and aspirants for this employment can generally
gain admission to the government schools. In all of these insti-
tutions practical labor in the nursery and the forest, frequent ex-
cursions under the guidance of the professors, and occasional
journeys for more varied and general observation, form a regular
and necessary part of the course, and tend in eminent degree to
qualify the student for the practical application of the precepts of
his lectures, and the lessons of the class-room.

These schools may be divided into three elasses :—

1. Separate schools of Forestry, distinct from those giving
other instruction, as at Neustadt-Eberswalde and at Minden in
Prussia, and at Nancy in France.

2. Schools of Agriculture and Forestry, as at Hohenheim in
Wurtemberg, and at the Imperial High School of Agriculture and
Forestry at Vienna.

3. Separate departments of Forestry in Universities and Poly-
technic institutions, as at the Polytechnie School at Zurich, and
the Forest-Institute in the University of Giessen.

The tendency in Europe is apparently towards the abandonment
of the first of these in favor of the second or third. hus re-
cently the Forest Academy at Mariabrunn, near Vienna, has been
merged in the new institution we have just named in the Capital,
and that at Aschatfenburg in Bavaria is being incorporated with
the University of Munich. It is claimed by the advocates of this
consolidation, that several of the branches of instruction required
in the course upon Forestry, such as mathematics, chemistry,
natural history, climatology, drawing, surveying, etc., are amply
provided for in the University ; that better laboratories, museums,
and libraries, can be maintained and be made more widely useful
in the larger institutions, and that the student while following his

12 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON

special course, cannot fail of gaining a broader view of science by
contact with what is going on around him, than he could if his
horizon was bounded by the precincts of an isolated forest acad-
emy. Moreover, the students in other branches of the University
would get some knowledge of Forestry from what might come
under their notice in that department, and the wider acquaintance
thus formed would prove advantageous to all classes. A small
number of special professors would be sufficient to equip any ex-
isting University for this service, and a large saving would be
realized in the general result.

No school of Forestry has yet been established in Great Bri-
tian. The government has hitherto arranged for sending to the
schools in France or Germany such young men as aspire to em-
ployment in the India service, but the measure has been strongly
urged of adding to one or more of the existing universities the
facilities needed for securing this instruction at home. The Rey.
John Croumbie Brown, of Haddington, Scotland, has been particu-
larly active in calling public attention to this important measure.
We have, in our own country, the means for carrying this idea, as
it may be adapted to our wants, into happy effect. Besides our
colleges and universities, there is in every state of the Union a
separate institution, or a department in one previously existing,
in which, through the bounty of Congress, provision has been
made for instruction in Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts; and
upon these should naturally devolve the task of giving such a
course of practical instruction in sylviculture as may prove most
useful to the country and best adapted to our national wants.

There is not a college in the country in which a few practical
lectures upon the importance of tree-culture,'and some of the
principles that should govern in the selection of kinds and their
care and cultivation could not be given with advantage before the
graduating class. The young men going out from these institu-
tions become in greater or less degree centres of influence, and if
impressed with the importance of the subject, they might in many
ways promote the diffusion of correct ideas among those with
whom they might come to dwell.

It cannot be doubted but that the American farmer learns much
from example. His ideas of domestic architecture, of improved
methods of cultivation, of the value of new implements of. hus-
bandry, or in any departure from the routine of former ways, are

THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 13

largely derived from what he sees in successful application around
him. A good example becomes a model for his imitation, and in
this way a neatly planted avenue of trees along the highway, or a
thrifty and well kept grove, may often suggest the benefits that
he can also enjoy, and so the example is repeated, to the manifest
profit of the owner, and to the general good.

Your committee has not hitherto attempted to memorialize the
State governments upon the subject with which it is charged,
deeming it as first desirable to collect information upon the exist-
ing legislation of the several states, and to gather the results of
experience as affording suggestions worthy of attention. The
existing laws for the encouragement of tree-culture in the different
states are presented in full in the Congressional Report above al-
luded to (pages 200 to 213), and excepting those relating merely
to the planting of trees by the roadside, or to the protection of
trees planted for ornament, they may be briefly stated as follows:
* In Jilinois, the Board of Supervisors, or Court of County Com-
missioners in any county, may offer a bounty of ten dollars per
annum for three years for every acre planted with forest trees.
They are not to be set more than ten feet apart, and must be kept
properly cultivated.

In Jowa, the sum of one hundred dollars per annum is ex-
empted from taxation for ten years, for every acre of forest trees
planted and cultivated, the trees being not over eight feet apart.
The Board of Supervisors may increase the exemption to 500 dol-
lars per acre, except for state taxes.

In Maine, cleared land, if planted with forest trees, is exempted
from taxation for twenty years, the trees being set not less than
2,000 to the acre, and kept in thriving condition.

In Minnesota, a bounty of two dollars per acre is offered for ten
years for planting forest trees (excepting the black locust) on
prairie land, the total sum in one year not exceeding twenty thou-
sand dollars in the state.

In Missouri, a like bounty is offered for fifteen years, the allow-
ance to begin three years after planting, and the grove being kept in
growing condition, certificates and proofs being renewed annually.

In Nevada, a state bounty of ten dollars per acre for twenty
years is offered for planting done within ten years after the pas-
sage of the act (of 1877), the payments commencing two years
after planting.

14 REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PRESERVATION OF FORESTS.

In Wisconsin, every land owner having five acres or more of
land, who shall reserve from the natural growth, or who shall
plant, not over a fifth part of the area in tree-belts, is exempted
from taxation on lands thus occupied, until the trees become
twelve feet high, and after that he is to have a premium of two
dollars per annum per acre. The position and width of the belts,
kinds of timber allowed, eté., are prescribed in the act.

In Kansas and Nebraska, after an experience in the offering of

bounties and exemption from taxation, the laws for this object
have been repealed. We are not informed as to the reasons that
led to the repeal in Kansas, but in Nebraska a revised constitution.
forbade all exemptions of private property from taxation, and thus
rendered the previous law a nullity. It is, however, understood
that opportunities for evasion and fradulent claims were too often
afforded, and it was believed by some that the benefits of arbori-
culture were so manifest that they did not need the stimulus of a
reward.

There are various questions affecting the interests of sylvicul-
ture that come within the province of state legislation, and upon.
which uniformity is desirable. These will be duly considered by
_ the Committee, and when agreed upon will be submitted as their
recommendation to State Legislatures.

Trusting that its proceedings thus far will meet the approval of
the Association, the Committee respectfully asks for a continuance
of its powers for the further prosecution of the labors with which
it has been charged.

Frankuin B. Hoven,

For the Committee.

From the Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science;
St. Louis Meeting, August, 1878.

In ee eee
.

REPORT:

UPON

a

FORESTRY.

FROM THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED TO MEMORIALIZE CONGRESS AND THE STATB
LEGISLATURES, REGARDING THE CULTIVATION OF TIMBER AND THE

PRESERVATION OF FORESTS.

By FRANKLIN Bs HOUGH.

ys Qe 4 CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE.

SALEM: \ UW
PRINTED AT THE SALEM PRESS.
1878.

IT