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AMERICAN FORESTRY
THE MAGAZINE OF
THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
VOLUME XVII—1911
8 vo
ee
ae ha
1 \
THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHERS
WASHINGTON, D. C.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XVII
INDEX OF AUTHORS
Page
Mashton» i H., address) by==----—2s=—— 38
Plien 1.» E. article by.-25s2e5---—— 329-665
Andrews, Gen. C. C.,.article by------~--_ 48
Baker, Hugh P., article by=22=3==-22 605-719
Besley, Fy W.; article’ by=--=22222222--— 325
Blanchard;:C. J., article .by2222-==2=2= 701
Brown oW.. R:, article by=--222=-====== 19
Bryant, R. C., article by---..--2 724
Chamberlain, Allen, article by_--------- 389
Chandler B.A. article’ by-:2_.-22 === 735
Chapuiam, ©: S:, article -by--.---=2=222= 584
Chapman, Herman H., article by_----- 82
Cheyney, Edward G., article by--------- 522
Clapp, sbanle vi. wanticle: by=_=-=-= 573-652
Cock A.M: article bys. 42-3 == 674
Coolidres E: ii. article bys ee 542
Cornwall, George M., article by_------- 587
Coxe Wier-L. santicle iby-= oe See eee OS
Deckert, Prof, Dr.=., article by=---:--= 273
Ellicott, William M., article by--------- 317
BAlis; Won Carlos articles by=—.- == 509
Emerson, Ralph Waldo (poem) ------~- 196
agen, 3. a, article hyo seo eo 741
Putzeeraid, ©. W., article by2_=- = 2-2-— 646
Sayiora, ©. A, article by.-22222- 741
Ganord,. lohn, article. by__..-_ S22) 2e es 474
Graves, Henry S., article by---41-111-113-525
Green, Thornton A., address--_______-_ 3:
aie BM. article by_2_-.22 ee 219
iat Ji. aurtis,. article ‘by... 67
Iidimel Ao G:;; article. by 22. 2see= ae 706
GENERAL INDEX
Addresses, two. S: Gravess= 111
Adirondack Lumber Cut Decreasing__-_ 314
Aeroplanes to Protect Forests____-___- 569
Agricultural Education, course in_____- 566
Agriculture at Cornell University___--_ 567
American Conservation -_._._)--_. 171
American Forestry Association:
Annual meeting announcement_-_ 64
Report of
Resolutions adopted
Presidency of. .._____. ee eee
Page
Hawes, Austin F) atticles hy - 2") = 191
Jackson, Edwin R., article by_._______ 3, 445
Kellogg, R: Si articles by===aae nes 348
Kirkwood, J. Es anticlesby=== 479
Knapp, F. .B., aride bya 204
Weyison, J. J., article: byasae== eee 91-611
MacDonald, ‘G, B., articlenbya2=2==—=—= 549
McLaren, John, article by2232252=eee 731
Melly Gx): article by. 280-590-663
Moody Brank 3B: article bys === 595
Moore, Barrington, article by--.------- 531
Moore, Sidney L., article by_-_------ 145-713
Page, Thomas Nelson, article ‘by-_=-—_- 133
Peters; § G, atticle by...) 383
Pettis, €eRS article, by_._--.___- see 155
Pollock; FSR stpgem ) =- 1.2. ee 40
Rane, F. W., sapien by___!_____ eae 160
Record, Samuel J9ageticle by... 2a 197
Rogers, D. N., article by2s._-_._ 22am 599
Roth, Filibert, article’ by= sa) ee 395-456
Shattuck, C; Be arnde )———————— 224
Sherfesee, W. E; articlesby=o==e=e 517
sponsler, O.°2,” ariiclegiyeeeeeeees- = 537
Start, EdwinVA., agielesays---=——-—-= 256
Sterling; EAy articlesbye=———-_ 667
Tiemann, BeeD., anmelewee oe 206
Tierney,. Dillon Piearutcle: py 2: _. 2a 656
Vincent, Harry, siecle by=.2) eee 343
Weber, WieHoyiearticle bys... sae 637
Wildes, Walter K., article by___________ 253
Young, Mgaearticle: bya |) eee 396
American Lumber Trades Congress---- 440
American Tropics, Forestry in the—John
Simord _Sewee 2 474
Annual Forestry Council, New Hamp-
Shite’s gates 2-222 557
Annual Meeting, Announcement of
Partick (awe oe 64
Report (Ome =e 99
Resolutiofis, adopted ]22_--2-2---- 115
Annual Seed Crop, Harvesting the—Sid-
ROY pane = ee 145
CONTENTS
Page
Appalachian Bill, The passage of the___
164
Appalachian Forests, The 288, 363, 381, 473,
569, 685
Appalachian Forests, The People’s Pos-
sessions in the
HhomaseNelson Page....-2ee=
Appropriation for the Forest Service_- :
Allotment tor, District 4.2. aan
Arbor Day, Catalpa by Wholesale for__
Aspects of Forests, Public—H. S. Graves
Assistants Appointed, Forest___-__--__-
Associations: See Conventions
Pittacke A Plank. sats ee
Bamboo Pulp as the Paper Material of
the Future—Harry Vincent___-_-
Banana Stalks for Paper Pulp-2.. 3.
Basket Willow Culture in Maryland—C.
Ds, Mie a. 2 eee ea
Basket Willow, Purple—C. D. Mell____- :
Bass, Hon. Robert Perkins (Portrait) __
Bass. Wecture’ byaGovernorme.—_______ 7
Better Country, The (review)—Dana
Ws Bartle ttn
Bio? Project: At ees
Biltmore Forest School, The__-312, 439,
Boundartesm(Chanwede! — -. = = ue 60, 178, <
Bourbon "ef; Bourbons, A_222252 eee
Boy With the United States Foresters,
The (review)—Francis’ _ Rolt-
Wheeler 2332 3 ae
Bretton Woods, Forestry meeting at__
Building the World’s Highest Dams—C.
lee Blanchard =. 22s... eae
Galaverig Trees; The-_ 22a. See
Califormiats Unique Forést2..--2_ 22
California National Forests, Reforesting
Burnsiitive >) a _ ee
Camera, The Pleasures of a small—R. S.
Kellogg
Canadian Forestry Convention_________
Canadian Borest Products29% _______. 2
Canadianimviteyi® Aa see!
Care VWVithi tiie: iless copie > ee d
Case of the State of Louisiana, The____
Catalpa By Wholesale For Arbor Day__
CO re) —— ee
Changes in National Forests, President
abeeaiakes@...... eees?
Chesinut Bark Disease, Thes2g22___+__-
City Trees and their Relation to Fores-
Sloe ECC es eee a
Collecting Lodge Pole Pine Seed—A. M.
oC! AMA ka
Colombian Mahogany For True Mahog-
any, the substitution’ of._..-2..25-
674
756
ili
Page
Commercial Geography (review )—Ed-
ward Van Dyke Robinson________ 366
CommercialgRetonestation;: =-.-="5--- | 747
Concrete and Steel, Mine Timbers vs.___ 411
Conservation, Amentean\- 5 ..2.---_____ ital
Etro péareeescep | 761
int Haya eee eee 248
Of Natural Resources in the
United#Stateswae =. ee ae 54
Penal) Imstitutionswands—- === 741
Congress, the Third National_-___ 557
Conservation, Penal Institutions and—F.
A. (Gaylord... ME eee 741
Consumption of Tanning Materials_____ 246
Convention, Canadian Forestry._---___- 62
Conventions and Associations—See Con-
servation; Pennsylvania Lumber-
men’s; Northern Hemlock and
Hardwood Manufacturers; Hard-
wood Manufacturers; National
Lumber Manufacturers’; Yellow
Pine Manufacturers’; American
Lumber Trades Congress; Third
National Conservation Congress;
New Hampshire’s Annual Fores-
try Council; Canadian Forestry;
Bretton Woods; Eastern Fores-
ters; Public Lands Convention;
North Carolina Forestry,
Co-operation in Forest Protection—E. T.
Allene: 2228 x. aes. “ae 665
Co-operation With Lumbermen in New
York Aa: ee 504
Co-operation With States in Fire Patrol
—— Ji: Getta a __ 2 sh 383
Cornell University New York State Col-
lege! GigeNoniGultire. see see 567
Corrections) Wage ae 762, 442
Cost of Growing Timber The (review)
SR. -Sapcedbgre es 3) so 280
Council, New Hampshire’s annual for-
CStry Zaee = =.-1222. 2. 2 ae 731
Fire Legislation in New Jersey, Forest 568
Pape Ws0sSes) 2-2 542_—. 2 2b ile
Fire Patrol, Cooperation with States in—
fear weters 22). vee 383
Fire Peril, Handling the—E. T. Allen 329
Bireweerotection 22-28 008 Ae ee 758
Fire Protection in the National Forests
(Concluded)—Earle H. Clapp 573, 652
Page
Protection Plan in the Southern
Appalachians, A—W. Hoyt Weber
Fire Supervision on the Deerlodge____
Fires, use of telephone lines in fighting
First Purchase for Appalachian Forests
Blank Attack, Aisa. 2s eee
Floods, Over-Grazing Brings
Miorida, the work 1neeeeeeee eee
Florida National Forests
Forced -Issde, A2ae eee
Horest and the Farm) Dhes=ee
Forest Assistants Appointed ~_____--___
Forest Divided, the Wallowa_____-__-_
Forest Enterprise, A Railway’s—Filibert
Roth) £2.15)... ee
Forest Experiment Station, The Minne-
sota—Dillon P. Tierney__------~-
Forest Fire Legislation in New Jersey_-
Fire
Forest Fire Season, opening of the__351,.
Forest Fires, Federal Troops and__---~-
Forest Fires in North America—Prof.
DrmehasDeckert ... 2 eee
Forest Fires, some new ideas in con-
trolling—Samuel J. Record_-----
Forest Fires, what Oregon is doing to
prevent—C. §. Chapman________-
Forest Lands, Taxation of—Edwin A.
Start) 22:2...) 2S)
Forest Law, Under Minnesota’s new—
W.. TT. (Coxis 2 aeee
Forest Legislation in Vermont_____---
Forest Legislation, State eee 2s2ee: __
Forest Life and Sport in India (review)
Sainthill Eardley-Wilmot __------
Forest Problems of Massachusetts, Pres-
ent—Allen Chamberlain
Products,
Canadian... sae
Protection, codperation in—E.
T > AMM of) Fo eee _ a
Forest Protective Legislation Proposed
by Wisconsin—E. M. Griffith___-
Forest Ranger, The—E. R. Jackson_-_--
Forest Ranger, the strenuous life of
thepses. __ Se ee _ eee
Forest Reserve, Sunapee
Forest Resources of Missouri__---~---
Forest School in the Philippines, A—
Forest
Forest
637
494
468
569
295
757
Werk. Shepteseeme 222 son ee es 52 517
Forest Schools, Individual Institutions:
Biltmore Forest School_-312, 439,
Colorado College
Colorado School of Forestry__542,
Cornell University
Course in Agricultural Education
Elementary School Forestry-----
CONTENTS Vv
: Page
Forest School for Landowners, A 555
Hanvard, Eorest. ‘Schooli.g22-_--
Institution in New Haven__-----
lewar State, College... =a 549,
Michigan Agricultural Forestry
Department, Summer Term___-
Missouri, University of -_22222=-2
Montana Summer Cruise, Uni-
Rpeeesey) OR a ee ee es 312
Montana Forest School, Uni-
wersity:, Of ~lo822 2c See Sa
Nebraska Forest School, Uni-
MErSity) Ofi22. 22. ee Se 5:
New Hampshire State College__-
New York State Forest School_-_-
Pennsylvania State College Out-
lines a New Course of Forestry
Philippines, A Forest School in
Tne | Ped SE es ee a le 517
Forest Schools of the United States,
Series :
I. University of Montana—J.
ld, komen 1nIDe 2s
II. College of Forestry, Uni-
versity of Minnesota—
Edward G. Cheyney_-_-__
III. University of Nebraska For-
est.) © chioioly— Onan.
Sponslen = ess aaa
IV. Colorado School of For-
estry—P. T. Coolidge---
V. Iowa State College—G. B.
MacDonaldi.== =e =
VI. University of Georgia_-__--
VII. Biltmore Forest School_-_-
Forest Service, appropriation for the___
Forest Service, a timber deal__________
Forest Service, recent publications_-___
Forest Trees, Insects Injurious to_____ 335
Forests, Aeroplanes to Protect._-------
Hocests andsstteamflow 222. ...-._2.=55
Forests, The Appalachian_____- 288; ase
Horests oi veanrador i222 eee. aa
Forests of the Philippines, The____- a
Forestry and Horticulture, Vermont
Summer School of—B. A. Chand-
ere Ge Se S|
Forestry and the Utilization of Land—
riaincet Eeotw,. ~~. Mee
Forestry by Pictures, teaching__-------
Bones nehaihiotoe Ome 566
Forestry Convention, Canadian____-~--_-
Forestry Council, New Hampshire’s an-
ARUN!) epee Rees, ee. A E
Page
Forestry in the American Tropics—John
erotic Senne ieee 474
Forestry in Wisconsin, Progress of—
Pronbe peviaouye 8 5. 585
Forestry, Institutions Giving Instruction
In eee ee ee 659
Forestry Legislation, Uniform —__--~--- 442
Forestry Meeting at Bretton Woods,
they Sees Pe ee 8s BG, 449
Borestry. MWiginicipale. seem 762
Forestry Organizations, State and Local 506
Forestry Problems of Today, The—
Henry Gieaviege: Mee Se
Forestry Progress in New Hampshire—
WeRicBrowne= S52 oes See 19
Forestry, Public Aspects of—Henry S.
Gravési Sse eS es 525
Forestry in the School, the place of—
DonkCarlosy Hllishel==2: 2s ae 509
Frontispiece :
January—Reproduction by Seeding.
February—Original Forest in North
Carolina.
March—Forest in New Hampshire.
April—Plantation of Norway Spruce
in Vermont.
May—The Crawford Notch.
June—Great Falls of the Potomac.
July—Looking up the Valley of Cane
Creek, N. C.
August—University of Montana and
the city of Missoula.
September—Governor Bass.
October—Douglas Fir in Oregon.
November—Fire Guard's House—
Timber Destroyed by Forest Fire.
December—Camp at Elephant Butte,
New Mexico.
Getting: -at athe es et 484
Gift to the Yale Forest School, A_-__-_ 248
Glennis), Reporte ieroresson 2 170
Government Timber Sale and Its Condi-
tions, ‘WAGs: eRe REE kage PCED 627
Grazing and Fires in National Forests__ 435
Go
'
~
o
Grazing Cases; Destined) -The-_-2-_<=..4 3!
Grazine? A xcaminersmeeaee ase ese Eo 177
Growing Trees From Seed—C. R. Pet-
CLS A eee erm iss Sb tals Ft 155
Guild, Curtis—Rorttait i a eee 107
Handbook of Conservation (review )—
Mrs. Breede bigideker 2-222) 22 231
Handling the Fire Peril—E,. T. Allen____ 329
Hardwood Manufacturers’ Association__ 185
Hardy, Catalpassior Towa) == -2=2 =. 249
vi CONTENTS
Page
Harvesting the Annual Seed Crop—Sid-
neyeVLOOpes -2 20-2222 2s eee 145
Tekory, ‘Hargett of 4-22-2225 ee 59
History and Present Task of the Ameri-
can Forestry Association, The—
Ee Soveremes 222.222) 22S eee 113
Elistory of Ties? mes... -- 42.23 ee 757
Hlomesteaders; relief for -222-22-22 2828 685
How One National Forest is Protected—
Da Neskhogers -.. See 599
Idaho Experimental Stations-___---_--- 759
Illinois, a small forest reserve for_--- 313
Insects Injurious to Forest Trees_-__- 335
Instruction in Forestry, institutions giv-
ing ee. eee 559
Interstate Commerce Commission, The-- 441
Lowar state: Gollece__...-=3. ae 624
Is Forestéy Bractical? +22). 22 ee 424
Kaibab, Seed Collecting on the_------- 492
Kennebec Valley Protective Association 698
abpraddimmeorests; (On = — =. ae 63
Lake States Fire Conference, the_----30, 52
Land Problems and National Welfare
(review )—Christopher Turnor __ 687
Landowners, A Forest School for_--_-- 555
Lecture by Governor Basse2==2- = 760
Legislation in New Jersey, Forest Fire-- 568
Legislation, Uniform Forestry__----__-- 442
Lehigh University’s Useful Work __---- 120
Lessons From the Forest—Edwin R.
Jackson? 222: 2 eae eee 3
Bist oft Schools. .22222 === eee 566
Lodge Pole Pine Seed, Collecting—A.
IMS" Cook bea 2 eee 674
Logging on a National Forest—Sidney
EE: “Moore: 228222. 3.2 ee 713
Lost River in New Hampshire_-__-__- 633
Lost Trail, The (poem)—F. L. Pol-
HOt ee 2 Lote ee Sa 40
Boutstanay case of theStateot_ see = 414
Lumber Industry, The (Department of
Magazine): 2.222222 ae 1€2
Lumber Industry, Report on______ 227, 440
Lumbering, Yale’s new professorship of 620
Lumbermen and Forest Legislation—
iehotnton A... Green) =.) ee 33
Lumbermen, cooperation with in New
Wii kae ee eee = oe SS 504
Mahogany for True Mahogany, the Sub-
stitution of Colombian_________- 756
Maine’s Exhausted Fire Fund__-___-_- 618
Maryland, Basket Willow Culture in—
ermiOeuviell: 252s: 590
Massachusetts Plantations _____________ 499
. Page
Massachusetts, Present Forest Problems
of—Allen Chamberlain —__--_--- 389
Massachusetts, Reforestation in—F. W.
Rate. {Sewer Pepe ge 160
Meeting, announcement of thirtieth an-
Tt, ey ee St 64
‘Meetings, Forestry—See Conventions.
Michigan Agricultural College Forestry
Department Summer Term____--- 623
Microscopic Work on the structure of
Wood—H. Dr tiemannyas === 206
Mine Timbers vs. Concrete and Steel__ 411
Minnesota Forest Experiment Station,
the—Dillon P. Tierney ~-_----__- 657
Mannesota laws the mewos=2. eee 307
Minnesota's New Forest Law—W. T.
Cox | 2203 se eee 593
Minnesota State Forest Service___--___-_ 376
Minnesota University, College of For-
estry—Edward G. Cheyney_____-- 522
Mississippi River and its Wonderful
Valley, the (review) — Julius
Chantbersi 2s... ee ee 230
Missouri Chair of Forestry, University
Of ee eee ee eee 566
Missouri College Staff, fifteen new men
for (2.2): Sa ee eee 566
Missouri's Forest Resources --_------ 63
Montana, Forest School of the Uni-
versity of — J. E. Kirkwood,
Ph.D, 22. See eee 479
Montana Forestry Students, summer
eriise fore: J. ae 312
Municipal Hoses) =a a 762
Nation and State—and Association____- 426
National Capital, a National Forest at
the |S... ee SS. 352
National Capital Forest, a—William M.
Ellicott 22! eee ee 317
National Conservation Congress, the
third"... 22) eee _ ee S554
National Forest at the National Capital,
Ate el. eee S. | 352
National Forest, Disposal of Fire Killed
Timber on the Sopris—John Mc-
aren .. seats By, pen 731
National Forest. Logging on a—Sidney
le aNioore Seesaw. =e eee Bes W13
National Forest Work (Department of
Magazine) ees soo eee 59,
125, 177, 235, 264, 304, 370, 435, 491,
569, 625, 685.
National: -Forestguges.) s-— soes eS 60
Fire Losses and Range Use__-_-- 177
Neforestinepein+ 2 Sauer 2s 264
CONTENTS vil
Telephones on the Pecos_------- 498
President Taft makes changes in 491
Reforesting Burns in California_ 467
What Oregon is doing to prevent
ORES UMIIDES ies... 2 ere 584
Winlizing = troops) 1if_—..- =" ==eeee= 587
How one 1s protected___-__{_-_= 599
National Lumber Manufacturers’ Asso-
Glamour he i_a__ 3b o fee 440
Nebraska Forest School, University of —
Oe eee Ss ponsler 22 eee. _ P6387
Nebraska Forestry Students, field work
[Dit = ene eae Ss _ Semeur ea 121
Nebraska, University of 25-2 ee 566
New American Aboretum, a-_------__- 696
New England Farmer as a Source of
Sip ply. 5 se ee ee 697
New England Railroads Waking up_--- 313
New England’s Hope Deferred ---~-_- 616
New Grazing Regulations --.---------- 236
New Hampshire State College_-----__- 39
New Hampshire Timberland Associa-
tens the pee 311
New Hampshire’s Annual Forestry
Cotmnictieeere Sl) 55
New Jersey, Forest Fire Legislation in 568
New Occasions Teach New Duties_=_ 117
New @ppomeinitys 22a eee ee 294
New York, Cooperation with Lumber-
mengan i222. A eS eee 504
New York State College of Agriculture
at Cornell
New York State Forest School______- 624
News and Notes (Department of
Magazine) <2... Se... aes 62,
246, 313, 376, 442, 503, 570, 633,
695, 760.
North America, Forest Fires in—Prof.
Di vba Deckert =. ae _.. “aaa 273
North Carolina Forestry Association 180, 696
Northern Forest Protective Association 180
Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Man-
LEACHMneLS) oats wee meek 2) 186
INO OUpply Bechaustless 22g! 22 698
Notch) Savedsathe Crawfordas = == 299
INoticenton Miennbers ssves seme 64
Oak as a Shade Tree, the Water—C, D.
MIG A | ee 663
Obstguction, Otietal .... See 8 424
Official Account of the San Bernardino
Ci i a 625
WiieialObsthwctione —_ seem Tt 2 424
Ohio State Forestry Society ~--______- 181
Oldivlimnestorest) Waste... Joe 505
Opening of the Forest Fire Season__- 351
Page
Oregon's New Horest Law. 2---2--=+- 379
Orcantzatonseehorestrys=— 22 ee fas 506
Ornamental Shrubs of the United
States (Review)—Austin Craig
(ND dh, pee. 687
Over-grazing Brings Floods______------ 757
Ownership of Timberlands, the--_---_-- 171
Paper Material of the Future, Bamboo
Pulp as the—Harry Vincent____- 343
Passage of the Appalachian Bill, the-_ 164
Passing; of the \Pioneers, the - == -- = 297
Pecos National Forest, Telephones on
pets 2 DORs ee Mo 498
Penal Institutions and Conservation—
BA. (Gaylord. aie 5 be ee 741
Penn State College Outlines a New Un-
dergraduate Course in Forestry—
FL Ry Balke rae see Re ee 719
Pennsylvania Lumbermen’s Association 187
Pennsylvania Railroad and Reforesta-
tion
Pennsylvania's Thrifty Forest Policy__ 314
People’s Possessions in the Appalachian
Forests, the—Thomas Nelson
Pagers melee Cie ie Jee 133
RersonalivVord eta = eee 684
Philippines, A Forest School in the—
Woe Shentesee s2222 8 ees aah Si
Phillips: tran ayes 2 Bees ee 314
Pictures, Teaching Forestry by_._..---- 546
Pike National Forest, Reforestation on
the—@ W: Hitzgerald-_- 32 ea 646
Pine: Beetle; Che Southem === 633
Pine Seed, Collecting Lodge Pole_____ 674
IBines? sElistonyaro in thes eee 757
Pioneers, theyPassing | of the. 2 297
Place of Forestry in the School, the—
DoneG@arlospElihs sae ee eae 509
Plans for Buying Eastern Forest Land 235
Plantings Campaicnhanvachives = 59
Planting for Pulp and Timber____._-_ 298
Planting Season, emoent.2- 6 282 2 88 499
Pleasures of a Small Camera, the—R.
SS. Rieti ht ey 348
Pollution of Rivers and Harbors, The 484
Possessions in the Appalachian Forests,
the People’s — Thomas Nelson
Page gets rer wwe RL A ee 133
Present Forest Problems of Massachu-
setts—Allen Chamberlain ___--_~ 389
Present Forestry Issues—Hon. Curtis
PORTE Bc! Rig) ae a a 67
Present Situation in the White Moun-
tains . Sepeeeeee 2 Teeth 118
Viil
Page
Presidency of the American Forestry
_ Association
President Taft Makes Changes in Na-
foal iemests =.= 3.2. ae
Prevention of Forest Fires in Minne-
sota—Gen. C. C. Andrews__-----
Principles of Handling Woodlands, the
(review)—Henry S. Graves----- :
Principles of Scientific Management
(review)—Frederick W. Taylor-
Products, (Canadian Horest=--2 2 ae
Professor: Glenn’s Report ~------------
Professorship of Lumbering, Yale’s new
Progress of Forestry in Wisconsin—
FrankyiB: Moody — ===
Protection in the National Forests, fire—
Barley Clappl. 222). 573,
Protection of Forests from fire, the—H.
SaiGravesr! . 22-2 aes
Protective Associations, Timberland—E.
AC OREnLIN ge! Seek seek! J ee
Pruning of White Pine, the—F. B.
Knapp yes tees Se oi. a
Public Aspects of Forestry—H. S.
Graves ee Ee 203i oe ye
Publications of the United States Geo-
logical Surveys 220=
Pulp.and Timber, ‘Planting dora.2e ee *
Purple Basket Willow—C. D. Mell_-_-
Railroads Waking Up, New England_-_-_ :
Railways and Forest Protection—R. H.
Adshten, Ao... 22 2S. eee
Railway’s Forest Enterprise, a—Filibert
Roth’) 2262... ae eee
Ranger Course at Colorado School of
Forestry 2242) _-_. ae
Ikaneer, Fall \Worketor thes--- ==
Ranger, the Forest—E. R. Jackson__--
Ranger, the Strenuous Life of the_____
Recent Publications—See Current Litera-
ture.
Reforestation, Commercial —-..-------
Reforestation in Massachusetts—F. W.
IRaiiie, (pete 1) 2 oe.
Reforestation on the Pike National For-
est—C, W. Fitzgerald_._--.
Reforestation, Studies for—A. G. Hamel 7
Reforestation, the Pennsylvania Railroad
Sheltie Rome S t
Reforesting Burns in California National
POPES GAN 2 oe oS
Reforesting in the National Forests
WENCEUTES 0. se
Relief for Homesteaders ____________--
Report by Professor Glenn ____22220--
555
491
CONTENTS
Page
Report of the Forester for 1912________ 125
Report of Thirtieth Annual Meeting___ 99
Report on Standing Timber, Commis-
siofier @emgimrs ease, 2! Bee 182
Report on the Lumber Industry___--__- 227
Reports and Bulletins—See Current
Literature.
Reproduction of Engelmann Spruce
After Fire—L. J. Young.___-____ 396
Resignation of District Forester Chap-
Man! ....<2 522825 See ee ae ai
Resolutions Adopted at Thirtieth An-
nual Meeting, American Forestry
Association 922234. 4+ ee 115
Reviews; Bools.c 22-223). ae 54,
55, 172, 230, 231, 365, 366, 429, 629,
686, 687, 688.
’ Rivers and Harbors, the Pollution of__ 484
San Bernardino Fire, an official Ac-
Coumtof the <2...) 522s eee 625
Saw Mill Uncle Sam’s One,eeeeee 570
School in the Philippines, a Forest—
Waa. Sherfesee __.4- Soeeeeeee 517
School, the Place of Forestry in the—
Don, Carlospillis. 005+ Ieee 509
Schools: List of tiomestys =. 2222 ¥ “7. 1566,
Scientific Management and the Lumber
Industry —Rs CB ryan 724
Secretaryship of the Interior, the-_____- 228
Seed Collecting on the Kaibab_.---__- 943
Seed Eating Animals on the Tahoe____ 497
Shade Tree, the Water Oak as a—C. D.
Mell 22822... US eee ee 663
Shade Trees in Towns and Cities (re-
view)—William Solotaroff ______ 429
Shall States Regulate the Management
of Private Forest—H., H. Chap-
Man: e- .. 2ee eeee e 82
Sihlwald, the—Barrington Moore______ 531
Silence), Brokeny a2 25a eas 682
Small Forest Reserve for Illinois, a____ 313
Some New Ideas in Controlling Forest
Fires—Samuel J. Record__-_-_--_- 197
Some Things a’Forest Ranger Should
Know—C Sil, Shattuck 2=s=22222 224
Sopris National Forest, Disposal of Fire
Killed Timber on the—John Mc-
[aren —.. See: ees 731
Southern Appalachian Rivers, the------ 246
Southern Appalachians, a fire Protection
Plan in the—W. H. Weber-_-_------- 637
Southern Pine Beetle, the--._-.-_______ 633
Spruce After Fire, Reproduction of
Engelmann—L. J. Young_-______ 396
CONTENTS ix
Page
Standing Timber, Commissioner Smith’s
eno s Gi ee 182
StaremC@olleseumloware=---= == <2 -_ 624
State Céntrol of Private Property__--- 313
StatembonestaeeciSlation 2-____--__=4 2 = 8 427
State Forest Service, Minnesota__------ 376 |
State Forestry,—Its Relation to Conser-
Taiion 2 ee Se 743
State Forests in Vermont—Walter K.
\WWillla es: 5a re Se 253
State Ownership of Forests—Austin F.
lawiesi 2 ol... 2 52. Se 191
State Work:
California) 22862" ae 182, 306, 499
Plorida: a ee 59, 436, 437
Ela wala) oso ee eee ee 248
Thinoisi 224 ae ee eS ee. 502
To Waa ae SS 249
Malire (eee Nia 237, 306
Massachusetts ~~ ---- 60, 437, 499, 694
Michigan ese. oo TS 306
Minnesota 2 =e 307, 376
INebraskay ae 180
New Hampshire__61, 53, 311, 438, 499,
694
Nie wanViOnkee= ==. 2-4 182, 438, 693
Nothia@arolina _.- ae 180
Ohiog. = 232. -. Se eee 181
Oregon,’ .. 222) sae Peo), Silsl Sire
Pennsylvanian === 61, 238, 693
WMerinont 22.2 2sav ae ae 179, 238, 501
Wiashington 2. Sa ees 439
Wrest ‘Virginia’ __ ee aes 61
Wisconsin ..._._ =. 438, 500
State Work (Department of Magazine) 60
179, 237, 246, 308, 437, 499, 568, 693, 758
Bidte SUI pieMeme ad __. Jae _ Sa 53
Statistics, a Suggestion for Fuller__-____ 53
tacLusuon mvviecks: Brlleeeea. eee 51
Stream Flow, Surface Conditions and__ 371
" Stream Blow, orests anges _.....--2 403
street. Trees—. J. devisan—e-) _.-._._ 611
Strenuous Life of the Forest Ranger,
Give) 463
Studies for Reforestation—A. G, Hamel 706
Substitution of Colombian Mahogany
togetnue Mahogany —Semee-__-— 756
Suggestion for Fuller Statistics, a_____ 53
Summer Meeting of Eastern Foresters,
tie=—hivchinbuebaker —2aeme-. 2-2 605
Summer Term, Michigan Agricultural
College, Forestry Department____ 623
Sunapeer borest) Reserve .__.--22e. 22 499
Supervision on the Deerlodge, Fire_-__ 494
Supervisors’ Meeting, A _____-____-___ 128
Page
Supreme Court Decisions, the---------_ 353
Surface Conditions and Stream Flow-- 371
Tahoe, Seed Eating Animals on the_-_ 497
Paling, (Stock, wWwasconsin =. +22. 2.2.22. 500
Taxation of Forest Lands—Edwin A.
Star tin eee ees ks 256
Mieachinc sHonestuveby bictures= 5 =-= se" 546
Telephone Lines, Use of in Fighting
Rinegpeet eee | eet tee 468
Telephones on the Pecos National For-
CSti hte. = hae ee ee ee 498
Third National Conservation Congress,
. 557, 681, 695
Thirtieth Annual Meeting:
ATnNOUNnCcEMent Olle eeee = ae = 64
Report (od 2 2= sae caer ae 99
Resolutions Adopted yas. -——— 115
Timber Deal, a Forest Service_--___-_ 482
Timber Sale and its Conditions, a Govy-
CLNMGni a= Soe = Sa ee Se 627
Timberland Protective Associations—E.
PA: Sterlite ates cpl ay eens BL a Ae 667
omGer inwUnderrNew, Wawa 2 249
dlomeave thes Crawtond) Notchz—-== 92s 119
Trail, The Lost (poem)—F. L. Pollock 40
cecum elantings Ee ncotnagit a === =a 759
Trees and How to Know Them (re-
view)—W. A. Lambeth --______- 687
iNrees) Strect—J.. J. Levisone.-2-—--.-_. 611
Troops in the National Forests, Utiliz-
ing—George M. Cornwall _______ 587
Tropics, Forestry in, the American—
Join WGittord sts ae ue ee 475
Two ‘Addresses—H. S. Graves__------- 111
wion (Conventions ies. nee ene ees 681
Uncle Sam Owns Much Timber but has
Only someway Mail = ee 570
Under Minnesota’s new Forest Law—W.
Hie) C gimmeete ets 8 i ee 593
Undergraduate Course in Forestry, Penn
State College Outlines a new—H.
BS Balke tans uae ee ee 719
Wnitriendly Appointment, van —- = —= === 227
Uniform Forestry Legislation--.------ 442
Unique Forest, California’s
University of Missouri, the-__._-_------ 691
University of Montana Forest School 479
University of Montana Summer Cruise 312
University of Nebraska
imiversity. of Wermgont) 2.25). -.2 624
Wise ofs@dd. Weneths, thes. 629
lUiser ofm Polesmmy a 909Mee =. 2k 62
Use of Telephone Lines in Fighting
EMGeS. ase ee Le od 468
Utilization of Forest Waste--_....-.-- 63
Page
Utilization of Land, Forestry and the—
Filibert Roth
Utilizing Troops in the National For-
ests—George M. Cornwall------- 587
Wealwesot VWindbreaks--.---.-----22 22" 756
Mermont Planting Season------.-2===_ == 501
Vermont, State Forests in—Walter K.
Wades 22). __-._____ 22 eee 253
Vermont, Summer School of Forestry
and Horticulture—B. A. Chandler
Mernmont University of =a ee
Wallowa Forest Divided
Waste. Old Dime. Forest.
Shade Tree, the—C.
DieMell :..-:_.-/. 232.
Weeks Bill 62,
Weeks Bill, Its constitutional aspect 169,
Weeks Bill, Work under
Weeks Bill, Plans for buying land_--_-
Weeks Bill, Putting into operation_-_--
Weeks Bill, The Appalachian forest-_--
Water Oak as a
CONTENTS
Page
What Oregon is Doing to Prevent For-
est Fires—C. §. Chapman-_-—_=--_- 584
White Mountains, the Present Situation
111 9 eee een eee yt 116
Willow Culture in Maryland, Basket—
CSD AMIGE? . . (Sea eee pee 590
Willow, Purple Basket—C. D. Mell____ 280
Wisconsin, Forest Protective Legislation
Proposed by—E. M. Griffith____ 219
Wisconsin, Progress of Forestry in—
Frank B. Moody sae ee 595
Wisconsin. Takinp@pteceess ss 500
Woodnotes (poem) — Ralph Waldo -
Emersoity 1202 2.26 cee ee een 196
Woodworking Safeguards for the Pre-
vention of Accidents in Lumber-
ing and Woodworking Industries
(review)—David Van Schaack__ 687
Work Under the New Forest Law-_--- 226
Yale’s New Professorship of Lumbering 620
Yellow Pine Manufacturers’ Association,
tiege asses... _..___| ee 440
A New Wear’s Resolutton for the
American People: Chat we
will, from this time forth, administer
the forests and other natural resources
of the country as a trust, consuming only
the income and preeseruing the principal
unimpaired, that the greatness and
prosperity of the nation may not perish
as long as the flag floats over tt and
coming generations may still know the
phrase
A Happu New Bear
ACNLS TYOINVLOG ONILSAYALNI NV—ONIGHAS AM NOILONGONdAY
LSHXOA AHL WO SNOSSAT
American Forestry
VOL. XVII JANUARY, 1911 No. 1
LESSONS FROM THE FOREST
By EDWIN R. JACKSON.
UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE.
(This was delivered in substantially its present form as an address before the Iowa State
Teachers’ Association at Des Moines, November 3, 1910.)
problem of how to make the every-day work of the school interesting
and profitable. If I fail to do so, it will be because of lack of ability to
make you see from my viewpoint; not because my heart isn’t right. I would
like to begin immediately to point out some of the interesting things which
the forest offers in the way of “teacher’s helps,” but in order to make myself
and my purpose clear, I find that a few words of explanation are necessary, so
at the risk of being pedantic, I must take time for a short introduction.
You have all doubtless been reminded many times of that rather vague but
very comprehensive statement of Herbert Spencer, that “Education is the
preparation for complete living.” We frequently misquote this, or at least
misinterpret it, and tell our pupils that they must go to school in order to
“prepare for life!’ How many school boys do you suppose have heard this
statement from parent or teacher and secretly resolved to cut out the prepara-
tion and get into the real thing as soon as possible? We make the school
appear not as a very necessary part of life, but as a sort of purgatory which
precedes that blessed state. Do you blame the boy for wanting to shorten
his stay there? Then we have the audacity to tell him that school days are
the happiest days of life. What hypocrites our children must sometimes
think us! Let us first get on solid ground and teach that school work is as
much the business of life as selling goods, and that education is acquainting
ourselves with the field of our labors, quite as much as the first trip of the
new salesman over his route or the apprenticeship of the tradesman.
Assuming this to be true, we must at once conclude that familiarity with
one’s environment is essential to success in life. By success, I mean not so
much ability to outstrip one’s competitors as the ability to serve one’s fellow-
men; to meet each situation which arises, with confidence; and to live happily
and in content.
I observed a curious incident recently in one of the magnificent hotels of
an eastern city. Two men entered the building at about the same time. One
was tall, broad-shouldered and powerfully built. His tanned features and
calloused hands showed that he was accustomed to hard work, and his muscles
»
vw
au HAVE desired, in preparing this paper, to help a little in solving the
t AMERICAN FORESTRY
as strong as steel; yet he approached the clerk’s desk with every sign of
timidity and even fear. There followed close on his heels a dapper little,
undersized, sallow-faced person, lcose-muscled and physically insignificant—
yet he walked forward with the utmost self-confidence and ease of bearing.
The big man could easily have broken the little fellow in two, if it had come
to a test of physical strength between them, but he allowed himself to be
elbowed aside without a word of protest, and shrank back timidly while the
clerk turned to the desk and greeted the more aggressive late comer first.
What is the explanation of the conduct of these two men? Simply that the
big man did not feel sure of himself; he was in surroundings which were un-
familiar to him, while the little man was wholly at home. It is the same
instinct which makes the country dog which has followed his master to town.
turn tail from his city cousin until he reaches the shelter of the master’s
wagon, when he faces his pursuer and stands at bay.
The lesson I wish to draw from these illustrations is this: A serious part
of the work of the teacher is to acquaint the pupil with his environment; to
make him master of the natural phenomena with which he is surrounded, so
that he need not be at loss to know how to make them serve him. Since the
Almighty placed our common ancestor, Adam, on this world with the com-
mand to take the earth and subdue it, man has striven to learn the secrets of
Nature and to use the resources of earth, sea, and air for his own comfort
and support. In part, he has been successful, yet how many of us, if cast
away like another Robinson Crusoe, could hold our own in the struggle for
existence? How many of us, when walking in the fields, hesitate to pluck the
brilliant flower which blooms in our path, or to taste the tempting berries
which the bushes hold forth to us, for fear they may be poisonous? The lesson
is obvious. To paraphrase an old proverb—it is this: “Familiarity breeds
confidence.”
No one can be wholly successful in life who is the victim of discontent.
I mean by this not the kind of discontent which sees in society conditions
which are unjust and seeks to right them; this is the kind of discontent that
is productive of “insurgents.” I mean rather the discontent that sees no beauty
in the fairest landscape, but only trees and bushes; that hears no music in
the singing of the birds, but only shrill noise. There are people who live amid
scenes of the greatest beauty yet who wonder why tourists come to look on
the rocks and hills with which they are surrounded. I have been told of people
who have lived for years within sight of the Congressional Library in Wash-
ington—that building which is said to have the most beautifully decorated
interior of any building in the United States—yet who have never entered its
portals. These same people doubtless complain because they cannot afford to
take a trip to New York or Paris to see the sights. Here, then, is another part
of the work of the educator—to teach an appreciation of one’s immediate
environment, and to stir up an interest in Nature’s phenomena with which
every one is surrounded, so that no matter where one finds himself, there is
always something to entertain and instruct him. The ideal is that of Him
who found “Sermons in stones and books in the running brooks.”
THE PLACE OF FORESTRY IN PUBLIC SCHOOL EDUCATION.
You will readily perceive from what I have said why I have the temerity
to suggest forestry as a subject for study in the public schools. Forestry is
in no sense to be considered an unwelcome intruder begging to be admitted
to the select company now comprising the public school curriculum. The
guest chamber is already over-crowded, and there is no room for additional
occupants in the places of honor. Forestry asks nothing more than admission
to the servant’s quarters. It desires only to serve, and in the role of a good
LESSONS FROM THE FOREST 5
servant, is glad to efface itself and lose its identity in order that its superiors
may appear to better advantage and thus become more attractive. It seeks
not to supplant but to supplement.
While forestry furnishes material which is of the utmost value as sup-
plementing many subjects, such, for example, as geography, history, botany,
and civics, its special place is clearly as a part of nature study and agricul-
ture. In the primary grades, the cultural qualities and the element of scien-
tific observation which enter into the study of forest conditions are of great
value in training young children to think clearly and observe accurately. In
the upper grades and the high school, forestry again appears, this time as a
very vital part of agriculture. The woodlot is coming more and more to be
recognized as an essential part of every well-organized farm, and the products
of the woodlot to be considered as one of the important farm crops on the same
basis with wheat and corn. From an economic standpoint, the lessons of the
woodlot are too significant to be omitted. May I suggest that any text-book
on agriculture which does not include a chapter on the woodlot is, to that
extent, incomplete.
Now let us consider for a moment the advantages of the forest as a source
of illustrative material. The study of trees is quite common in the public
schools, but some times we see so many trees that we lose sight of the forest.
The forest should be studied as such to be of the greatest interest. It is rich
with interesting examples of the phenomena of plant and animal life. It
is as though the Book of Nature were here issued in folio sized edition, printed
in long primer type, for everything is built on a life-sized scale in the forest,
so that he that runs may read. The teacher of botany or geography who is
content to point out the pictures in the text-book, yet never takes the pupil
outdoors to see the real thing depicted by the picture, deprives the pupil of a
great opportunity which lies just over the brow of the hill.
In this fact, that except in a very few localities, the forest does literally
lie just over the brow of the hill, lies one great advantage of forestry as a
supplemental part of school work. There are few regions of the United States
in which some forest features are not close at hand to be studied. Where
there is no group of trees that could be dignified with the name of forest,
there is at least the tree to study individually. Even in the most crowded
city, there are parks to be visited, and I am glad to note the increasing ten-
dency to at least simulate natural forest conditions in these parks and to
break away from the stiff artificiality which has been characteristic of city
squares and parks hitherto. Even the treeless regions of the western plains
furnish ground for the solution of one great problem of the forest—that of
afforestation, or tree planting with a view to producing forests.
Again, the teacher who wishes to study the forest, or to make use of the
illustrative material which it furnishes, need not wait upon the seasons—the
forest is always ready to be studied; it is never out of season. The tree, unlike
the flowers or vegetables studied in school gardens and otherwise, does not
disappear during the winter. On the contrary, a great many of the most
interesting phases of tree life and forest conditions can be studied best in the
winter, just at the season when most other forms of plant life are unavailable.
This applies especially to the winter buds and protective coverings of the
trees, their forms and branchings.
But the forest does not rest its claims for recognition as a candidate for
educational consideration upon its botanic importance alone. It also begs to
‘present itself as worthy of consideration from an economic standpoint. The
products of the forest enter largely into the commercial life of the nation. Every-
where, despite the disastrous experience of Mother Eve, the fruit of the tree is
being constantly partaken of by the sons of men. A thousand articles of
6 AMERICAN FORESTRY
commerce, raw and manufactured, are daily the basis of trade in our markets
and affect our lives at every turn. This is too important to be overlooked if
the school is to teach what is going on in the world. No teacher of commercial
geography, history, or arithmetic can avoid the consideration of problems
and questions which deal with the forest and its products. Then, aside from
the articles of commerce produced, the forests are coming more and more to
be recognized as having an important influence upon the economic develop-
ment of the country through the influences they exert upon climatic conditions,
soils, and water supplies.
In view of all these facts, it seems to me well worth while for the teacher
who wishes to make the work of the class room at once broadly instructive,
entertaining, and uplifting, to draw freely upon the forest for material to
illustrate and intensify the studies of the school.
FORESTRY IN NATURE STUDY.
The tree has long been a favorite subject for nature study. It has so
many points of interest, so many phases in its yearly life and is so constantly
and universally available that it is invariably drawn upon by teachers look-
ing for illustrative material. Each tree seems to have its own particular ef-
fect upon our feelings. The oak, for example, impresses us with its strength,
the elm with its grace, the weeping willow with a sense of humility or sorrow.
We find a new cause of interest in the tree as the seasons change and
with the coming of winter the leaves fall away, leaving the branches bare.
Winter affords the best opportunity to study tree forms. An old chestnut or
elm, for example, will show plainly the deliquescent or dissolving type of
branching, while the poplar or cedar are types of the excurrent form.
The student of nature study will want to know how the tree grows, and
an interesting experiment is to dig and wash away the soil from the roots of
a small seedling and learn by actual measurement how far the roots extend.
Then occasionally in the forest we may find a large tree uprooted by the wind
and see how the roots penetrate and hold the soil. No better evidence can be
had as to the value of trees in preventing erosion.
Considering the parts of the tree found above ground, we may compare
the erect and self-supporting trunk to the stems of vines and herbs. When we
study the growth of the tree, no more striking evidence of this growth can be
found than the fresh shoots of the evergreen’s branches as they appear in
the spring.
Now let us leave the study of the individual tree and consider the forest.
Here we find not only trees to study but whole colonies of smaller plants and
of animals which go to make up the life of the woodland, and there are also
for consideration a great many conditions of soil and water supply that
depend upon the forest. We need to observe, for example, how the forest floor
is interwoven with roots and enriched by the humus of vegetable decay. This
can be easily seen in some place where the forest floor extends to the edge of
a bank and is thus shown in vertical section.
One of the most important lessons we may learn from the forest is the
appreciation of beauty, not only of form but of color. No where can we find
such rich and delicate colorings, such a variety of tints and such a procession
of changes as our common hardwood forests produce with the changes of the
seasons. When the season is mild and Jack Frost does not spoil the show,
the autumn leaves set forth for our enjoyment a perfect symphony of color
not excelled anywhere in nature. Even stern winter entering upon the stage
cannot entirely quell the joyous riot, for the sturdy conifers in their coats of
green stand erect amid the snows and continue to play their parts unmindful
of the sharpest cold.
NOILONGOddaY SINAADYd SASOdYNd
DNIZVAD XOX LOTGOOM AHL DNIZITILN
SWHOd GAYL AGALS OL
ALINOLYOddO LSA AHL SGYOAAVY YALNIM,,
“ec
LISHYOd AHL WO SNOSSHT
THE SQUIRREL IN HIS TRAVELS
THROUGH THE TREE TOPS
LESSONS FROM THE FOREST “THE STURDY EVERGREENS STAND ERECT
AGAINST THE SNOWS
‘“\ LARGE TREE UPROOTED BY THE WIND SHOWS HOW
THE ROOTS PENETRATE AND HOLD THE SOIL”
LESSONS FROM THE FORESTS A COMMON TYPE OF WOODLOT—THE WINDBREAK
THE WOODLOT HAS ITS PLACE ON THE FARM,
AS WELL AS THE GRAIN FIELD
LESSONS FROM THE FOREST “THE STUDENT OF GEOGRAPHY SHOULD KNOW OF THE EXTENT
OF THE TREELESS REGIONS OF THE MIDDLE WEST
LESSONS FROM THE FOREST . 11
It would be both unfortunate and unwise to study the forest without
also studying some of the fascinating creatures that inhabit the wildwood.
We may watch the squirrel in his travel through the tree tops; the wood-
pecker, rapping as it were, for admission on the wooden door of the tree
trunks or boring holes in the bark as a cache for his winter supply of acorns.
We may, if we are bold enough, even venture into the realms of those larger
and more ferocious creatures of the woods, such as the bear and wolves. All
these go to make the story of the forest one of intense interest to the child.
Before I leave the subject of nature study, I wish to emphasize again the
importance of the tree from an aesthetic viewpoint. I need only to remind
you of the beauty of a city street lined with beautiful trees to impress upon
your minds what you already know—namely, the importance of trees in the
beautification of cities. And what can possibly plead more strongly for the
cause of the tree than the contrast so often seen of two school houses, situated
within a few miles of one another, the first with grounds absolutely barren
and uninviting; the other nestling cozily among shady maples, which shelter
it in winter from the storms and furnish cool shade in summer?
FORESTRY IN AGRICULTURE.
Possibly the most important phase of the study of.forestry in so far as it
is applicable to the public school is found in its application to elementary
agriculture. We are coming more and more to realize that the woodlot is just
as essential to the organization of the farm as the cornfield or the alfalfa
patch; the products of the woodlot are just as much to be considered farm
crops as grain or hay. Some farms are fortunate enough to include native
timberland, but in the prairie states, more often, a plantation is necessary.
The difficulty to be overcome in establishing a woodlot is that agricultural
iand can be made more immediately profitable for the production of other crops
than if planted to trees. The student of agriculture will at once see that one
function of the woodlot is in the utilization of waste lands, such, for example,
as are subject to erosion or cut off from cultivation by streams or other topo-
graphical obstructions. It is well to realize also that trees will almost
invariably grow on soil too poor or too rough to support any other crop. This
is true also of sandy soils, where trees will not only thrive, if proper species
are selected, but will also prove useful in preventing the shifting of sands by
the action of winds.
Perhaps the most common as well as the most useful type of woodlot
plantation found in the Middle West is that which surrounds the home of
nearly every prairie farmer. This type combines the advantages of the wind-
break or shelterbelt, to that of the crop-producing woodlot. Its advantages
are So obvious that argument is really unnecessary to convince any student of
agriculture of its importance to the farmer.
Study for a moment the utilization of trees as a protection for the or-
chard. This is especially important in those regions where there are prevail-
ing winds which will invariably distort and injure the fruit trees if they are
unprotected. But the woodlot cannot be left to itself without cultivation
or care if it is to be successful. The first thing, of course, to be consid-
ered in establishing a plantation is proper planting methods. One common
fault in tree planting for woodlot purposes is that often too much space is
left between the trees. A plantation will not thrive when the trees are too
wide apart to afford mutual protection, while a plantation closely planted will
usually produce the best type of tree for posts, poles or lumber because of the
clear straight boles which the trees develop.
It is the custom in many places to utilize the woodlot for grazing pur-
poses. This gives bad results in two ways. It prevents any possibility of
12 AMERICAN FORESTRY
reproduction; and the trees are subject to injury by having the earth
trampled away, exposing their roots and thus interfering with their growth.
If the trees are young, it is the height of folly to allow cattle to graze among
them, for the tops will be eaten back and the trees become twisted and broken
from the rubbing and trampling they will receive. This fact is witnessed by
the ruins of many a school ground plantation.
The greatest enemy of the forest tree is fire. Fire may not so frequently
find its way to the woodlot as to the forest primeval, but it is nevertheless to
be reckoned with; not the great, flaming all-consuming forest fire, but the
creeping, seemingly insignificant ground fire which burns slowly through
leaves and humus. A furrow around the woodlot will frequently serve as an
efficient protection from such fires and prevent much damage.
The proper utilization and management of the woodlot is a broad subject.
I shall have time only to mention a very few points. Proper cutting and
judicious improvement thinnings are essential to promote the best develop-
ment of desirable trees, especially if the woodlot is of native growth. In
some types of woodlots, pruning is advisable, but frequently this will be
unnecessary if not unwise. The most important feature is, of course, the
harvesting of the crop of the woodlot, which will consist, so far as the ordinary
farmer is concerned, of fence posts, fuel, poles, ete. A great many problems
present themselves which cannot be solved satisfactorily except by a knowl-
edge of silviculture and technical forestry. The students of agriculture may
well become familiar with the fact that in such cases, advice may always be
had at little or no cost from the Forest Service of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture.
The essential points which I wish to impress upon all teachers of agri-
culture is the importance of the consideration of trees as a farm crop just as
much as corn; and that the forest, in the form of the woodlot, has its place in
agriculture which we cannot afford to overlook.
FORESTRY IN BOTANY.
The student of botany will, of necessity, make the tree the subject of a
great deal of study. It is the best type of exogenous, or outside growing plant.
The annual rings of the tree contain many an interesting story of the vicissi-
tudes of its life history. We might dwell upon this interesting point for a
long time but I must pass on. One type of inside-growing or endogenous tree
is found in the palm family. It will interest the botanist to compare the
form of the palm to that of ordinary outside growing trees and seek explana-
tions for the differences.
The life processes of the tree are full of mystery and of interest to the
student. We shall find it profitable to learn why a girdled tree dies in a sea-
son, but one whose entire trunk, except the bark and sapwood, has decayed
will often thrive with no signs of injury for years, until blown down by some
wind storm.
In considering that most fascinating of botanical subjects, seed dispersal,
the trees furnish us an infinite variety of studies. We might collect and study
the winged seeds such as those of the maple, elm, and basswood. The repro-
duction by seeding is well worth our attention, but we must not overlook that
other type of forest reproduction, the coppice or sprout method, for this is not
only interesting as a botanical study, but important from the side of forestry.
Should we consider the ecology of the forest, we find the light relation of
trees evidenced in striking manner by the self-pruning of forest trees in com-
parison with the wide lateral branches developed in the same species where
grown singly in the open. It is also clearly shown by the rapid reproduction
which sets in when a clearing is made in the forest and the quick upshooting
LESSONS FROM THE FOREST 13
of the undergrowth when it finds the upper story of the trees that cut off
the light removed. Possibly the feature of the forest which is most unique
and interesting in the study of light relations is the classification of trees into
“tolerant” and “intolerant” species. To illustrate, we find the intolerant but
quick-growing aspen rapidly covering burned or cut over areas, but it ulti-
mately has to yield to the slow-growing but tolerant fir. The lesson which
might be drawn from this natural phenomenon of the forest is obvious, but I
am not given to appending morals to my stories.
Another ecological phase of forest life is found in the study of water
loving types of trees which form the tree societies that line the banks of
streams. Compare this with the effect of ‘flooding upon similar trees, and we
find the tree to be very temperate in its habits—it cannot stand too much to
drink.
Again, temperature relations are shown by the appearance of the forests
at timber line on mountain sides; and soil relations by the stunted growth of
trees in poor soil as upon bare hills or when, perchance, a seed finds lodgment
upon granite rocks where there is almost no soil for it to feed upon.
I remember that in the back of the text-book on botany which I studied,
there was a chapter which was never looked into by students and which the
teacher evidently did not care to tackle. The entrance to this chapter was
guarded by a Cerberus-like word so formidable in its appearance that we never
even attempted to find out what was concealed in those pages. The word was
“Cryptogamia.” Many of the members of the family of plants designated by
this formidable name are found in the forest. I wish merely to introduce
you to one—a riotous, destructive chap whose given name is “Fungus.” If
your excursions into the realms of botany are extensive enough, you may
spend many hours studying the destruction wrought by fungi in the forest.
Let us not altogether condemn him, however, for he is the scavenger which
cleans up the aisles of the forest cathedral, and tears apart the fallen trunks
of the monarchs of the forest, returning them to the dust from which they
sprang, thus enriching the soil with humus and helping in a very important
work of the forest.
FORESTRY IN GEOGRAPHY.
It would hardly be wise to close this rather hasty outline without adding
a word as to the importance of the consideration of the forests in the study ot
geography. It is of the utmost importance that the student of geography
should know something about the classification of lands in the United States
and their value and productive powers. It is also desirable that he should
know something of the forest resources of the United States, where the chief
sources of our pine lumber and our hardwood supply are now found and about
the rapidly vanishing redwoods and big trees of the Pacific Coast. He should
know about the extent of the treeless regions of the Middle West and the
deserts of the Southwest, where only cacti and sage brush grow.
The lumber industry, the fourth industry of the country in commercial
importance, is treated in every geography worth mentioning and is full of in-
terest in all its varied phases from the taking of the logs from the forest
through the sawmill and lumber yards to their final utilization. But lumber
is not the only product of the forest worthy of consideration. The long-leaf
pine produces turpentine; spruce and poplar are used to make wood pulp
for paper manufacture; the hemlock and tanbark oak are stripped of their
bark for the tanner; and we are even paving streets with wood blocks very
successfully. Each of these industries which I have briefly touched will fur-
nish material for weeks of study if followed up in all its phases.
14 AMERICAN FORESTRY
In closing I wish to present a subject which has lately come into great
prominence in the affairs of the land, namely, the necessity for the preserya-
tion of the forests for the future benefit of the nation. Destructive lumbering
and wasteful use have wrought havoe with the forests. Forest fires have
swept over thousands of acres of timberland, destroying not only the trees
but even eating out the rich soil, the accumulation of ages. There follows the
washing away of unprotected soil on deforested slopes and destructive freshets
which cover the lowlands with deposits of sand and mud. To prevent this
waste of the wealth of the nation, Congress has established the National
Forests. The spirit which controls the administration of the National Forests
is set forth in these words—Careful use. The rangers who patrol the forests
are there to protect them from misuse and destruction. Thousands of head
of live stock are grazed on these forests every year, but the number per acre
is carefully limited so as to protect the range from permanent injury. Legiti-
mate mining is encouraged, but miners are forbidden to take up mining claims
solely to secure the timber which may be found on it. Water power is not cut
off from use, as is often stated, and lumbering is carried on, but under the
supervision of trained foresters who see that all trees cut are closely utilized,
provision made for leaving seed trees to insure reproduction, and the brush
properly burned so as to minimize the danger from fires. All these features
should be known to the student of geography, for in them lies the real reason
why geography is worthy of a place in the publie school curriculum; it is the
study of man in his relations to his environment.
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FORESTRY PROGRESS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE
By W. R. BROWN
SECRETARY OF THE NEw HAMPSHIRE FORESTRY COMMISSION
of the measures and the men behind it, and of its present outlook, may
be of general interest because, in a degree, it is typical of the growth
throughout the country, and because the state is beloved of many; and of es-
pecial interest because of the attention that has been drawn to its remarkable
mountain country by the movement for the establishment there of national
forests.
Being naturally a wooded state, with forests that came well down to the
shore of the ocean, and possessing an immense power of reproduction, the
practice of forestry was not taken up in New Hampshire until after the Civil
War. The great number of summer visitors, however, who came for the enjoy-
ment of the wonderful scenery; the establishment of large lumber and pulp
industries in the north; and the rapid increase of the portable mill, which
diminished the stand of splendid pine that grew so abundantly in the middle
and southern parts of the state, were the factors which brought the matter
into the minds of a few thoughtful men after the state had sold its last timber-
lands in 1867.
One of the New Hampshire men to first conserve and replete was Honor-
able Isaac Adams, who, in 1878, planted a tract of forty acres in the town of
Moultonboro to white pine in parallel rows four feet apart each way. This
plantation may be seen today, although it has suffered for need of thinning.
Originally two-thirds of New Hampshire’s total area, or 4,000,000 acres,
was in timberland, much of it virgin growth, but through the abandonment
of old farms and their reversion to sprouts, this has since been increased so
that now three-fourths of our state is covered by growth of some kind. The
depreciation in the quality of the stand was the cause of chief concern to
far-sighted citizens, as cut over lands replaced old growth, burned areas
came up to cherry bushes, and old pastures became improperly seeded. Over
the northern section of the state the most characteristic species, spruce and
balsam formed vast unsettled forests which covered the mountains almost to
their tops, and were treated as unlimited reservoirs by the large lumber and
pulp companies and cut without attention to reproduction, while in the south-
ern half where deciduous trees were in preponderance, accompanied with the
white pine, the country was opened by settlement, with the characteristic
woodlot left on the farm. Two distinct problems were therefore offered for
the practice of forestry. First, protection against extensive conflagrations in
the north calling for a broad policy to protect a large area, together with the
encouragement of a disposition to leave small trees standing; and second, in
the south the organization of each separate town to fight local fires, with en-
couragement to replant the cleared lot, and perpetuate the rapid growing and
profitable white pine.
Sometime in the seventies the old growth forest in that part of the Ammo-
noosuc Valley between the Twin Mountain House and Fabyans, and extending
along the road from Fabyans to the Crawford House and westward to the base
19
Og history of the inception and growth of forestry in New Hampshire
20 AMERICAN FORESTRY
of Mount Washington, was cut and completely burned and this loss of a much
prized and well known region coupled with the growing interest to protect
and conserve led the legislature in 1881 to appoint the first state forestry
commission, consisting of Governor Hale and seven others, chief of whom was
the Hon. Joseph B. Walker, who had worked assiduously in the state senate
for its creation, helped largely in its investigations, and finally wrote out its
findings in 1885 in an excellent and far-seeing report on the following sub-
jects: (1) The area of forests; (2) their relation to the rainfall and climate;
(3) trees and shrubs found therein; (4) forest management; (5) reforestra-
tion. Their report being finished they disbanded.
After the report of the first forest commission in 1885 nothing further
was done until 1889, when the Governor and Council appointed a second
commission, consisting of Joseph B. Walker, George B. Chandler and J. B.
Harrison, who made a report in 1891, and forestry bills were introduced
embodying their recommendations. Favorable action was not secured until
1893, when the legislature passed a law which created a forestry commission,
to consist of the governor and four members, to investigate the extent and
character of the original and secondary forests in the state; the removal and
disposition made of the woods therefrom; all revenues derived; the damage
done by fire; methods of lumbering pursued, and effects on the timber supply,
water power, scenery and climate. This commission, which consisted of
George B. Chandler, Napoleon B. Bryant, James F. Colby, and George H.
Moses, got out the first official forestry map of the state, and for a few years
thereafter laid the foundation of fact upon which to base a proper forestry
policy. Little or no money was appropriated and the work done was left to
the patriotism and loyalty to the cause of these men to awaken public interest.
In 1895, however, the legislature empowered the commission to pay through
the county one-half of the cost for fighting fire in unincorporated places, the
other half to be borne by the owner, and passed more stringent laws against
the setting of fire. They succinctly illustrated the general feeling of the times
in their second annual report under the chapter heading: “Lumber vs. For-
estry,” and found their first problem to demonstrate the mutual interests
which should bind the two.
Probably no one did more for the solution of this problem than Mr.
Austin Cary, who commenced an exhaustive study of the northern spruce
under the direction of Dr. B. E. Fernow, then head of the Forestry Bureau of
the United States Department of the Interior. Mr. Cary applied himself to the
practical solution of adapting foreign methods to American conditions; of
demonstrating the practical value of conservation to pulp and lumber com-
panies, and of securing the first practical cutting according to forestry meth-
ods. His careful research also of the insect and fungus enemies of the northern
woods was of much scientific value. Up to the eighties lumber companies
had cut only the larger trees for saw logs and unwittingly had left a con-
siderable stand for future growth and reproduction. Upon the first advent
of the pulp companies, however, this condition was changed for a period to a
strip cut, and Mr. Cary’s demonstration of the ultimate unprofitableness of
this procedure was of inestimable value to the state. Studies by Henry Ss.
Graves and others in 1894 of spruce under Adirondack conditions supple-
mented his work and a meeting of the American Forestry Association at
Plymouth August 24, at which Joseph B. Walker, and George 5. James
spoke, aroused national interest in New Hampshire’s problem, and an
offer of co-operative assistance was made in 1898 to interested owners of
woodland by the Division of Forestry, Department of Agriculture, at Wash-
ington, then under Gifford Pinchot.
FORESTRY PROGRESS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 21
In 1901 the legislature authorized the appointment of discreet persons
by each town to control and protect the shade trees on the highway and tag
them with a New Hampshire tag. It was unfortunately afterwards found
that, however discreet such tree wardens might be, this act as it stood, was
unconstitutional if contested by abutting owners. But as provision was made
also for purchase and contest was not frequent, it has been of very material
service in the protection of shade trees.
In 1901 the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests grew
out of the general interest. The first president was ex-Governor Frank W.
Rollins, Joseph T. Walker was secretary, and Gen. George T. Cruft, treasurer,
Philip W. Ayers was and is the forester of the society. Allen Hollis of Con-
cord, succeeded Mr. Walker and is now the secretary. The society started
with 230 representatives and distinguished members, numbering among them
Edward Everett Hale, who, as a young man in 1825, helped in the first survey
of the state to run town lines over the ragged peaks of the White Mountains,
and was throughout his life a warm exponent of all that made for the pro-
tection of their forests and scenic beauty. It has continually added to its
numbers and resources and has obtained strong support from outside the state,
especially from the neighboring commonwealth of Massachusetts. Its unoffii-
cial nature and consequent freedom to act and advise has enabled it to become
one of the most potent factors towards progress in the state. The purpose
shown by its initial constitution was:
To encourage forest growth.
To disseminate knowledge upon planting, managing and harvesting the
forest crop.
To establish a nursery for distributing small trees and seed.
To establish demonstrating forests.
To preserve scenic places and high and steep slopes of mountains.
To conserve growing forests and secure legislation.
Since its establishment it has given especial encouragement and aid to
scientific reproduction of the forest and maintained its own nursery; has
advocated state control, state forests, larger co-operation with the federal
government and other forestry associations, and its annual meetings, which
have lately been held in the White Mountains during the summer season, have
brought together many distinguished guests and visitors. Working plans for
improvement cutting have been made by Forester Ayres for many institutions
throughout the state, such as the Concord Electric Company, Concord Water
Works, and St. Paul’s School. The care of the Dartmouth College grant of
26,000 acres was placed in his hands. The society has recently been made
trustee for the residents around Lake Sunapee of a forest reserve of 700 acres
on Sunapee Mountain, which was generously purchased and given by Herbert
Welch and Mrs. Covill of Philadelphia, Mrs. John Hay of Washington, and
Richard M. Colgate of New York.
Nineteen hundred and three also saw the commencement of the agitation
for a national forest reserve in the White Mountains, largely through the
influence of this association. Through the efforts of the Forestry Commission
resolutions passed the legislature giving consent and approval to any action
to establish such a reserve by Congress. Senator Gallinger presented a bill
in the Senate in December, 1903, to the 58th Congress. This was favorably
reported on from committee by Senator Burnham at the second session, but
was not brought to vote before the opening of the 59th Congress. A bill which
had subsequently been drawn up to combine the White Mountain reserve and
the Southern Appalachian reserve was introduced again in the Senate by Sen-
ator Gallinger and conjointly in the House by Representative Currier. This
passed the Senate but was held up in the House Committee of Agriculture.
The supporters of the bill obtained a two days’ hearing before this committee
22 AMERICAN FORESTRY
at which Governor Glenn of North Carolina headed the petitioners, and New
Hampshire had Governor McLane as its spokesman, together with the sec-
vetary of state, council and members of the legislature and officers of the
Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. Both the Governor and
Mr. Harvey N. Shepard of the Appalachian Club, spoke eloquently in its
favor. The committee reported the bill favorably to the House, but it was
held up by the Speaker until the House adjourned. Since then another modi-
fied bill has twice passed the House and is slated to be taken up by the Senate
at the coming session.*
In 1903, through the joint efforts of Philip W. Ayres, for his society,
and the commission, which then consisted of Henry O. Kent, George E. Bales,
Marshall C. Wentworth and George H. Moses, an appropriation of five
thousand dollars was obtained for a forest examination of the White Moun-
tain region and the completion of the forest map which was commenced in
1893. This examination was prosecuted during the same year by Mr. Alfred
kK. Chittenden of the United States Forest Service, who made a most excellent
and exhaustive report on the character of the more important trees and of the
conditions necessary to their successful reproduction. His study of the
lumber and pulp industries, of the farmers’ woodlot, of forest planting, and his
recommendations thereon, proved to be a classic of complete and wise advice,
and laid down the fundamental lines along which all of the subsequent
progress has been made. In conjunction with his work a study was made by
N. C. Grover and H. K. Barrows of the United States Geological Survey of the
hydrography of the White Mountain region. This investigation began the
compilation of many tables on stream flow but was abandoned because of
the time necessary to secure sufficient data. Owing to the cutting off of the
appropriation for the purpose the work of stream measurements was stopped
throughout New England, thus making practically useless the data already
obtained, since observations for long terms of years are necessary to attain
any results of scientific value.
Another important report upon the forest and water conditions of North-
ern New Hampshire was embodied in the report of the Secretary of Agricul-
ture to Congress, under the act of 1907, appropriating $25,000 for an investi-
gation of the Southern Appalachian and White Mountains, with reference to
the proposed national forests. This report was prepared under the direction
of William L. Hall of the United States Forest Service, and the material was
gathered by the united work of Forest and Geological Survey experts, making
a valuable contribution to the knowledge of the conditions and opportunities
of this region. In this connection may be also mentioned the report issued
in November, 1909, by co-operation between the New Hampshire Forestry
Commission and the United States Forest Service. This was an accurate and
comprehensive study of the “Commercial Importance of the White Mountain
Forests.” It was prepared by Philip W. Ayres, Forester of the Society for
the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and issued as Forest Service Cir-
cular 168 by the United States Department of Agriculture.
The first public land under the new conditions came to the state through
the exercise of their right of condemnation and purchase under the law,
through the generous gift by Joel H. and Arthur E. Poole of Jaffrey, and
Isaac Sprague of Boston, who made an offer of $8,000 for the purchase of 500
acres on the side of Mount Monadnock in the town of Jaffrey, which is now
held as the state’s first public park.
*A detailed account of “The Fight for the Appalachian Forests,’ by Edwin A.
Start, was published in this magazine, then known as Conservation, for May, 1909.
That article preserves the record of the hearings and of the succession of bills and their’
history up to the close of the Sixtieth Congress.
adO1S LSM NAYNVA daaLS NO
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MUVd ALVLS AHL ONIMOHS
SANIT UHL ‘ANIHSdNVH MAN ‘MOONGVNOW ‘LW
DENSE YOUNG GROWTH OF SPRUCE ON OLD
PASTURE, NORTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE
DENSE REPRODUCTION OF PINE ON AN OLD
PASTURE, SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE
A MOUNTAIN FIRE LOOKOUT STATION IN MAINE
WHITE PINE TRANSPLANTS IN NURSERY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
FORESTRY COMMISSION, PEMBROKE, N. H.
FORESTRY PROGRESS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE 27
In 1905 Jason E. Tolles and Robert P. Bass were appointed on the for-
estry commission and the fire law was revised to make the chief of the fire
department in each town responsible for the extinguishment of brush fires, as
forest fire warden. Penalties for setting fire were made more severe, but the
towns or owners still paid all bills.
In 1906, through the generosity of Gifford Pinchot and department, an
additional study was made possible in the southern half of the state to sup-
plement the work done by Chittenden in the north, and Charles A. Lyford,
M. F., and Louis Margolin, F. E., conducted investigations and prepared tables
on the growth of white pine, of particular scientific value to the whole country,
giving the rotation and the expectation profit from planting, and data to show
its advantage as an investment. Their report also showed the growing need
of reform, especially in the southern part of the state, in the manner of tax-
ing forest lands and the inequalities and abuses of the present system and
laid down the general lines upon which procedure should be made towards
exemption.
In 1908 the state received an additional gift of the reservation of 60
acres of pine in the town of Jaffrey, generously made by Miss Frances A. L.
Haven of New York City.
Robert E. Faulkner of Keene, served on the commission as its secretary
in 1907-1908, and by the disinterested gift of his salary made possible the
establishment of the first mountain lookout fire station in the state. In the
same year the commission, with the active co-operation of the United States
Forest Service, instituted an investigation of the taxation of forest lands, and
the efficiency of the fire laws in New Hampshire, and much original data
was secured of great value in the scientific study of the taxation problem, both
in the state and country at large.
Through the efforts of many clear-sighted, unselfish citizens, of the able
members of the forestry commission, and not least of the Society for the Pro-
tection of New Hampshire Forests, the subject of scientific forest manage-
ment and development, had by this time come to be a recognized public econ-
omic question of the highest importance.
Largely through the efforts of Mr. Robert P. Bass, then a member of the
commission, the legislature of 1909 passed a much enlarged and improved
forestry bill, which called for a smaller commission, a state forester, reorgan-
ization of town fire wardens, and the state to share expense conjointly with
the towns in fighting fire. Provision was made for educational and protective
work, but the amount appropriated by the legislature was insufficient to cover
anything but the actual expense of putting out fires and maintaining the
department. Mr. Robert P. Bass, Mr. Jason E. Tolles and the writer, were
appointed on the new commission authorized by this law. Mr. E. C. Hirst
of the Yale Forestry School, was appointed state forester. Two hundred
and twenty-five town fire wardens were then appointed by the state forester.
Bulletins were issued and lectures given.
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American Forestry
VOL. XVII MARCH, 1911 No. 3
THE PEOPLE'S POSSESSIONS IN THE APPALACHIAN
FORESTS
By THOMAS NELSON PAGE
(Address before the American Forestry Association at the annual dinner, Washington,
January 13, 1911.)
HEN John Evelyn, in view of the impending disaster of the complete
destruction of forests in England, was commissioned by the Royal So-
ciety of Great Britain to address them on the subject of forestry, he
delivered a book, and poss‘bly, if one should measure up to the importance of
the subject of the preservauion of the forests of this country, especially of this
older, eastern slope, he would endeavor to follow the example of that illus-
trious predecessor and undertake likewise to give a complete essay on the
subject. If he could prepare such a work as John Evelyn’s “Silva,” then,
indeed, it might be worth while to hazard even taxing the patience of the
public, for it is one of the quaintest works in the English language, and if
one but have the faculty of skipping with propriety, he will find it one of the
most thoughtful, charming and instructive works that the notable literature
of our fathers can boast of.
In view of the fact that our new interest in the preservation of our forests
is due to the sudden forcing on our attention of the extraordinary disappear-
ance of our forests with the disastrous consequences that are following it, it
cannot but be interesting to reflect that this great contribution to our litera-
ture grew out of the sudden realization on the part of the leaders of the Eng-
lish people that their great forests, once the pride of their country, had been
depleted far beyond the danger point, and that the public mind needed
awakening to the peril that unless the waste were stopped England would
soon find herself without the timber requisite to maintain the wooden walls
on which her salvation depended.
Here, after two centuries and a half, we find ourselves in this land which
was once wholly covered with forests confronted by the same impending dis-
aster, a disaster from which in turn the peoples of Asia and of Europe have
suffered injury beyond the power alike of calculation and of repair and, as in
John Evelyn’s day, every far sighted man is called on to take service in the
cause of education in this vital matter. The most obvious argument which
one might urge is of course that of material return; but there are other returns
not less important than the one which may be measured by the lumber stand-
ard. The influence of the forest and the grove on the human mind, and thus on
human progress, is one which may not be directly measured, for it is im-
measurable. .
133
134 AMERICAN FORESTRY
A great physician (the late Dr. Hunter McGuire of Virginia), stated that
he once performed an operation which restored sight to a child who had been
born blind, and that soon afterward he asked the child what was the most
beautiful thing in the world, and the instant answer was “a tree.”
It must have been in the realization of this truth of nature that the Holy
Record begins with the placing of a tree in the midst of the garden which God
planted, and ends with the same conception of beauty—the tree of life whose
leaves are for the healing of the nation.
The discussion of the merely material advantages to be reaped from car-
rying out the broad and high-minded plans of the Forestry Association for
the conservation of the forests of the Appalachian range through means of
great government parks will be left to those more familiar than the writer
with the statistics of the subject; as will also the discussion of the technical,
legal and constitutional questions which appear to be somewhat involved in
the plan be left to those whose responsibility is to direct the destinies of this
country by constitutional methods for the benefit of the people of the land.
The writer proposes to present his plea for the preservation of the people’s
possessions in the Appalachian forests on grounds which appeal to him in the
hope that if sufficient interest can be aroused among the people of this great
country, this important subject may be dealt with in such a manner as to
preserve this priceless possession of the people to them and their posterity
forever, without in any way impairing the even more priceless possession of
procedure according to unquestioned constitutional methods.
It is true that most people are touched through appeals to their material
interests; but it is even more true that a great number may be touched through
an appeal to their reason, and that yet higher motive power, their sentiment.
The argument of loss through the waste of billions of feet of lumber may
appeal only to the limited class of those who might profit by a mure conserva-
tive and wise method of dealing with these resources. But the argument of
saving from destruction at the hands of greed alike “the glory of the forest’
and the fertility—indeed, the existence of the soil of not only the contiguous
territory, but of the whole surrounding region, will appeal to all lovers of
their country. The only thing needed is to educate them—to bring clearly to
their intelligent apprehension the fact that the present system of forest de-
struction is one that, reversing the poet’s dream of the statesman’s work, “To
scatter plenty o’er a smiling land,” is as certain as any other law of nature,
to scatter ruin and turn the fertile places into a desert. The history of all
countries, written in the unmistakable records of perpetual erosion shows
this, where tracts of endless desert stretch in regions once as fertile as a
garden and where the silence of the wilderness has succeeded to the life of a
teeming population.
The future of forest conservation in this country depends as does the
future of constitutional government of the country on the education of the
people. No branch of education has advanced with more rapid steps of late
than has that which relates to forestry, and whatever may happen in the
future the foundation of this branch of our national development was laid by
one who was for several years a high executive officer of the American For-
estry Association, who first brought the subject as one of national importance
to the attention of the American people. No man in the world comprehends
more fully and appreciates more highly the debt which this country now owes
and which coming generations will continue to owe to the zeal and far-sight-
edness of the man who is the true father of conservation in this country.
Forestry is his passion and the ennobling influence of this noble pursuit was
never more plainly manifested than in the enlargement of his mind to take in
POSSESSIONS IN THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 135
and comprehend the extended scope of the idea of conservation. “Nihil est
homine libero dignius,” says Cicero, whom Evelyn quotes with delight, add-
ing this from the poet of the Georgics, “Silvae sunt consule dignae”—‘No, not
the majesty of a consul.” If at one time or another—if in this matter or that
matter, he has been over-zealous—even wrong-headed, if his opponents please
—this in no respect affects the basic fact that, owing to his zeal and his pas-
sion and his patriotism, has come into being the sudden realization on the part
of the American people that they have a great possession which was steadily
passing away forever, and that they have awakened to the vital importance of
so using it, as to preserve it for the future benefit of posterity.
It is well for the American people that the alarm bell has been rung and
that this trumpet note has been sounded haply in time. For the exigency is
not less great in America today than it was in England when Charles II, amid
the dissipations of his court, was suddenly awakened to the fact that the for-
ests of England were being destroyed beyond the hope of resurrection, and
founded the Royal Society of Great Britain with a view to establishing a great
scientific society which should scientifically promote the reforestation of
England.
When the curtain which had through the ages veiled this western conti-
nent from the peoples of Europe was drawn aside and the vision of America
first dawned on their astonished view, nothing impressed them so much as the
unimagined wonders of the products of this virgin land. The repor-’s of the
first voyagers and of their successors not only for some years, but for some
generations, were so wonderful that they were considered to excel the narra-
tives of Mandeville, Marco Polo, and even to eclipse those of the redoubtable
Baron Munchausen. Gold, of course, was believed to be here in such quan-
tities that even the commonest vessels of the barbarous inhabitants were be-
lieved to be formed of this precious metal. The sea shore was believed to be
pebbled with precious stones, the rivers were reported to be so filled with fish
that men might walk over dry shod upon them. Even now the dream of El-
dorado remains in men’s minds and if the imagined city of the Incas has not
been found, in desert regions long afterward discovered, gold has been found
in quantities greater than even fancy imagined. As they penetrated further
to the westward they found other products in equal magnitude. Wild fowl
that filled the rivers, the forests and the prairies in qiantities which sur-
passed the capacity of the mind to calculate. Wild game, not only such as
kings and nobles were entitled to hunt in the old country; but of new species
—the buffalo, the elk, and the antelope—filled the forests and covered the
prairie. The quantity was beyond the previous reach of the imagination of
man, and even today it staggers the credulity of a generation whose fathers
saw them with their own eyes.
But of all the wonders of America, nothing amazed Europe more than the
vastness of the forests which covered the continent. All records and reports
are filled with the proof of this amazing growth of forests from sea to sea,
and from the icy north to the tropical regions of Mexico. But a few genera-
tions ago, at most in the time of our grandfathers, this well-nigh fabulous
condition as to game still remained. The buffalo, the elk, the antelope, though
they had retired before the advance of the destroyer, man, still covered the
prairies and filled the mountains of the west, in almost infinite numbers. The
wild fowl in their flight, at times darkened the sun and quite blackened the
waters and filled the forests. Today there are of the most noted species
searcely left enough to stock the zoological gardens, while other species both of
animals and fowl are rapidly disappearing and in a few generations will
probably be not less scarce than the buffalo and the antelope are today.
The same fate which has befallen the denizens of the forest at the hand of
man, is now proceeding and with equal rapidity against the forest itself. With
136 AMERICAN FORESTRY
the axe and the yet deadlier weapon, fire, the forests of the country are being
destroyed in a prolonged fury of sheer wastefulness, the wastefulness which
is one of the marks of that madness with which the gods visit alike men and
nations whom they wish to destroy. Much of this destruction is due to sheer
ignorance and heedlessness; but the end is the same and unless the people at
large can be awakened to a full realization of the enormous folly of such de-
struction, the time must come within a few generations when the forests of
this country will have disappeared as completely as the forests of Western
Europe and of Eastern Asia.
The three great enemies of forests are storms and fire and man. There
are others but these are the most destructive and of the three, man is easily
the most deadly. Attention may be called to the fact that, though one of the
greatest enemies in the world to forests is the storm which is always de-
structive and often with its besom of destruction sweeps down everything in
its pathway, yet this subject of forest conservation appear to have survived in
full vigor and health one of the most threatening and violent commotions
which has happened in our day, and all may rejoice that, though the lightning
has been continually playing around and the thunder has sometimes been
almost deafening; though, indeed, from time to time the forked bolts are still |
flashing and the rolling thunder still reverberating, they are growing further
and further away; the chief violence of the hurricane appears to have spent
itself; the atmosphere appears to be clearing and the subject of forest conser-
vation still survives apparently unimpaired. It is a good augury that pos-
sibly there are a good many who like myself steadfastly endeavored amid the
greatest commotion to maintain an equable frame of mind and to pursue that
middle course which in most things is safest, who have never felt it necessary
to accept the extreme view on either side, but have been glad to recognize the
admirable and indeed invaluable work which has been accomplished by those
who have so earnestly sought to preserve for the people—the people of this
age and their posterity alike—their priceless possession which without their.
zealous advocacy would have been lost forever.
One of the chief dangers of this extreme contention was the apparent
transference of all the thought and energy of the country from the general
subject of conservation to the particular and distant subject involved in the
controversy, and the advocates of conservation may felicitate themselves that
there is some interest still left in the conservation of resources this side of
Alaska and even of the Rocky Mountains.
In my early life the mountains that I knew were those whose azure tops
appeared on clear autumn evenings along the horizon’s rim to the northwest-
ward—the mountains which Spottswood with his knights of the Horse-Shoe
had crossed to plant beyond them the flag and establish the civilization of the
Anglo-Saxon—the mountains amid which George Washington had spent his
useful and sobering youth as a young surveyor in communion with Nature and
God, and which he had penetrated at that age which seems so great to boys—
the age of bare majority—to carry the message of the Anglo-Saxon to the
Frank in his commanding fort at the junction of the Allegheny and the Mo-
nongahela. An old map of North America used to hang on the walls of the
sitting room in my old home in Virginia, nestled amid primeval oaks and
hickories beneath which Tottapottamoy children must have played. It con-
tained meagre details only as far west as a short distance beyond the Mis-
sissippi River. All the rest was blank, save that there were large lettered
names of territories with vague boundaries in the wide expanse to the west-
ward and beyond was a mountain range sawed across the west, marked
“Rocky Mountains,” with the fringe of the Pacific Coast beyond them. To
the northwestward beyond a great blank, vague space, marked “British Colum-
POSSESSIONS IN THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 137
bia,’ was an even more uncertainly defined space marked Alaska, forever
fixed in infinite distance by “The wolf’s long howl on bon Alaska’s shore.”
Youth knew, therefore, something of geography even in our boyhood—knew,
that is, where the Rocky Mountains were, though they were far beyond the
region whence at Christmas time came the buffalo tongues and prairie chicken
from cousins in far Missouri. The Rocky Mountains were, indeed, as far as
the Mountains in the Moon are to us now, and the Allegheny Mountains were
mountains of our youth and next to them were the White Mountains and the
Green Mountains to the northward, where the name of Washington had been
given as was fitting the highest peak that overlooked the Presidential moun-
tain range of New England, and the waters of the Atlantic.
Possibly, it is for this reason that the writer still retains an especial in-
terest in these eastern mountain regions. There are, indeed, other reasons for
his interest, only one of which he feels need be mentioned now, that is, that
from a more intimate personal knowledge of them since he grew to man’s es-
tate and long before this doctrine of conservation became such a national
thought he has felt that they belonged in a peculiar way to the people of this
country and that if properly cared for, preserved and utilized they would
furnish a more invaluable asset to this country that even the average member
of the Forestry Association dreams of.
In the discussion of this subject it is not necessary and the writer does
not wish to express an opinion upon that phase of it which would lead him
into the technical, legal, or political questions relating to its occupation and
legal ownership. If he has apprehended aright the discussion which has taken
place we are in some danger of abandoning the proper and more essential
ground on which to base our claim for the preservation of the treasures in
this region for a more narrow, technical, and debatable one—that of the ex-
tension of governmental powers based on the government’s right to control of
navigable streams. I feel that the work of this great forestry movement is
larger and less factional and less political and more national than can be
measured by any appeal to possibly questionable governmental powers. Its
strength, its breadth, its present and future vigor and its perpetuation are all
dependent on its being so conducted that it shall avoid all questions of doubt-
ful expediency and commend itself by its wisdom and breadth to the great
body of American people and thereby become associated with their pride and
their patriotism and become the ward of their national care.
With regard to the forests of the White Mountains, the writer thinks that
the able and shrewd representatives of New England may be counted on to
lend their aid to what is so manifestly to the advantage of that section. But
as one who, as a summer resident on that coast, participates in the benefits
alike to body and soul of that charming summer air, he ventures to urge the
preservation of the forests as even on the lowest ground of material return
the plain part of wisdom. Those forests are worth more to New England every
year than every foot of lumber in them would be worth sawed and dressed.
They are a perennial source of income to the whole New England coast. Poets
have hymned their beauty until they have entered into the heart and mind of
the people and become enshrined in their literature, and however one may
question the vaunted primacy of New England in other matters, he must
acknowledge that in the autumnal glory of her mountain forests she stands
unrivaled. If they shall be destroyed New England will suffer a loss which
can never be made good. The White Mountains will in a few generations be-
come the black mountains, and the most famous summer resorts of New Eng-
land will in time be deserted by the teeming multitudes who now find recrea-
tion and health amid their forest clad ranges.
Leaving this branch of the subject to others the writer may take up the
question relating to the Southern Appalachian range. When one speaks of
138 AMERICAN FORESTRY
interest in tracts of forest, and in ore-bearing regions nowadays it behooves
bim to make his position clear. His interest in the Southern Appalachian
range is a patriotic and not a pecuniary one and the same may be said of his
interest in the White Mountains. It is solely that they may be preserved for
the nation. And first it is his belief that they, like the White Mountains of
New England, are in the future to be the great health resort and the great
pleasure ground—in its higher sense—of all the people of the eastern part of
this great country. The parts that have been opened have already become
a great health resort. Nor is this the least remunerative way of using moun-
tains. The Land of the Sky in North Carolina has paid the country more than
if every stick of timber in it had been sawed and shipped as lumber. So it
will be of other portions of the range. Modern science has discovered that a
certain elevation neither too high nor too low is best adapted for the health of
the human race. Near enough to the sea to feel the influence of that ocean
which “creates a climate with its breath,” and yet far enough away to have
the rawness and the dampness strained through its fine-spun temse of forest,
high above the influence of malaria; contributing with its beauty and its
charm to the welfare alike of body, of mind, and of spirit, this region seems
as if placed by God for the cure and abiding health of the race that inhabits
this country.
In considering this all important matter of the conservation of our
national resources of forest in this region, the richest opportunity offered to
the advocates of conservation—richer than the preservation of all the forests
that clothe the Appalachians from one end to the other is one that has been
little considered. No delicate questions of constitutional construction arise
touching it. At a glance it will be seen to be the plain duty of every one of
whatever view as to national powers to aid in the movement. It is the educat-
ing and uplifting of the mountaineers, who inhabit this region. Like the
Swiss mountaineers they are the greatest lovers of their homes in all the
world. Without their co-operation the whole power of the United States can
not save these forests. With their aid the thing will be done beyond a question.
The writer declares his belief then that not only the best way, but the only
way, to preserve the forests of the Appalachians is to avail ourselves of this
richer opportunity and educate the strange and sterling people who dwell
among the mountains and constitute their population. In this great region
of the Appalachians dwells a race which needs only to have the mountain
regions fully opened up to renew one of the most vital strains in our national
life. Some three million souls inhabit the Appalachian range and its inter-
vening valleys extending from the Pennsylvania border almost to the Gulf of
Mexico. They are absolutely of Anglo-Saxon blood, whilst in other portions
of the country, even in a portion like Massachusetts in the very heart of New
England, which was once as absolutely Anglo-Saxon as is now this region of
which I speak, foreign immigration has so changed the complexion of the
population that 80 odd per cent are now foreign born or the offspring of for-
eign-born parents. In the Appalachian range the foreign-born population is
so small as to be absolutely negligible, in some of the states it being less than
one per cent.
it has been customary to apply to this mountain population such terms as
“poor white,” and “mountain cracker.” Heaven knows they are in the main
white enough and poor enough, but if the designation is intended to convey a
term of reproach it is wholly misplaced. These people are the mountaineers of
America—pure bred English, Scotch and Scotch-Irish stock. They have the
names, they have the physiogonomy, they have the characteristics, they have
the vices, to some extent only, and they have the virtues and more than the
virtues of the rest of the body of the American people. Montani semper liberi.
POSSESSIONS IN THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 139
They are the guardians of liberty in this western world as they have ever been
in the Old World. They are the custodians of the old speech and the old racial
traits. The whole military force of the country would hardly suffice to turn
their mountain region into a preserve against their will; but with their aid it
would not require a corporal’s guard. It is of the utmost importance then,
that in this movement their interest and their co-operation be enlisted. And
the best way to do this is to enlighten them, to prove to them that the move-
ment will be for their good—in other words to educate them.
One of the most promising signs of the times is that our people as they
make money are beginning to return to the soil. If our life should be con-
fined to urban life this country would scarcely survive two generations, or at
most a half dozen. The civilizations of France, of England, and of Germany,
like indeed that of Rome, were all preserved from going to absolute ruin by
the fact that their upper class who owned the land, after dissipating in the
cities, returned to their rural estates for recreation. The tendency of the time
has been absolutely in the direction of commerce, and if we have reaped the
fruits of it that are good, so we have also reaped those that are evil. There
was never a country in the world in which so large a portion of its wealth and
of its thought and activity were applied to commerce and trade as in America.
And we should all turn traders and go to bargaining and chaffering with each
other till we had lost the principles on which all moral and physical advance
are founded, if it were not for the country life. It is the panacea that Nature
has appointed for the ills of violating her laws in the unwholesome atmosphere
of city life. It would, therefore, appear to be the part of wisdom for every
man in the nation to do what he can to uplift country life.
Owing to the physical conditions of this mountain region they have been
secluded and sequestered from the pathway of advance, shut within their
mountain walls they have been cut off from all or nearly all the advantages of
modern progress.
A century or more ago they rendered an inestimable service to this coun-
try in that they manned and held against the Indians and the French the
outer bulwark of American rule on this continent. They furnished the pio-
neers who crossed over and seized the Mississippi Valley. Again a half cen-
tury ago they rendered to this country what I believe most of you here will
esteem an invaluable service. Without them this Union would have been
divided as surely as I stand addressing you tonight. Non-slave holding, par-
ticipating little in the advantages of citizenship in the several states and
therefore caring less for the divisions of state lines than for nationality and
racial solidity, knowing little of history save that which their grandsires had
handed down to them, with the rifles with which they fought at King’s Moun-
tain and on the Kanawaha, they espoused by a great majority the cause of the
Union. They furnished over 180,000 men to the Union armies, and they were
not bounty jumpers or conscripts. But more than this they furnished to the
Union cause a great friendly territory staunch for the Union through its breadth
and length, extending for hundreds of miles down through the south and cut-
ting the Confederate south in two. But for them Maryland and Kentucky
would have gone out of the Union with a rush and Tennessee and Virginia
would have been solid from east to west. You will perhaps get some estimate
of what they merit at the hands of the Union if you but recall that in their
territory Rosecrans, one of McClellan’s lieutenants, was able to withstand
him who was possibly the greatest captain of the English speaking race. When
the seat of war was shifted from the mountains of West Virginia to the low
lands of eastern Virginia, Lee was able to sweep McClellan from the gates of
Richmond. But for them Missionary Ridge and Chattanooga would never
have given Grant his laurels; but for them Sherman could never have marched
140 AMERICAN FORESTRY
across Georgia to find the south empty of men; but for them the cause of
cecession would have inevitably succeeded.
I do not wish any one to misunderstand my personal position on this sub-
ject. In every fiber of my being—body and soul—I was with Virginia and the
Confederate South. But as my people were Union men before the war, so they
became Union men when the war closed, and however I may hold in my in-
most heart the sacred memories of the unhappy and glorious past, I know now
what the south is to this Union and I know how to honor those who were
gallant foes even then.
I therefore make no apology for advocating before you the claims of this
great population. As they saved the Union in times past, so in face of the
rising tide of foreign immigration I feel that they may be destined to save it
again. And it is one of the chief causes of my interest in this discussion to-
night that I am wondering what effect this movement in the direction of se-
curing a national forest in the Appalachian mountains will have on this popu-
lation. If it will benefit them, if it will carry to them the light of knowledge,
if it will open that region for the diffusion of the better part of modern science
and modern knowledge, then I shall be heart and soul for it, and I believe that
it will tend to do so. What is needed is that the rest of the world shall know
that this population is among her Appalachian mountains; that they shall
know what a virile strain courses in their veins; that they shall know that all
that is needed is that the light shall be carried to them. They are beginning
to awaken themselves to the knowledge that they are in darkness; they are
beginning to see the glimmer of the light afar off and are groping their way
towards it, asking that it may be brought nearer to them.
It has often been a cause of wonder to me that with philanthropy pouring
out its lavish millions for the education and betterment of other races and
other sections, so little of it should have gone to this race and region which
saved the Union. All that they need is light and they may become themselves
the torch-bearers of the future civilization.
I have not had time to go fully into the history of these mountains and
these mountaineers, but I will tell you a few men who have come from there
and by them you may judge their possibilities. Andrew Jackson came from
there; Stonewall Jackson came from there; Abraham Lincoln was the son of
one who came from there.
Do you think that the strain which produced these men has died out in
the past generation? If so, you are vastly mistaken. No more virile strain
of men and women exists in any quarter of the world than today inhabits the
Appalachian range, and no one which promises more for the future welfare
of this country. One of the most distinguished citizens of New York—a man
of national reputation as an orator and a lawyer—was a mountain boy from
the eastern corner of Tennessee, and what is more he was one of fifteen sons.
His father never learned to write until after he was married and his mother
never learned to write, but, mark me, this illiteracy did not necessarily mean
ignorance. It was only that they had not had the opportunity. That father
was a lieutenant in the federal army during the war and afterwards he reared
fifteen sons in the fastnesses of the Appalachian range.
Now, sirs, talk about conservation, here is something worth conserving.
Conserve the American strain in the Appalachian range by bearing to them
the light of knowledge and giving them the advantages of education and train-
ing and you will have the basis of the greatest government park that this or
any country has ever known.
Few schools or colleges of any importance exist among them. The states
give them their share of the taxes levied for common school education, but
the southern states still have a great illiterate population and are still unable
POSSESSIONS IN THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 141
to meet with any adequacy their needs. Here and there private philanthropy
and devotion has established some admirable schools, such, for example, as
Miss Berry’s school in Georgia; Miss Pettitt’s school in the mountains of
Kentucky ; and Archdeacon Neve’s school in the ragged mountains of Virginia.
And there is a college or two, the most noted of which is Berea College in the
mountains of eastern Kentucky. All of these are doing great work, but what
are they among so many. They are but lights on the mountain to show the
wanderer that human sympathy still exists and to encourage the lost not to
despair. The writer feels that he could not render the cause of forest conser-
vation a greater benefit than to call to public attention the fact that in this
great forest clad region which so clearly demands preservation at this time is
a population kindred to the best element of our people, constituting a great
reservoir of conservation of those traits of the Anglo-Saxon which made this
country the home of liberty and to which we may hereafter have to turn for
the salvation of the Union as the Union turned to it in the fighting sixties.
In those mountain regions, when the fire in the cabin has been extin-
guished, they often have to send to a neighbor across the mountain to borrow
fire. All they ask of us now is “Lend us fire.” Should we not do so? Let us
apply ourselves and our powers along this line of conservation. If we do, we
may be very sure that the time will come when they will return into our bosom
a hundred fold for all the gifts that we now bestow upon them.
It is interesting to observe in the literature of the ages the part that trees
represent in the history of the race. In that wonderful record in Genesis,
God’s first creation was the heaven and the earth. Light from the spirit of
God was the primal act. In the first day and in the second He created the
firmament and divided the waters from the waters, and in the third day he
created the dry land and the sea and the grass and the tree before he created
man, thus before He created the inhabitants of the sea and of the earth He
created the tree. And when He had created man in His own image and had
given him dominion “over every living thing that moveth upon the earth,” he
said to him, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed upon the face
of all the earth and every tree in the earth which is the fruit of a tree yield-
ing seed, to you it shall be for meat.” To the beast of the earth and the fowl
of the air and the thing that creepeth upon the earth He gave the green herb
for meat; but He gave to man the tree for meat.
In the other and briefer account of the creation it is said that the Lord
God planted a garden and there He put man whom He had formed. And out
of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the
sight, and good for food, the tree of Life also in the midst of the garden and
the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Thus the beauty of the tree was placed
even before its usefulness.
Now from this earliest record on down you will find that the tree is an
object of peculiar reverence to the poet and the seer, and are they not the
leaders of the race?
There are those who would maintain that our aboriginal ancestors made
their homes not only among but in the trees—were, to use the scientific phrase,
“arboreal” in their habits. It is not necessary to enter on this discussion; it
may be passed with the simple recall of the old woman’s speech to the young
evolutionist, that “if he preferred to think his ancestors were the same with
those in the ‘Zoo,’ well and good; but she preferred to think hers were in the
garden of Eden.”
So all the way down history sacred and profane we find the tree men-
tioned with respect and with reverence; for even then without doubt in those
regions inhabited by the older races the disappearance of the forests had be-
come a matter of public concern.
142 AMERICAN FORESTRY
The Greeks with their high poetic sense peopled the forests and groves
and even separate trees with a supernatural and half-supernatural population
of nymphs and satyrs and gods, and born of their conception have come to us
the most beautiful and entrancing poetry of myth and fable that have en-
riched human literature.
The Roman adapted but somewhat coarsened the poetical conceptions of
the Greeks touching the relation of forest and grove to the spiritual side of
man, and in accordance with their more practical genius turned it to practical
effect. It was in a grove that Numa Pompilius, the first of her thoughtful
kings, was said to have met his Egeria and the “Bosca Sacra” is still pointed
ont today to the credulous.
Among our own ancestors the forest was held in equal awe, and the grove
in equal reverence. The poetical conceptions of the Greeks and the Romans,
however, were changed to suit their heavier and duller intelligence. Thor
and Woden, and the thunderous hierarchy of Scandinavia supplanted in their
imaginations the more graceful and ethereal conceptions of the south; but the
priests of their religion celebrated their awful rites under the shade of the
oaks which clad the hills of the north.
If it should appear that this discussion of the forest is too fanciful to be
of practical service in a movement in which the more practical and material
use is the chief motive, it may be answered that after all the poetical is but a
further and higher development of the practical and that it is a more inspiring
power in that while the practical relates only to the lower motives of the in-
dividual, that which touches the sentiment has a more far reaching and un-
selfish result. If sentiment is to be discarded in the name of the practical, let
every man get all he can at no matter what sacrifice of others, but even pa-
triotism is founded on a sentiment which is high above the groveling personal
demands of physical life. It must be through a sentiment higher than that of
the self-seeker who destroys without remorse for his personal service the most
beautiful things in creation that the blessings of liberty and the contentment
of peace shall be attained. It must be through sentiment, the sentiment of
generosity, of philanthropy and of patriotism, that those who have secured the
advantages of education will extend them to others less favored. It must be
through sentiment that man’s mind shall be extended to take in the great con-
ception of his duty to promote the welfare of his fellow man and uplifted to
take in the yet higher conception of his duty to the Supreme Being who has
clothed the mountains with the majesty and the hills with the glory of the
forest.
As already stated, when Charles II founded the Royal Society of Great
Britain, one of his motives was to establish a great scientific society which
should scientifically promote the reforestation of England, for the disappear-
ance of its oak forests had already become a public menace and it was at the
instance of this society that John Evelyn wrote his great essay on forestry.
In this work he alludes to the respect with which this subject is discussed by
the great classical writers, and he deplores the indifference with which the
English race regarded it. “Men seldom plant trees,” he says in his preface,
“till they begin to be wise; that is, till they grow old and find by experience
the prudence and the necessity of it.” And he recalls how “When Ulysses,
after a ten year’s absence, was returned from Troy, and coming home found his
aged father in the field planting trees, he asked him why, being now so far
advanced in years, he would put himself to the fatigue and labor of planting
that which he was never likely to enjoy the fruits of, the good old man
(taking him for a stranger) gently replied, ‘I plant, against my son Ulysses
coming home.’ ”
I think it may be said of nations as John Evelyn said it of men, that they
rarely plant until they begin to be wise.
POSSESSIONS IN THE APPALACHIAN FORESTS 143
The great land of China with its teeming population is so denuded of
forests that it is said that in many regions every stray weed and spray of
grass is carefully collected and husbanded for purposes of fuel, and that men
trundle hand barrows of coal for hundreds of miles to secure the fuel neces-
sary to preserve life. Unless we shall awaken duly to the need of preserving
our forests the time may come when this land shall be as China is today.
There was a day when China had her forests, and though it may appear to us
of a new country very long ago, a thousand years in China amounts to less
than a century in the west. It is said that this danger of the disappearance
of her forests became apparent to the rulers of China over 1,200 years ago, and
that they set themselves to do what as has already been stated the king of
England did after his restoration, to awaken the interest of the people in this
vital national subject. A work on forestry was prepared by their direction
which was so extensive that it is said to have contained over 50,000,000 of
words, that is twice as much, possibly, as the most voluminous encyclopedia.
It is said that three copies of this work were made and that the only one which
survived was destroyed by the soldiers of the relief column of the allied forces
which occupied the Chinese capital at the time of the Boxer rebellion.
One cannot go over Europe without being made aware of the devastating
effect of indifference to the preservation of forests. For example: one could
hardly ever forget the impression made in traveling over the desolate and
treeless waste in Spain that lies south of the Pyrenees. Through the improvi-
dence and folly of former governments this region that was once reckoned the
most fertile within the sweep of the Roman dominion has become, if not a
desert, something that looks very near akin thereto. The very song birds have
flown from a region where not a tree or shrub is left to protect them and fur-
nish the choir for their heavenly music. All through southern Europe the
proof meets the eye that man has been forced with infinite pains, with a re-
pentance as bitter as that of Esau, to make atonement for the carelessness
with which he sold his birthright, for throughout this country in regions which
must once have been covered with forests and which, owing to their denuding
had the soil washed away, we see how infinite must have been the labor that
was required to reterrace and reforest. We may all rejoice that the attention
of the American people has been formally directed to this great source of
national loss before it is too late.
It must often have struck every observant man not only how negligent
the average American man is in the matter of preserving trees but how abso-
lutely inimical he is thereto as in other departments of life. I think this state
of mind is the result of natural causes and owing to that which at its best
we term conservatism continues after the causes have passed away. England
was once fully forested and then as its population increased the forests fell
before them and tillage took its place; then came the Norman conquest, and
in England, as in other countries, the conquerors and rulers, with a fine dis-
regard for everything except their own wills, established forests not for the
benefit of their people but for their own amusement, turning the cultivated
lands that had been conquered from the wilderness back into wilderness and
forest for their hunting ground. It was made a crime for the ordinary in-
habitant to hunt any wild animal. To some extent this law, curiously enough
in this age of democracy, still stands on the statute books. The forests there-
by became identified with the power and tyranny of the court, and the com-
mon people had no interest therein. Indeed such interest as they had was
only of hostility. Then when our forefathers crossed the main and came to
this new country with its apparently inexhaustible forests, they found for a
time that the forest was the covert of their two deadly enemies, the Indian
Savage, and his yet deadlier ally, malaria. So it was natural, possibly even
144 AMERICAN FORESTRY
necessary, that the forests should be cut down. To conquer the wilderness
and turn the forest into arable land which would support life was their first
duty, and the toil which it entailed has remained to the present day in the
memory of men to render them not only indifferent but hostile thereto. I
think it is not too much to say that this is the state of mind of a large por-
tion of our population, nor is it too much to say that the government could not
proceed with its educational work in any direction with better results than
by teaching the people of this country the principles of forestry.
I fell in, not long ago, with a young man, a neighbor of mine and a man
of industry, a sensible man and a thrifty man, who had taken a piece of wild
woodland and had cleaned it up with his own hand. He had married and
built a snug little house on a hill commanding a fair prospect, and then he had
laboriously cut down every one of the fine trees which surrounded his house.
Finding him one day in his new ground preparing for his tobacco crop I ex-
pressed my wonder that he should have destroyed the fine oaks whose stumps
about his house showed their former grandeur. “No,” he said, “I do not like
trees, I want nothing about my house bigger than a bush except fruit trees.”
I believe that he expressed the view of a considerable part of our population,
and this view is not confined by any means to the laboring class. If you will
take a ride around Washington tomorrow you will see such a cutting down of
trees and destruction of the natural beauty about this capital of our country
as possibly is not to be witnessed today within the same distance of any other
capital in the world. I am happy to say that following the design of those
broad-minded men who laid out this capital city on broad lines, its streets and
avenues are beautified with trees in a way to do honor not only to their wis-
dom but to the wisdom of those who have the capital still in charge. But,
though much is done, much remains to do, and there is even now within the
heart of Washington a region where beautiful trees still remain, which unless
it receive the vast care and protection of the government which the govern-
ment may well give here in its own capital, must soon pass away.
I rejoice at this new movement in the direction of preserving our forests.
No thoughtful man who recalls the destructions in half a generation of the
buffalo and elk and canvas back duck and other forms of game, and who has
seen the disastrous destruction of forests, especially no man who has traveled
in other countries, can fail to be apprehensive of the effect of the universal
indifference to the preservation of forests which essentially obtains in this
country. My opinion is that the abiding work of the forestry department will
be the awakening in the public mind of the necessity of preserving forests, and
the convincing of the public mind, for we are a thrifty race, at least, if not an
avaricious race, that it is to the individual’s interest to harvest his timber in
a scientific rather than in an ignorant way. Show the American people that it
is to their interest to do anything and eventually they will do it. Partly
stupid and partly over-confiding, they are often misled as to their own inter-
ests, but prove to them that it is to their interest and a thing will inevitably
be accomplished in the end, and, above that, prove to them that a thing is
right and it will be even more inevitably accomplished.
HARVESTING THE ANNUAL SEED CROP
By SYDNEY MOORE,
ASSISTANT District FORESTER, UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE.
forested region of the West, which is not mentioned in any official
“crop reporter;” a crop which few people outside of those directly
concerned in its harvesting know much about, but a crop that is yearly
increasing in quantity and value. It is the annual crop of forest tree seed,
and the size of each year’s crop is of real concern to the country at large,
since the seed harvested is chiefly used in the reforestation of the vast burned
and denuded areas of the Rocky and Pacific Coast mountains.
The collection of forest tree seed by commercial collectors has been carried
on to a limited extent for many years in a few localities in the West. There
is one professional collector in the Black Hills of South Dakota who for
years has been gathering western yellow pine seed for sale to seed dealers, and
has also exported quantities to Europe, especially Germany, where the busi-
ness in tree seed is very extensive. There is a small village in the mountains
near Pueblo, Colorado, where about a dozen individuals have built up a
considerable industry of the collection and sale of tree seed. In 1909, the
value of the seed crop from this one locality was about $8,000. These collectors
sell their crops to seed dealers in this country and also to dealers in Germany.
For a number of years there has been a very active demand from German
dealers for seed from the United States, especially of Douglas fir. In fact,
until the last two or three years, the export trade in forest tree seed has
probably fully equaled the domestic trade, and the whole business has been
very restricted. Recently this condition has changed, due to the fact that the
Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture has under-
taken an extensive campaign of reforestation by seed sowing upon the national
forests, which demands immense quantities of forest tree seed of desirable
species. And while the government collects by far the greater part of its tree
seed through its own forest officers, still a considerable amount is purchased
from commercial collectors.
The conditions and work of harvesting the seed crop described in this
article are particularly typical of the Rocky Mountain region, and the work
as carried on by the Forest Service upon the national forests of that region.
The forests of the Rocky Mountains, as is well known, consist almost exclusively
of coniferous species, in contradistinction to the prevailing broadleaf forests
of the East. Consequently, the important seed crop consists of the seed of
conifers, or evergreen trees. Although the forests contain a variety of species
of trees, including western yellow pine, Douglas fir, lodgepole pine, Engelmann
spruce, blue spruce, limber pine, bristle-cone pine, balsam, white fir, and
junipers, only the first four named are of special commercial importance.
Consequently it is the seed of these four species that is chiefly sought after
for reforestation purposes. Even though the future forest is to serve pri-
marily the purpose of protecting some watershed from floods and erosion,
it is advisable to plant the seed of some species that will at maturity yield
valuable commercial timber.
GY roves fall sees the harvesting of one crop throughout the mountainous,
145
146 AMERICAN FORESTRY
LOCATING THE CROP.
Coniferous trees do not produce a full crop of seed every year, but only
periodically, as every two, three, or four years. In a year when the production
of seed by a certain species is very large, commonly called a “good seed year,”
the heavy production will extend over a very extensive area, as for example,
an entire state. In other years the same species may produce a full crop, or
nearly so, over a much more limited area. For instance, the yellow pine has
been found to produce a heavy crop of seed on a certain small watershed,
when little or no seed at all could be found on other yellow pine trees outside
of the particularly favored locality. During the past season, seed of Douglas
fir in Colorado could be found in large quantities upon only one or two of the
eighteen national forests in that state, although in 1909 its seed production
was fairly widespread through the state. The fact that the production of
seed is very apt to be localized makes it necessary every year to search the
forests for the much desired crop. On the national forests the Rangers, each
for his respective district, scour the forests to ascertain upon what water-
sheds, large or small, the trees of the desired kind are bearing seed.
The seed of the important conifers is borne in a cone (whence the name),
and with the pines it requires two years for these cones to grow to maturity,
while with the other species (spruces and firs) only one year is required. The
new cones begin to form in the spring of the year, shortly after the year’s
growth begins. Thus the forest rangers can begin to locate and take stock
of the year’s seed crop during June, July, and August, although the crop
will not be mature until September or early in October. Each ranger
makes a report upon the kind and size of the seed crop upon his district
early in the summer, and plans are laid well in advance for gathering in the
crop.
TIME AND METHODS OF COLLECTING CONES
The seed crop matures naturally about the time of the first frosts in the
fall, and in the mountains this time varies, of course, with the altitude. In
the case of the desirable species, the cones open naturally while still upon
the tree and release their seed. Accordingly, collectors must gather the
cones before they open naturally, otherwise the seed would be lost. Since
the seed are ripe in the cones for some little time before they are released
naturally, it is possible to gather the cones with the seed in them. Collecting
has been started as early as September 1, and continued as late as October 20,
though this period varies somewhat with the season.
The cones which contain the seed, then, are what is collected, and not
the seed itself. There are several methods of collecting the cones, which shall
be described briefly, as follows: (1) climbing trees and picking; (2) picking
from the ground, from low scrubby trees; (3) picking from felled trees; (4)
collecting from squirrel hoards.
i i Climbing trees and picking: When the cones are gathered by this
method, the collector is usually equipped with a pair of “climbers” like those
ordinarily used in climbing telephone poles. The cones may be picked by
hand from the branches, but more commonly the collector uses a sharp steel
hook fastened securely to the end of a light pole about six feet long. With
this hook he can cut the cones from the more remote branches or draw
the smaller branches toward him so as to reach the cones by hand. As the
cones are picked or cut off, they are dropped to the ground, to be gathered up
later into sacks, or an assistant on the ground gathers them as fast as they
fall. The quantity of cones which can be collected per day in this manner
varies a great deal, depending primarily upon the abundance of the cones.
Collectors have actually gathered from two to five bushels of yellow pine
HARVESTING THE ANNUAL SEED CROP 147
cones per day, by steady work. However, as may be imagined, this method is
slow and costly, and frequently the size and height of trees in the virgin
forest prevents collecting in this way.
2. Picking from the ground, from low scrubby trees: While this method
is much easier and less expensive than the former, it cannot be widely used,
because the species most desired do not grow in open, park-like forests of
short trees over any very extensive areas. Cones of yellow pine and lodge-
pole pine have been collected in small quantities by this method, but it can
never serve for obtaining any very large part of the seed crop.
3. Picking from felled trees: This method is, of course, restricted to
picking cones from the tops of trees cut down where lumbering operations are
in progress. As might be suspected, there are many limitations on this
method. Even if there is a heavy seed crop where cutting is going on, only a
comparatively few trees are cut in ordinary logging operations within the
brief period during which cones must be collected. Occasionally, with all
conditions favorable, a large quantity of cones can be collected very cheaply
in this manner, where timber sales are in progress on the national forests. But
at the best, the method can only be infrequently employed.
4. Collecting from squirrel’s hoards: Almost everyone has at some time
observed the squirrels working very busily in the fall of the year, cutting
off cones from the trees in forests of pine or spruce. These indefatigable
little workers, chattering in the tree tops, scurry along the slightest branches
and with sharp teeth cut the cones from the tips of the branches and drop
them to the ground. The topmost, swaying twigs of the tallest pine in the
forest hold no fear for the surefooted little creatures. In places where the
squirrels are numerous and working their hardest, there is a continuous rain
of cones from the tree tops, causing a noise and disturbance that must attract
the attention of the most indifferent observer. After the cones are cut off,
the squirrels collect them from under the trees and accumulate them in one
place, the pile of cones constituting the hoard or “cache.”
The squirrels show many peculiarities and much wisdom in locating and
arranging these hoards of cones. In general the hoards are located at the
base of a standing tree, against or under an old fallen tree, in a hollow log
or stump, and often along the bank of a small stream under water. Some-
times the hoards are located in the open, away from any trees or logs.
Usually, the spot selected for hoarding cones has been used for the same
purpose several successive years and is readily recognized by the deep accumu-
lation of old cone scales, since the squirrels break up the cones to extract
the nutritious seed. The cones, when freshly cut from the trees, are in a
green condition and full of moisture. If these cones are piled in an indis-
criminate mass they soon begin to mould, and in the course of time will decay
and the enclosed seed will be spoiled. The instinct of the squirrels teaches
them to guard against the possibility of such an unfortunate occurrence.
Instead of piling cones in a solid mass, the squirrels’ hoards are carefully
formed of many little bunches of cones, each bunch containing a dozen or
more cones, buried in the forest litter and separated from the other bunches
by surrounding litter. This arrangement insures the thorough aeration of the
whole mass and prevents any destructive growth of mould. The hoarding
of cones under water, which has been mentioned, is another clever scheme
by which the squirrels preserve their winter’s supply from possible decay, a
sort of “cold storage” system devised by these little animals.
It is by taking advantage of the thrifty habits of the squirrels that seed
collectors can gather cones most economically and in large quantities. The
cone gatherers search through the woods for the hoards which have been
described, and fill their sacks with the cones so conveniently cut from the
148 AMERICAN FORESTRY
trees and collected together by the squirrels. The quantity of cones which
may be gathered from a single squirrel hoard ranges from a few bushels to a
dozen or more bushels. Among the large hoards recorded is one that yielded
about sixteen bushels of yellow pine cones, another that yielded about fifteen
bushels of Douglas fir cones.
At different times a more or less hysterical protest has been raised by
some people against this so-called robbing of the squirrels. Persons interested
in the preservation of our wild animals have alleged that this method of
collecting cones would result in the starvation of the squirrels. If such were
the case, it would indeed be a calamity. As a matter of fact, such gathering
of cones from the squirrels’ hoards as is done, while it may inconvenience
the squirrels, has no disastrous results. The squirrels continue their labor
after a hoard has been cleaned out, and in a very short time have a supply on
hand equal to that which has been lost. In collecting cones, the gatherers
work over an area only once, and then seek new fields, leaving the squirrels
ample time to recuperate their losses before winter sets in. It would require
a very strenuous and vindictive campaign on the part of man to steal from
the squirrels of any locality so persistently as to reduce the winter’s food
supply of these animals to a dangerous point. Assuredly the wanton destruc-
tion of squirrels’ hoards is a thing to be condemned, but so long as man takes
for himself only a portion of their supplies, and that for a most useful and
beneficial purpose, the practice should need no further justification.
EXTRACTING THE SEED.
After the cones have been gathered, by any of the methods which have
been described, and placed in sacks, they must be transported to some central
point where the seed may be extracted. The sacks of cones gathered in the
woods are carried out to the nearest trail or wagon road. Frequently the
cones have to be collected in such inaccessible localities that it is necessary
to pack them for miles on horses or burros, which is, of course, a tedious and
expensive method of transportation. As soon as a road is reached the cones
are loaded into wagons. In one region, the Black Hills of South Dakota,
where about twenty-five thousand bushels of yellow pine cones were collected
during the past fall, pine cones were shipped by railroad, in carload quan-
tities, to a central point, the railroad company making a new rate for this
unusual class of freight.
After the cones have been gathered in large quantities at a central point,
the most expensive part of the work of collecting seed is accomplished. But
the work of extracting the seed from the cones, and cleaning the seed, remains
to be done, and this part of the operation requires much care and attention.
Mention has already been made of the natural opening of cones allowed
to remain upon the trees. The ripening of cones is brought about by the
sun’s heat, as with all other fruits, and when the cones are fully ripened
they become completely dried out and the cone scales have curled back,
releasing the seed, which is distributed widespread through the agency of the
winds. Each little seed has attached to it a smail membranaceous wing,
that serves to carry it through the air to a greater or less distance from the
parent tree, depending upon the velocity of the wind and the weight of the
seed.
To obtain the much desired seed, it is, then, necessary to open up the cones
that have been collected. There are two methods ordinarily employed to
accomplish this, one method following Nature’s way, takes advantage of the
sun’s light and heat, and the other method employs artificial heat.
In the first method the cones are spread out thinly upon canvass sheets
laid upon the ground, preferably on a gentle slope toward the southwest
and the sun. Since the cones must be spread thinly, a large number of
SCREENING PINE CONES TO FREE THEM FROM
PITCH, NEEDLES, AND OTHER REFUSE BE-
FORE SPREADING ON SHEETS TO DRY
HARVESTING THE ANNUAL SEED DOUGLAS FIR CONES SPREAD ON CANVAS
CROP SHEETS TO DRY IN THE SUN
HARVESTING
THE
CROP
ANNUAL
SEED
SEED COLLECTORS’ CAMP WITH CONES SPREAD
OUT TO DRY UPON CANVAS SHEETS
RAKING YELLOW PINE CONES OFF CANVAS
SHEET AFTER THEY HAVE BEEN RUN OVER
SCREEN AND SEED EXTRACTED. A SMALL
AMOUNT OF SEED IS SAVED BY THIS OPERA~
ATION
SEED COLLECTION CAMP IN A ROCKY MOUN-
TAIN NATIONAL FOREST. SACKS ARE FULL
OF CONES GATHERED IN SURROUNDING
FOREST
HARVESTING THE ANNUAL SEED FOREST RANGER WINNOWING YELLOW PINE
CROP SEED AFTER TRAMPING IN A SACK TO SEP-
ARATE THE WINGS
HARVESTING
SEED
ANNUAL
FOREST OFFICERS OPERATING A - FANNING
MILL, THROUGH WHICH SEED IS RUN FOR
ITS FINAL CLEANING. ALL DUST, BROKEN
WINGS, AND LIGHT SEED ARE BLOWN OUT
FROM GOOD SEED
PLANT ON A
EQUIPPED
AND A
PORTABLE CONE
NATIONAL FOREST.
WITH WIRE SCREEN,
HEATING STOVE
DRYING
TENT
TRAYS,
~
HARVESTING THE ANNUAL SEED CROP 153
canvas sheets are required to handle a comparatively small amount of
cones. ‘The cones must be covered over on rainy days and during cloudy,
damp weather. To open up yellow pine cones satisfactorily they must be
exposed to the sun in the manner described for about a week. Douglas fir
and Engelmann spruce cones, having thinner cone scales, ordinarily dry out
and open in less time than those species with thicker cone scales. However,
the time required to open up cones in the sun varies greatly, depending upon
the weather conditions and the relative dryness of the cones at the time they
are spread upon the sheets for final drying.
The sun-drying method has the great advantage of being inexpensive,
since the only equipment required consists of canvas sheets, the cheapest ob-
tainable being used for the purpose. Furthermore, the drying sheets are
easily transported (on pack-horses if need be) to remote places where the
cones have been concentrated, and the extracting process carried out there,
a very important consideration in our mountain forests, difficult of access.
The great limitation upon this method is, of course, its absolute dependence
upon a continuous period of fair weather, with sunny, dry days.
By the second method of extracting seed, which uses artificial heat, tlie
cones are subjected to a temperature ranging from 100 to 120 degrees Fahren-
heit for a period sufficient to open them. The cones are spread out thinly on
shelves or trays of wire mesh in a closed room, but with sufficient ventilation
to insure the escape of the moisture given off from the drying cones. As with
sun-drying, the time required to dry out the cones is variable. Yellow pine
cones under ordinary conditions will open up satisfactorily with a tempera-
ture of 100 degrees maintained for thirty-six to forty-eight hours.
Two types of cone-drying plants may be distinguished, namely, portable
and stationary. A convenient form of portable plant consists of an ordinary
canvas tent, in which drying trays can be built and a stove set up. A perma-
nent drying plant may be constructed in any tight building where trays can
be built and a stove or furnace installed. Because of the cost, a stationary
plant is only advisable where large quantities of cones are available for
drying, or can be easily transported to the plant. The advantages of drying
cones by artificial heat are apparent, the process being carried on independent
of weather conditions.
Whether dried by the sun’s heat or artificial heat, the cones, as they grad-
ually open, release the seed and a large portion of the seeds from each cone
fall out upon the canvas sheets or drying trays whenever the mass of cones
is stirred or handled. However, a certain portion of the seeds stick in the
cones even after they have opened and most of the seeds have fallen out. In
order to extract these refractory seeds the opened cones must be given a
special treatment. The cones are gathered up from the sheets or trays upon
which they have dried, and put into a contrivance called a “churn.” This
churn is merely a large box, about three feet square, mounted upon a frame
so that it can be revolved by means of a crank. One side of the churn is cov-
ered with wire screen or slats, which permit the passage of seed but retain
the cones in the churn. As a man revolves this churn, the cones are rattled
about vigorously and the remaining seed shaken out of them. This churning
process is commonly spoken of as “threshing” the cones.
CLEANING THE SEED
From the drying-sheets or trays the seed collector gathers up the seed
extracted and adds to the mass the seed he has shaken out from the churn.
The material which he has thus obtained is not exclusively clean tree seed by
any means. The individual seeds still have attached to them the little mem-
branaceous wings, and intermingled through the mass are broken seed wings,
154 AMERICAN FORESTRY
cones scales, bits of dirt and refuse matter of all descriptions. In addition, a
great many of the seeds themselves, while perfectly good in external appear-
ance, are in reality abortive or “light” seeds, that is the kernel has never fully
developed, so that the seeds would never germinate. What the seed collector
desires, and what he must have if he hopes to market his crop, is perfectly
clean, sound seed free from all wings, dirt or other refuse.
The next step, therefore, is to remove the wings from the seeds. This
may be done by simply rubbing the seeds together with the hands, thus break-
ing off the thin, brittle wings. Often the seed is rubbed over a fine mesh
screen, by hand, or a small quantity of the seed may be placed in a sack and
then rolled and rubbed with the feet. Sometimes the seed are dampened
slightly with water and then rubbed, the effect of the water being to loosen
the wings from the seed. After the seed has been handled by some one of
these methods it is given the final treatment, which consists in separating the
good seed from the “chaff,” the latter including wings, broken cone scales, and
the other refuse. For this final cleaning the seed may either be winnowed in
the open with a light breeze, or it may be put through a fanning mill, such as
is commonly used in cleaning grain. The former method is a crude one, and
a fanning mill is almost a necessity to clean seed satisfactorily and economic-
ally on a large scale. Frequently the seed may be winnowed to remove a por-
tion of the chaff, and later given a final run through a fanning mill.
It has already been mentioned that in the Rocky Mountain forests it is
often necessary to collect the cones in remote localities, more or less inacces-
sible to cheap transportation. In such cases the seed is seldom put through
the various processes in one place. More frequently the cones are opened by
the sun’s heat in the locality where collecting is done, and the seed and chaff
are then transported to some central place where the seed is given its final
cleaning. By this scheme the transportation of the heavy, bulky cones is
avoided, and the cost saved on the final product. When the seed has been
satisfactorily cleaned, it is placed in seamless sacks and carefully stored,
ready for distribution to the points where it will be used to grow new forests.
The amount of clean seed which is ultimately obtained from a bushel of
cones varies with the species of seed, with the favorableness of the season, and
with the care used in the work of extraction and cleaning. Rocky Mountain
yellow pine will yield on an average one pound of clean seed from a bushel of
cones, though frequently it exceeds this somewhat. Douglas fir yields about
one pound of clean seed per bushel of cones.
The business of collecting forest tree seed is of large importance to pri-
vate individuals in many localities, but the total amount of such seed collected
privately is insignificant in comparison to the quantities being collected an-
nually by the federal forest service throughout the west. As time passes, the
annual tree seed crop will increase in amount yearly. With the perfection of
methods for harvesting the crop, the cost per pound of the several important
species will decrease, a matter of much moment, since an abundant supply of
cheap seed is the first essential to the vast undertaking of reforesting the mil-
lions of acres of burved and cut-over lands throughout the forest regions of
the western United States.
GROWING TREES FROM SEED
By C. R. PETTIS,
SUPERINTENDENT OF STATE Forests OF NEW YORK.
a rapidly increasing demand for information how to best undertake the
work. In the eastern states where conifers with shallow root systems
will be most generally planted, the best method is to plant small trees grown
in a nursery. On account of the importance of the conifers, hardwoods will
not be discussed in this article. The size and kind of tree to be used will
depend upon soil, demands of the owners and other circumstances, but the
method will be the same.
The first step in any reforesting operations will be securing the stock, and
as the money is invested for a long period the cost of such plants should be
carefully considered. There are certain kinds of trees that can be purchased
abroad and imported apparently much cheaper than they can be secured in
this country, but this is in the long run rarely, if ever true, of forest planting
stock. The state of New York has imported a large quantity of various
species and planted them. These plantations at first appeared satisfactory,
but later examination showed that they are, in some cases, affected with
serious diseases, and in others the per cent of loss is very high on account
of the long transit and other factors. The quality of the stock is also a
factor in considering price and final success. The stronger and thriftier the
tree the more successful the plantation.
If any owner desires to plant but a few acres each year it will be more
advantageous for him to secure stock from his state forest commission, if
it is in a position to supply him, or from a reliable nurseryman. Any
successful nursery operated at reasonable cost requires a large annual output
and experienced supervision. The most economical method for any small
planter who desires to use transplants will be to purchase seedlings and then
transplant them at home, thus reducing packing and transportation charges
in the first instance, and having any advantage of local labor for their care.
He will also be assured of the quantity desired when wanted.
Four things are essential for a successful nursery: (1) good soil; (2)
good seeds; (3) a water supply; and (4) proper methods.
The soil should be a rich loam, free from stone, thoroughly cultivated,
preferably with garden crops before using, well fertilized, well drained, and
with sufficient slope to effect surface drainage. The better the soil the more
vigorous and larger the plants. The absence of stones facilitates trans-
planting and tends to reduce expenses. Previous cultivation, if the weeds
have not been allowed to mature seeds, decreases the weeding. The produc-
tion per acre is so large that any soil can be profitably used.
Good seeds are absolutely necessary because no matter how carefully
all the other work may be done, satisfactory seed beds cannot be secured
without seeds of high germination per cent and full of energy. Seeds should
be purchased only after examining samples. Good seeds are heavy, rich
OR idea of reforesting land is, at present, most popular and there is
155
156 AMERICAN FORESTRY
in oil and full of meat. Seeds should be purchased late in the fall and stored
in tight tin cans in a cold building.
A continuous water supply is essential. The control of moisture con-
ditions in the soil is of greatest importance in securing success. The soil
should be well drained and not heavy, in order to reduce the surface moisture,
while water should be provided when necessary. In our practice we have
found that the growth of seedlings can be increased at least two inches a
year by the proper application of water. Water is also necessary to retain
proper moisture conditions in the seed beds and effect germination. During
periods of drought large quantities should be applied to the young transplants.
The methods to be employed will depend upon the local conditions in
minor points, but in general the following will apply to our northeastern
states. The various portions of the work will be considered in the following
order: (1) making the seed bed; (2) care of seedlings; (3) the transplant-
ing; (4) care of transplants; (5) packing stock.
The seed beds four feet wide and twelve feet long are the most convenient,
and such a bed will produce from 5,000 to 12,000 seedlings, each depending
upon the success of the work. Each bed should be enclosed in a frame*
covered with wire netting to exclude the birds who destroy the young trees
by eating the seeds which are on the tip top of the young plants. This box is
placed in position, the soil carefully prepared, the bed is made with a gentle
slope about one and one-half inches higher in the center than at the outside
and the surface of the bed about four inches higher than the path. The soil
should then be saturated with water and the seeds sown carefully broadcast
over the bed. The quantity of seed to be sown will depend upon the size
of the seed which varies with species and is as follows: White pine, 12 ounces;
Scotch pine, 8 ounces; Red pine, 6 ounces; Norway spruce, 8 ounces; Euro-
pean larch, 12 ounces. These seeds should then be pressed into the soil and
covered lightly to a depth of about one-eighth of an inch with sterile soil
carefully sifted. The box should then be tightly enclosed to retain the
moisture and left for germination. Care should be exercised that the soil
continues moist in order to supply the necessary water to germinate the
seeds. The seeds should be sown about the time garden seeds would be
planted.
After two or three weeks the seeds will begin to germinate and at that
time need careful attention. Up to this time it has been necessary to produce
moist, humid conditions in the seed bed, but as soon as germination takes
place it will be necessary to reverse the conditions and full ventilation and
dry surface soil will be necessary in order to prevent “damping off.” This
is the most serious difficulty in seed bed work. It is a fungus disease which
destroys the tissues at the surface of the soil and the trees apparently wilt,
but as a matter of fact are suffering from this disease. The best remedy is
prevention effected by removing any unnecessary dampness. Just as soon
as germination has been secured all the covering used to conserve moisture
during the germination period should be removed and from that time on
during the remainder of the first season only half shade of lath should be
used.
The beds should be carefully watched during the season. All weeds
should be removed when small and the weeding done often. In case of dry
weather, water should be applied late in the afternoon. Late in the summer
the wire covering and lath shades should be removed to “harden” the trees
for winter. In early winter, after a few inches of snow has fallen, the beds
should be covered with one thickness of burlap over the snow.
*Detailed information in regard to the construction of such boxes will be found in
Bulletin No. 76, Forest Service, Washington, D. C
SEED BED NURSERY AT LAKE CLEAR JUNC-
TION, NEW YORK, CONTAINING THREE MIL.-
LION SEEDLINGS IN TWO ACRES
ya wu ia,
GROWING TREES FROM SEED THE STATE OF NEW YORK NURSERY AT
PALAMANCA
PLANTING
STEPS IN
FOUR
THE
IN MASSACHU-
ATION
LES
SFO)
RE
NG
SEEDLI
A
SETTS
GROWING TREES FROM SEED 159
The coming spring after the danger from “heaving” of the soil has
passed the burlap should be removed. During the summer the beds should
be kept free from weeds and freely supplied with water. The two-year-old
beds do not need covering during the winter.
When the seedlings are two years old they are suitable for planting in
the field, where there is but limited shade, and upon fair quality of soil. If
larger and stronger trees are necessary they should be transplanted in the
nursery. The seedlings should be taken up carefully in order not to injure
any roots and the roots at all times kept from exposure to sun or wind.
The transplant beds should be about seven feet wide and any length, but
fifty feet has been found convenient. The paths should be two feet wide
and the beds almost four inches higher than the paths. The “Yale Planting
Board,” invented by Prof. J. W. Toumey, has proved a most valuable tool
and greatly reduced the cost of transplanting. The work with this board is
carried on with five men in a crew using two boards. The board consists of
two strips hinged by arms at right angles, one of them continuously notched
the space the trees are to be apart in the rows. In this the trees are placed
and upon it the other closes, holding them in place. Two men are employed
digging the trench, two placing the seedlings in the boards and one man
carries the board to and from the trenches. While two are filling the boards,
two others are making the trenches into which the fifth man places the
board filled with trees, then the soil is packed around the roots and the
board removed. The trees are placed rapidly and regularly and the roots
in normal position. The trees should be three inches apart in the rows and
the rows six inches apart. This process is continued until the transplanting
is completed.
The care during the season consists chiefly in weeding and watering in
times of continued dry weather. A careful watch should be kept for insect
pests or ground grubs. If the trees are not sufliciently large at the end of
the one season in the transplant bed, they may be retained there another
season.
When the trees are ready for field planting they should be carefully taken
up to prevent any injury to the roots, promptly “heeled in” and finally
planted as soon as possible. Spring planting is, as a rule, more desirable
than fall planting. The trees, if shipped even a short distance, should be
carefully packed in order to prevent any drying of the roots. If shipped a long
distance they should be packed right, the roots packed in moss and sufficient
openings left around the upper parts to prevent heating.
REFORESTATION IN MASSACHUSETTS
By F. W. RANE,
STATE FORESTER OF MASSACHUSETTS.
S a result of the educational campaign carried on by the Massachusetts
A Forestry Department there bas been a general awakening on the part
of the public, especially land owners, to the opportunities which this
field affords for profitable investment and future development by reforestation
in the Bay State. This widespread interest has been manifested during the
past year by the great number of requests that have been made by clubs,
granges, boards of trade, and other organizations throughout the state for
lectures on this subject, as well as innumerable requests received by mail
for literature treating of the subject. The press has also been no small
factor in urging upon the people the importance of reforestation.
It must be quite obvious to every thinking person that to a state whose
present stock of woodland is second and third growth, most of it consisting
of sprouted trees which never become timber size, and which has nearly a
million acres of land which may properly be classed as waste land, largely
abandoned rough fields and so-called natural pastures growing up to brush,
reforestation becomes a question of vital interest. Even forty or fifty years
ago there were far-sighted men in Massachusetts who predicted the total
extinction of our timber supply unless remedial measures were taken in sea-
son to prevent it, and quite a strong feeling pervaded the state in favor of
planting commercial trees, but with the decline in farm values the enthusiasm
abated, not, however, until fifteen or twenty small plantations had been
set out by individuals in their private capacity. These plantations were
small, of course, averaging ten to twenty-five acres.
As the white pine is a natural conifer of Massachusetts, a tree of com-
paratively rapid growth, and especially adapted to the soil of this region
with its lumber in great demand, it is very natural that it should be given
preference over all others in the work of reforestation. In fact, the first
work of importance done by the present state forester after taking charge
of the forestry work in this state was to make a study of its growth, with
the result that in “Forest Mensuration of White Pine,” a bulletin published
under his direction, are to be found fairly complete data concerning the white
pine. This bulletin shows, for instance, that the age at which a plantation
should be cut to yield the highest net returns is 50 years, and that an acre
of pine planted on average soil will produce at the rate of 900 board feet,
or more, per year. This information is of great value to farmers, as it
makes clear to them how the waste land of farms may be utilized and made
to become of constantly increasing value. Supposing the value of land at
the time of planting to be $6.00 per acre, the cost of planting $10.00, taxes at
two per cent, an acre of pine will yield four per cent on the money invested,
and $270 besides, a total of between six and seven per cent. These figures are
based on the present prices of lumber, and not the probable prices fifty years
hence.
160
REFOR
War
JT)
TATION
IN MASSACHUSETTS
WHITE PINE SEEDLINGS, SET FIVE
YEARS,
ABOUT THE WACHUSET RESERVOIR OF THE
METROPOLITAN WATER SYSTEM.
A PINE PLANTATION THIRTY YEARS OLD
THE SANDS OF CAPE COD
MASSACHUSETTS STATE NURSERY AT AM-
HERST; TRANSPLANTS IN FOREGROUND
EALTHY WHITE PINE
AND AT SUDBURY,
ASSACHUSETTS.
ANTED THIRTY-EIGHT
ARS.
THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE FORESTER’S MEN
AT WORK PLANTING.
REFORESTATION IN MASSACHUSETTS 163
Money Yield Table.
Manufactured and stumpage values.
Quarry I Quauity II. Quauiry III.
AGE
(Years). | vol- | Fe") Fo. B. | FT /stump-|| Vol- |Per| Fo. B. Ferlstump-|| Vol- | Fe"|F. 0. B.| \f™|Stump-
ume. | Fy Value. Ft.| age: ume. | Fe. Value. Ft | 28e- ume. | F; Value. Ft,| ae:
25, ‘T0828 = {| $1732 4 $65 00 || 76,750 _, {| $108 00 4 s40 50|| 3978 $63 60 | $23 85
30, 19,900 5 {| 318 40 | |) 119 40 || 12,500 | 200 00 | {| 75 00|/ 7,500 |S || 120 00 |= 4] 45 00
35, 31,150 3 | 498 40 249 20 || 24,400 |~ 439 20 195 20 || 16,950 |= || 271 20} \ 101 70
40, 40,650 2 791 70 | 325 20 || 32,800 590 40 a 262 40 || 25,200 403 20 201 60
45, 49,350 | }| 888 30 394 80 || 40,600 |S || 730 80 324 80 || 32,100 577 80 |= || 256 80
50, 55,150 |~ 992 70 |S 551 50 || 46,500 | || 837 00 465 00 || 37,550 |_ || 676 00 |&% }) 300 40
55, 59,650 = 1,193 00 |& (| 596 50 |] 50,550 910 00 3 505 50 || 42,100 2 757 80 336 80
60, 63,600 |= }| 1,272 00 |S ¢| 763 20 || 53,200 |S (| 1,064 00 |z% || 532 00 || 44,550 802 00 = 445 50
65, 67,050 |~ \ 1,341 00 =| 804 50 || 56,600 a 1,132 00 566 00 || 46,150 830 70 |= (| 461 50
The legislature, within the past five years, has recognized the immense
possibilities of forestry as a factor in adding to the wealth of the state, and
has enacted several laws based upon recommendations of the state forester,
intended to advance it. The reforestation act of 1908 has enabled the state
forester to make a most promising beginning, about forty separate planta-
tions covering 2,000 acres at an average cost of less than $10.00 per acre
having already been made. Much of this land was acquired by the common-
wealth under the provisions of the law which allows owners to turn over
land to the state for the purpose of reforestation, reserving the right to
redeem the land at any time within ten years, for the actual amount expended.
Nearly fifteen hundred acres of land are now in the hands of the state forester
ready for planting next season.
Previous to this year most of the trees planted were purchased from
nurserymen, but last spring our nursery at Amherst, established three years
ago, Supplied about half of the one million seedlings used, and henceforth
will furnish a large percentage of those required. This nursery, which is
on the grounds of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, covers seven and
one-half acres, and has in stock about two million pine seedlings, one half
million Norway spruce, and several hundred thousand other species. Another
nursery has been laid out at Sandwich on Cape Cod, but so far only one-half
an acre has been utilized.
The plantations scattered all over the state have been of great interest
to property owners, and have done much toward stimulating private enter-
prise along this line. The records at the office of the state forester show
that in addition to the 2,000 acres planted under his direction, 2,000 acres
have been planted by private parties and 1,500 by other agencies, principally
the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Boards.
So gratifying has been the progress made in the work of reforestation
up to the present time, and so wide are the possibilities in this direction that
a much larger appropriation has been asked for this year in order that
operations along this line may be greatly extended.
THE PASSAGE OF THE APPALACHIAN BILL
N THE 15th of February the long struggle for national legislation look-
C) ing to the perpetuation of the forests of the Southern Appalachian and
White Mountains was ended when the bill known as the Weeks, or Ap-
palachian bill, was passed by a vote of 58 to 9. As it had been passed by the
House in June of last year and was enacted by the Senate without change, it
only remains for it to receive the signature of President Taft to become a law.
Between twelve and one o’clock, immediately at the close of the morning
hour, the bill was called up by Senator Brandegee of Connecticut, who had it
in charge. Senator Stone of Missouri, who had offered an amendment, with-
drew it. Senator Brandegee then reviewed the legislative history of this bill
in the Senate and the bill was read. The Senator from Connecticut made a
brief and admirable opening statement and answered several questions, after
which Senator Burton of Ohio addressed the Senate for over two hours in op-
position to the bill. During this time he adduced nothing new. The Senator’s
secretary sat beside him with a ponderous array of volumes, pamphlets and
documents, but his arguments and citations, which were numerous, were the
old familiar ones which have been answered again and again.
Senator Newlands of Nevada spoke about an hour. He explained that
be was in favor of the bill and desired its passage, but that his purpose in op-
posing it in its present form at the last session was “not to defeat the bill, but
to anchor it more firmly in the interstate commerce power of the Constitution,
and enlarge its area so as to provide a comprehensive scheme of legislation
that would involve the regulation of the flow of all the navigable rivers of the
country in aid of navigation, and accomplish that ultimate object by the stor-
ing of the flood waters of these rivers, including the sources of streams for
purposes of irrigation and power; by the protection of forested areas included
within the watersheds of such rivers and their sources, so as to prevent pre-
cipitate run-off and safeguard against denudation and erosion; by the protec-
tion of the river banks by revetment and levees, so as to confine the rivers to
their channels, and thus aid in the reclamation of vast areas of swamp and
overflowed lands within the drainage basins of such rivers containing an
alluvial soil of enormous fertility and requiring only protection from flood
waters to insure their highest agricultural development.” He further ex-
plained that since there seemed to be a well grounded fear that the pressing
of amendments at this time would endanger the passage of the bill, which he
did not wish to do, he should withdraw his amendment and seek to accom-
plish his object through a more comprehensive piece of legislation at a later
time. He summarized with much skill and clearness the arguments for the
bill and devoted considerable time to the plan of a great national waterways
system which is his special interest in legislation.
Mr. Newlands’ position was a matter of gratification to friends of the bill
because he has always been accredited a friend of progressive forestry legisla-
tion and it was a great disappointment to find him ranged apparently with
opponents of this bill at the last session.
The next speaker was Senator Simmons of North Carolina, a long-time
supporter of the various Appalachian forest bills. He made a carefully pre-
164
THE PASSAGE OF THE APPALACHIAN BILL 165
pared argument, reinforced by observations from his own state which is so
largely interested in this question.
Senator Heyburn of Idaho, strengthened the case for the bill by his oppo-
sition. The point of his remarks was that this bill proposed to buy several
counties entire, counties with a large population, of which he gave the figures,
and turn them into solitudes. He denounced it is the “most radical piece of
fancy legislation that has ever been proposed in the Congress of the United
States.”
Senator Smith of South Carolina, replied effectively to certain remarks of
the Idaho Senator on the effects of erosion.
Senator Burton offered two amendments, the first providing for an exam-
ination of the lands to be purchased by the Engineer Corps of the United
States Army instead of by the Geological Survey, and the second providing
“that on lands acquired by the Commission timber shall be sold and water-
power shall be granted only at prices and on terms approved by the National
Forest Reservation Commission.” Both amendments were rejected and roll
calls were refused.
The roll call was then ordered on the passage of the bill and it was passed
by a vote of 58 to 9. The vote concluded at about half-past five o’clock in the
afternoon. The record was as follows:
Yeas—58
BAcon CurRTIS LopGE SmiryH, Md.
BEVERID6E Dick MARTIN SMITH, Mich
BoraHu DIXON NEWLANDS SMITH, S. C.
BouURNE DUPONT NIXON SMooT
BRADLEY FLETCHER OLIVER STEPHENSON
BRANDEGEB FLINT OVERMAN SUTHERLAND
Briceés FOSTER PAGE SWANSON
Brown FRAZIER PENROSE TALIAFERRO
BUuRNHAM FRYE PILES TAYLOR
BURROWS GALLINGER PERKINS WARNER
CARTER GAMBLE RICHARDSON WARREN
CHAMBERLAIN GUGGENHEIM Root WATSON
CRANE JONES Scorr WETMORE
CRAWFORD KEAN SIMMONS YOuNG
CUMMINS LA FOLLETTE
Nays—9
BRISTOW CULLOM GRONNA PAYNTER
Burton Davis McCUMBER SHIVELY
CLARK, Wyoming
Not voting—24
ALDRICH CLARK, Ark. HEYBURBN PERCY
BAILEY CULBERSON JOHNSTON RAYNER
BANKHEAD DEPEW LORIMER STONE
BULEKELEY DILLINGHAM MoNeEY TERRELL
BURKETT GORE NELSON THORNTON
CLAPP HALE OwEN TILLMAN
Of the Senators not voting all but four, Senators Hale, Lorimer, Nelson
and Tillman, were placed on record by their pairs. These showed Senators
Aldrich, Bulkeley, Burkett, Clapp, Depew, Dillingham, Johnston, Money,
Rayner, Terrell and Thornton in favor. of the bill, and Bailey, Bankhead,
Clark of Arkansas, Culberson, Gore, Heyburn, Owen, Percy and Stone opposed.
There is evidence in this large senatorial majority in favor of the bill that
its friends have been very successful in presenting the arguments for it dur-
ing the last few weeks, because there was undoubtedly a much larger oppo-
sition to the measure some months ago than the vote shows at the present
time. This is a matter for great congratulation. The bill was in charge of
Senator Brandegee who has worked for its success faithfully and efficiently
during the session. Closely associated with him on the floor was Senator
166 AMERICAN FORESTRY
Gallinger, who has been actively in the service for this legislation since it was
first proposed. For the final success much credit is due to the work of Senator
Crane, whose wise counsel and service has always been available in its behalf.
On the Democratic side Senators Chamberlain, Fletcher, and Overman have
been particularly strong in their support. The text of the bill, as enacted,
follows:
AN ACT
To enable any State to cooperate with any other State or States, or with the United
States, for the protection of the watersheds of navigable streams, and to appoint
a commission for the acquisition of lands for the purpose of conserving the
navigability of navigable rivers.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of
America in Congress assembled, That the consent of the Congress of the United States
is hereby given to each of the several States of the Union to enter into any agreement
or compact, not in conflict with any law of the United States, with any other State
or States for the purpose of conserving the forests and the water supply of the States
entering into such agreement or compact.
Sec. 2. That the sum of two hundred thousand dollars is hereby appropriated
and made available until expended, out of any moneys in the National Treasury not
otherwise appropriated, to enable the Secretary of Agriculture to cooperate with any
State or group of States, when requested to do so, in the protection from fire of the
forested watersheds of navigable streams; and the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby
authorized, and on such conditions as he deems wise, to stipulate and agree with any
State or group of States to cooperate in the organization and maintenance of a system
of fire protection on any private or state forest lands within such State or States and
situated upon the watershed of a navigable river: Provided, That no such stipulation
or agreement shall be made with any State which has not provided by law for a
system of forest-fire protection: Provided further, That in no case shall the amount
expended in any State exceed in any fiscal year the amount appropriated by that State
for the same purpose during the same fiscal year.
Sec. 3. That there is hereby appropriated, for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth,
nineteen hundred and ten, the sum of one million dollars, and for each fiscal year
thereafter a sum not to exceed two million dollars for use in the examination, survey,
and acquirement of lands located on the headwaters of navigable streams or those
which are being or which may be developed for navigable purposes: Provided, That
the provisions of this section shall expire by limitation on the thirtieth day of June,
nineteen hundred and fifteen.
Sec. 4. That a commission, to be known as the National Forest Reservation Com-
mission, consisting of the Secretary of War, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary
of Agriculture, and two members of the Senate, to be selected by the President of
the Senate, and two members of the House of Representatives, to be selected by the
Speaker, is hereby created and authorized to consider and pass upon such lands as
may be recommended for purchase as provided in section six of this Act, and to fix
the price or prices at which such lands may be purchased, and no purchases shall be
made of any lands until such lands have been duly approved for purchase by said com-
mission: Provided, That the members of the commission herein created shall serve
as such only during their incumbency in their respective official positions, and any
vacancy on the commission shall be filled in the manner as the original appointment.
Sec. 5. That the commission hereby appointed shall, through its president, annually
report to Congress; not later than the first Monday in December, the operations and
expenditures of the commission, in detail, during the preceding fiscal year.
Sec. 6. That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized and directed to
examine, locate, and recommend for purchase such lands as in his judgment may be
necessary to the regulation of the flow of navigable streams, and to report to the
National Forest Reservation Commission the results of such examinations: Provided,
That before any lands are purchased by the National Forest Reservation Commission
said lands shall be examined by the Geological Survey and a report made to the
Secretary of Agriculture, showing that the control of such lands will promote or protect
the navigation of streams on whose watersheds they lie.
Sec. 7. That the Secretary of Agriculture is hereby authorized to purchase, in the
name of the United States, such lands as have been approved for purchase by the
National Forest Reservation Commission at the price or prices fixed by said com-
mission: Provided, That no deed or other instrument of conveyance shall be accepted
or approved by the Secretary of Agriculture under this Act until the legislature of the
State in which the land lies shall have consented to the acquisition of such land
by the United States for the purpose of preserving the navigability of navigable streams.
THE PASSAGE OF THE APPALACHIAN BILL 167
Src. 8. That the Secretary of Agriculture may do all things necessary to secure the
safe title in the United States to the lands to be acquired under this Act, but no payment
shall be made for any such lands until the title shall be satisfactory to the Attorney-
General and shall be vested in the United States.
Sec. 9. That such acquisition may in any case be conditioned upon the exception
and reservation to the owner from whom title passes to the United States of the minerals
and of the merchantable timber, or either or any part of them, within or upon such
lands at the date of the conveyance, but in every case such exception and reservation
and the time within which such timber shall be removed and the rules and regulations
under which the cutting and removal of such timber and the mining and removal of
such minerals shall be done shall be expressed in the written instrument of conveyance,
and thereafter the mining, cutting, and removal of the minerals and timber so excepted
and reserved shall be done only under and in obedience to the rules and regulations
so expressed.
Sec. 10. That inasmuch as small areas of land chiefly valuable for agriculture may
of necessity or by inadvertence be included in tracts acquired under this Act, the
Secretary of Agriculture may, in his discretion, and he is hereby authorized, upon appli-
cation or otherwise, to examine and ascertain the location and extent of such areas as
in his opinion may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the forests
or to stream flow and which are not needed for public purposes, and may list and
describe the same by metes and bounds, or otherwise, and offer them for sale as home-
steads at their true value, to be fixed by him, to actual settlers, in tracts not exceeding
eighty acres in area, under such joint rules and regulations as the Secretary of Agricul-
ture and the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe; and in case of such sale the
jurisdiction over the lands sold shall, ipso facto, revert to the State in which the lands
sold lie. And no right, title, interest, or claim in or to any lands acquired under this
Act, or the waters thereon, or the products, resources, or use thereof after such lands
shall have been so acquired, shall be initiated or perfected, except as in this section
provided.
Sec. 11. That, subject to the provisions of the last preceding section, the lands
acquired under this Act shall be permanently reserved, held, and administered as
national forest lands under the provisions of section twenty-four of the Act approved
March third, eighteen hundred and ninety-one (volume twenty-sixth, Statutes at Large,
page eleven hundred and three), and Acts supplemental to and amendatory thereof.
And the Secretary of Agriculture may from time to time divide the lands acquired
under this Act into such specific national forests and so designate the same as he may
deem best for administrative purposes.
Sec. 12. That the jurisdiction, both civil and criminal, over persons upon the lands
acquired under this Act shall not be affected or changed by their permanent reservation
and administration as national forest lands, except so far as the punishment of offenses
against the United States is concerned, the intent and meaning of this section being
that the State wherein such land is situated shall not, by reason of such reservation
and administration, lose its jurisdiction nor the inhabitants thereof their rights and
privileges as citizens or be absolved from their duties as citizens of the State.
Sec. 13. That five per centum of all moneys received during any fiscal year from
each national forest into which the lands acquired under this Act may from time to time
be divided shall be paid, at the end of such year, by the Secretary of the Treasury
to the State in which such national forest is situated, to be expended as the state
legislature may prescribe for the benefit of the public schools and public roads of
the county or counties in which such national forest is situated: Provided, That when
any national forest is in more than one State or county the distributive share to each
from the proceeds of such forest shall be proportional to its area therein: Provided
further, That there shall not be paid to any State for any county an amount equal to
more than forty per centum of the total income of such county from all other sources.
Sec. 14. That a sum sufficient to pay the necessary expenses of the commission and
its members, not to exceed an annual expenditure of twenty-five thousand dollars, is
hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated.
Said appropriation shall be immediately available, and shall be paid out on the audit
and order of the president of the said commission, which audit and order shall be con-
clusive and binding upon all departments as to the correctness of the accounts of said
commission.
Passed the House of Representatives June 23 (calendar day, June 24), 1910.
Passed the Senate February 15, 1911.
EDITORIAL
THE APPALACHIAN BILL
HE passage by the Senate on Wednesday of the bill commonly known
as the Weeks, or Appalachian, bill ends the first stage of a long struggle
for national forests in the eastern mountains, a struggle that began in
1899. The bill now enacted bears little resemblance to those that preceded it
up to the time of the Sixtieth Congress, although its purpose has been well
understood to be the same, that is, the perpetuation of forests upon the great
watersheds of the Appalachian ridge. It is a general law, providing for no
particular locality, but there can hardly be a question raised as to its intent or
as to the regions whicb are in present need of action by the nation.
Imperfect as it admittedly is, this new forest law marks a distinct step
in advance, and may be said in some sense to be the beginning of a new de-
parture in that it makes our national forest policy really national, although
me application of the principle under the new law is greatly circumscribed.
This aspect of the question is discussed in another connection.
Under its provisions much good may be accomplished in the nature of
forest preservation and protection if it is broadly and generously interpreted
by its administrators; but it has been frankly admitted by its advocates that
it is acceptable only as a beginning and a means of testing the application of
a most important economic principle.
As passed by the House last June, the bill carried an appropriation for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1910, of one million dollars, and for each suc-
ceeding year until 1915 of two million dollars annually, making an aggregate
of eleven million dollars. Because of legislative conditions, it was necessary
to pass the bill in the Senate without amendment and this provision was there-
fore unchanged. It is, therefore, probable that the first million dollars which
was allotted for 1910 will be lost and that only ten million will be available
for the purposes of the act. It is not certain, however, that the intent of the
bill may not be considered and the full appropriation made available.
The passage of the bill is a notable triumph of enlightened public senti-
ment over political obstruction. Here was a measure which had the endorse-
ment of three successive Presidents of the United States, of intelligent citizen-
ship all over the land, as voiced by practically every great national organiza-
tion that is working for the public welfare, by commercial and industrial
bodies, by the federated women’s clubs of America and an almost unanimous
periodical and newspaper press. Notwithstanding such support as would
seem to have assured its prompt enactment, it met in Congress from year to
year a most stubborn opposition, directed by the leaders of the party organiza-
tions on both sides of the House. In the Senate there was a bitter sectional
hostility from the northwest, which finally melted away leaving Senators
Heyburn of Idaho and Clark of Wyoming, as its sole exponents. Notwith-
standing its importance to the south, there was from that section a consider-
able opposition on the part of adherents of a strict, old-fashioned states rights-
ism, and the unfavorable influence of party leaders was strong in the middle
168
EDITORIAL 169
west. So far as evidence has appeared, this opposition in our national legis-
lature has had no support outside of Congress, and it is remarkable that it
has held out so long against an unusually broad, national and non-partisan
public demand.
It is a weakness of the American people to develop great enthusiasms,
embody them in law and then forget them, to become absorbed in their daily
vocations and in fresh interests. This disposition has nullified many good
laws. Let it be remembered in this hour of triumph that the ultimate success
of this new forest law will depend upon the continued interest and intelligent
support of those whose efforts have secured its enactment. In the face of pub-
- lie indifference it will become a useless instrument. Forcefully and intelli-
gently sustained, it may be the beginning of greater good to the people of the
whole country than even its most ardent friends have claimed.
ITS CONSTITUTIONAL ASPECT
HE new forest law in its present form must be regarded as partial, since
it provides for maintaining forest cover only on drainage areas neces-
sary for “conserving the navigability of navigable rivers.” This is in
deference to an opinion given by the Judiciary Committee of a former House
of Representatives, and to the views of many constitutional lawyers as to the
powers of the general government. We have always deemed it unfortunate
that the discussion of this great public question was forced as a matter of ex-
pediency into so narrow a channel by the dictum of a political committee
which is in no sense a judicial body, although made up of very able lawyers.
Its members sit upon the committee as advocates rather than as judges in
many cases, and this was especially true in connection with the Appalachian
bill, which involved so many points of controversy and had aroused strong
feeling. At the time that the opinion was rendered upon the Appalachian bill,
several members of the committee, including its chairman, represented the
spirit of intense hostility to the measure which guided the action of the lead-
ers of the House organization. Under these circumstances we could hardly
expect that an opinion would be rendered such as we should look for from the
Supreme Court of the United States.
The views expressed by the committee are not unquestioned and we be-
lieve that time will teach the American people that an adequate timber supply,
the preservation of the flow of streams for water power and the public health,
and the sanitary influence of the mountain forests, are as necessary to the people
as the navigability of their rivers, that is, that they are essential to the gen-
eral welfare. In the debate last summer in the House no arguments for the
bill were more gratifying than those of Mr. Mann of Illinois and General
Keifer of Ohio, both of whom took a strong stand for the power of the general
government to preserve our forests on the ground of the general welfare. Hoke
Smith, Secretary of the Interior under President Cleveland and twice elected
governor of Georgia, is on record with a similar declaration. None of these
men is a radical, or a dangerous loose constructionist. They have with them
many lawyers equally able and learned with those on the other side. It is the
lesson of our whole history from the time of the Louisiana Purchase, made by
the greatest of all the strict constructionists, that when a great national need
has arisen, the provisions of the Constitution have been found to be ample to
safeguard the nation. In academic constitutional discussions, the general wel-
fare clause is but little regarded. When practical need arises, it is realized
that the wise and cautious statesmen who debated almost every word of our
great instrument of government, did not insert those words for mere verbiage.
They knew what some lesser interpreters of the Constitution seem to forget,
170 AMERICAN FORESTRY
that any such instrument, to be permanent, must provide for national growth
and changing conditions. Nothing is more instructive in our history than the
prophetic vision with which Washington, Jefferson, Marshall and others of
our elder statesmen, looked forward through the years to the development of
the nation they were founding. They would never have circumscribed that
development by any provision which could have prevented the guarding of the
people’s welfare against any unfavorable conditions that might arise.
The nation that can purchase lands for national parks, as has been done
several times, can purchase lands for national forests to maintain a permanent
timber supply, protect our waterpowers and preserve the public health,
whether such forests affect the navigability of navigable rivers or not. It was
decided by the Supreme Court in the Gettysburg case that the national govern-
ment could purchase land for the inculcation of patriotism. This was a broad
interpretation, but one which need not cause terror in the heart of any citizen
of the United States or admirer of the Constitution. It is distinctly in the
line of the maintenance of national dignity and good citizenship.
Not to go back to old purchases of land in the early history of the country
which have already been cited, to provide timber for the Navy, there are on
record the following purchases of land within recent years which certainly do
not come under the interstate commerce clause in any sense: Sully’s Hill Na-
tional Park, North Dakota, was purchased from the Devil’s Lake Indians by
virtue of an act dated April 27, 1904. Platt National Park was purchased
from the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians by authority of acts dated July 1,
1902, and April 21, 1904. The National Bison Range on the Flathead Indian
Reservation was authorized by act dated May 23, 1908. By this act $30,000
was appropriated to enable the Secretary of the Interior to pay the confeder-
ated tribes for the land according to an act dated April 23, 1904. The same
act provided ten thousand dollars for fencing the range and putting up build-
ings. An act dated March 4, 1909, provided $47,000 for the maintenance of
the Montana Bison Range.
If the government can do these things with its money, it is idle to claim
that it cannot spend it equally for lands in any of the states of the Union for
the important economic purposes connected with forestry as understood in
these modern times. The fact is, we strain at gnats and swallow camels in
appropriation of money for national purposes, and whenever it suits legis-
lators to oppose a measure which is otherwise meritorious, the cry of uncon-
stitutionality is almost always resorted to. Notwithstanding all the agitation,
argument, and education of recent years, we have much to learn as a people
in regard to the economic importance and necessity of scientific forestry. This
lesson is being rapidly learned, however, and when it is fully understood the
resulting enlightenment will lead to a development of our forest policy which
will not endanger the Constitution, but will give greater permanence to the
nation, strengthen the United States treasury, and infinitely add to our re-
sources as a people in the years to come.
PROFESSOR GLENN’S REPORT
HE comprehensive report of Professor L. C. Glenn on denudation and
erosion in the Southern Appalachian region and Monongahela basin,
which is briefly reviewed this month, comes most appropriately at this
time when the long sought law making possible national action to preserve
the forests of this region has been enacted. The report is a mine of informa-
tion which will now be of the greatest service. Professor Glenn’s first-hand
knowledge on the subjects treated in the report has not been equaled by any
EDITORIAL 171
one, and the authority of his statements has not been successfully challenged.
Here we have the expert testimony of a competent geologist, based on a long
and patient reconnaissance on the ground, as to the actual soil conditions in
these important drainage areas. The report has a direct bearing on the work
of salvage and development now to be undertaken by the general government.
THE OWNERSHIP OF TIMBERLANDS
HE first part of the long awaited report of the Commissioner of Cor-
porations on the lumber industry is a document of great interest. The
facts which it presents are not new or surprising to those who were at
all informed on the subject, although they probably are to the country at
large. They show in a striking way the facilities which our public land
methods have offered for the development of large, private holdings; that the
government, in fact, has been engineering a magnificent get-rich-quick enter-
prise from which many men have naturally profited. It also points out the
possible consequence in the future of development along the same line. This
is what really concerns us as a practical problem. What is done cannot be
undone. What is to be done is at least partially within our control.
The first deduction, and the only one to which we now wish to call atten-
tion, is the unanswerable argument that this large control of our timber-
lands by a few private holders makes for the maintenance on as large a scale
as possible of national forests and of state forests in every state for the se-
curity of the people’s interest by maintaining healthy conditions in the lumber
industry. This is the only practicable check that can be put upon the power
of great private owners.
AMERICAN CONSERVATION
HE new magazine announced sometime ago by the National Conserva-
tion Association has appeared for the month of February under the
title American Conservation. It should be a valuable instrument for
the association that publishes it in keeping its public in touch with various
phases of the conservation work. We extend to it a cordial welcome and the
best wishes of AmpricaAN Forestry for wisdom to guide its course and power
to enforce the great principles for which it stands.
CURRENT LITERATURE
REVIEWS
Denudation and Erosion in the Southern
Appalachian Region and the Mononga-
hela Basin. By Leonidas Chalmers
Glenn. Department of the Interior,
United States Geological Survey. Pro-
fessional paper 72. Page 137, Washing-
ton, Government Printing Office, 1911.
This report, as stated in the introduc-
tion, presents “a brief summary of the re-
sults of an examination of the Southern
Appalachian region during the field sea-
sons of 1904 and 1905, and of the Monon-
gahela Basin in West Virginia and Penn-
sylvania in 1907, made for the purpose of
studying the effect of deforestation and
consequent erosion of the steep mountain
slopes on geologic, hydrologic and economic
conditions, both in the mountain region
itself and in the surrounding areas through
which the many streams that rise in the
high Appalachians flow on their way to the
Mississippi, the Gulf or the Atlantic.”
It will be seen from this statement how
important a bearing this report has upon
the subject of the preservation of the Ap-
palachian forests which has been so much
before the public and so much a matter of
controversy during the last few years. Pro-
fessor Glenn’s method was closely scientific.
He traveled from valley to valley through
the southern mountains, noting and re-
cording with great exactness hillside and
mountainside wash and wear, soil removal
by gullying and soil burial by overwash
and stream overflow, the filling of mill-
ponds and the wrecking of dams and
bridges, and numerous other evils that
are attributed by many observers to reck-
less deforestation and injudicious attempts
to cultivate slopes that are not adapted
to agriculture. The report is liberally il-
lustrated from photographs that show in
the most graphic manner the conditions
described. His studies included parts of
eight states, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama. Pro-
fessor Glenn holds that the problems
studied by him from the standpoint of the
geologist must be solved by methods that
relate chiefly to forestry and to agriculture.
The agricultural problem involves the se-
lection of the areas best suited for agri-
culture because of fertility and character
of soil and moderate slope of surface, and
172
the study of the ways in which such areas
may be handled to prevent their own de-
struction through erosion, as well as the
destruction of other lands and property by
the waste material they deposit and the
floods they help to generate. Among other
facts noted in the course of his study was
the interesting one that steep slopes formed
of certain rocks can be safely cultivated,
while others no steeper, composed of other
rocks, were cultivated with disastrous re-
sults.
Much of the area examined is not suit-
able for agricultural land and should not
be cleared and forced into agricultural use,
because that forcing means destruction
both of the area itself and of the lower-
lying areas on the same stream. Such
misuse means also slower but none the
less sure interference with navigation on
the more remote parts of the major stream
system.
The report describes the physical fea-
tures of the country examined, discusses
the relation of industries to erosion and
denudation, taking up in succession agri-
culture, lumbering, mining, and power de-
velopment. The nature, effect and reme-
dies of erosion are considered and several
pages are given to a discussion of the de-
bated subject of changes in stream regi-
men. Professor Gienn says that “the for-
ester would protect steep slopes by keeping
them clothed with timber, coax back tree
growth on denuded areas, keep down forest
fires, protect and perpetuate the supply of
hard wood, protect the game and fish, and
enhance the beauty and charm of the region
as a health and pleasure resort, as well as
prevent the navigable streams that flow
from these mountains from filling up with
the sand and silt whose removal is now
costing annually large sums of money.”
Then follows a study of the details of
conditions in the region, prefaced by a de-
scription of the method of treatment. This,
with a table of streams and the index,
occupies the remaining hundred pages of
the report.
We shall probably have occasion from
time to time to make use of the facts in
this report, which is a valuable reference
volume and should be near the hand of
everyone who is engaged in the study of
the problems connected with these moun-
tains. It can be obtained by application
to the Director of the Geological Survey.
CURRENT LITERATURE
MONTHLY LIST FOR FEBRUARY, 19811
(Books and periodicals indexed in the Library
of the United States Forest Service)
Forestry as a Whole
Forbes, A. C. The development of British
forestry. 274 p., pl. London, England,
BE. Arnold, 1910.
Schermbeek, A. J. van. Hinige leitsatze
beziiglich der forstwissenschaftlichen
forschung. 30 p., il. Bruxelles, Ch.
Bulens, 1910. (Internationaler ver-
band forstlicher versuchanstalten. Pub-
lication.)
Forest Education
Forest schools
India—Imperial forest college, Dehra
Dun. Progress report for 1909-1910.
23 p. Calcutta, Supt. of government
printing, 1910.
India—Imperial forest research institute.
Progress report for 1909-1910. 25 p.
Calcutta, Supt. of government printing,
1910.
St. Petersburgh—Lyesnoi institut (Forest
institute). Izvyestiya (Contributions),
vol. 20. 152 p. St. Petersburgh, 1910.
Forest Legislation
Zaleman, Nikolai, comp. lLyesnoi ustav
(Forest laws). 2 volumes in 1. St.
Petersburgh, 1910.
Forest Description
Hutchins, D. E. Report on Cyprus for-
estry. 93 p., pl., fold. map. London,
Waterlow & Sons, I’t’d., 1909.
Forest Botany
Deutsche dendrologische gesellschaft. Mit-
teilung, no. 19. 410 p. il. Bonn-
Poppelsdorf, Germany, 1910.
Jepson, Willis Linn. The silva of Cali-
fornia. 480 p. Berkeley, Cal., 1910.
(University of California. Memoirs,
vol. 2).
Maiden, J. H. The forest flora of New
South Wales, pt. 41. 20 p. pl. Syd-
ney, Govt. printer, 1910.
Winkenwerder, Hugo. Short keys to the
more important trees and shrubs of
Oregon and Washington. 8 p. Seattle,
Wash., University of Washington.
Silvics
Forest influences
Glenn, Leonidas Chalmers. Denudation
and erosion in the southern Appalach-
ian region. 137 p. pl., maps. Wash.,
D. C., 1911. (U. S. Geological survey.
Professional paper 72.)
Studies of species
Vadas, Eugéne. Die bedeutung der robinie
(Robinia pseudacacia) fiir die forst-
173
wirtschaft Ungarns. 18 p. pl., diagr.
Selmecbénya, Hungary, J. Agost 6zv.
és Fia, 1910. (Internationaler ver-
band forstlicher versuchsanstalten.
Publication. )
Zederbauer, Emmerich. Zusammenfassung
der resultate tiber die in Mariabrunn
ausgefuhrten versuche betreffend weiss-
fohren verschiedener provenienz. 2 p.
Mariabrunn, Austria, 1910. (Interna-
tionaler verband forstlicher versuch-
sanstalten. Publication.)
Seeds
Crahay, N. I. La question des semences
en sylviculture. 14 p. Bruxelles, F.
van Buggenhoudt, 1910. (Interna-
tionaler verband forstlicher versuch-
sanstalten. Publication.)
Engler, Arnold. Influence de la provenance
des graines du pin sylvestre; recapitu-
lation des résultats obtenus jusqu’ici
par la Station suisse de recherches
forestiéres. 14 p. Bruxelles, Ch.
Bulens, 1910. (Internationaler ver-
band _ forstlicher versuchsanstalten.
Publication. )
Forest soils
Buhler, Anton. Untersuchungen iiber die
bildung von waldhumus. 70 p. Stutt-
gart, E. Ulmer, 1900. (Wiirtember-
gische forstliche versuchsanstalt. Mit-
teilungen, 2. heft.)
Roth, Jules and Zemplén, Géza. Beitrage
zur stickstoffaufnahme des _ waldes.
20 p. Bruxelles, F. van Buggenhoudt,
1910. (Internationaler verband forst-
licher versuchsanstalten. Publica-
tion.)
Vater, H.
Die erforschung des zulangens der
nahrstoffe im waldboden. 7 p. Brux-
elles, Ch. Bulens, 1910. (Internation-
aler verband forstlicher versuchsan-
stalten. Publication.)
Forest fertilizing
Grahay, N. I. and Durieux.
engrais chimiques en_ sylviculture;
résultat des expériences. 31 p. pl.
Bruxelles, F. van Buggenhoudt, 1910.
(Internationaler verband forstlicher
versuchsanstalten. Publication.)
Schwappach, Adam. L’emploi des engrais
dans la grande culture forestiére. 14
p. Bruxelles, Ch. Bulens, 1910. (In-
ternationaler verband forstlicher ver-
suchanstalten. Publication.)
Verstraete, O. Plan-type de champs d’ex-
périences 4 établir sur l’emploi des en-
grais en sylviculture. 14 p., diagr.
Bruxelles, L. Pternotte, 1910. (Inter-
nationaler verband forstlicher versuch-
sanstalten. Publication.)
Forest experiment stations
Sweden—Forstliche versuchsanstalt.
teilungen, heft 7. 2388 p. il.
holm, Sweden, 1910.
L’emploi des
Mit-
Stock-
174
Forest Protection
Insects
Chittenden, F. H. The oak pruner. 7 D.
il. Wash., D. C., 1910. (U. S. Dept.
of agriculture, Bureau of entomology.
Circular 130.)
Diseases
Mayr, Heinrich. Schiittekrankheit und
provenienz der fohre (kiefer). 11 p.
Miinchen, Kastner and Callwey, 1910.
(Internationaler verband forstlicher
versuchsanstalten. Publication.)
Fire
MacMillan, H. R. and Gutches, G. A. Forest
fires in Canada. 40 p. il. Ottawa,
1910. (Canada, Dept. of the interior,
Forestry branch. Bulletin 9.)
Forest Management
Poskin, Arthur. Conversion des peuple-
ments purs d’épicéa en peuplements mé-
langés. 14 p. Bruxelles. F. van Bug-
genhoudt, 1910. (Internationaler ver-
band forstlicher versuchstanstalten.
Publication. )
Quairiére, C. J. Des mélanges d’essences
feuillues a réaliser dans les futaies de
hétre. 13 p. Bruxelles, F. van Bug-
genhoudt, 1910. (Internationaler ver-
band forstlicher versuchsanstalten.
Publication.)
Statistics
United States, Bureau of the census. Cross-
ties purchased, 1909. 11 p. Wash.,
D. C., 1911. (Forest products, no. 8.)
United States, Bureau of the census. Pulp-
wood consumption, 1909. 15 p. Wash.,
D. C., 1911. (Forest products, no. 1.)
Forest Administration
British Columbia, Royal commission of
inquiry on timber and forestry, 1909-
1910, Binal report... 116.-p.-.il, pl:
diagr., fold. map. Victoria, B. C., 1910.
Canada, Dept. of the interior, Forestry
branch. Report of the Supt. of for-
estry, 1909-1910. 77 p. pl. Ottawa,
1910.
Maine, Forest commission. Highth report.
111 p. il., pl. Augusta, Me., 1910.
New Hampshire, Forestry commission. Bi-
ennial report for the years 1909-1910.
105 p. pl., maps. Concord, N. H., 1910.
Philippine Islands, Bureau of forestry. An-
nual report of the director of forestry
for the period July 1, 1909, to June
30, 1910. 25 p. Manila, P. I., 1910.
United States, Forest service. January
field program, 1911. 34 p. Wash.,
DC. L918,
Wisconsin, State forester. Report for
1909 and 1910. 136 p. Madison, Wis.,
1910.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Forest Utilization
Crumley, J. J. The relative durability of
post timbers. 36 p. il. Wooster, O.,
1910. (Ohio, Agricultural experiment
station. Bulletin 219.)
Ricard, J. H. Au Pays Landais; exploita-
tion des foréts résineuses. 252 p. il.,
map. Paris, J. B. Bailliére et fils, 1911
Auxiliary Subjects
Irrigation
National irrigation congress. Official pro-
ceedings, 18th. 412 p. Pueblo, Colo.,
1910.
Periodical Articles
General
Bulletin of the Pan American union, Jan.,
1911.—Cocoanuts in the Americas, by
Charles Melville Brown, p. 238.
Canadian century, Jan. 7, 1911.—Further
reciprocity in timber products unneces-
sary, by H. R. Macmillan, p. 10.
Collier’s weekly, Dec. 17, 1910.—Exploring
the Philippine forests, by C. A. Gil-
christ, p. 14.
Country life in America, Jan., 1911.—Our
native trees; the red cedar, by A. O.
Huntington, p. CXCIV, CXCVI.
Field and stream, Nov., 1910.—EHuropean
forestry, by W. H. Miller, p. 618-23.
Illustrirte zeitung, Nov., 1910.—Die hoheren
forstlichen bildungsstatten in Deutsch-
land, Osterreich, Ungarn und der
Schweiz, by A. Remelé, p. 21-4.
Muhlenbergia, Nov., 1910.—The
pine, by A. A. Heller, p. 128-32.
Plant world, Dec., 1910.—Notes on growth
of pine seedlings, by J. C. Blumer, p.
296-7.
Proceedings of American society of civil
engineers, January, 1911.—Timber
preservation, its development and pres-
ent scope; discussion, by R. Lamb and
J. M. Schreiber, p. 141-51.
Progress magazine, Dec., 1910.—Conserva-
tion of the Christmas tree, by Cather-
ine Frances Cavanagh, p. 9-12.
Rural spirit, Jan. 25, 1911—Live stock
grazing aS insurance against forest
fires, by D. P. Smythe, p. 3-6.
Scientific American, Jan. 7, 1911.—Breed-
ing successful strains of basket wil-
lows, p. 20-1.
Scientific American, Jan. 21, 1911.—Drain-
ing the Everglades, by D. A. Willey,
Ds Oi,
Torreya, Jan., 1911.—Additions to the tree
flora of the United States, by J. K.
Small, p. 11-14.
Trade journals and consular reports
American lumberman, Jan. 14, 1911.—Fell-
ing trees with hot wires, by A. Scheible,
p. 41; New source of pulp; efforts of
the federal government to extend and
limber
CURRENT LITERATURE
economize manufacture, p. 42-3; Wis-
consin engaged in practical reforesta-
tion, p. 43; Strength, durability, adapt-
ability of white oak, p. 1, 83.
American lumberman, Jan. 21, 1911.—
Manufacture and use of lumber in
China, by O. M. Clark, p. 36-7; To pre-
vent waste; new process invented and
in operation to conserve material in
the manufacture of wood pulp, p. 39;
Inspectors’ work, by J. W. Martin, p.
56
American lumberman, Jan. 28, 1911.—Log-
ging yellow pine, by W. T. Whiteman,
p. 41; largest government: timber land
sale; federal authorities dispose of
over two hundred thousand acres in
California, p. 44; Why natural repro-
duction is better than planting, by A.
Akerman, p. 81; Conservation of the
state’s timber resources, by C. W. Fair-
banks, p. 84-5; Cypress and its uses,
by A. T. Gerrans, p. 85.
Canada lumberman, Jan. 1, 1911.—Passing
of the square timber trade, p. 24-6.
Engineering and mining journal, Dec. 31,
1910.—Combination steel and wood
mine timbers, p. 1293-4; Creosote as a
timber preservative, p. 1295.
Engineering news, Dec. 29, 1910.—Repaving
the “Loop” district in Chicago with
creosoted wood block, by W. W. Marr,
p. 718-22.
Engineering news, Jan. 5, 1911.—Marine
wood destroyers in the waters of the
South Atlantic ports, by W. D. Fau-
cette, p. 12-13.
Hardwood record, Feb. 10, 1911.—Band saw-
ing, by E. C. Marshon, p. 69-71.
Lumber trade journal, Jan. 15, 1911.—Eco-
nomical stump destruction a problem,
p. 27-9.
Municipal journal and engineer, Jan. 11,
1911.—Oil for preserving wood blocks,
p. 54-5.
Municipal journal and engineer, Jan. 25,
1911.—Work of Buffalo’s forestry dept.,
by H. B. Filer, p. 115-17; Creosoting
wood blocks in England, p. 122.
Pacific lumber trade journal, Jan., 1911.—
Possibilities of Pacific Coast logging by
electricity, by F. Mackean, p. 45-6;
Logging chances in national forests
of Pacific northwest, by G. H. Cecil,
p. 47-8; Our logged-off land problem
and its solution, by C. J. Zintheo, p.
55-61.
Pioneer western lumberman, Jan. 15, 1911.
—Cut-over lands west of the Cascade
Mts., by G. H. Emerson, p. 13, 15.
Pioneer western lumberman, Feb. 1, 1911.
—Patrol methods, telephone lines, trail
building and supply depots, by D. P.
Simons, p. 7.
Railway and engineering review, Jan. 21,
1911—Depths of penetration in wood
preservation, by D. Allerton, p. 44-5.
Railway journal, Feb., 1911.—Results ob-
tained in prolonging life of railway tie,
by F. J. Angier, p. 7-8.
175
Southern lumberman, Jan. 21, 1911.—Yel-
low pine from log to dry kiln and yard,
by W. W. Warren, p. 31; Yellow pine
drying in dry kiln and on yard, by
F. R. Gilchrist, p. 32-3; Address on con-
servation in Louisiana, by H. T. Hardt-
ner, p. 33-4.
Timberman, Jan., 1911.—Pioneer lumbering
in Montana; story of early days graphi-
cally told, by A. M. Holter, p. 20-24;
The climber locomotive, p. 29; Com-
mercial opportunities in China for
trade development and expansion, by
O. M: Clark, p. 35-9; Portable tree
felling machine, p. 48L; Lumber trade
of Australia; large importations of
American product, p. 52.
United States daily consular report, Feb.
2, 1911.—Foreign lumber in Natal, by
E. S. Cunningham, p. 448.
United States daily consular report, Feb.
4, 1911.—White oak staves and timber
in foreign countries, by J. I. Brittain
and others, p. 465-70.
United States daily consular report, Feb.
10, 1911.—Paper in the far east, by G.
#. Anderson and others, p. 549-50;
Wood pulp and paper in Japan, by T.
Sammons, p. 551.
United States daily consular report, Feb.
15, 1911.—Timbering in eastern Siberia,
by L. Maynard, p. 618-21.
West Coast lumberman, Jan. 1911.—Tree
felling machine, p. 195.
Wood craft, Feb. 1911.—English oak; its
place, peculiarities and power, Dp.
154-6.
Wood worker, Jan. 1911—The making of
hardwood mantels, by G. D. Crain, p.
27; An electric tree-felling machine,
by A. Scheible, p. 34-5.
Forest journals
Allegemeine forst- und jagd-zeitung, Dec.
1910.— Untersuchungen und betrachtun-
gen liber das verhalten der humusart-
en, by C. Emeis, p. 425-32.
American forestry, Feb. 1911.—Present for-
estry issues, by Curtis Guild, jr., p. 67-
81; Shall states regulate the manage-
ment of private forests, by H. H. Chap-
man, p. 82-8; City trees and their re-
lation to forestry, by J. J. Levison, p.
91-8; American forestry association;
13th annual meeting in Washington,
Jan. 12 and 13, 1911, p., 99-116; The
forestry problem of to-day, by H. S.
Graves, p. 111-14.
Canadian forestry journal, Dec. 1910.—For-
estry for municipalities, by H. R. Mac-
Millan, p. 99-104; Ontario’s forest fires,
by J. F. Whitson, p. 107-9; A uniform
log rule for all Canada, by A. H. D.
Ross, p. 110-13.
Centralblatt fiir das gesamte forstwesen,
Nov. 1910.—Ueber das wesen des wald-
kapitales und tiber die ermittlung von
durchschnittlichen waldrenten, by A.
Schiffel, p. 475-85; Neues aus der na-
turgesschichte des maulwurfes, by F.
Knauer, p. 485-92; Moosdecke und holz-
zuwachs, by Bohmerle, p. 5238-6; Vor-
ginge bei der holzverkohlung in mei-
lern und .ei der trockenen destillation
des holzes, by F. Denz, p. 526-48.
Forest leaves, Feb. 1911—Some recent
phases of the forestry problem, by “yi
Rothbrock, p. 8 14.
Forestry quarterly, Dec. 1910.—Two new in-
sect pests in Nebraska, by L. Bruner
and M. H. Swenk, p. 411-14; The pro-
gress of reconnaissance, by A. B. Reck-
nagel, p. 415-18; Determination of qual-
ity of locality by fiber length of wood,
by C. D. Mell, p. 419-22; Exploiting tele
graph poles in Colorado, by A. T. Up-
son, p. 423-6; A comparison of Maine
and Blodgett log rules, by I. G. Stetson,
p. 427-32; Water powers in the north-
west, by W. E. Herring, p. 433-8; For-
estry in Ohio, by E. C. Hirst, p. 439-49;
New Jersey forests and forestry, by D.
E. Lyon, p. 450-61; Height and domi-
nance of the Douglas fir, by T. C. Frye,
p. 465-70; Forest and soils of Caldwell
parish, Louisiana, by J. A. Larsen, p.
462-4,
Forstwissenschaftliches centralblatt, Jan.
1911.—Schiittekrankheit und proven-
ienz der fOhre, by H. Mayr, p. 1-14;
Ueber diingung im forstlichen betriebe,
by Helbig, p. 40-2.
Hawaiian forester and agriculturist, Jan.
1911.—The part played by the forest in
conservation, by R. S. Hosmer, p. 10-13.
Indian forest records, 1909.—The sylvicul-
ture of Hardwickia binata, by D. O.
Witt, p. 75-135; Germination and
growth of sandal seedlings, by R. 8S.
M. Rama Rao, p. 137-57.
Ohio forester, Jan., 1911.—A rare and dan-
gerous disease of pine trees, by B. Fink,
p. 5; Planting forest tree seedlings, by
AMERICAN FORESTRY
H. C. Rogers, p. 5-7; A plan for the
treatment of the woodlot of Eugene
Cranz, by E. Secrest, p. 7-10; Forestry.
as a profession, by C. H. Goetz, p. 11-12.
Quarterly journal of forestry, Jan. 1911.—
The roadside poplar in Belgium, by E.
R. Pratt, p. 3-9; Forests of the far west,
by H. R. Beevor, p. 9-17; Valuation of
standing timber, by W. Forbes, p. 17-
27; The oak forests of Sclavonia, by
H. J. Elwes, p. 27-34; Some measure-
ments of larcn in the Forest of Dean
and neighborhood, by C. O. Hanson, p.
34-42; Acclimitization of trees, by W.
R. Fisher, p. 42-4; Sixth conference of
the International union of forestry ex-
perimental stations, by W. Somerville,
p. 45-8; Royal English arboricultural
society’s excursion to Ireland, 1910, p.
49-68; Mr. W. R. Fisher, p. 79-83.
Revue des eaux et foréts, Dec. 1, 1910.—
Un nouvel ennemi du méléze, by E.
Henry, p. 705-10; Les bois de lutherie
a Mirecourt, Vosges, by Claudot, p.
710-13.
Revue des eaux et foréts, Dec. 15, 1910 —
Le jardinage est-il rentable, by A. S., p.
737-8.
Revue des eaux et foréts, Jan. 1. 1911.—
Les foréts de l’arrondissement d’Al-
bertville, by D. Mourral, p. 1-20.
Schweizerische zeitschrift fiir forstwesen,
Dee. 1910.—Die hagelfrequenz in der
Schweiz, by J. Mauer, p. 345-52; Weiche
und harte bedachung, by F. Fankhau-
ser, p. 358-65.
Zeitschrift fiir forst- und jagd-wesen, Dec.
1910.—Die witterung in Eberswalde im
jahre 1909, by J. Schubert, p. 722-9;
Forstliche buchfiihrung, by Kautz, p.
749-54; Der Werdauer wald im 16,
jahrhundert, by F. Tetzner, p. 757-770.
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
The Resignation of District Forester Chapman
Cc. S. Chapman, district forester of Dis-
trict 5, United States Forest Service, has
resigned from the Service to become secre-
tary of the Oregon Forest Fire Association.
He is succeeded as district forester by
George H. Cecil, formerly associate district
forester. In one sense Mr. Chapman’s
resignation is a loss to the Forest Service
and to the government. In another it isa
gain, for he carries into his new field of
work the principles and methods of the
Service and through him these are really
extended over a broader field. It is worthy
of note that when these large associations
of lumbermen in the Northwest undertake
to deal with this problem of fire protection
and forestry on a large scale, they select
men from the Forest Service to take charge
of the work. This is not only a high com-
pliment to the efficiency of the Service and
the value of its work, but it is the best
possible answer to the criticisms of the
Service that are so frequently made by
politicians and others in that section of
the country. Mr. Chapman entered the
Forest Service in 1900 when not over a
dozen men were employed in its work.
He, therefore, represents all the best tra-
ditions which have grown up in the Service.
Grazing Examiners
Examinations, which were held February
23 and 24 for three grazing examiners for
the Forest Service, indicate the establish-
ment of a new position in the Service.
These positions will pay a salary of twelve
hundred dollars a year at entrance. The
applicants must be at least twenty years
old and possessed of not less than one
season’s experience in handling range stock,
together with one year of technical training
in specialized botanical study. Through
the work of these examiners it is intended
to make every acre of national forest range
produce as much forest as it is capable of
doing, consistently with the carrying out
of the other purposes for which the na-
tional forests are maintained. In times
past the ranges have been abused by over-
crowding. To enable overgrazed areas to
recuperate and to prevent the extension of
overgrazed conditions in new areas, the
amount of stock was everywhere carefully
prescribed. The results were then observed
and if it appeared that there was still
over-use of the range, the numbers were
cut down still further. On the other hand,
where recuperation had taken place the
allowance of stock was correspondingly in-
creased. Through the appointment of
trained botanists and men of practical ex-
perience, the best scientific knowledge will
be applied to the study of the problems
of forage production and utilization in the
forests. It is hoped by the introduction
of new forage plants to increase the area
of range available.
National Forest Fire Losses and Range Use
The final reports by national forest offi-
cers of their examination of lands burned
over in the forest fires of last summer
in Washington and Oregon show that the
national forest timber loss in these states
is about 700,000,000 feet, somewhat less
than was indicated by the estimates made
shortly after the fires. Of the forests in
these states that on which the fires
extended over the greatest area was
the Colville, where 160,000 acres were
burned. These fires were chiefly surface
fires which are far less destructive than
fires which travel through the crowns of
the trees. It is considered by the forest
officers that the fires in this forest show
the value, from the standpoint of fire pre-
vention, of proper utilization of the range
under regulated grazing. Large parts of
this forest and also of the Chelan, Ok-
anogan and other forests are not used by
stock because of their inaccessibility. The
dry grass and other herbage both spread
the flames and made them fiercer and more
destructive than they would have been if
the land had been grazed. One of the ob-
jects of national forest administration is
to open all available range to the fullest
use consistent with the preservation and
protection of forest growth and water
supply.
An Eucalyptus Experiment
The rangers of the United States Forest
Service, under the direction of F. M. Grant,
are to make an experiment in the planting
of eucalyptus in the southern California
foot-hills. One hundred thousand trees of
selected and hardy varieties are to be set
out where they cannot be irrigated and will
be left to shift for themselves. This is
wholly an experiment and represents an
effort to put into use large areas of soil
that is proven to be fertile by its perennial
crop of undergrowth but is useless for any
ordinary purposes because of its rough-
177
178
ness and inaccessibility. The trial plant-
ings are to be made on about seventy acres
in the bottom of little Tujunta canyon,
northwest of Sunland, one hundred acres
in the foot-hills beyond Del Rosa in San
Bernardino County, and about fifty acres
in Santa Ana canyon.
—
The Experimental Wood Puip Mill
The experimental ground wood pulp mill
which the United States Forest Service
has been equipping at Wausau, Wisconsin,
in cooperation with the American Pulp
and Paper Association, has begun to grind.
The carrying on of the tests now announced
as under way was provided for by a special
appropriation, placed at the disposal of the
Secretary of Agriculture by Congress last
winter, to conduct tests of the suitability
for paper making of plants and woods
which seem likely to become valuable
sources of supply of new material.
Secretary Wilson considered that the
best use which could be made of this money
would be to conduct experiments on a
commercial scale, with various kinds of
wood. Some of these have already been
studied in the laboratory, and found to
be intrinsically suitable for pulp manu-
facture. Indeed, the Forest Service has
actually made paper by one of the chemical
processes from several of them. But in
order to know whether they can profitably
be utilized, under present conditions, it is
necessary to test them under methods of
manufacture comparable to those employed
in actual business operations. In particu-
lar, it is desired to find out to what extent
new woods can be used for ground pulp,
the cost of which is usually less than that
of chemical pulp.
The Wausau mill has been built espe-
cially for the use of the government as long
as the experiments may require. Its in-
side dimensions are 40 by 100 feet, and it
is equipped with electrical machinery and
all necessary apparatus of the most up-to-
date type. Part of the equipment is con-
tributed by the American Pulp and Paper
Association, and part is furnished by the
government. The association will also fur-
nish the wood for the tests. The wood now
on hand includes carload lots of jack pine,
spruce, hemlock, and tamarack. The jack
pine is to be the first wood tested.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
While the experiments are intended to
cover woods from all parts of the country
which, from the standpoint of physical
properties and available supplies, promise
to furnish new material for the paper-
making industry, a special point will be
made of tests of Western woods which
are abundant in the national forests. There
are enormous supplies of various softwoods
in these forests for which there now exists
little demand. In order to have forests
produce timber steadily they must be cut;
but if there is a market only for timber
from the most valuable kinds of trees the
result of cutting is likely to be the disap-
pearance of these trees and their replace-
ment in the forest growth by species which
are not in demand. Since the pulp mills
take material too small for the lumber
mills, species suitable for paper making
can be cut to a low timber diameter, and
thus the balance may be turned in favor
of the reproduction of the more valuable
kinds of trees.
In addition to the benefit which the pub-
lic will derive from the advancement of
forest conservation in consequence of the
wood pulp experiments of the government,
there is the further benefit of cheaper
paper which it is believed these experi-
ments should make possible.
Boundary Changes
Recent announcements of additions to
and eliminations from national forests, are
as follows:
Elim.
Add.
Forest STATE Acres | Acres
Ozankees 2 esa anee Arkansasint scopsnalseamecss 563,331
WMEr ees. sane nets Calitorniavcrs: pacoieenee 33,526
TABBED Ets si ieaie ce California... 2.245. 38,709 6,107
Monterey .......... Californials:: se. 7,690 | 21,527
IBOIBG Hak eemusave & 2 Tdalhoise thd ee oulere oes 9,940
Mampi Cersons coh New Mexico....... 245,450 | 22,333
Sevier.y.8. so es pcss Utah desis seas 93,730 2,560
385,579 | 659,324
STATE WORK
The_Year’s Forest Legislation in Vermont
By A. F. Hawes, State Forester.
The Vermont Legislature of 1910 has on
the whole taken a progressive stand in
forestry matters, and as indicative of the
growing sentiment throughout the State in
favor of forestry, this is especially en-
couraging. The law of 1908 creating the
office of state forester, appropriated $12,000
annually for the departments of agriculture
and forestry. By increasing this appropri-
ation to $20,000 the new legislature virtu-
ally stamped its approval upon the forestry
work of the first two years. These funds
are divided between the two departments
by the State Board of Agriculture and
Forestry; and the amount alloted to for-
estry was $9,000 in 1909; and $7,500 in
1910. The increasing demands upon the
Commissioner of Agriculture will make it
impossible for the board to grant as large
a proportion of the new appropriation to
forestry, but it is hoped that at least
$12,000 will be available, which would al-
low about $5,000 for the purchase and
planting of demonstration forests in vari-
ous parts of the state, and in the im-
provement of the fire warden service made
possible another bill passed by this legis-
lature. The strongest supporter of the for-
estry movement in the legislature was
Hon. Allen M. Fletcher of Cavendish, chair-
man of the Ways and Means Committee
and for a long time an active member of
the Vermont Forestry Association.
The amendment of the present fire war-
den law provides that in addition to the
first selectman, who is at present fire war-
den, the state forester has authority to
appoint additional wardens in mountainous
towns particularly liable to fires; and to
pay their expenses to local meetings for
the discussion of forest fire topics. It also
provides that if any forest owner will estab-
lish a lookout station on top of a moun-
tain and connect the same with telephone,
that the state will maintain a watchman
there during a dry season. An amendment
was added in the House compelling any
railroad to establish a fire patrol at the
request of the state forester in danger
seasons, with a penalty of $25 a day for
disobedience. This was killed in the Sen-
ate by the Boston and Maine R. R.; and
while it would not have worked a hardship
on any railroad, it is of little importance
since there are comparatively few railroad
fires in Vermont.
In its enthusiasm for forestry the Gen-
eral Assembly passed one or two measures,
the wisdom of which may be doubted but
which illustrate very well the growing in-
terest along this line. Such a measure
was the bill reestablishing a bounty on
porcupines. The last time this bounty
was in force it resulted in an expenditure
of several thousand dollars a year of state
funds. Now the animals have been al-
lowed to breed unmolested for several years
and will be a profitable source of income
for many hunters. While it must be ad-
mitted that porcupines do considerable
damage to growing timber in certain re-
gions, it probably does not compare in money
value to that done by woodchucks and
house rats, yet there is no state bounty
on these animals.
One of the most curious forestry situa-
tions has been the growing opposition
throughout New England to the Christmas
tree industry. From Vermont about 300,000
trees have been shipped annually to Cin-
cinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Washington,
and other points west and south. All of
these trees could easily be grown in fifteen
years on 300 acres, and yet coming as
they do from many parts of the state they
have attracted undue attention. Lumber-
men and pulp men have made the most
of it to distract attention from the damage
done by them in cutting small trees, and
the press has been energetic in its attacks.
The result was that a law was passed
without opposition requiring a dealer to
pay a license of twenty-five cents a tree if
he cuts over twenty evergreen trees less
than seven inches at the butt on land not
his own. As the dealers have been paying
little more than a cent apiece this license
is intended to be prohibitive. There is
apparently no reason why this law would
not apply equally to trees cut for pulp
or lumber, if they were under seven inches
on the stump and cut by a lumberman
simply owning the stumpage without the
land. It is, of course, regrettable that
the farmers have not been able to get more
profit out of the Christmas tree industry.
A natural sequence of this law, and one
which any lumberman might have fore-
seen, was a bill introduced by the legis-
lative committee on conservation, providing
that on certain sized tracts no spruce or
hemlock trees under fourteen inches on
the stump should be cut and no hardwoods
under ten inches. Of course, no Dill of
such a nature could pass and it would
179
180
probably be proclaimed unconstitutional af
passed, but it is regrettable that there is
a tendency in such legislation to disregard
entirely the experience of other nations
which have had centuries of experience in
dealing with this problem. No hard and
fast rules can be laid down for forestry
any more than for farming and any such
rules are diccated only by ignorance of
the subject.
One of the most interesting situations
of the session arose over two bills in-
troduced by the International Paper
Company to allow the driving of pulp logs
on two streams draining large forest areas
owned by them in the mountains. There
is, of course, no question but what this
lumbering is to be done. The only ques-
tion from a forestry standpoint is whether
the company can be induced to practice
forestry. The privilege of driving the
logs to the mill would reduce the cost of
transportation between $1.50 and $2.00 per
cord. On a cut of ten cords per acre this
would mean a big saving and, of course, a
large inducement to the company to invest
money in forestry, either planting or leav-
ing seed trees. This company has shown
a better disposition to practice forestry
than any other concern in the state and
offered in this bill to bond itself heavily
to cut only under the direction of the state
forester. Here was an opportunity of get-
ting forestry practiced on 30,000 acres, but
the opposition on the part of various busi-
ness interests, probably including a railroad
interested in the freight of the logs, and of
summer residents who feared a disfigure-
ment of the rivers, prevailed. It is to be
hoped that the company will not retaliate
by slashing their forests, which would
probably have a worse effect on the stream;
but may practice some forestry measures
even without being required to do so.
Governor Proctor appointed four years
ago a Conservation Commission of which
Hon. Joseph A. DeBoer was the chairman.
This Commission took an active part to-
ward the creation of the state forester’s
office.
A second Conservation Commission was
established by the past legislature, the
members of which, appointed by Governor
Mead, are President John M. Thomas of
Middlebury College; Hon. C. P. Smith,
Treasurer of the University of Vermont
and State Agricultural College; and Colo-
nel F. S. Billings of Woodstock. No ap-
propriation was made for investigative pur-
poses aside from the general funds avail-
able for the state geologist; the state for-
ester; and the appropriation for an investi-
gation by the United States Geological Sur-
vey of the water powers of the state.
The State Board of Agriculture and For-
estry is made up as follows: Gov. John A.
Mead, Chairman; Professor Joseph L. Mills,
Director of the Experiment Station and
Dean of the State Agricultural College,
Secretary; and Hon. Clement F. Smith,
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Master of the State Grange. Governor
Mead has traveled extensively in Palestine
and other countries, where he has been
impressed with the damage done by de-
forestation, and is a strong supporter of
the state forestry policy.
—
The annual meeting of the Vermont For-
estry Association was held in Burlington
February 23. In the afternoon there was
a business meeting, a talk on the forestry
course in the Agricultural College by Pro-
fessor J. L. Hills, and a discussion, opened
by Austin F. Hawes, state forester, on
state control of privately owned timber
lands, In the evening there were ad-
dresses by Professor J. W. Toumey of the
Yale Forest School, and others.
Nebraska
The Nebraska Conservation and State
Development Congress held its second an-
nual meeting in Lincoln, February 23rd
and 24th. The program embraced a very
broad and complete discussion of the state’s
resources and their development and the
ig of different agencies looking to that
end.
The death of Prof. F. J. Phillips of the
University of Nebraska, who committed
suicide last month on account of despon-
dency due to illness, is a loss to his pro-
fession and his associates. Professor Phil-
lips was a young man who was doing a
good work and doing it well.
North Carolina Forestry Association
_ The North Carolina Forestry Associa-
tion was organized at Raleigh on the first
of February with Dr. D. H. Hill of the
North Varolina College of Agriculture and
Mechanic Arts, president, and J. S. Holmes,
state forester, secretary and treasurer. The
association will open a general state cam-
paign for better forest laws and their en-
forcement. An effort will be made to have
instruction in forestry given in the public
schools. An interesting program of prac-
tical papers on forestry subjects was pre-
sented at the meeting.
Northern Forest Protective Association
Thomas B. Wyman, forester of the Cleve-
land-Cliffs Iron Company, Munising, Michi-
gan, has become chief forester of the new
Northern Forest Protective Association,
the organization of which has been pre-
viously noted in these pages.
To obtain the funds with which to carry
out the forest patrol plan, which is a pri-
mary feature of the protective work, the
directors have voted to levy an assessment
of one-half cent an acre on the lands in
the association, in addition to which each
member pays a membership fee of $5. As
there are now, approximately, 2,000,000
STATE WORK
aeres of land signed up, the amount avail-
able for the coming year’s use will be
about $10,000. It is expected that this
amount will soon be doubled. The hold-
ings of the present members of the associa-
tion are fairly contiguous, being located
principally in Alger, Marquette, Baraga,
Houghton and Ontonagon counties, which
makes the patrol much more feasible and
less expensive than if the lands were
widely scattered.
As fires broke out in March last year, an
effort will be made to get things in readi-
ness for actual work as soon as possible.
The chief forester will engage a number
of assistant foresters and patrols.
Protection from and precautions against
forest fires, however, will not be the sole
purpose of the association. A campaign of
education will be conducted to impress
upon the public the value of forest pro-
tection and conservation, not only to timber
owners, but to the public at large. Home-
steaders and campers will be taught to
take precautions that will prevent fires, and
the necessity of prompt action to quench
them when once they get a start. No
effort will be made to keep hunters and
fishermen off, but the patrols will see to it
all trespassers take timely precautions re-
garding fire and will endeavor to enforce
the state laws.
Ohio State Forestry Society
The Ohio State Forestry Society held its
seventh annual meeting at Columbus on
Friday, February 3. The meeting was held
in connection with the fourth annual na-
tional corn exposition, which brought to-
gether in the Ohio exposition buildings at
Columbus noteworthy agricultural exhibits
of thirty-five states. The exposition was
open from January 30th to February 11th.
There were some interesting forestry ex-
hibits from the United States Forest Serv-
ice, the Ohio Experiment Station at
Wooster, and the Ohio State University.
The most striking feature of the Forest
Service exhibit was the model, first shown
in the Appalachian exposition at Knoxville,
showing the action of rainfall on wooded
and denuded slopes. On one side of the
model is a hillside covered with evergreen,
and below in the level open country farm
lands. On the other side is a bare gravelly
hillside. A spraying arrangement with two
arms produces rainfall on the two slopes.
On our side the water runs off clear in the
well-defined banks of a stream to a lake.
On the other side the hill is suffering con-
stant erosion, the stream that drains the
area is muddy, with shifting bed and banks.
Stones and silt are carried down and scat-
tered along the banks and the lake, which
furnishes the outlet, is muddy. The whole
area is desolate and in striking compari-
son to that beside it. This model is an
absolute reproduction of natural conditions
and cannot fail to carry a most impressive
lesson.
181
The state experiment station had an in-
structive exhibit, illustrating by photo-
graphs and by wood sections the condi-
tions existing in Ohio. A great deal of
interest was shown in these exhibits and
the representatives of the station were kept
busy explaining and giving practical talks
to visitors throughout the day.
The meeting of the state forestry society
Friday afternoon was held in one of the
lecture rooms. The program began with an
address by the President, Professor William
R. Lazenby of Ohio State University, re-
viewing the work of the association and its
problems. Following this Professor Bruce
Fink of Miami University reviewed the
subject of “Forestry at the Saint Paul
meeting,” bringing out the salient features
of the forestry discussions at the Second
Conservation Congress. Assistant Profes-
sor C. H. Goetz, who has recently come
to Ohio State University from Washington,
spoke on “Timber Waste of the Northwest.”
The speaker attributed the great waste in
that section to greed for wealth and to
transportation conditions. It is not a vol-
untary waste but is due to economic causes
Mrs. Clara Murdock of Akron, represent
ing the Ohio t'ederation of Women’s Clubs,
spoke on “Unused Forces,” showing the
work done by the federated club women
along all lines of effort, as an evidence of
the great force here latent and ready to
be used at need.
An interesting address followed on
“County Forestry Societies’ by George W.
Miller of Bucyrus, president of the young
but active Crawford County Forestry So-
ciety. County organizations play a con-
siderable part in affairs in Ohio and the
State Forestry Society proposes to organize
branch societies in each county. Two
counties, Crawford and Morrill, are al-
ready organized and Mr. Miller presented
a very definite and well-conceived program
for county work.
Edwin A. Start, executive secretary of
the American Forestry Association, who
was present, spoke of the work of that or-
ganization, its relation to the state work
and the desirability of mutual understand-
ing and close cooperation between the two
bodies.
There was a general discussion of the
work of the association. The following
officers were elected: President, William R.
Lazenby of Columbus; vice-president, W. J.
Green of Wooster; secretary, J. J. Crumley
of Wooster; treasurer, H. C. Rogers of
Mechanicsburg; these, with George W.
Miller of Bucyrus, to constitute an execu-
tive committee.
The state forestry work in Ohio has pro-
ceeded along lines peculiar to itself. The
state was once covered with rich and varied
forests, which have been almost entirely
removed. Its great agricultural possibili-
ties have been antagonistic to forestry and
the forest needs and opportunities of the
state have been disregarded or not under-
stood, yet they are great and this is just
182
coming to be realized. Provision for the
state work has been made in connection
with the agricultural experiment station,
so that this work has been and is entirely
educational and experimental. This is well.
It is gradually developing a solid ground-
work of popular interest and understanding
so that when the time is ripe for the de-
velopment of a forest service and a com-
plete state forest policy, there will be
knowledge and popular support to make it
effective and to prevent its being drawn
into politics. Present indications are that
the work that is being done is bearing good
fruit.
Forest Fire Losses in California
Figures prepared by State Forester Ho-
mans show that during 1910 there were
738 brush, grass and forest fires in Cali-
fornia, as against 638 for the same period
of 1909. The excess for 1910 does not show
an actual increase for the year, but greater
efficiency in fire-fighting, asserts Deputy
State Forester Hodge. In other words,
wardens reported a greater percentage of
the fires in 1910 than were reported the
year previous.
Fires were of three clases, as follows:
Small fires, put out by one man, 172; fires
runing about ten acres, 25, and fires which
gave considerable trouble, 351. The aver-
age fire burned over 654 acres of land and
AMERICAN FORESTRY
326,000 feet of lumber, worth $814,000, be-
sides damage to new growth and the water-
sheds. In other words, the average fire
burned more than a section of land and
took seventy-four men ten hours to ex-
tinguish.
The total number of acres burned over
in 1910 was 482,562, against 357,269 in
1909; but again, Deputy Forester Hodge
says, this is because the wardens reported
more accurately last year than they did the
year previous.
August, as in 1909, was the worst month
of the year. During August 30 per cent
of the fires occurred, and during July, the
next worst month, 15 per cent of the fires
occurred. It was on August 24th that the
disastrous fires in Idaho and Montana were
in full flame.
New York
Dr. Charles G. Wagner, superintendent
of the Binghamton State Hospital, has just
filed with the Forest, Fish and Game
Commission an application for 3,000 white
pine saplings, and trees of other varieties,
making a total of 5,000, for planting on the
hospital farm.
Two years ago the hospital got about
5,000 trees and last year about 3,000 more
were added, both shipments being chiefly
of white pine. j
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
Commissioner Smith’s Report on Standing
Timber
The first part of the report of investiga-
tions of the lumber industry by Herbert
Knox Smith, commissioner of corporations,
has been submitted to the President, under
date of February 18. This part of the re-
port deals with standing timber. It is
quite fully summarized in Mr. Smith’s let-
ter of submittal to the President. In this
letter Mr. Smith says:
The foremost facts shown are:
(1) The concentration of a dominating
control of our standing timber in a com-
paratively few enormous holdings, steadily
tending toward a central control of the
lumber industry.
(2) Vast speculative purchase and hold-
ing of timber land far in advance of any
use thereof.
3) An enormous increase in the value
of this diminishing natural resource, with
great profits to its owners. This value, by
the very nature of standing timber, the
holder neither created nor substantially
enhances.
These are the underlying facts, of tre-
mendous significance to the public welfare.
They are primarily the results of our
public-land policy, long continued. The
laws that represent that policy are still
largely operative. The past history and
present status of our standing timber drive
home upon us the imperative necessity of
revising our public policy for the future
management of all our remaining natural
resources. That history is here outlined.
FROM GOVERNMENT TO PRIVATE OWNER-
sHIp.—Only 40 years ago at least three-
fourths of the timber now standing was
(it is estimated) publicly owned. Now
about four-fifths of it is privately owned.
The great bulk of it passed from gov-
ernment to private hands through (a)
enormous railroad, canal, and wagon-road
grants by the Federal Government; (b)
direct government sales in unlimited quan-
tities at $1.25 an acre; (c) certain public-
land laws, great tracts being assembled
in spite of the legal requirements for small
holdings. Such laws were wholly inap-
propriate to forest regions; but, though
vigorously condemned in several public re-
ports, they are still largely in force. In
theory, they were intended to distribute
the public lands in small tracts as homes
LUMBER INDUSTRY
for freeholders. In fact, they actually fur-
thered timber concentration in vast hold-
ings. The 1,802 largest holders of timber
now own 88,579,000 acres of land, as com-
pared with a vastly wider distribution of
public lands in non-timbered agricultural
sections.
During this interval, and chiefly in the
latter half thereof, the value of standing
timber has increased tenfold, twentyfold,
and even fiftyfold, according to local con-
ditions. The present annual growth is
only about one-third of the present annual
cut. Replacement by new growth is very
slow.
Examples of the increase during this in-
terval are: From $5 to $3U an acre, $7 to
$40, $20 to $150, $1 to $13, $4 to $140, $1 to
$50. Specific tracts have been sold first
for $24,000, and later for $153,000; $10,000,
and later $124,000; $240,000, and later $2,-
500,000; $23,000, and later $50vu,000; $19,000,
and later $1,125,000. These examples il-
lustrate the remarkable profit made by
certain individual holders.
What did the government get for the
timber? Of the southern pine sold for
$1.25 an acre, much is now worth $60 an
acre. Large amounts of Douglas fir in
western Washington and Oregon, which the
government gave away, or sold at $2.50
an acre, now range from $100 to $200 per
acre. The great redwood belt in California
was alienated on similar terms, and some
of it is now worth hundreds of dollars an
acre. Practically none of the great forests
in the public-land states was sold by the
government for more than $2.50 an acre.
The great increase of value gives grave
importance to the concentration of owner-
ship.
The former Chief of Field Service of the
General Land Office, H. H. Schwartz, stated
officially (1909) that the Timber and Stone
Act—
“has resulted in the sale of over 12,000,000
acres of valuable timber lands, of which
fully 10,000,000 acres were transferred to
corporate or individual timber-land in-
vestors by the entrymen. These lands
brought to the people or general govern-
ment a gross sum of $30,000,000. At the
date of sale they were reasonably worth
$240,000,000. The profit of over $200,000,000
went not to the needy settler engaged in
subduing the wilderness, but to the wealthy
investors. Not over a fractional part of 1
per cent of the timber purchased from the
United States under this act is held, con-
sumed, or even cut by the men and women
who made the entries.”
An effective illustration of what has hap-
pened under our land laws appears in the
report of the United States Forester for
1910:
“An investigation emphasizes the proba-
bility that heavily timbered lands, if
opened to entry, would pass into the hands
of large owners of timber. Of 705,000 acres
eliminated from the Olympic National
183
Forest in 1900 and 1901 on the ground
that the land was chiefly valuable for agri-
culture and that the settlement of the
country was being retarded, 523,720 acres
passed ultimately into the hands of owners
who are holding it purely as a timber spec-
ulation. Three companies and two indi-
viduals own over 178,000 acres, in holdings
of from 15,000 to over 80,000 acres each.
Of timbered homestead claims on this elim-
inated area, held by 100 settlers, the total
area under actual cultivation is only 570
acres, an average of but 5.7 acres to each
claim. It will be seen that the original
purpose of the elimination was defeated,
and the bona fide settlement was not ma-
terially advanced.”
CONTROL OF THE TIMBER CONTROLS THE
WHOLE INDUSTRY.—Whatever power over
prices may arise from combinations in
manufacture and distribution (as distin-
guished from timber owning), such power
is insignificant and transitory compared to
the control of the standing timber itself
or a dominating part thereof. The Senate
and House resolutions, to which this in-
vestigation is responsive, ask for the causes
of the high prices of lumber and the effect
of combination upon such prices. The
resolutions, therefore, required determina-
tion of both the amount and the control
of standing timber.
AMOUNT OF STANDING TIMBER.—There is
now left in continental United States about
2,200 billion board feet of privately owned
standing timber, of which 1,747 billion is
in the “investigation area,’ covered in
great detail by the Bureau. This area in-
cudes the Pacific-Northwest, the Southern
Pine Region, and the Lake States, and con-
tains 80 per cent of all the private timber
in the country. In addition, there are
about 539 billion feet in the national forests
and about 90 billion feet on other non-
private lands. Thus, the total amount of
standing timber in continental United
States is about 2,800 billion board feet.
The present annual drain upon the supply
of saw timber is about 50 billion feet. At
this rate the timber now standing, without
allowance for growth or decay, would last
only about 55 years.
The present commercial value of the pri-
vately owned standing timber in the coun-
try, not including the value of the land,
is estimated (though such an _ estimate
must be very rough) as at least $6,000,
000,000. Ultimately the consuming public
will have to pay such prices for lumber as
will give this timber a far greater value.
This is the first comprehensive and me-
thodical investigation of the amount and
ownership of our standing timber. It rests
on the best information obtainable from
records of timber owners or the knowledge
of men in the industry, information which
daily forms the basis of actual business
dealings. (A physical canvass of the for-
ests was out of the question.) The data,
collected by field work in about 900 coun-
184
ties, assembled, mapped, checked, and
weighed in the office, are reliable within a
relatively small margin of error. All fig-
ures relate to merchantable saw timber, in
terms of lumber yield. The unit “board
foot” is a foot square and an inch thick.
CONCENTRATION OF TIMBER OWNERSHIP.—
Three vast holdings alone, the greatest in
the country, those of the Southern Pacific
Company, the Weyerhaeuser Timber Com-
ber company, and the Northern Pacific
Railway Company (including their sub-
sidiary companies), together have 238 bil-
lion feet, or nearly 11 per cent of all our
privately owned timber. They have 14 per
cent of that in the “investigation area.”
With the five next largest they have over
15 per cent of the total privately owned
timber and over 19 per cent of wnat within
the investigation area. Finally, nearly one-
half (48 per cent) of the private timber
in that area is held by only 195 great
holders. The term “holder” covers any
single interest—individual, corporate, or
group—which is so united as to be under
one control.
The Pacific-Northwest.—Five-elevenths of
the country’s privately owned standing
timber is in the Pacific-Northwest (Cali-
fornia, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and
Montana), 1,013 billion feet. One-half of
this is now owned by 37 holders; many of
these are closely connected. The three
largest holders (named above) alone have
nearly one-quarter. This section now fur-
nishes only one-sixth of the annual cut.
Thus its timber is being largely held for
the future, and the large owners there will
then be the dominating influence in the
industry.
The Southern Pacific Company holding
is the greatest in the United States—106
billion feet. This is about 6 per cent of
the private timber in the investigation
area, and 10 per cent of that in the Pa-
cific-Northwest. It is difficult to give an
adequate idea of its immensity. It stretches
practically 680 miles along that railroad
between Portland and Sacramento. The
fastest train over this distance takes 31
hours. During all that time the traveler
thereon is passing through lands a large
proportion of whicn for 30 miles on each
side belongs to the railroad, and in almost
the entire strip this corporation is the
dominating owner of both timber and land.
The second largest holder is the Weyer-
haeuser Timber Company (including its
subsidiary companies), with 96 billion
feet. This does not include further very
extensive timber interests of the Weyer-
haeuser family and close associates.
These two holdings would supply the
46,584 sawmills in the country for four
and two-thirds years. They have one-
eleventh of our total private timber.
The third largest, the Northern Pacific
Railway Company, has 36 billion feet.
These three holdings have enough stand-
ing timber to build an ordinary 5 or 6
room frame house for each of the 16,-
000,000 families in the United States in
AMERICAN FORESTRY
1900. If sawed into lumber and placed
in cars, their timber would load a train
about 100,000 miles long.
The holdings of the two railroad com-
panies are government grants, and 80 per
cent of the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company
holding was bought from the Northern Pa-
cific grant. Many other large holdings
(here and in other regions) were mainly
purchased from some land grant.
Southern Pine Region.—In the Southern
Pine Region there are 634 billion feet of
privately owned timber. Concentration in
total timber is much less than in the Pa-
cific-Northwest. There is, however, a high
concentration in the more valuable species,
longleaf yellow pine and cypress. Sixty-
seven holders own 39 per cent of the long-
leaf yellow pine, 29 per cent of the cypress,
19 per cent of the shortleaf and loblolly
pine, and 11 per cent of the hardwoods.
The Lake States—In Minnesota, Wis-
consin, and Michigan there are 100 billion
feet of privately owned timber. In Wis-
consin 96 holders have three-fourths of all
the timber. In Michigan 113 holders have
66 per cent. In Minnesota 6 holders have
54 per cent of the very valuable white and
Norway pine, 16 per cent of the other coni-
fers, and 2 per cent of the hardwoods.
Taking all three states, 215 holders have
65 per cent of all the timber.
EFFECT OF CONCENTRATION.—Such concen-
tration in standing timber, if permitted
to continue and increase, makes probable
a final central control of the whole lumber
industry. A few strong interests, ulti-
mately holding the bulk of the timber, can
set the price of timber and its products.
The manager of the National Lumber Man-
ufacturers’ Association recently said to
lumbermen on the Pacific coast:
“The day of cheap lumber is passing and
soon will be gone, but the men who make
the money will be those who own timber
and can hold it until the supply in other
parts of the country is gone. Then they
can ask and get their own price.”
Certain further factors, not exactly
measurable, increase still more the real
concentration. First, a further interweav-
ing of interests, corporate and personal,
connects a great many holdings which the
Bureau has treated as separate; second,
there are very large totals of timber so
scattered in small tracts through larger
holdings that they are_ substantially
“blocked in” or “controlled” by the larger
holders; third, the concentration is much
higher in the more valuable species.
General information obtained indicates a
very high concentration in timber owner-
ship outside the investigation area.
PoLicy OF GREAT HOLDERS.—The largest
holders are cutting little of their timber.
They thus reserve to themselves those in-
calculable profits which are stili to accrue
with the growth of the country, the dimin-
ishing of timber supply, and the further
concentration and control thereof. Many
of che very men who are protesting against
conservation and the national forest system
LUMBER INDUSTRY
because of the “tying up” of natural re-
sources are themselves deliberately tying
them up far more effectively for private
gain.
The fact that mature timber is thus with-
held from use is clear evidence that great
additional profits are expected to accrue
through further increase in value.
LAND MONOPOLY.—Standing timber is not
the only question. When the timber has been
cut the land remains. There has been created,
therefore, not only the framework of an
enormous timber monopoly, but also an
equally sinister land concentration in ex-
tensive sections. This involves also a great
wealth in minerals. The Southern Pacific
has 4,318,000 acres in northern California
and western Oregon, and, with the Union
Pacific, which controls it, millions of acres
elsewhere. (The government, however, is
now suing to annul title to the Southern
Pacific lands in Oregon for non-compliance
with the terms of the original grants.)
The Northern Pacific owns 3,017,000 acres
of timber land and millions more of non-
timbered land. The Weyerhaeuser Timber
Company owns 1,945,000 acres. In Florida,
five holders have 4,000,000 acres, and the
187 largest timber holders have over 15,-
800,000 acres, nearly one-half the land area
of the State. In the whole investigation
area the 1,802 largest holders of timber
have, together, 88,579,000 acres (not in-
cluding Northern Pacific and Southern Pa-
cific lands in non-timbered regions) ; which
would make an average holding of 49,000
acres, or 77 square miles.
Finally, to timber concentration and to
land concentration is added, in our most
important timber section, a closely con-
nected railroad domination. The formid-
able possibilities of this combination in the
Pacific-Northwest and elsewhere are of the
gravest public importance.
THE FUTURE.—These are the facts of the
lumber business in its most important
feature, the natural supply. The para-
mount consideration remains still to be
stated. There are many great combinations
in other industries whose formation is
complete. In the lumber industry, on the
other hand, the Bureau finds now in the
making a combination caused, fundament-
ally, by a long-standing public policy. The
concentration already existing is suffici-
ently impressive. Still more impressive are
the possibilities for the future. In the last
40 years concentration has so proceeded
that 195 holders, many interrelated, now
have practicaliy one-half of the privately
owned timber in the investigation area
(which contains 80 per cent of the whole).
This formidable process of concentration,
in timber and in land, certainly involves
grave future possibilities of impregnable
monopolistic conditions, whose far-reaching
consequences to society it is now difficult
to anticipate fully or to overestimate.
Such are the past history, present status,
and apparent future of our timber re-
sources. The underlying cause is our pub-
lic-land policy, resulting in enormous loss
185
of wealth to the public and its monopoliza-
tion by a few interests. It lies before us
now as a forcible object lesson for the
future management of all the natural re-
sources still remaining in the hands of the
government.
—
Hardwood Manufacturers’ Association
The Hardwood Manufacturers’ Associa-
tion held a great meeting at Cincinnati,
January 3lst and February ist. The ad-
ministration of President Carrier has been
most successful. In his annual address Mr.
Carrier referred to the alarming decrease in
the hardwood supply shown by government
statistics, verified by the association, as
meaning “constantly increasing values of
stumpage, with little hope of practical re-
forestation—a condition the gravity of
which must be recognized by every oper-
ator.”
The report of the secretary, Lewis Doster,
gave the amount of lumber shipped in 1910
by members of the association at 659,-
022,000 feet.
W. B. Townsend presented a report for
the committee on forest conservation, in
which he said that the subject was many
sided, and in the current discussion of it
too much ill-feeling and slander had been
stirred up to accomplish the maximum of
public good at the minimum expense. He
alluded to the forests still remaining in
Oregon and in the South from Maryland
to Texas as refuting the pessimist who is
constantly crying “Wolf! wolf! where there
is no wolf and, who, with sanctimonious
air and grieved expression, claims that
with present methods of manufacture—
which he calls destruction—we will have
no standing timber left in a decade.” He
took up the question of forest fires and
criticised severely the expenditure of its
funds under a former chief, claiming that
of its $20,000,000 vast sums had been used
to employ and pay lecturers, etc., which
should have been used to provide fire pro-
tection. In closing, he said: “The costly
lessons of this year I trust will result in sub-
stituting practical for theoretical methods—
for it surely has been demonstrated that
lectures, editorial, or news articles cannot
stop the ravages of a forest fire. I am
glad to note a change along these lines,
and I believe we may expect very material
improvements from the present adminis-
tration of this important department of
our government.” A vote was taken en-
dorsing the sentiments expressed by Mr.
Townsend.
In his comments on the pessimist, Mr.
Townsend seems to have hit President
Carrier, for the latter’s statement in his
annual address regarding the hardwood
supply certainly challenged Mr. Town-
send’s confidence in our security. In re
gard to his criticisms of expenditure by
the Forest Service Mr. Townsend seems
to have got his inspiration from the article
by Senator Carter of Montana, which was
given so much publicity last autumn. The
L386 AMERICAN
carelessness and injustice of this article
were clearly shown in an editorial in
AMERICAN Forestry for December, 1910.
We do not care to traverse the ground now,
but in view of the fact that Senator Car-
ter’s article has evidently been taken seri-
ously in a quarter that should have been
better informed, we call attention to two
facts—the restriction put by Congress upon
the manner of expending the appropria-
tions, and the comparatively insignificant
amount which was really expended for lec-
tures, and for the necessary educational
work done by the department. It will be
worth while for members of the Hardwood
Manufacturers’ Association to read the
article referred to in connection with Mr.
Townsend's report. It is on page 735 of
this magazine for December, 1910. :
A resolution adopted by the association
approved and promised support to the For-
est Products Laboratory at Madison, Wis-
consin, called the attention of the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin to its great opportunity
for establishing a school of forest utiliza-
tion, and urged upon Congress the need
of developing more highly the work of this
branch of the Forest Service to enable it
“to take up at once the many vital prob-
lems now confronting the lumberman, the
solution of which will result in such great
benefit to the whole nation.” Another
resolution opposed the reciprocity agree-
ment with Canada on the ground that it
singles out for reduction of tariff the pro-
ducts of the soil, both forest and agricul-
tural.
The officers and executive board elected
are: President, W. B. Townsend; vice-
presidents, W. E. Delaney and C. E. Ritter;
treasurer, C. M. Crawford; R. M. Carrier,
Clinton Crane, W. A. Gilchrist, F. F. Fee,
J. H. Himmelberger, C. H. Lamb, John W.
Love, G. M. W. Buehrmann, J. W. Oakford,
A. 8. Ransom, W. M. Ritter, R. H. Vansant,
William Wilms. There were also chosen
an executive grading commission of four-
teen, twenty-one state vice-presidents, and
state directors for seventeen states. The
attendance was 368, the largest in the ten
years’ history of the association.
Northern Hemlock and Hardwood Manufact-
urers
The Northern Hemlock and Hardwood
Manufacturers’ Association held its second
annual meeting in Milwaukee, January 31.
Among other subjects in his annual report,
the secretary, R. S. Kellogg, discussed the
need of more complete utilization of pro-
duct, declaring that there are possibilities
yet undreamed of in all kinds of timber.
Referring to the work already done by the
United States Forest Service and the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin, he asked why the
state of Wisconsin should not be requested
to provide at the university a school of
forest utilization, where men can be tech-
nically trained in the manufacture of for-
est products. On this point he said: “The
laboratory studies, investigates, invents and
discovers. The school teaches men how to
FORESTRY
apply scientific principles to the problems
of production. Wisconsin has no need for
a school in which to train foresters: there
are plenty of such schools already in ex-
istence, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
They should be strengthened and made
more efficient, not weakened, through the
multiplication of small schools. But there
is no college or university in Wisconsin
or in any other state to which we can send
a man for thorough instruction in the
manufacture of forest products. The for-
estry schools teach us how to grow timber.
Is it any less important that we should be
taught how to utilize it? It is likely that
the present session of the legislature will
be asked to establish a forest school at
the university. Should we not grasp the
opportunity before it is too late to secure
instead the school that is by far the most
needed, a school of forest utilization?
Would it not be well for us to have our
legislative committee present this view to
the governor, the legislature and the uni-
versity, and for us to ask other state or-
ganizations to join us in our efforts to
make the most of our timber resources?”
Thornton A. Green reported for the for-
est fire committee, reviewing the work of
the Lake States Forest Fire Conference and
the formation of the Northern Forest Pro-
tective Association. .
William L. Hall, chief of the division of
products of the United States Forest Serv-
ice, made a comparison between the in-
crease in population and the increase in
lumber production which was enlightening.
He said: “In 1880 the lumber production
was 18,000,000,000 feet. In 1890 the in-
crease was 31.5 per cent. In the decade
from 1890 to 1900 the increase was 47
per cent, and between 1900 and 1910 the
increase was 27 per cent, representing a
production of 44,484,000,000 feet. The total
gain in these thirty years was 146 per cent.
The population of the country in 1880 was
50,000,000; in 1890 it was 63,000,000, repre-
senting a growth of 25.5 per cent, and in
1900 it was 76,000,000, showing a growth
of 21 per cent; and in 1910 it was 92,000,000,
showing an increase of 21 per cent. The
total increase in population for the thirty
years has been 83 per cent, as against 146
per cent for the increase in lumber pro-
duction.
Sawmill capacity apparently has also in-
creased to a large extent. We do not know
how much the capacity of the mills ex-
ceeded actual production in previous de-
cades. Taking the figures for 1909, I have
studied this subject with reference to two
states, Louisian and Washington. In Louis-
iana 383 mills out of a total of 658 reported
their capacity as well as their actual pro-
duction. In that state actual production
amounts to only 62 per cent of the rated
capacity of the mills. In the state of
Washington the actual production was
somewhat lower, amounting to 51 per cent
of the capacity of the mills. With such
a margin of capacity over actual produc-
tion it is easy to see how strong is the
tendency toward increase of production.
LUMBER INDUSTRY
The plants are upon the ground, the opera-
tions are all laid out. It is perhaps just
as easy to produce 75 percent of the nom-
inal capacity of the mills as it is to pro-
duce 50 percent. Of course, the industry,
on this account, will respond to every im-
provement in market conditions with an
unnecessarily large increase in production
unless there be a sufficiently strong con-
trol of production to prevent it, and that
control the figures clearly show to be lack-
ing.”
Officers elected were: President, W. C.
Landon; vice-president, M. P. McCullough;
treasurer, George E. Foster; secretary,
R. S. Kellogg; directors, W. O. Brightman,
George H. Atwood, T. A. Green, and R. E.
McLean.
Pennsylvania Lumbermen’s Association
At the nineteenth annual meeting of the
Pennsylvania Lumbermen’s Association in
Philadelphia, Thursday, January 26, the
association’s forestry committee reported,
through its chairman, J. S. Hess, as fol-
lows:
The crusade for the conservation of our
natural resources received a strong impe-
tus during the administration of President
Roosevelt. The necessity for the conserva-
tion of the forests of the United States
for the proper use of them by the present
and future generations of American citi-
zens was brought to the attention of the
whole country. No class of people more
faithfully seconded the movement than the
lumbermen of the United States. At all
meetings of lumbermen during the last de-
cade the subject received their earnest at-
tention, but agitation without action that
will tell is of no avail.
As Pennsylvanians we may well be proud
of what our state is doing in the direction
of conservation and reforestation. Nearly
1,000,000 acres are now in the possession
of the state and no forestry department
of any state has done more effectual and
systematic work than our own great com-
monwealth. The forestry department has
quietly gone forward with the work so
nobly begun by Professor Rothrock, and
so ably continued by the men at the head
of the department today. New forest re-
serves are being added as the means afford,
and men are at work sowing seeds and
preparing seedlings for the replanting of
the state forest reserves and the private
forest lands in the state. Our state is
engaged in the education of young men for
the work of forestry and the management
not only of our state reserves but also
of the forest land owned by private in-
dividuals.
From an article in the Public Ledger I
gleaned the following:
“Although the scientists of the federal
and of some state governments have long
recognized the growing danger in the rapid
spread of the chestnut blight, Pennsylvania
187
is the only state which has organized a
thoroughly systematic study of the disease
and applied practical methods to check its
spread.”
Seeing what the forestry department is
doing with the small amount of money ap-
propriated, our association should join with
the friends of forest conservation in urg-
ing larger appropriations by the legisla-
ture to further and continue the great work
so nobly done with the limited means at
their command.
The national government has been spend-
ing a large amount of money in the main-
tenance of national forest reserves in the
West. An equal amount should most justly
be spent in the acquisition and maintenance
of similar national forest reserves in the
South and East. The national reserves in
the West amount to 194,505,325 acres. They
are cared for by 1,500 national forest offi-
cers. The total expenditure during the
last year was $3,908,249. They yield a
revenue, but as the larger proportion goes
to the states in which they lie the actual
expense of maintenance is paid for by the
whole country. The states in which the
national forest reserves are situated are
Arizona, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Colorado,
Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Michi-
gan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mex-
ico, North Dakota, California, Oregon,
South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wy-
oming. Not one of the original thirteen
states, not one of the states that fought
the war of 1812, not one of the states that
assisted in the purchase of Florida or the
Louisiana country, not one of the states
with the exception of Florida that fought
the Mexican war ever received a dollar for
the conservation of forest lands from the
national treasury.
The extensive forest reserves in the
West were taken out of the national do-
main and paid for by the whole country.
Common justice would dictate that the
South and East should also be taken care
of. The West is seeking further expendi-
ture on the part of the national govern-
-ment for the irrigation of her arid lands.
If the national treasury should provide for
the conservation of the forests of the West,
then also should the national government
assist in the establishment of national for-
est reserves in the Appalachian range in
the eastern part of the United States.
We lumbermen and other citizens of the
East should join in this appeal for simple
justice and equity. The two things needed
then are: 1. An appeal to the legislature
for further appropriations to the state for-
estry department for the efficient prosecu-
tion of the work so well begun. 2. An
appeal to the Congress of the United States
for our Appalachian forest reserve.
The officers were reelected: President,
Henry Palmer of Langhorne; vice-presi-
dent, F. S. Pyfer of Lancaster; treasurer,
T. J. Snowden of Scranton; secretary, J.
Frederick Martin of Philadelphia.
AMERICAN FORESTRY’S ADVERTISERS
Adopted by the Cornell Forestry School
Every Forestry Library Should Own at Least One Copy of
Trees and
Their Life Histories
By PROFESSOR PERCY A. GROOM, M.A., D.S.C., F.L.S.
(Cantab. et Oxon.)
The Most Superbly lllustrated Tree Book
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ACCURATE, THOROUGH, READABLE A MARVEL OF ILLUSTRATION
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is pre-eminently a work for Nature Lovers,
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Analytical tables, diagnoses of families, and
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Particular trees have been selected for more
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the tree is specially illustrated by the Larch,
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a shrub and weeping tree, by the Elder and
Laburnum; the repair of injuries, by the Scots
Pine; the shape and conduct of a_ light-
demanding tree, by the Larch and Birch; the
degeneration of flowers, by the Sweet Chestnut
and Ash. And s0 on.
Price, $10.00 Net, Sent on Approval
LET US SEND YOU THIS VOLUME WITH THE
UNDERSTANDING that should it fail to substantiate
all our claims, you may return it to us by Express Collect. &
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remittance upon the arrival of the volume in good
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CASSELL & COMPANY
Established 1848
43-45 East Nineteenth Street
NEW YORK
years in making an exhaustive series of photographs of
Trees, a field in which he is acknowledged by leading
nature photographers without a peer. The finest results
of his work are embodied in Professor Groom’s
“TREES AND THEIR LIFE HISTORIES”
This book contains over one hundred large plates
and four hundred smaller ones, showing each tree
in its summer and in its winter appearance,
also of each tree the trunk and bark, the
bud and twig, the leaf spray, the flower
spray, and the fruit cluster. Neither pains
nor expense have been spared to make
the illustrations, as they have never
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The work is a large Octavo,
printed with great care on the
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© Cassell &
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RS) 43-45 Past
re) 19th St.,
'S New York.
Gentlemen:
> Find enclosed $10.00
¥ (check, money order, or
currency), for which please
a send me, carriage paid, 1 copy
of “TREES AND THBIR LIFE
oe HISTORIDS,’”’ by Professor
id Percy Groom. I reserve the privi-
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full amount of my remittance.
ADDRESS... . ccccccccccviesscssecsessesecssess
ee ee ee ee ee | ee eee ew eserseeseeeeereree
In writing to advertisers kindly mention AMERICAN ForEsTRY
‘(Dp has thus happened in northern
China, what has happened tn
central Asia, in Palestine, in North
Africa, in parts of the Mediterranean
countries of Europe, will surelu happen
in our country if we do not exercise that
wise forethought which should be one
of the chief marks of anu people calling
itself civilized. Nothing should be per-
mitted to stand in the wau of the pres-
eruation of the forests, and it ts crtminal
to permit tndtutduals to purchase a little
gatn for themselues through the destrur-
tion of the forests when thts destructton
is fatal to the well-betng of the whole
countru tn the future.”
Roosevelt
‘G10 SUVGA OML-ALUIHL ‘LNOWUGA NI GAONUdS AVMUON AO NOILLVLINV Id
American Forestry
VOL. XVII APRIL, 1911 No. 4
STATE OWNERSHIP OF FORESTS
By AUSTIN F. HAWES,
STATE FORESTER OF VERMONT.
(This survey of a most important branch of state forest policy was originally read
at the annual meeting of the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests in
1910. The author has been state forester of Connecticut, as well as of Vermont, and
is thoroughly conversant with this question from the standpoint of eastern conditions.
We have moved very slowly in the acquisition of state forests, but we must address
ourselves to that side of forestry development in all the states, as Pennsylvania has
notably done. The great forestry trilogy at present is fire protection, taxation, and
state forests.—Editor.)
WO periods in the history of the lands of this country will probably be
recognized by future historians. First, the period when disposal of
public lands was the only policy of state and nation; and, second, the
period upon which we are now entering, distinguished by the policy of reser-
vation or acquisition by state and nation.
The original states of the union upon the birth of the nation found them-
selves rich in lands with only a scant population to utilize them. It was
natural that public debts, such as those due to soldiers, should be paid in land
grants, that public bequests, as those founding Dartmouth, Bowdoin and the
University of Vermont, should be in the form of land grants; and that the
federal government should follow the policy of granting lands as a bonus to
railroads building in pioneer regions.
Massachusetts, with its great domain of wild lands in what became Maine,
disposed of great areas by lottery. By the Civil War most, if not all, of the
lands in New England had been disposed of to private owners. In other
parts of the country a similar course was followed, and the United States
has now disposed of practically all of its agricultural lands.
Shortly after the centennial and the census of 1880, which first touched
upon the forest resources of the country, there began to be an interest among
far-sighted men in the preservation of the forests. As the best measure
toward this end the bill was passed by Congress making national forests
possible. This marked the beginning of the period of reservation and acquisi-
tion—a movement which has resulted in the creation of national forests
amounting to nearly two hundred million acres and which has recently been
broadened out to include other natural resources. It is naturally easier to
secure from a legislative body the reservation for special purposes of lands
already belonging to the public than the purchase of such lands. This is the
191
192 AMERICAN FORESTRY
main reason that Congress has thus far neglected to provide a few million
dollars for national forests in the east, while the government has been reserv-
ing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of land in the west for that pur-
pose. While it is probable that this winter provision will be made for such
national forests in the east, it is doubtful whether these will ever be on a
scale of great importance to our states. Probably national forests in the east
will always be intimately connected with the question of interstate commerce
and the protection of the headwaters of navigable streams.
Fortunately, with the movement for the reservation of lands in the west
by the government has grown up the idea of state ownership of forest lands
through purchase. New York and Pennsylvania have now acquired immense
areas partly for the purpose of water protection, partly for the preservation
of the beautiful wild scenery and partly for the production of timber. Other
states have started in a less ambitious way the same policy and it is already
evident that the most striking feature of forestry development of the present
century in the east, is to be the acquisition of large tracts by the various
states, as reservation by the government has already been in the west. It
seems to me that these state forests will fall into several different classes ac-
cording to the reasons for founding them and the method of management
which the purpose of their existence would dictate.
EDUCATIONAL OR DEMONSTRATION FORESTS
The first of these classes in importance for us in New England is the edu-
cational or demonstration forest. With the exception of northern Maine and
certain mountainous regions of New Hampshire and Vermont, our forests
are more or less cut up by agricultural lands and roads. We have easy trans-
portation, either by water or rail, to the best markets of the country, which
gives our stumpage a value exceeding that in any other region. We have valu-
able and rapid growing trees, such as the white pine, spruce, chestnut, ete. In
fact, our natural forest conditions resemble more closely those of Europe than
any other part of the country, and private forestry development can, therefore,
be counted on if demonstrations of forestry operations are available such as
state forests would furnish.
These demonstration forests need not be large but should represent one or
two important types of land of the vicinity. Every such tract should contain
some waste land suitable for planting as private owners can more easily be
interested in planting than in any other branch of forestry. The experimental
element may well be combined with the demonstration. Different species can
be planted on different classes of soil. Mixtures and pure planting and vari-
ous distances apart may be tried and thus a great deal of valuable data
secured in a few years.
A local demand for forest seedlings can often be built up by the main-
tainance of a small nursery on the tract. But planting should by no means
be the only line of work carried on. The demonstration forest should have a
few hundred acres of woodland in which thinnings and improved methods of
cuttings can be practiced so that land owners will see the various phases of
forestry. Thinnings of different degrees can be practiced; the various silvical
methods, such as the selection system, stand method, group and strip systems,
can be developed so that in a few years the relative results will be apparent.
Of course accurate accounts must be kept which can be published in bulletin
form from time to time. In all these ways a tract of five hundred acres may
serve as well as a larger one. It does not matter particularly whether it is
immediately self supporting or not as it is primarily an educational estab-
lishment and not a money making scheme, but the sooner it becomes self sup-
porting the sooner will it win the respect of the New England farmer and
STATE OWNERSHIP OF FORESTS 193
lumberman. On some such tracts it will be advisable to give short courses in
forestry dealing only with such lines of work as would be of use to the farmer.
I can speak from personal experience of the efficiency of one such forest of 300
acres in Connecticut. In 1905 I purchased this tract in a portion of the state
where forestry was scoffed at by everyone, and in 1906 started planting. In
less than two years three thousand acres of private forests in the same town-
ship were under forest management and a nursery with a capacity of 100,000
trees was kept busy catering to the local demand. The sentiment of the whole
county has been changed by this small beginning. We have at present two
such state forests in Vermont, one of 450 acres in Plainfield near the center
of the state, purchased at an average price of $4 an acre, and one of 350 acres
given by Mr. Charles Downer, who has long been interested in forestry.
Not the smallest mission of these demonstration forests above described,
is to educate the legislators so that they will forward laws in favor of forestry.
TIMBER RAISING AND REVENUE PRODUCING FORESTS
The kind of state forests advocated above are chiefly valuable indirectly
for the influence that they have upon the people who will be led to practice
forestry and pass favorable legislation. They will not be on a sufficiently
large scale to bring in a revenue of any material value to the state except for
supporting the forestry branch of the state government. European states have
proved that forests can be maintained more profitably under state and com-
munal ownership and the large areas thus owned pay a considerable share of
the current expenses of the various governments.
Thus Saxony, which has very extensive state forests, derives an annual
net income of $5.25 per acre from them. The Saxon forests are largely of
spruce and pine and are chiefly managed under the method of clearing and
planting, as distinct from the natural reproduction methods in use in Baden
and the coniferous forests of France.
Prussia, as the largest German state, is interesting, especially from the
fact that it is still purchasing waste lands for reforestation. The net income
from its 7,300,000 acres increased from $1.53 to $2 per acre between 1900
and 1908; i. e., net income of $14,600,000.
Wurtemberg and Baden are the two German states which produce the
highest net results from their state forests. In Baden eighteen per cent of the
state’s wooded area or about 235,000 acres belongs to the state, and much of the
remaining forest is under state supervision. The annual cut in the timber
forest is now equivalent to about 500 board feet per acre. The revenues from
these state forests come not only from the sale of wood but from hunting
licenses, the sale of grass, berries and other products, while the expenses are
for planting, road building, salaries, etc. In 1902 the net income from these
forests was $5.08 an acre.
In Austria the state owns seven per cent of the total forested area and
between 1874 and 1903 the net income from this 1,800,000 acres rose from
$525,000 to $890,000. During this period over 85,000 acres were reforested.
Of the 6,464,000 acres in Bavaria the state owns about one-third. The
total gross income from the 2,815,000 acres was $10,387,000, the expenditures,
$4,593,000, leaving a net revenue of $5,894,000 or $2.54 per acre. Although
there were 79 forest fires in 1905 not more than 240 acres were burned.
Similar figures might be given for the various other states of Europe
showing that state ownership of forests not only pays, but that the revenue
from these forests is steadily increasing, due to the ever improved condition
of the forest. For the most part these forests have been crown or common
lands since earliest history, but during the past century the areas have been
considerably augmented by purchase.
194 AMERICAN FORESTRY
In launching our New England states on a policy of state forests for
timber raising and revenue, we are confronted from the first with the problem
of purchasing the lands. In this connection it should be said that land in this
section will probably never be as cheap again as it has been during recent
years. In many sections the demand for this class of land is already improvy-
ing and the price beginning to rise. On this account the sooner these lands
are acquired the less the initial investment will be. The natural result of any
extensive purchases on the part of the state will be to raise land values in the
region. It will, therefore, be advisable from the standpoint of economy, to
secure large areas gradually as money affords in a few localities, rather than
to scatter small purchases all over the state, thereby raising values every-
where. Of course this raising of values is in itself a benefit to the state speak-
ing in a broader sense. The individual owners are enriched, the assessable
property of a town is increased, and the rate of taxation lowered.
What would be the probable investment for the state for the purchase of
100,000 acres, say, in New Hampshire or Vermont? This brings up a ques-
tion of policy. Shall the state buy the cheapest land available or aim to get
the best possible investment just as a private individual would? At first
thought it might seem the state’s duty to acquire cut over and burned over
land of which there is such a great area in every state. It is a peculiar fact
that the price at which most of this worthless land is held is usually from $1
to $4 an acre, while land of real value worth ten times as much can be pur-
chased for $4 to $6 an acre. It is, therefore, a much better investment for the
state as well as for the private purchuser to acquire this land covered with
pine or spruce reproduction at these prices or sometimes even at $10 an acre,
than to buy mountain tops from which the soil has been burned with the for-
est. Experience has convinced me that the committees of a legislature will be
much more apt to approve this kind of an investment which appeals to the
members personally than a purely altruistic proposition such as the acquiring
of slash and burns.
There are in all of our New England states considerable areas of good
timber still standing. In my opinion some of this class of land should be in-
cluded, in the first place, because the people expect that the old forests are to
be saved and will not be satisfied unless some scenic points are preserved;
and, secondly, because by this means an income in the near future will be
assured which will appeal to the business sense of the legislators and people.
So in the purchase of 100,000 acres there should be a variety of classes of land
divided something as follows:
50,000 acres waste land at $2.00 per acre.................. $100,000
30,000 acres, second growth, at $5.00 per acre.............. 150,000
10,000 acres timberland at $10.00 per acre................. 100,000
10,000 acres good timber at $15.00... ..0..... se. oe 150,000
ORB i aia wei de baw Wee Ge ale he Bo ae ie SRR $500,000
Something the same proportion would hold for larger purchases, i. e.,
an average price for purchases made during the next decade of $5 an acre.
Of course, in order to get lands at these figures, local agents would be em-
ployed and considerable diplomacy required in order not to inflate prices.
Two or three suggestions can be made for raising the funds to finance
such a policy during a decade. The first and simplest is. of course, to appro-
priate from money in the state treasury $50,000 a year for the ten years. This
is probably out of the question for either Vermont or New Hampshire at
present, but then the results may be gradually accomplished by smaller appro-
priations. Another suggestion is a bond issue maturing in forty or fifty years
when the forests become productive; and still another is to levy a special tax.
STATE OWNERSHIP OF FORESTS 195
This might be a light income tax which falling only ou private persons or
corporations with incomes exceeding $5,000 would not be opposed by the mass
of the people; or a small tax of, say 2 cents per thousand feet on all lumber
manufactured. A tax of this nature applied only to concerns sawing half a
million feet or over would not be heavy ($10 on 500,000 feet), and, as it is pri-
marily for the ultimate benefit of lumbermen, should not be opposed by them.
Many lumbermen would thereby be able to dispose of cut over lands which are
now only a source of taxes. To be sure a tax of this amount would hardly
afford $50,000 either in Vermont or New Hampshire, but it might supplement
what the legislature was willing to spend from other sources.
It must be remembered that all this expenditure is in the form of an
investment for the state; one which should bear good interest—it is safe to
estimate from four per cent to six per cent.
The question in the management of these state tracts will come up as to
whether it is best to manage them for the greatest possible profit (which
would dictate a short rotation) or whether other features should be given im-
portance. In my opinion a part of the area at least should be devoted to rais-
ing large dimension timber, such as those required for large telegraph poles,
derrick sticks, bridge timbers, etc. This would require a longer rotation,
probably 100-150 years, but the industries of the state would be greatly bene-
fited by being able to rely upon a permanent supply of such materials. For
similar reasons some slow growing trees, such as hickory and white oak
should be fostered by the state in regions where they are adapted, even though
they cannot be recommended for private planting.
PROTECTIVE FORESTS
In the above I have discussed state forests for educational purposes, for
raising of timber and have not touched upon the protective use of forests. I
believe this latter side is over emphasized and that forests are principally
valuable for the raising of timber and the support of the industries dependent
on them. Of course it is hardly possible to acquire 100,000 acres of forest any-
where in New England without its having a material effect upon the springs
and brooks of the region. How much this would affect any large river is prob-
ably simply a question of the proportion of the forest area to the entire water-
shed of the river.
So, too, these forests acquired for these other reasons must add greatly
to the beauty of the country and tend to make it a popular resort.
There are, however, in every state certain areas which should be acquired
for protective purposes even if not from the standpoint of revenue. All steep
mountain slopes in danger of being denuded should be owned by the state as
clear cutting on such sites is disastrous to the soil and water supply held by it.
So, too, there are areas of shifting sand which should be checked by forest
planting that would not be profitable and is, therefore, a proper state duty.
In regions like northern New England and New York where scenery is
such an important feature, many particularly beautiful forests should be
saved from destruction by state acquisition. This is not sentiment on the
part of the state but simply a matter of good far sighted policy.
In all these lines for which we have advocated state forests, it is to be
noted that while the state will surely benefit from such a policy, the com-
munities in which the forests are located will benefit still more. Many men
will be employed in road building, forest planting, cutting and hauling and
a population maintained larger than is at present found in many of these
back regions. Local industries long since dead will be revived and maintained
on a permanent supply of lumber not again to be abandoned as when forests
196 AMERICAN FORESTRY
have been depleted in the past. All this prosperity in regions now nearly
abandoned means happier homes and better citizens. This local effect reminds
me of the advisability in some cases of establishing town forests like the com-
munal forests of Europe which are of such great assistance to the small vil-
lages and the peasants who live in them. What could be a finer monument for
a wealthy man to leave to his native town than a forest tract of five thousand
acres to be managed under state control, the income to be used for town
purposes ?
WOODNOTES
1 fe
As sunbeams stream through liberal space,
And nothing jostle or displace,
So waved the pine-tree through my thought,
And fanned the dreams it never brought.
“Whether is better, the gift or the donor?
Come to me,”
Quoth the pine-tree,
“T am the giver of honor.
My garden is in the cloven rock,
And my manure the snow;
And drifting sand-heaps feed my stock,
In summer’s scorching glow.
He is great who can live by me.
The rough and bearded forester
Is better than the lord;
God fills the scrip and canister,
Sin piles the loaded board.
The lord is the peasant that was,
The peasant the lord that shall be;
The lord is hay, the peasant grass,
One dry, and one the living tree.
Who liveth by the ragged pine
Founded a heroic line;
Who liveth in the palace hall
Waneth fast and spendeth all.
He goes to my savage haunts,
With his chariot and his care;
My twilight realm he disenchants,
And finds his prison there.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson.
SOME NEW IDEAS IN CONTROLLING FOREST FIRES
By SAMUEL J. RECORD
EN Daniel W. Adams last July became supervisor of the Arkansas
National Forest the principal problem confronting him was that of
protecting the forest from fire. The previous fire season had been par-
ticularly disastrous, due largely to incendiarism. The enforcement of laws
pertaining to the disposal of the public lands and timber made many enemies
for the Forest Service. It seems typical of a lawless mountaineer never to
fight in the open and true to their instincts the enemies of the service fought
from ambush. They burned the woods, they slashed and tore the posters and
notices, they destroyed telephone lines, all with wanton disregard for the wel-
fare of their law-abiding neighbors. The majority of the people in and near
the national forests of Arkansas are opposed to forest fires and to all forms of
lawlessness, but have hesitated to openly oppose such acts for fear of a crim-
inal few. The unfortunate forest agitation at Washington was directly re-
sponsible for two-thirds of the fire damage on the Arkansas forests last season.
The enemies of the service encouraged and incited by baseless charges and
distorted rumors went to excesses that proved their own undoing.
When Mr. Adams assumed charge his main efforts were directed to a so-
lution of the fire problem. First attention was devoted to organizing the better
class of forest users in a fire protective association. In union these people
have found the moral strength to oppose the lawless element and thus make
woods burning unpopular. The dues of the association are devoted largely to
establishing a fund to provide rewards for information leading to conviction
of incendiaries. The value of the organization in reducing the fire danger
through enlightened public sentiment has been fully demonstrated and will
increase with growing membership. A disastrous fire season has taught the
farmers an expensive lesson, that the incendiary menaces not only the forest
but their property, their homes, their very lives as well.
Favorable public sentiment is essential but not in itself sufficient to elim-
inate the fire danger. Even under the best conditions fires will occur through
accident or lightning or other uncontrollable source. Adequate protection
requires (1) means of prompt discovery and location of fires; (2) ready access
by trails and roads to all parts of the forest; (3) efficient means of fire fighting.
Supervisor Adams, with years of practical training and with no small inven-
tive genius, has been concentrating his attention on improvement of require-
ments (1) and (3). For months he has worked unceasingly, but good results
are rewarding his industry and application. He has prepared a report de-
scribing his equipment, apparatus and protective devices. While some of his
ideas may, at first blush, appear rather fanciful, they mark the most advanced
step in the application of science to forest fire control.
Mr. Frank Rush, of the Wichita National Forest, has demonstrated the
importance of water in fighting the hot prairie fires of his locality. He hauls
the water in a tank to the scene of a fire and applies it by means of large
sprinkling pots. In the mountains and rough forest lands water could not be
hauled on a wagon, and there is usually a scarcity of water in the vicinity of
197
198 AMERICAN FORESTRY
a fire making carrying by hand impracticable. A pack saddle device carrying
two tanks of fifteen gallons capacity each and connected under a horse by
hose attachments was tried out in the Ozark Mountains. The water was
drawn from the tanks to knapsack sprinklers that fit over a man’s shoulders.
From this device was evolved an arrangement for throwing the water
direct from the saddle to the fire. This was first accomplished by means of a
small air pump capable of a pressure of 25 pounds, later abandoned in favor
of iron cylinders in which the air has been compressed to 2,400 pounds per
square inch. This high pressure is reduced, by means of a simple valve, to a
working pressure of from 10 to 25 pounds, and one cylinder is capable of ex-
hausting the 30-gallon tanks 25 times with one charging. The entire appa-
raus is quite simple, the cost very reasonable, and the expense of operation
almost nothing.
Mr. Adams’ fire fighters look like warriors of old, for each carries a shield
to protect him from the radiation and allow him to work close enough to put
the water on the fire rather than on the flames. These shields are made of 20-
gauge tin with asbestos cloth cover, and with a spiral wire hand-hold. A three
by four-inch mica window is inserted near the top. The whole weighs two and
a half pounds, costs only a trifle, and is in detachable sections which may be
conyeniently carried under the saddle stirrup leathers.
In the course of experiments it was early demonstrated that water in
sufficient quantities was too hard to get and when used alone did not have the
extinguishing qualities of certain chemicals, especially when used on very hot
fires. No chemical apparatus on the market, however, had provision for re-
filling except by hand. Their use was further hampered by the fragile devices
for mixing the acids and other chemicals. Mr. Adams overcame these objec-
tions and has applied for patent for a self-charging chemical equipment for
shoulder support and an automatic charging equipment for pack saddle sup-
port. In this connection it may be interesting to note that the claims made by
various chemical engine manufacturers that their engines throw a gas charged
water whose fire quenching efficiency is forty to one over ordinary water, seems
erroneous in that the water delivered by such apparatus is taken from below
the gas line and not charged with gas at all.
Necessity for economizing the supply of water and using more of the
flame stifling gas, either alone or in mixture with water, led to the invention of
a valve and double hose arrangement whereby pure gas, pure water, or a mix-
ture in any desired proportion can be obtained. By addition from time to
time of small amounts of alkaline solution and sulphuric acid the entire
charge can be re-energized with great economy of water.
But improvements did not stop there. To obtain a more intimate mixture
of gas and water a special nozzle was perfected, which gave a rotary motion
so great that the charge comes finely atomized to virtually a gaseous vapor.
This should have especial merit in combatting fiercely burning forest fires.
To make the apparatus practicable on a large scale, several horses may
be used in tandem. The leader carries the chemical engine while the rear
horses tote the supply tanks containing the sodium solution. The tanks are
connected by a common delivery hose coupled by lever valves similar to air
hose couplings on cars. Such apparatus is designed for controlling the lee of
back fires in dangerous places and fighting other fires in a high wind.
This idea of using several horses in tandem is an adaptation of the old
principle of the “packer’s hitch.” In the mountainous mining regions it is
customary to pack ore out and machinery in on mules or burros so hitched that
the head of one is close to the tail of the next, making what is known as the
“packer’s head-and-tail hitch.” In this manner the “jack whacker,” as the
man in charge is called, can lead fifty or more animals, and where the leader
SHIELD
AND FIRE
NGUISHER
Gul
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USIN(
OUT FIRES
ATING
BE
METHOD OF
OLD
IDEAS IN FIRE CONTROL
FIGHTING A SURFACE FIRE WITH
A KNAPSACK SPRINKLER AND
FIRE SHIELD
IDEAS IN FIRE CONTROL CHEMICAL ENGINE ON HORSE
MR. ADAMS IN BUGGY
TESTING CHEMICAL ENGINE ON A
BURNING TREE SNAG. THE IN-
VENTOR, MR. ADAMS, IN FORE-
GROUND
IDEAS IN FIRE CONTROL
IDEAS
IN
P
>
i‘.
CONTROL
FOREST OFFICER SIGNAL-
PACK SADDLE
READY
FOR
LING TWENTY MILES BY
HELIOGRAPH FROM RANGE
FINDER STATION. NIGHT
SIGNALS ARE MADE BY
POWERFUL ACETYLENE
LIGHTS WITH REFLECTOR
OUTFIT
QUICK
MOUNTING ON
HORSE
NEW IDEAS IN CONTROLLING FOREST FIRES 203
goes the pack must necessarily follow, since the animals are hitched so close
in that they have no room to get behind trees or other obstructions.
An organized force of fire fighters and proper apparatus are not in them-
selves sufficient for adequate fire protection. For them to do effective work a
fire must be located as soon as possible and there must be means of getting to
it promptly. On the Arkansas National Forest fires are now located by means
of range finding towers set on prominent peaks overlooking as much country
as possible. The towers are connected by telephone with each other, and also
with ranger stations and towns in some instances so that when a watchman
sights a fire he can give warning or summon assistance.
The upper part of the watchman’s tower is a sighting hood with a four-
foot opening extending entirely around. In this opening are set, with mathe-
matical exactness, 144 wires, each space corresponding to 2° 30’ of a circle
whose exact center is marked by a plumb bob. When a fire is seen the watch-
man sights by the plumb bob to the wire in line, notes its number; then by
telephone or signal exchanges this number with the corresponding number of
another tower from which the fire is visible. A map with all the lines plotted
is before him so that with any two numbers a fire may be definitely located.
A hurried plan of action can be telephoned or signalled, since the map shows
the roads, creeks, and fire lines. In planning to handle a fire, the velocity
and prevailing direction of the wind, which are noted on a dial over the watch-
man’s chair, are taken into account. Forest rangers, fire guards, and special
employees without telephone facilities are notified by heliographic flashes by
day and signal lanterns at night. This range finder is extremely simple in op-
eration, designed especially for use by unskilled laborers, thus obviating the
necessity for men skilled in the use of instruments who would command much
higher salaries.
Supervisor Adams is of the opinion that the national forests could be
better protected if the Forest Service had a special fire department separate
from the general administration. He proposes “that a fire department of the
Forest Service be organized, which should, with one notable exception, bear
the same reaction to the service that the fire department of a city bears to the
city government. The exception noted is that the members of the forest fire
force should devote their extra time to designing and experimenting with
equipment and apparatus, in field studies of local problems, and in laying out
trails and fire lines. Supplementing this nucleus would be the regular forest
officers, the rangers and guards, who would correspond to a volunteer force
when the fire occurred.”
Such reorganization of the Forest Service would largely relieve the tech-
nical men of that most unpleasant of all work, fire duty, leaving to them the
solution of forestry problems for which they have specially trained. The men
of the forest fire force, being freed from the multitudinous cares of adminis-
tration, could devote their whole time to a study of fire problems and to ef-
fecting their solution. When one realizes that fire is the greatest of all im-
pediments to forest conservation and the practice of forestry everywhere the
importance of securing protection becomes obvious. Too much attention could
hardly be given to the subject and no plans for the lessening of the danger
should be denied a hearing and perhaps a trial. Whether or not Mr. Adams’
plans prove successful he is at least entitled to credit for doing some original
thinking.
THE PRUNING OF WHITE PINE
By F. 5. KNAPP
DIRECTOR OF THE ERIC Forest ScHOOL
esters that live branches must not be cut from evergreens. As the
result of experiments by Mr. Nathaniel Morton, of Plymouth, Massa-
chusetts, begun in 1891 and later investigations by the Eric Forest School, we
hold exactly the reverse position with reference to white pine at least, and are
convinced not only that such pruning can be successfully done but that it
should form the basis for the treatment of our woodlands in many places.
Each system of silviculture has its distinct use and must make certain
sacrifices to attain its ends. Our aim is to secure a fair quantity of large,
clear, high-grade timber with a short rotation. To accomplish this we pay
special attention to a small number of selected trees from the beginning. In
the first stage of growth obtain by pruning and thinning a tall slender tree
with clean bole of moderate length; then get a rapid diameter growth by
keeping the remaining branches alive and enlarging the head to its full
capacity.
Mr. Morton read a paper before the Massachusetts Forestry Associa-
tion in 1899 telling what he had accomplished and describing his methods in
detail. He found that the best time to prune the living branches of the white
pine was in the hottest summer weather. The branch is cut off close to the
bole of the tree; sap flows copiously at first but is quickly seared over by the
heat, thereby sealing the wound against disease and preventing the streak of
pitch so often found after winter trimming. The wound heals quickly by
occlusion with no space or pitch pocket at the end of the small tight knot, and
almost immediately outside of it the wood becomes clear and straight grained.
As a fair sample of what we have found, the first piece of the Morton trees
analyzed by us showed fifteen knots without a single one which failed to come
up to this standard. Where a dead branch has to be taken off the cut is made
deep enough to wound the living cambium entirely around the knot in order to
produce the same quick recovery. For when a dead branch is broken or cut
off without such wounding the growth is apt to continue for some years, much
as though the branch were still there, forming a little tunnel to collect pitch
and dirt.
During the first two years the proper amount of protection, light, air,
and soil are maintained and a single leader secured for each selected tree ap4
the neighbors are made subservient to it. When from four to eight feet bigh
the pruning of live branches is begun, leaving the head about one-third of the
height of the tree. This pruning of live branches and the protection from
competitors is continued through the first period of growth. Not over two
whorls are taken off in any year. At the end of this time we have a tree with
a slender bole, no dead or sickly branches and a small but well developed
head, closely surrounded though not crowded by more stocky trees. A typical
tree with an eighteen-foot bole would be twenty-seven feet high with nine feet
spread of crown, a diameter of four inches breast high and between two and
three inches just below the first branch.
204
“Ghee is a widespread theory among both American and German for-
THE PRUNING OF WHITE PINE 205
Now begins the second and final stage of growth. The trees have been
chosen far enough apart so that they will not interfere with each other, no
more pruning is done, the last small wounds heal quickly, and from that time
on all the wood formed in the bole is clear. Through the ever increasing space
occupied by the tree and the comparatively short stem, a good diameter growth
is maintained to the end of the rotation and a large valuable log is obtained-
The Eric system of silviculture may be used in combination with several
of the older forms, but the most promising treatment seems to be the three-
story one. It may be applied in plantations, on areas where pine is mixed
with coppice, and to especially good advantage on the many abandoned fields
that are coming up by natural reproduction with a scattering growth of pine.
The intermediate stages must vary with the condition of the tract when work
is begun but a fully stocked woods ready for the final cutting of the upper
story under a sixty-year rotation will consist of three ages—forty trees, sixty
years old, ready to cut and occupying about eighty per cent of the space; forty
moderate sized trees; and a greater number of small ones, the selected forty
of which are just completing their first period of growth and require an in-
significant amount of space. The nurse trees which have been retained increase
the crown cover and prevent the stand from becoming too open underneath.
The spring after cutting the upper story a dozen or more transplants are set
out in each opening, and in twenty years another crop is ready to harvest.
Artificial pruning is a distinctive feature of the system and may be ap-
plied to many species. All foresters agree that most of our hard woods can be
trimmed, when branches are small, without injury and to the great improve-
ment of the quality of the lumber, and experiments by Professor Mer of Nancy,
France, indicate that spruce can be added to the list.
I hope that investigators who see this article will send to AMERICAN
Forestry or write to me, no matter whether in approval or condemnation,
showing the results of their experiments; and I am particularly anxious that
they should try Mr. Morton’s method of pruning. Some of my German friends
are going to experiment along these lines when the proper season comes
around.
We have not done enough work as yet to be able to give accurate figures
of cost and growth or to state closely where the line is drawn between the
conditions of the tract and location in which such work would bring good
financial returns and those where the growth is so slow that compound interest
and risk would make the investment unwise at our present prices.
It is very important that different silvical systems suited to our varied
conditions should be applied on a large scale, and as rapidly as practicable to
transform our forest and waste lands in such a way as to give a sustained
crop and additional wealth to the community. One of these should be either
the plan outlined in this paper, as modified by further experience, or some
other, producing the much needed clear lumber in a reasonable time.
MICROSCOPIC WORK ON THE STRUCTURE OF WOOD
By H. D. TIEMANN,
In Charge Section of Timber Physics, Forest Products Laboratory
T IS remarkable that, in the present age of development of practical
uses from scientific knowledge, there should still remain a field of very
common and wide interest undeveloped in a practical manner. In the
knowledge of the relationship of wood-structure to its physical properties
and uses nothing appears to have been worked out in a complete and concise
form such as to be of use to the busy man. This field of investigation might
be better spoken of as an adjoining frontier, since it is the common ground
upon which the technological knowledge of the properties and uses of woods,
and the scientific study of the growth and anatomy of the wood substance
from the botanical standpoint join together. In both of these separate fields
an enormous amount of study has been carried on, and a great deal of
knowledge exists, and there has been a number of very extensive works pub-
lished in an attempt to cover the entire subject. Almost without exception,
however, where the treatise is so broad in its scope, this frontier of knowledge
has been narrowed down to a line or largely obscured. Such works, however,
are beyond the use of the busy man because of their very comprehensiveness.
As a rule it is the botanist who is most familiar with the anatomy or histology
of wood structure, while he knows but little of the processes of manufacture
of wood or of its use in framed structures. On the other hand, the manu-
facturer, carpenter and engineer know little or nothing about the microscopic
make-up of the very material with which they are working and which they
have been handling most of their lives. Why is white oak more lasting and
better wearing than red oak, and why is the former suitable for light cooperage
while the latter is not? Why are firs so difficult to treat with preservatives
and pines so easy? Why is eucalyptus so difficult to dry? Ask questions
like these of the artisan or engineer and what, as a rule, can he reply? Yet
the answers are simple and can be clearly shown in a way to be at once com-
prehensible to the business man without scientific training.
As a rule, in works discussing the properties of woods where the
microscopic structure is shown, it is done from the standpoint of the identifica-
tion of species, and little or nothing is said in regard to the correlation of
structure with properties and uses.
While it is fully realized that many of the properties of wood cannot
be predicted nor explained from a microscopic examination of structure alone,
yet it is believed that much information of value would result from a sys-
tematic study of this kind. Already the importance and effect of thoroughly
drying wood for preservative treatment and the effect of steaming have been
demonstrated by a study of this kind, made at the Yale laboratory of the
Forest Service,* and the reason why white oak is suitable where red oak is
*In Bulletin 107 and 120 of the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of
Way Association 1909 and 1910, on the “Physical Structure of Wood in Relation to its
Penetrability,” by H. D. Tiemann.
206
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MICROSCOPIC WORK ON THE STRUCTURE OF WOOD 211
not has been clearly shown. A careful study of the structure of several
woods and the changes which are produced in drying and under mechanical
stresses was made at Yale laboratory by Mr. W. D. Brush under the writer’s
direction. A statement of his results, fully illustrated by excellent photo-
micrographs and drawings, appears in an unpublished Forest Service report.
The Service has planned a comprehensive line of work of this kind which
is now under way at the new Madison Laboratory. (Other microscopic work
on the histology of wood, but from the botanical standpoint, with a view to
the identification of species, is also being carried on in Washington in the
section of Dendrology.) The principal purpose of this work is to bring the
two fields of knowledge mentioned before into relationship by making clear
to the artisan, engineer or user of wood, the (microscopic) anatomical
structure and differences in structure of various woods which underlie the
physical and mechanical properties, and differences, in the material he is
using and with which he is already familiar. New uses and reasons for not
using various woods will also naturally be suggested.
To exhibit these facts, chief reliance will be placed upon photomicro-
graphs of the wood sections and elements themselves. These will be arranged
in a systematic and logical manner and will be shown at uniform magnifica-
tions so that the micrographs of all the different species will be directly com-
parable. The views will be supplemented by such descriptions and discussions
as will lend clearness to the subject. This discussion will be in non-technical
language so as to be intelligible to the persons for whom it should be chiefly
valuable.
It is believed that this proposed publication will be unique in this respect.
Among all the works covering these fields, nothing has been found with this
specific purpose in view, and giving illustrations in a comprehensive manner
and of uniform style. It is our purpose, as far as possible, to make the illus-
trations speak for themselves, which will be in a universal language not re-
quiring translation.
The equipment of the laboratory for this research is very complete. As
a foundation, a collection of important commercial woods is being made. The
specimens consist of short logs from normal commercial trees, the sylvical
conditions of the place of growth of each specimen being recorded. From these
specimens small pencils are cut while green and preserved in paraffin or for-
malin without being allowed to dry out. The pencils are taken at a point
about four feet above the root swelling and run from bark to center. Thus
a representative piece is obtained for the microscopic sections. In many cases
another piece is taken from the top of the same tree. Thus far about one
bundred species have been obtained.
The first part of the work consists in the preparation of a complete col-
lection of permanent microscopic slides. The small pencils cut from the wood
specimens are treated in the usual manner for preparing microscopic slides,
sectioned on a special microtome, stained and mounted in balsam. As a rule
three samples are taken from each pencil, one from the sap wood, one from
the main portion of the heartwood, and another from near the center of the
tree. From these samples sections are made in three planes; transverse, radial
and tangential.
The microscopic slides thus completed would be of little use to the public
for the purpose intended without the next step, namely, the photomicrographs.
A complete equipment for this work is installed at the laboratory, including
a dark room and all accessories. The apparatus for making the photographs
consists essentially of an are light, a system of condensing lenses, ray filters
for obtaining monochromatic light, microscope and lenses, shutter, camera
212 AMERICAN FORESTRY
bellows and plate holders. In the apparatus here used, which is a Bausch &
Lomb “Balopticon” and Zeiss microscope, the parts are mounted horizontally
in the order mentioned. The heavy iron bases supporting the several parts
are placed on rubber cushions under the feet as a precaution against vibra-
tions, as a very minute vibration of the microscope is greatly magnified upon
the screen. Non-halation orthochromatic plates have been found to give the
best results, although ordinary plates may be used with fair success. The
process of taking the photographs through the microscope does not differ
materially from that of taking an ordinary picture with a camera by use of a
color screen or ray filter. The art of making these micrographs consists
largely in obtaining a uniform illumination of the field and the proper focus.
To focus properly requires experience, as it is not possible to show on the
screen exactly what one sees through the microscope with the eye, since in
the latter case a slight adjustment is made by the eye, whereas in the camera
the focus is dead and in one plane only. The effect of perspective is lost in the
camera. Of course the result in every case is absolutely dependent upon the
slide, which, for the best results, must be of the proper thinness, correctly and
uniformly stained, absolutely flat, clean and free from air bubbles. It must
also be of sufficient size to cover the field desired.
To illustrate the wood structure, two or more magnifications will be used,
a low power of perhaps 30 or 50 diameters to show the general appearance,
and a higher power of perhaps 300 diameters to show the minute structure in
detail. Higher magnifications also will be used when it is desired to show re-
markable features such as bordered pits, for instance.
The largest views taken will be eight by ten inches, which can be subse-
quently reduced to any size for publication. The accompanying photographs
are given as illustrations of the views to be shown, and are made from sec-
tions of Bull Pine (Pinus ponderosa). Figures 1 to 3 are magnified thirty
times; 4 to 6, three hundred times; and 7 and 8, eight hundred times. Similar
views to these are to be made of the various important species so far as any
visible distinctions can be shown, and an attempt made to show, as far as
possible, the interpretation of these features or distinctions in the outward
properties, and distinctions in properties, of the various woods In some in-
stances it is contemplated to show in addition to the sections the individual
separated elements.
The work is being done by the section of timber physics, and is in the
hands of experts in this line. Miss Eloise Gerry, who is making the sections
and slides, comes to us from Dr. Jeffrey of Harvard, and Mr. Simon Kirsch,
who is making the photomicrographs and has general oversight of the work,
is from the late Dr. Penhallow of McGill University.
It is not our belief that a study of this kind will ever fully explain the
differences in the mechanical and physical properties of different woods, nor
can it be hoped to offer a means of predicting with completeness how a new
or unknown wood will behave. Such points must be determined chiefly, as
heretofore, by direct actual tests of the properties in question. Even were
this prediction possible, it is very doubtful whether it would serve any prac-
tical use, since ordinarily it would be easier and simpler to make the direct
test than to cut, prepare and examine the sections under the microscope. How-
ever, while it may never be possible to completely predict the properties, cer-
tain uses and behavior of the species under given conditions will most likely
be indicated and suggested and much clarity and light will be thrown on the
causes of the behavior of the various woods under certain conditions and
treatments. It has been the experience of the past that wherever knowledge
of fundamental truths has been brought to light, important results have fol-
MICROSCOPIC WORK ON THE STRUCTURE OF WOOD 213
lowed. It is impossible to foretell explicitly the benefits which may arise from
a clearing away of the clouds hanging over this adjoining border land of
knowledge, but it is reasonably certain that benefits will result fully com-
mensurate with the expense of the task.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following are some of the most important works referred to, in which
the entire subject in the two fields of knowledge is more or less covered.
One of the earliest comprehensive works of this kind, and still a standard
in many ways, is that of Dr. H. Nérdlinger, published in 1860, “Die Tech-
nischen Eigenschaften der Holzer, fiir Forst und Baubeamte, Technologen und
Gewerbtreibende.” (The Technical Properties of Timber for Forest and Civil
Engineers, Technologists and Manufacturers.) For the mechanical proper-
ties Nordlinger relied largely upon the previous work of Chevandier and
Wertheim. He added a description of the anatomical structure of the various
species of wood with a view to explaining many of their properties from the
anatomy. He treated also upon their chemical and physical properties, in-
cluding durability and defects. A more recent publication by the same author
appeared in 1890: “Die Gewerblichen Eigenschaften der Holzer.” (The In-
dustrial Properties of Timber.)
Another work, in French, “Le Bois,’ was published by J. Beauverie in 1905.
In this work, which covers 1,400 pages, the attempt at extreme comprehen-
siveness is made. Every phase of the subject of wood is gone into, from a bo-
tanical description of the trees to the manufactured products. Much space is
also given to insect and fungus enemies of the trees, and a description of the
forests of the world is given. A table is added grouping the woods by their
anatomical structure and giving the uses. The work is really an encyclopedia
and is almost too comprehensive to be authoritative in any one line.
“Die Forstbenutzung” (Forest Utilization), by Karl Gayer and Heinrich
Mayr was published in 1909 as a tenth edition. It contains 630 pages and also
covers a very wide range from the growth of the timber in the forest to its
ultimate use, including all by-products, even the soil.
The works of Theodore and of Robert Hartig should be mentioned in this
connection, and also Lorey’s “Handbuch der Forstwissenschaft,” published in
1887 in three volumes, and recently a second edition in four volumes.
In the way of descriptive material, the collection of actual wood sections
made by Dr. Nordlinger and published 1852-1860, “Querschnitte von 100 Hol-
zarten” is worthy of record, and more recently, the similar and larger work
on “American Woods” by R. B. Hough.
In English not very much of an extensive nature has appeared in this
line. One of the best works is by Boulger, entitled “Wood,” of which the 2nd
edition was published in 1908. In this book a number of photomicrographs
are given of wood sections. “Timber and Timber Trees,” by Laslett, 1894,
touches upon the structure as an introduction to a description of the mechan-
ical properties of commercial woods. Herbert Stone, in his “Timbers of Com-
merce and their Identification” (1905), goes so far as to show a slightly mag-
nified photograph of each species described. A publication by J. R. Baterden,
in 1908, entitled “Timber,” gives a brief description of many commercial woods
but very little on the anatomy.
One of the best publications in English, discussing the structure of wood
and its relation to its properties, is Forest Service Bulletin No. 10 by Filibert
Roth on “Timber,” published in 1895. Bulletin 13, “The Southern Pines,” by
Mohr and Roth, and Bulletin 22, “The White Pine,” by Spaulding and Fer-
now, are also of value from this point of view.
914 AMERICAN FORESTRY
There are also other publications touching more or less upon this subject,
but the above is intended only as a brief review of some of the best works.
As stated in the beginning, there is a vast amount of literature covering
the anatomy of woods, and also their mechanical and technical properties and
uses, but only such works as touch upon the relation of the two fields of knowl-
edge have been cited in this review.
THE FOREST AND THE FARM
Agriculture, delivered an address at the University Club in Buffalo,
on the country life movement in America, which, if we may judge from
the newspaper reports, was full of the wisdom we always expect from him.
Mr. Bailey admitted that present conditions in the country were bad, but he
declared that these conditions would soon be of the past. Before many years
co-operative farming, new methods, new social customs, new relations with
the city, would have worked out a complete change in the business of farming
and the lot of the individual dwellers on the land.
But the point of especial interest to us was his plan for utilization of
abandoned farm lands, those that have passed out of profitable use forever
on account of changed conditions. “Yet,” he declared, “they are not useless.
It simply does not pay to handle them and they should be put to their destined
use.” He noted the development of wheat and corn growing on a large
scale in the west, leaving truck farming to the east, and that is profitable
only near large cities or good transportation. Then he said, as reported, “I
am strongly in favor of a system of some sort of county ownership or state
ownership. Let the community buy these abandoned lands as it could very
cheaply. Let it reforest them. Most of the hill-tops in the Adirondack region
and the center of the state could most profitably be converted to that use.
Others could be used for raising live stock, others again to raising apples for
export. Individual ownership should not be allowed to drop in applying
these methods. It could go on and afford good livings to many farmers. But
the state should no longer allow those lands to go to waste for want of a
little enterprise and co-operation.”
There was much more, but in this suggestion of community ownership
and reforestation we believe lies the solution of much of the abandoned and
waste land problem of our densely populated eastern states. Even in such a
populous state as Massachusetts more than half the land can only be profitably
used to grow trees. In part they may be orchard trees, for wonderful fruit
tC H. BAILEY, the dean of the New York State College of
can be raised on some of these discouraging looking New England hillsides.
But on the larger part of this acreage forest trees must be the solution. The
future welfare of these states demands that this plan be adopted and soon.
Already many of our eastern farmers are learning that their woodlots are not
by any means the least of their possessions. Perhaps by and by our towns,
counties and states will learn to follow the example of the thrifty communities
of Europe and turn their waste lands into bank accounts for the people.
FRANCONIA NOTCH FROM NORTH WOOD-
STOCK, NEW HAMPSHIRE
TYPICAL WHITE MOUNTAIN FOR-
EST CONDITIONS
SKIDWAY WITH FOUR-HORSE TEAMS
UNLOADING, SCALER SCALING
LOGS, AND THREE LOADED CARS ON
TRACK; NEW CAMP ON RIGHT.
LINCOLN, N. H.
GRADED LOGGING ROAD; GRADING
cost $16 PER MILE, FOUNDATION
FOR TRESTLE IN FOREGROUND.
TYPICAL WHITE MOUNTAIN FOR- NEW EXTENSION OF LOGGING RAIL-
2ST CONDITIONS ROAD THROUGH FRANCONIA, N. H.
TYPICAL WHITE MOUNTAIN FOR-
EST CONDITIONS
NEAR SUMMIT OF MT. ECHO,
WHITE MOUNTAINS. FIRE CON-
SUMED THE SOIL TWENTY-
THREE YEARS AGO AND LEFT IT
PERMANENTLY BARREN
MT. WEBSTER, WHITE MOUNTAINS,
MADE PERMANENTLY BARREN
BY FIRE AND EROSION FOLLOW-
ING THE AXE. THIS IS WHY
WE WANT PROTECTIVE FORESTS
ON STEEP UPPER SLOPES
MT. ADAMS, WHITE MOUNTAINS,
SHOWING HOW FIRE RAN OVER
DURAND RIDGE AND BURNED THE
SCRUB
TYPICAL WHITE MOUNTAIN FOR-
EST CONDITIONS
FOREST PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION
PROPOSED BY WISCONSIN
By E. M. GRIFFITH
STATE FORESTER OF WISCONSIN.
(An address delivered at the Lake States Fire Conference, December 4.)
country cannot be conserved through wise use until the government,
the states and the private owners are willing to spend the large sums
which will be necessary to stop the annual and appalling loss from forest
fires. This country is growing out of its irresponsible boyhood days, with its
reckless waste and utter disregard for the future, and as it has grown older,
and as elbow begins to rub elbow with the enormous increase in population,
we are beginning to learn a truth long known in older countries, that the state
in order to do its duty to all its citizens must use its general police powers
much more freely than in the past, and that the selfish interest of the indi-
vidual must give way to the infinitely greater good of the whole people.
This academic introduction is merely to prepare your minds for the
extensive fire protection system which we hope will be adopted by the state
of Wisconsin; which will cost a very large sum and will oblige the state to
exercise its police powers, so as to protect not only its own timberlands, but
those of all its citizens as well.
The United States census for 1900 gave Wisconsin the proud position of
ranking first among all the states in the production of lumber. The census
of 1910 will show that Wisconsin has fallen back in these te years to eighth
place, and that her production of lumber in the same period of time has
decreased forty per cent, which is more than that of any other state. The
wood using industries of the state, not counting the saw mills, use annually
over 930 million board feet of lumber, valued at $20,000,000, but the state
will lose these industries, and many others even more important, as saw mills,
paper and pulp mills, ete., unless all forms of needless waste are stopped, and
certainly forest fires are the most useless and needless forms of forest waste.
The Lake States Forest Fire Conference proves that the severe fire losses
of 1910, following the even greater losses of 1908, have aroused us all as never
before, and if our legislators can truly appreciate the situation, I am sure they
will not fail to act. Let us see what the fire losses have been in Wisconsin.
In 1908, according to the reports of our fire wardens, 1,200,000 acres were
burned over, and the loss in timber and young growth amounted to $9,000,000.
For 1910 our reports are still incomplete, but those received indicate that at
least 1,000,000 acres have been burned over, and that the financial loss will
amount to several million dollars. The direct loss of merchantable timber,
however, is not by any means the most serious in its lasting results, but
rather the loss of the industries which depend upon the forests for their raw
material, and the still greater ultimate loss through the destruction of young,
growing timber, upon thousands of acres which are burned over every year.
me thinking people realize that the wonderful forest wealth of this
219
220) AMERICAN FORESTRY
Wisconsin has a wealth of fertile land awaiting cultivation, but she also has
large areas more valuable for forest growth, and the people of our state do
not as yet begin to appreciate the great future value of the young timber upon
such lands, and the careful protection which such small timber needs. Mature
merchantable timber which is burned can often be cut and so saved, but young
timber when burned is almost always a total loss.
At present Wisconsin has the following system of town fire wardens:
The state forester is authorized to appoint as many fire wardens in each
organized town in the state as he deems necessary, and we now have over 500 fire
wardens in the northern or forest portion of the state. These fire wardens post
notices, have authority to call upon any person to assist them in fighting fire,
are given the same authority as sheriffs to arrest without a warrant, and
when in their judgment a dangerously dry time exists, and it is unsafe to set
fire for clearing land, or for any other purpose, they have the authority to post
special warning notices, forbidding the setting of any fires. The fire wardens
and the men called out by them, are paid by the town boards for the time
which they actually serve at a rate not exceeding 25 cents per hour, but the
total amount which can be expended annually is limited to $100 per township,
or 36 sections. It will be noted that the fire wardens have a considerable
amount of authority, and as the best available men, irrespective of politics,
have been appointed, they have put out thousands of small fires and thus
averted much heavier losses, but the whole system is faulty from the fact
that it is based upon the plan of putting out fires after they occur, while it is
now becoming a well known truth that the greatest efforts in forest protection
should be centered upon fire prevention.
It must have been an old forest fire fighter who coined the expression
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” and probably he had seen
as we nearly all have, a small neglected blaze fanned and spread by the winds
until it became a fire of such proportions that men were powerless before it.
The present limit of expense in fighting fire of $100 per township is
absolutely inadequate in very dry years, such as 1908 and 1910, and in such
times when the wardens are needed the most is no time to have the financial
cog of the system break down.
Theoretical’y, the plan of allowing fires to be set at any time, except
when the local fire warden posts notices forbidding any fires, is correct, for it
imposes the least possible interference with individual rights and especially
the clearing of forest lands by settlers in order to make farms, which is of
course so necessary, provided it is done at the proper time, and in the proper
manner, so as to avoid the wide destruction of the past. Such enormous
damage has been done in Wisconsin for the last six years, through fires set
by settlers in clearing land, and it is so difficult to secure convictions as the
settler can merely claim that he did not see the special warning notices for-
bidding the setting of fires, that we feel that we have the cart before the horse
and that a radical change in the law is demanded.
We must prevent as far as possible the starting of forest fires, and there-
fore the state board of forestry of Wisconsin has decided to urge upon our
legislature the great importance and necessity of providing a forest fire
patrol in northern Wisconsin, upon the following lines:
A chief forest fire patrol, appointed by and under the supervision of the
state board of forestry,, with headquarters at some central point. He should
be a practical woodsman, with a wide knowledge of the northern part of the
state, and the ability to handle men. He should be supplied with an office and
such clerical help as may be necessary.
In each of twenty-five or more of the northern counties there should be
located at some central point a head county fire patrol, in charge of the work
PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION PROPOSED BY WISCONSIN = 221
in his county. He should be under the direct orders of his chief, report to him
weekly, be obliged to keep one or more saddle horses, and cover every part of
his county at stated intervals.
Under the direct supervision and orders of the head patrols in each county
would be county forest fire patrols, varying in number according to the size
of the county, and the amount of forest land to be protected, but sufficient in
number so that each man would not have over 40,000 acres of land to patrol.
For the twenty-two northern counties which it is proposed that the patrols
shall cover, it is expected that at least 322 men will be required. The plan
is that all these men shall be secured from lumber companies who only operate
in winter, as thus their best men would be given work every summer, the
state would secure the services of trained woodsmen, and both the state and
the lumber companies would gain the great advantage of having permanent
men upon whose ability they could count. Each county patrol would have
a given territory to look after and for which he would be responsible, they
would live in cabins or shacks, and whenever possible they would be mounted
so as to patrol quickly and to get to a fire with the least possible delay. They
should be instructed to at once call upon.every settler in their territory, ex-
plain the fire laws thoroughly, and in every way try to make the settlers
appreciate that they are working for their interest and want their hearty co-
operation.
As soon as funds are available, telephone lines should be built to connect
all the patrol camps or cabins, so that the head patrol could call all his men
together at any point in the county to fight fire, and wherever possible watch
towers should be built, where men would be stationed in dangerously dry
times to immediately report signs of fire in any direction. Such watch towers
have been built by the lumbermen in Maine and have proved very useful.
During wet seasons when there is practically no danger from forest fire,
the head patrol in each county should call his men together and clear up old
logging roads, logging railroad rights of way, trails, etc., so that they could
be used as fire lines. This is very important as our experience in fighting
fires for the last few years has proved over and over again that the men are
seriously handicapped in checking fires promptly, from the fact that there
are so few roads which are kept clear of brush, and therefore they have no
fire line to fall back upon in case of necessity. Much good can also be done
by felling old snags, which are the means of spreading fire to a great distance
in a heavy wind and also by burning at favorable times heavy and dangerous
slash where it is a constant menace to adjoining timber or other property.
In this connection it should be noted that it is proposed to include in the
law an important provision giving the state board of forestry power to order
the burning of dangerous slash, so as to provide a reasonably wide strip next
to adjoining property which is menaced by such slash, and that if the owner of
the land or the timber fails to comply with the order of the board within a
specified and reasonable period, the state board of forestry shall burn such
slash, the cost thereof to be a first lien upon the land or timber. If the state
of Wisconsin is not to have a general slash burning law, it is absolutely
necessary that the state, through some board or commission, should have the
right to determine when and where slash is such a public nuisance that it
must be destroyed. In this way each case can be carefully considered and the
law, if enforced fairly and efficiently, should be a very effective means of
forest protection.
One of the most important provisions of the proposed law is to provide
that no fires shall be set by any one from April 1st to December Ist (except
for warming the person or cooking food) without a written permit from a
patrol or fire warden. This would mean that any fires set for the purpose of
222 AMERICAN FORESTRY
clearing land, burning brush or slash, without a written permit, would be
absolute evidence of violation of the law, sufficient to secure conviction. The
objection may be raised that the settler is obliged to use fire very freely in
order to make a farm on land covered with young timber, brush and slash.
This is of course true, but our records of forest fires in Wisconsin for the last
six years show that from forty per cent to seventy per cent of all the fires have
been caused by settlers burning brush. A large proportion of the settlers in
the forest regions of the state are grossly negligent in the use of fire, and often
apparently indifferent to the damage which they may cause to the property
of others. They frequently select the dryest and most dangerous times to start
their fires, and fail to take reasonable precautions to prevent the fire spreading.
Under the proposed plan, the local patrols and fire wardens would be
authorized, as agents of the state board of forestry, to issue permits to set fire
when it was safe to do so, and the patrols would be instructed to assist new
settlers by showing them how to burn safely and to use their authority rea-
sonably, so as to secure the co-operation of the settlers. Campers, hunters and
fishermen must be allowed to build fire at any time, as this is necessary both
for cooking and warmth, but the patrols should keep in close touch with all
such parties and arrest them promptly for leaving a camp fire unextinguished.
It will be noted in this proposed plan that the patrols are intended in
every possible way to prevent the starting of fires. They will of course be a
well organized body to fight fires when they occur, but their first and main
duty will be to prevent fires starting. However, under the best possible system
some fires will always occur, and in order to have an auxiliary force, under
the direction of the patrols and which they can call in time of necessity, it is
proposed to appoint county fire wardens and do away entirely with the present
system of town fire wardens. Many of the town boards have seriously handi-
capped the work of the wardens by failing to promptly pay the wardens, and
rhe men called out by them. Men will refuse to fight fire if they are obliged
o often wait a year for their pay. Most town boards are also strongly averse
to allowing any pay if their wardens help to fight fire in adjoining towns,
though such fires may at any time destroy much valuable property in their
own town. Therefore, it is necessary in order to secure good results to appoint
the wardens for the county, instead of the town, and give them full authority
to fight fire anywhere in their own or adjoining counties. The present limit
of $100 per township, or 36 sections, for fighting fire is entirely inadequate,
and therefore it is proposed to increase the limit which any county may ex-
pend in any one year to $300 per township. Thus, if a county contains 20
townships it could expend a total of $6,000 in fighting fire, but it should also
be provided that the county board of supervisors could exceed this amount in
cases of great necessity.
In order that the fire wardens and the men called out by them should
be paid promptly, it is proposed that the state shall pay the men and collect
the expense from the counties. The patrols should keep in close touch with the
wardens and arrange with them as to the men who should be called out in case
of fire, and thus build up a well trained organization for the control of forest
fires.
Wisconsin now has a forest reserve of some 340,000 acres, largely upon
the headwaters of the Wisconsin and Chippewa rivers, but in order to protect
this important watershed, preserve this beautiful lake region as a summer
resort for the citizens of Wisconsin and other states,, and also to have a forest
reserve large enough to be a factor in supplying the wood using industries of
the state with timber, the state board of forestry will urge the necessity of
acquiring a forest reserve of approximately 2,000,000 acres. The land must
be purchased and in order to raise the necessary funds for the creation of an
PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION PROPOSED BY WISCONSIN = 2238
adequate forest reserve, including its protection and improvement, and also to
pay for the fire patrol system in northern Wisconsin, the legislature will be
asked to grant the state board of forestry the proceeds of a two-tenths of a mill
state tax for a period of twenty years. This general state tax will yield a
yearly revenue of approximately $600,000, and it is estimated that the cost
of the patrol system will amount to $250,000 per year. However, the amount
which may be expended in the patrol system should be extremely elastic in
order to meet varying conditions, and the forestry board should be authorized
to expend the entire income of the department if it was found necessary to do
so, in an unusually dry and dangerous year.
At first glance, $250,000 may seem a very large amount to expend annually
for forest fire patrols, but in the 22 counties which it is proposed to patrol,
there are about 12,000,000 acres of wild or unimproved lands, most of which
are covered with some kind of forest growth, so that the cost would be from
two to three cents per acre, and if the patrol system is at all successful, in
protecting property, the cost will really represent a very low rate of insurance.
Nothing has been said in regard to fires set by the railroads, and this is not
from lack of full appreciation of how serious the loss has been from forest
fires set in this way, but from the fact that the best remedy has not been found,
though both the state of Wisconsin and the railroad officials are working to
solve this difficult problem. Our records show that in ordinary years the
railroads are only responsible for about fifteen per cent of the forest fires, but
the past summer was so dry that the least spark would start a blaze and
therefore in 1910 the railroads started about twenty-two per cent of the fires.
There are many kinds of spark arresters that will prevent the escape of
all sparks, but none has yet been found that will both prevent the escape of
sparks and still allow the engine to steam freely, and pull its load. But many
men are working to solve this problem and the correct solution should come
in time. In the meantime, however, the spreading of forest fires must be
stopped, and it is simply a question of the best and most effective methods.
Some advocate that all railroad rights of way be kept absolutely clear on both
sides of the track. Others place more faith in a close fire patrol on railroad
lines, especially of patrols on speeders who will follow up each train and
extinguish all small fires that are set. Personally, I believe that a combina-
tion of fire lines and patrols, will prove most effective, but that every effort
should be made to find a spark arrester that will still allow the engine to
steam freely.
The American people as a whole are uncivilized in their apparently
stoical indifference to the appalling annual losses from forest fires. The
problems involved are tremendous ones, but they can be solved if only the
nation, state and individual care enough to devote the hard work and large
sums that will be required. This Lake States Forest Fire Conference leads me
to hope that the time of mere talking is drawing to an end, and that very soon
real action to save our forest resources will commence.
SOME THINGS A FOREST RANGER SHOULD KNOW
By C,H. SHATTUME,
PROFESSOR OF FORESTRY, UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO.
F BRIEF summary of the information which a young man about to enter
the forest service as a ranger should have may be of interest. In my
judgment the first essential is a knowledge of the general geography of
the district which he is to supervise. It is very necessary that he be able to
direct those under him as to the location of meadows for the pasture of horses,
the name and course of various streams, the trend of mountain chains, and the
names and locations of prominent peaks. He should have a very thorough
knowledge of roads, trails, and the location of cabins, and the manner of con-
structing each. He must also know how to handle horses. The ordinary
mountain cayuse instinctively knows the tenderfoot, and will proceed on the
slightest provocation to reveal bits of equine ingenuity which are sometimes
surprising and often aggravating in the extreme.
It is imperative that he be familiar with the business of packing; this can
only be acquired by actual practice, either in his college course or in the field.
Many a young man has come to grief in the practical rangers’ examination
because he could not put up in a permanent manner a conglomeration of cook-
ing utensils, axes, shovels, cross-cut saws, provisions, and sleeping and wear-
ing apparel. He must know how to throw the diamond-hitch and the yarious
swings and loops for holding each of the above necessaries on the back of a
sliding, climbing, jumping horse. Roads and trails are often steep and some-
times barred by various sized logs, the jumping of which by the horses tests
thoroughly the packer’s skill in the use of rope.
The ranger must be able to select suitable provisions and must know how
to do ordinary cooking. He must have things which cannot be brought from
the far-a-way bakery. Bread must be made, meats prepared and cooked, and
various vegetables and cereals come in for their share of attention. Making
camp is another important feature. In selecting a site the essentials are:
Good grass for his horses, good water for camp purposes, if possible good fish-
ing, and in dry seasons, such a location that the fires may not burn his entire
outfit. In addition he should make it his business to be familiar with the
forest laws, and the rules and regulations affecting his reserve. He should
know as intimately as possible the people who reside within the boundaries of
his district, as much of his success will depend upon the wise and tactful
manner in which he conducts himself in all his relations with them. He should
know, if he should be in a grazing region, the brand and ear-marks of the stock
in his district, and the approximate number owned by each individual. He
must know the timber of his district both as to stands and kinds of trees. If
lumbering operations are conducted he should see to it that the cutting and
224
SOME THINGS A FOREST RANGER SHOULD KNOW 225
burning is carried out according to contract. In much of this western country
it devolves upon him to act as a protector of game. The actual settlers are
generally glad to stay within the limits of killing fixed by the game laws, and
they do not approve of the intrusions of the poacher, whose main object is to
kill as much as possible without regard to law. As an officer of the law, the
ranger is a great influence in ridding the reserve of ruthless hunters who kill
often for horns and teeth only.
Such in brief, is the essential information which a ranger should have.
Over and above this he should be a man who is able to impress those with
whom he comes in contact with the idea that he stands for law, for justice
to all and malice toward none. He must be fearless in the exercise of the
duties devolving upon him, some of which require courage, and others great
powers of physical endurance. It is desirable that he be not too far removed
from the land of his birth, as the native will be much more apt to deal in a
manner to be commended with the many perplexing problems constantly
coming up than one brought from a distance.
EDITORIAL
WORK UNDER THE NEW FOREST LAW
HE Forest Service had been preparing for action in view of the probable
( passage of the Weeks bill for some time before it became a law and no
time was lost in preliminaries. All arrangements have been made for
making public the necessary information and for putting men in the field,
so that purchases may be made before the close of the fiscal year. It is,
therefore, timely to consider what is needed to obtain most promptly the
results expected from the law.
As already stated, conditions are so acute in the White Mountains and
the territory to be considered is so much more circumscribed than in the
south that immediate action is called for there. It will also be easier to
make purchases in that section during what remains of the fiscal year because
titles are so much clearer than in the southern mountains, and the owners
are so much less numerous. It may fairly be expected then that the first
action to be taken by the government authorities will be in the White
Mountains.
In these mountains, owing to the local conditions, the primary need is
to secure for protective purposes the timbered upper slopes on the several
drainage areas, all of which are in danger of early destruction and are needed
to be preserved to protect the ultimate water sources and the soil without
which these mountain-sides will be of little use.
Next in order would seem to come the cut-over upper slopes in the same
regions, in order that the work of restoration may begin before the soil
denudation is completed.
Third, the administrative units may be completed by acquisitions on
the lower levels. Thus the work of protection, which is the main purpose of
the law, will be logically developed.
Finally, there are two areas outside of the White Mountains proper the
protection of which is necessary to comply with the purposes of the law.
One of these is the great forested north country of Coos County, about the
headwaters of the Connecticut, the most important navigable stream of New
Hngland. The other is the Magalloway country in Maine and New Hamp-
shire, an important part of the Androscoggin watershed. We believe that
the full carrying out of these plans involves the purchase of about a million
acres in the north, and that something over four million acres are needed for
the national holdings in the south, where the exact areas are not yet so
definitely indicated. In the northern mountains the plan has been carefully
studied by many experts and the requirements are well understood. There
need be little delay, therefore, in mapping out the exact plan of procedure.
In the announcement made elsewhere of the plans of the department we
call especial attention to Secretary Wilson’s statement that he expects a
great deal of public spirit to be shown in offering lands to carry out this great
policy. We hope he may not be disappointed.
226
EDITORIAL 227
AN UNFRIENDLY APPOINTMENT
HAT the Speaker of the late House of Representatives was a bitter
enemy of Appalachian-White Mountain forest legislation and that he
is a determined and persistent fighter were perfectly well-known facts.
We hardly supposed, however, that he would carry his hostility after the
Weeks bill was passed to the point of naming, as one of the National Forest
Reservation Commission provided for under the new law, a man who had
been always an opponent of the measure, unwilling to see any good in it, and
whose residence on the Pacific Coast precludes knowledge of the conditions
in our eastern mountains. So incongruous did this appointment seem that
a long statement was made to some of the newspaper correspondents to explain
why Mr. Hawley of Oregon would be a peculiarly useful member of the
Commission.
Of Mr. Hawley’s integrity and sincerity we make no question and we
believe he will act conscientiously as a member of the Commission. We
believe, however, that it is quite unprecedented to appoint to administer a law
a man who is so entirely out of sympathy with its purpose and unacquainted
with the conditions it was framed to meet. In making such an appointment
Mr. Cannon simply showed his continued determination to oppose the new
law and to do what he could to make it a failure. Fortunately, this is very
little since Mr. Hawley is but one of seven.
It may be a question under the terms of the act whether any of these
appointments are valid beyond the term of the 61st Congress. For the act
says: “Provided, that the members of the commission herein created shall
serve as such only during their incumbency in their respective official positions,
and any vacancy on the commission shall be filled in the manner as the original
appointment.”
These members were appointed as members of the 61st Congress by the
presiding officers of that Congress. Does this appointment run beyond the
life of this Congress?
THE REPORT ON THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
HE report on the lumber industry by the Commissioner of Corporations,
Herbert Knox Smith, of which we have already published a summary, is a
document that yields new light on close study; but its importance should
not be exaggerated. There is an old story, familiar to everyone, of the shield
one side of which was silver and the other of gold, and of the controversy that
arose between two men each of whom looked at only one side. It may be
suggested in passing that Commissioner Smith’s report was made by an able
lawyer whose especial business has been hunting for trusts and monopolies
and the consequences thereof. His report on the lumber industry reflects
this acquired attitude. It looks at one side of the shield only, and its value
must be rated with that in mind.
The first fact suggested by it we briefly called attention to last month.
The concentration of timberland ownership which forms the burden of the
report is the result of a public policy which we now see was lacking in wisdom
and forethought, although it seemed to fit the conditions of development of
a new country. The result has been, instead of the general distribution
of the national wealth which was intended, concentration of this wealth in
comparatively few hands. For this there is no remedy and we must simply
accept the fact. As we have said, the fact is an argument plain and
unanswerable for national or state ownership of as large a part of the forests
228 AMERICAN FORESTRY
that remain as possible, and for the thorough development and management
of these public holdings so that they will constitute the chief single factor in
lumber production and so equalize conditions and balance the market. This
is not an easy goal to arrive at, but it is practicable. Our national and state
forest services must be developed to the highest point of efficiency and they
must have the people back of them for they represent the people’s end of this
enormous business.
Another thing that does not appear in this report but may in the sections
that are to follow is the difference between these large timberland owners
and the lumber manufacturers and the small owners. We surmise that in
any controversy that may arise the side of these latter factors would be
the people’s side. Their interest is against concentration of ownership in
private hands of the timberlands from which their industry derives its
life. Right here it may be appropriate to make an observation about the
so-called lumber trust, the bogey which is so often brought out to frighten
the people and irritate the lumbermen. Commissioner Smith has shown the
possibility of a timberland trust but that there is any likelihood of a dominant
trust in lumber trade or manufacturing, no one can believe who has the
slightest knowledge of the condition and of the keenness of the competition
to the extent almost of chaos. A sharp distinction must be drawn between
the ownership of timber and the lumber industry. Sometimes they go
together. Often they do not.
Another point should be noted. Mr. Smith discusses the rise in the value
of standing timber, solely from the point of view of the concentration of
ownership and consequent control of production. This should be considered
in connection with other conditions that normally affect prices. The rapid
decline of the available supply in the face of an increasing distance and
difficulty of access of the available supply are two important elements which
would inevitably cause a large increase in cost if there were no holdings of
over a hundred acres in the country.
These notes on the report are intended rather as suggestions than as
discussion. We wish that a forestry expert might have been joined with the
Commissioner of Corporations in this investigation because it seems to us
that in that case we should have had a broader report and more conclusive
results.
THE SECRETARYSHIP OF THE INTERIOR
EK WELCOME the appointment of Mr. Walter L. Fisher to the secretary-
ship of the Interior as that of a man who has shown a high sense of honor
and of public duty, sound views, and an exceptional capacity for inde-
pendent judgment. His record and affiliations justify confidence that he will
administer his great department with an eye single for the general welfare.
The retirement of Mr. Ballinger is not to be regretted. The controversy
of which he was the center assumed unfortunately so personal a character
and was so obscured by political considerations that it failed to be disposed
of to anybody’s satisfaction. The fact remained that Mr. Ballinger had
become, justly on unjustly, persona non grata to the American people as a
cabinet officer. His usefulness ceased some time ago. The continuance of
the personal feud embarrassed many departments and bureaus of the govern-
ment, and the change will be a relief that will work to the public advantage.
The whole episode was most unfortunate and our relief that it is over is so
great that we do not care to revive any of the old questions.
EDITORIAL 229
A BOURBON OF BOURBONS
pt bee IS much to be regretted that the country as a whole does not know
Senator Heyburn of Idaho, and his unreason and absurdities are not
always analyzed and valued at their real worthlessness. We have
actually seen editorials from papers in the east accepting as valid his violent
attacks on the Forest Service and making them the text of approving dis-
cussion. To those who are acquainted with the methods and habits of mind
of the senator from Idaho this seems impossible. It should be understood
that he is against the Forest Service, all its works, and anything connected
with it. With this knowledge as a key, much can be understood and allowed
for. His is a Bourbon mind—never learning and never forgetting anything.
His attack on the new national forest bill when it was before the Senate on
the fifteenth of February was so absurd as to be a serious reflection upon the
dignity of the Senate. With some opponents argument is possible. Senator
Heyburn’s method is to press his point by brute force and yield only when
overcome by greater force. With him argument is impossible.
THE CRAWFORD NOTCH IN DANGER
by the state of New Hampshire halts in the Legislature. Meanwhile a
hundred ax-men have already begun the work of denudation.
We have commented recently more than once on the notable progress
made by New Hampshire in forestry, and it is incredible that the state can
be so blind to its own best interests as to allow this opportunity for self-help
to slip by. In times past narrow and selfish interests have too often domi-
nated the state to its own detriment, but the recent awakening, the progressive
legislation, and the election of Governor Bass all gave promise of better things.
Here, however, is an opportunity that is likely to be a test. The cost is not
excessive. One hundred thousand dollars is a reasonable price for this property
when its many-sided value to the state is considered. On the other hand,
New Hampshire cannot afford at any price to have the Notch denuded and
thereby changed from a green and picturesque valley, one of the scenic wonders
of the state, to a gray, scarred waste. At every season of the year the Notch
has its peculiar beauty. As a travelled pass into the mountain country it is
worth much to the state of New Hampshire. As the source of the Saco it
weans much to industry; but it is one of the striking examples of mountain
sides that can never have their forest growth restored if they are once laid bare.
There is another side to the question. Neighbor states have been fighting
New Hampshire’s battle for national preservation of the chief watersheds of
the White Mountains. The battle has been won, but it was hardly won, and
the fruits of it are by no means certain. It has been conceded that New
Hampshire is not a wealthy state and could not handle this whole project
alone; but it has not been conceded that New Hampshire with its nominal
debt is poverty stricken or helpless. The new national forest bill as passed
is a general bill and New Hampshire can only have its share by deserving it.
if the state will not help itself when its interests are so plainly at stake there
will be slight inclination on the part of the national authorities to come to
its assistance. And there will be no lack of applicants for the few million
FF THIS is written, the project for the purchase of the Crawford Notch
AMERICAN FORESTRY
dollars provided for in the new forest law just passed. There is a plain duty
before the state of New Hampshire. This duty is to save the Crawford
Notch to be the permanent possession of the people of the state and thereafter
to secure such other of its mountain forest tracts as would not naturally be
included in the national holdings and are especially indicated as the property
of the state. In this way only can the full value of the new national forest
law be secured. It is not contemplated by any one that all the lands that
must be public forest reservations should be owned by the national govern-
ment. It is proposed that the national government should hold the great
interstate watersheds of navigable rivers and that this should be a nucleus
for state and private holdings which may be under the same or similar forest
administration and protection. The friends of New Hampshire who have
worked early and late for many years past to secure through the nation the pro-
tection that was desired, look to the state to prove by its own actions that it
deserves the interest that has been lavishly given to it.
CURRENT LITERATURE
REVIEWS The Cost of Growing Timber. By R. S.
The Mississippi River and its Wonderful
Valley. By Julius Chambers, Fellow of
the Royal Geographic Society, Member
of the National Geographic Society.
With 80 illustrations and maps. pp.
xvi, 308. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New
York and London, 1910.
Mr. Chambers has made in this volume
on the “Father of Waters’ an interesting
addition to the handsome Putnam series
on American waterways. The human and
historic sides of the great river’s life
interest the author especially, and there
is slight discussion of physical conditions,
or engineering, waterpower, and _ trans-
portation problems. Reviewing briefly the
the early conjectural period of Mississippi
River discovery, the work of De Soto, and
the much more extensive and fruitful
French explorations, the author comes
down to the days of the English and Amer-
icans, the Louisiana purchase, and the
early explorations to discover the some-
what elusive source of the river. The
most interesting part of the volume is the
chapters given to an account of the au-
thor’s own explorations, undertaken in 1872,
to complete the reconnaissance carried on by
Schoolcraft in 1832, and Nicollet in 1836,
resulting in the discovery of Elk Lake.
After this exploration the author went
by canoe to Saint Louis, and then by steam-
boat to New Orleans. There is a chapter
on the delta and a brief one on “The Age
of Water,’ after which the author turns
to the modern history of the river. Were
any criticism to be made of this enter-
taining volume it would be that there is
a lack of continuity in the narrative, and
too frequent interjection of irrelevant
matters.
Kellogg, Secretary Northern Hemlock
and Hardwood Manufacturers’ Associa-
tion, and BH. A. Ziegler, Director Penn-
sylvania State Forest Academy. Ameri-
can Lumberman, Chicago, 1911.
This interesting and practical pamphlet
is a development of a paper prepared by
the authors and presented at the seventh
annual meeting of the National Lumber
Manufacturers’ Association, in Seattle in
July of 1909. The discussion occasioned
by the paper and subsequent study of the
subject led them to revise the original
manuscript, and publish it in its present
form in the belief that its principles are
sound and will help toward a clearer con-
ception of the conditions which must be
established in the United States if forest
conservation is to be a reality. The key
to the discussion may be found in a sen-
tence in the introduction: “The permanent
timber supply will not be maintained by
private effort at less than the cost of pro-
duction.” The object of the pamphlet is
to present a method of analysis of the ele-
ments of cost of growing timber. These,
the authors say, are five: (1) the value
of the land; (2) the stocking of it with
young trees; (3) the administration of the
operation, and the protection of the grow-
ing timber; (4) the taxes; (5) the rate
of interest. These elements are then dis-
cussed in general, following which de-
tailed studies are made of the yield of cer-
tain trees. The trees chosen are the white
pine, the loblolly pine, the long-leaf pine,
red oak, and Douglas fir. The authors
then draw certain general conclusions as to
the profitableness of the production of the
species examined. An appendix contains
some cost tables which will be serviceable
in making computations.
CURRENT LITERATURE
As a beginning of a study of a most im-
portant subject, this pamphlet is practi-
cal, suggestive, and will well repay careful
examination by everyone interested in the
production of timber.
Handbook of Conservation. By Mrs. Fred
H. Tucker, Chairman of the Conserva-
tion Department, Massachusetts State
Federation of Women’s Clubs, pp. viii,
911. Boston, 1911.
This little handbook, a kind of syllabus
and note-book, is the result of painstaking
work by the able chairman of the conserva-
tion department of the Massachusetts
State Federation of Women’s Clubs. Very
few women have given more years of care-
ful and really scientific study to the sub-
ject of forestry and conservation than Mrs.
Tucker. This handbook, she says, has two
objects. First, to present an orderly series
of suggestive topics upon the conservation
of our natural resources, and second to
furnish explanatory comments upon the
various phases of the subject. The topics
are intended as a guide to study and may
be used as headings for papers, assign-
ments for class work, or merely as a con-
vient analysis for the general reader to
keep in mind the salient points and the logi-
cal development of the subject. The com-
ment is largely in the form of quotations
from well-known experts or practical men
of affairs. The book was prepared especi-
ally for the use of women’s clubs, but all
students of conservation subjects will find
it serviceable. The author explains that
no attempt has been made to preserve due
proportion among the parts. It has been
the aim to elaborate some phases at the
expense of others. There is a general
outline of the conservation of our natural
resources, and then chapters are devoted
to ores and minerals, to lands and soils,
to waters, to forests, to the ownership
and control of natural resources, to birds,
and to shade trees. There are two final
chapters, one containing practical sugges-
tions, and one a bibliography. The work
in this handbook is well done. It is what
it claims to be,—highly suggestive and use-
ful as an elementary guide. We heartily
recommend it to lay students of forestry
and conservation subjects.
—
MONTHLY LIST FOR MARCH, 1911
(Books and periodicals indexed in the Library
of the United States Forest Service)
Forestry as a Whole
Abert, Federico. Apuntes forestales. 22 p.
Santiago de Chile, Imprenta Cervantes,
1910.
West Virginia—State board of agriculture.
Report for the quarter ending Dec. 30,
231
1910; forestry.
Var. 1014
Bibliographies
United States—Department of agriculture—
Division of publications. Publications
of the Forest service. 6 p. Wash.,
1911. (Circular 11.)
44 p. Charleston, W.
Forest Aesthetics
Street and park trees
Allendale, N. J.—Shade tree commission.
Statutes and ordinance. 19 p. Allen-
dale, 1910.
Chicago—Special park commission. Trees;
when and how to plant. 15 p. il. Chi-
cago, 1910. (Pamphlet no. 4.)
Levison, J. J. What trees to plant and
how. 4p. Brooklyn, N. Y. (American
association for the planting and preser-
vation of city trees. Publication.)
St. Louis, Mo.—City forester. Second and
third annual reports. St. Louis, Mo.,
1908-9.
Washington, D. C.—Superintendent of trees
and parkings. Twenty-fifth annual re-
port, 1910-10. 7 p. Wash., D. C., 1910.
Forest Education
Biltmore forest school. A forest fair in the
Biltmore forest, Nov. 26, 1908. 55 p.
il. Biltmore, N. C., 1908.
Forest Legislation
Maine—Forest commission. Maine forestry
district; law creating fire district; in-
structions to wardens; list of wardens
appointed. 31 p. Augusta, Me., 1910.
United States—Congress. An act to enable
any state to cooperate with any other
state or states, or with the United
States, for the protection of the water-
sheds of navigable streams, and to ap-
point a commission for the acquisition
of lands for the purpose of conserving
the navigability of navigable rivers. &
p. Wash., D. C., 1910. (U. S—61st con-
gress—3d sessions. House of Repre-
. sentatives 11798.)
Wisconsin—Legislature—Committee on wa-
ter powers, forestry and drainage. Re-
port, 1910. pt. 1-2. diagrs., tables.
Madison, Wis., 1911.
Forest Description
Brooks, A. B. Forestry and wood indus-
tries. 481 p. pl. Morgantown, W. Va..
1911. (West Virginia—Geological sur-
vey. Report, v. 5.)
Hall, R. Clifford and Ingall, O. D. Forest
conditions in Illinois. 79 p. pl. Ur-
bana, I1l]., 1911. ( Illinois state labora-
tory of natural history. Bulletin, vol.
9, art. 4.)
Forest Botany
Plant pyhsiology
Bailey, Irving W. Oxidizing enzymes and
their relation to “sap stain” in lumber.
7 p. Chicago, University Press, 1910.
Silviculture
Graves, Henry Solon. The principles of
handling woodlands. 325 p. front., il.
N. Y., J. Wiley & sons, 1911.
Planting
Little tree
ay Gate:
American forestry company.
farms, nurseries department.
South Framingham, Mass., 1911.
Forest Protection
Insects
Rohwer, S. A. The genotypes of the saw-
files and wood wasps, or the snper-
family Tenthredinoidea. 31 p. Wash.,
1911. (U. S—Department of agricul-
ture—Bureau of enteomology. Techni-
cal series no. 20, pt. 2.)
Snyder, T. E. Damage to telephone and
telegraph poles by wood-boring insects.
6 p. il. Wash., 1911. (U. S.—Depart-
ment of agriculture—Bureau of ento-
mology. Circular 134.)
Stebbing, E. P. A note on the lac insect,
Tachardia lacca, its life history, propa-
gation and collection. 2d ed. 82 p. pl.
Calcutta, 1910. (Indian forest me-
moirs, Forest zoology series, v. 1, pt.
3.)
Forest Economics
Taxation and tariff
Mowry, Jess B. Forest taxation. 3 p. Provi-
dence, R. I., 1911. (R. I—Commission-
er of forestry. Leaflet no. 3.)
United States—Congress—House. Extracts
from congressional debates on the re-
ciprocity treaty of 1854 with Canada.
185 p. Wash., D. C., 1911. (U. S.—6l1st
congress—3d session. House document
1350.)
United states—President. Canadian reci-
procity; special message. 75 p. Wash.,,
D. C., 1911. (U. S—61st congress—3d
session. Senate document 787.)
United States—Tariff board. Reciprocity
with Canada; a report from the Tariff
board relative to various commodities
named in the proposed Canadian reci-
procity measure. 132 p. Wash., D. C.,
1911. (U. S—6l1st congress—3d ses-
sion. Senate document 849.)
Statistics
Macmillan, H. R., comp. Forest products
of Canada, 1909; pulp wood. 9 p. Ot-
tawa, 1910. (Canada—Department of
Interior — Branch forestry. Bulletin
12.)
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Prussia—Ministerium ftir landwirtsehaft,
domaénen und forsten-Abteilung ftir
forsten. Amtliche mitteilungen, 1909.
47 p. Berlin, J. Springer, 1911.
United States—Bureau of census. Wood
distillation, 1909. 11 p. Wash., D. C.,
1911. (Forest products no. 7.)
Forest Administration
{ndia—Andaman Islands—Forest depart-
ment. Progress report of forest ad-
ministration in the Adamans for 1909-
10: 30.p. Caleutta; 1910:
Pennsylvania—Department of forestry. Re-
port for the years 1908—1909. pl. Har-
risburg, Pa., 1910.
Quebec—Department of lands and forests.
Report for the 12 months ending 30th
June, 1910. 257 p. pl. tables. Quebec,
1911.
Rhode Island—Commissioner of forestry.
Fifth annual report, for 1910. 35 p. pl.
Providence, 1911.
United States—Department of agriculture—
Forest service. Report of the forester
for 1910. 67 p. Wash., D. C., 1910.
Forest Utilization
Lumber industry
United States—Department of agriculture—
Forest service. Record of wholesale
prices of lumber based on actual sales
made f. o. b. each market for each
quarter of 1910; list A. 22 p. Wash.,
DP Ce 1910:
United States—Department of agriculture—
Forest service. Record of wholesale
prices of lumber, based on actual sales
made F. O. B. mill for each quarter
of the calendar year 1910. 24 p. Wash.,
D:. C;, 1910:
United States—Department of eommerce
and labor—Bureau of corporation.
Summary of report on the lumber in-
dustry. pt. 1. 38 p. map. Wash., D. C..
1911.
Wood using industries
Maple flooring manufacturers’ association.
Official maple flooring book, containing
concise and authentic information for
architects and builders concerning the
characteristics and uses of maple,
beech and birch flooring. 39 p._ il.
Chicago, 1911.
Oakleaf, Howard B. Wood using industries
of Oregon, with special reference to
the properties and uses of Oregon
woods. Portland, Ore., Oregon conser-
vation association, 1911.
Forest by-products
Ricard, J. H. Exploitation des foréts rési-
neuses au pays landais. 27 p. il. Paris,
P. Renouard, 1910.
CURRENT LITERATURE
Periodical Articles
General
Annals of botany, Jan., 1911—The mor-
phology of leaf-fall, by E. Lee, p. 51-
106; The relation of the leaf trace to
the formation of compound rays in the
lower Dicotyledons, by I. W. Bailey, p.
225-41.
Cassier’s magazine, Feb. 199.—Lumbering
in the world’s greatest forests, by A.
W. Day, p. 291-306.
Country life in America, March, 1911.—
The Arnold arboretum, by W. Miller,
p. 347-50.
,Gardener’s chronicle, Dec. 24, 1910.—Christ-
mas trees, p. 470.
Gardener’s chronicle, Dec. 31, 1910.—The
European black poplar, by J. Fraser, p.
483.
Outlook, Jan. 28, 1911.—Forest fire prob-
lem, by W. D. Hulbert, p. 207-13.
Plant world, Feb., 1911.—The ancestry of
the bald cypress, by E. W. Berry, p. 39-
45.
Popular electricity, Dec., 1910.—Where
lightning strikes, p. 701-2; Learning to
use our forest products, by D. L. Geyer,
p. 714-17.
Quarterly review, Jan., 1911.—Woods and
forests, by J. C. Medd., p. 91-15.
Scientific American, Feb. 18, 1911.—Dyna-
mite on the farm, by W. Young, p. 163.
World’s work, Mar., 1911—A museum of
living trees; the Arnold arboretum, of
Harvard University, which is gathering
every tree and shrub in the world that
will grow in the latitude of Boston,
by F. L. Bullard, p. 14147-58.
Trade journals and consular reports
American lumberman, Feb. 18, 1911.—Stat-
ure, durability, strength, of douglas fir,
Pi, Sa.
Het ried lumberman, March 4, 1911.—Cost
of producing yellow pine lumber, p.
42-3.
American lumberman, March 11, 1911.—
Railroads and lumbermen, by W. W.
Finley, p. 47-8; Forest conservation, by
H. S. Graves, p. 40-1; Forestry in New
York, by C. R. Pettis, p. 52; National
forest system, by G. Pinchot, p. 52.
Barrel and box, Feb., 1911—Report on
white oak staves and timber in foreign
countries, by J. I. Brittain and others,
p. 33-4.
Canada lumberman, Feb. 1, 1911.—Timber
trade of Ontario during 1910, p. 26-8;
Lumber trade of Quebec during 1910,
p. 30-2; Growth of Canada’s pulpwood
industry, p. 32-4; Increasing volume
B. C. lumber trade, p. 35-7; Forest
fires in B. C. during 1910, p. 37; Sur-
veying and mapping timber limits; how
a large manufacturing company takes
stock of its forest resources, by F.
233
Cook, p. 38-9; Lumber trade of Mari-
time Provinces, p. 40-1; Great Britain’s
lumber trade improved, p. 42-4.
Canada lumberman, Feb. 15, 1911.—Busi-
ness methods in lumbering, by Thomas,
p. 37; Consumption of poles during
1909 in Canada, by H. R. MacMillan,
p. 46.
Engineering news, Feb. 2, 1911.—Asphaltic
oils for the preservation of railway
ties, by F. W. Cherrington, p. 122-3;
Keeping record of treated ties, by F. J.
Angier, p. 143.
Engineering news, Feb. 16, 1911.—A bam-
boo arch bridge in Java, Dutch East
Indies, by W. G. Bligh, p. 195.
Hardwood record, March 10, 1911.—Paper
birch of the northeast and its utiliza-
tion, p. 30.
Lumber world, Feb. 15, 1911.—Hunting
African mahogany, p. 23-4.
Mississippi Valley lumberman, March 3,
1911.—Quality and economy; the con-
servation of energy as applied to log-
eing,)\py 46:
Pacific lumber trade journal, Feb., 1911.—
Fallacies of “light burning’ forest pro-
tection, p. 45.
Paper trade journal, Feb. 16, 1911.—The
Forest service ground wood laboratory,
Dy: ES): Bristol sp. 45, 49) (63890231
New paper making fibre, by C. R.
Dodge, p. 147; The pulp woods of Can-
ada; a classification of the kinds and
species, by J. A. De Cew, p. 173-5; Me-
chanical treatment, its growing im-
portance in connection with chemical
reactions, by C. Beadle, p. 179-83; Wood
supply problem; use of additional
kinds, and mill and lumber waste will
solve it, by W. L. Hall, p. 205-11; No
more wasting of wood; by a new meth-
od practically all parts of the tree can
be converted into pulp, by A. A. Tan-
yane, p. 293-5.
Railway and engineering review, March 4,
1911.—What percentage of creosote oil
can be withdrawn from wood by sub-
sequent vacuum, py C. D. Chanute, p.
179.
St. Louis lumberman, Feb. 15, 1911.—Band
resaws, by E. C. Merschon, p. 21-2;
Forestry, by W. B. Townsend, p. 25-6;
Paper making in China, by H. A. Night-
ingale, p. 121.
St. Louis lumberman, March 1, 1911.—C-A-
Wood preserver company, p. 27; Wood
waste and its utilization, by G. B.
Frankforter, p. 50-7; Tupelo for boxes,
p. 77; The “Diamond” brand of saw
mill machinery, p. 78-9; A useful ma-
chine for retail lumbermen; the Osh-
kosh portable saw rig, p. 80-1; Latest
news from the wood block paving field,
Dp. 82.
Southern lumberman, March 4, 1911.—Pro-
gress of forest conservation in Mas-
234 AMERICAN
sachusetts, p. 30; Lumber production
in Canada, by F. S. S. Johnson, p. 32.
Timber trade journal, Feb. 25, 1911.—Bra-
zilian timbers, p. 265.
Timberman, Feb. 1911.—Charpitting stumps
successfully, by W. H. Sparks, p. 28-9;
Japanese forestry, by F. Goto, p. ale
Suggestions for practical methods of
making topographical surveys, by W.
W. Amburn, p. 48 J.
United States daily consular report, Feb.
24, 1911.—Alcohol from sawdust, by
F. H. Mason, p.: 732; Shipments of
Norwegian wood flour, by H. Borde-
wich, p. 734.
United States daily consular report, Feb.
27, 1911.—Canadian timber licences and
reserves, by E. C. Wakefield, p. 764-5.
United States daily consular report, March
10, 1911—Wood paving blocks for
Italy, by J. B. Young, p. 922-3.
West coast lumberman, Feb. 1911.—Tree
felling machine, p. 317.
Forest journals
Allegemeine forst-und jagd-zeitung, Jan.
1911.—Mitteilungen iiber bau und leben
der fichtenwurzeln und untersuchung
iiber die beeinflussung des wurzelwach-
stums durch wirtschaftliche einwirk-
ung by Matthes, p. 16; Zur mathema-
tischen interpretation der zuwachskur-
ven, by T. Glaser, p. 6-10; Die Doug-
lasie im winter 1908-09, by Walter, p.
10-13.
American forestry, March, 1911——The peo-
ple’s possessions in the Appalachian
forests, by Thomas Nelson Page, p. 133-
44: Harvesting the annual seed crop,
by S. Moore, p. 145-54; Growing trees
from seed, by C. R. Pettis, p. 155-9; Re-
forestation in Massachusetts, by F. W.
Rane, p. 160-63; The passage of the
Appalachian bill, p. 164-70; The year’s
forest legislation in Vermont, by A. F.
Hawes, p. 179-80.
Bulletin de la Société centrale forestiére de
Belgique, Jan. 1911.—La question des
semences en sylviculture, by N. I. Cra-
FORESTRY
hay, p. 19-29; Des mélanges d’essences
feuillues & réaliser dans les futaies de
hétre, by C. J. Quairiére, p. 30-40.
Centralblatt fiir das gesamte forstwesen,
Jan., 1911.—Die forstliche erschliessung
der Insel Formosa, by A. Hofmann, p.
1-18; Studien tiber den flug des nonnen-
falters, by W. Sedlaczek, p. 18-27.
Revue des eaux et foréts, Jan. 15, 1911.—
Taux d’accroissement et tariére de
Pressler, by E. Martin, p. 33-40.
Revue des aux et foréts, Feb. 1, 1911.—Une
forét en Morvan, by Gouget, p. 65-73;
Excursion forestiére au Portugal, by L.
Pardé, p. 73-88; Le pin maritime au
sud des Landes, by M. L. de Vilmorin,
p. 92-6.
Schweizerische zeitschrift fiir forstwesen,
Jan. 1911.—Hine anregung fiir den
plenterwald, by G. Z., p. 5-8; Wirt-
schaftsplan und waldreglement, p. 8-
13; Die Atlaszeder, by J. Businger, p.
15-18.
Schweizerische zeitschrift fiir forstwesen,
Feb. 1911.—Die Walungen des Oberen-
gadins, by Z. Ganzoni, p. 40-4.
Tharander forstliches jahrbuch, 1910.—
Haupt-und zwischennutzungsertrage
der rotbuche in Sachsen, by M. Kunze,
p. 97-110; Die Tharandter forstdiing-
ungsversuche, by H. Vater, p. 111-35;
Uber bemerkenswerte, in sdAchsische
forsten auftretende baumrankheiten, by
F. W. Neger, p. 141-67; Termitenschad-
en; ein beitrag zur kolonialen forsten-
tomolgie, by K. Escherich, p. 168-85:
Uberlick tiber die forstpolitischen zus-
tande Sachsens, by Gross, p. 186-204;
Gesetze, verordnungen und dienstan-
weisungen, welche auf das forstwesen
besug haben, by Flemming, comp., p.
205-68.
Zeitschrift fur forst-und jagdwesen, Jan.
1911.—Formen und abarten der ge-
meinen kiefer, by M. Kienitz, p. 4-35;
Beitrage zur physikalischen bodenun-
tersuchung, by P. Ehrenberg, and H.
Pick, p. 35-47; Forstliches aus Kanada,
by von Berlepsch, p. 47-58.
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
Plans for Buying Eastern Forest Land
The National Forest Reservation Com-
mission, provided for under the new forest
law, is made up as follows: J. M. Dickin-
son, secretary of war; Walter L. Fisher.
secretary of the interior; James Wilson,
secretary of agriculture; J. H. Gallinger,
senator from New Hampshire; J. W. Smith,
senator from Maryland; W. C. Hawley, rep-
resentative from Oregon; and Gordon Lee,
representative from Georgia.
The Department of Agriculture an-
nounces, through a circular which is just
vublished its plans for the purchase of
land by the National Forest Reservation
Commission created under the new Weeks
forest law.
This law, as our readers know, was
passed with special reference to the crea-
tion of national forests in the Appalachian
and White Mountains. Under it the Sec-
retary of Agriculture is to examine, lo-
cate, and recommend to the Commission
for purchase such lands as in his judg-
ment may be necessary for regulating the
flow of navigable streams. The circular,
which is now being printed, is intended
to give information to the public as to
where and what kinds of land are wanted.
Owners of land, the purchase of which
will be considered by the government, are
expected on the basis of this information
to make known to the Forest Service, which
will conduct the work for the Department
of Agriculture, their desire to sell. Copies
of the circulars may be obtained by ap-
plying to the Forest Service.
The law is not restricted to particular
regions, except that lands may be bought
only in the states whose legislatures have
consented to the acquisition of land by the
United States for the purpose of preserving
the navigability of streams. The states
which have already taken the necessary
action are Maine, New Hampshire, Mary-
land, Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro-
lina, Tennessee, South Carolina, and
Georgia.
The first lands to be examined for pur-
chase will be in the southern Appalachian
and White Mountains, which, because of
their altitude, steepness, and lack of pro-
tection, are in a class by themselves. The
area which is believed to need protection
is much larger than the government can
purchase. Much difference exists, however,
between different parts of the region. Care-
ful examinations, which have been going
on for the last ten years, have proved
that the conditions which affect stream-
flow to an extreme extent are to be found
in relatively limited areas, which are
scattered more or less widely. By careful
selection it is believed that much can be
done for the permanent improvement of the
watersheds with the purchase of a rela-
tively small part of the land.
A blank form for the offer of land
accompanies the circular. Additional
copies of this blank form may be had by
writing the Forest Service at Washington.
The kinds of land which will be consid-
ered for purchase, if they lie within the
designated areas, are set forth by the cir-
cular as follows:
Timbered lands may be bought either
with the timber standing on them or with
reservation by the owner of the right to
cut the timber under certain rules to pro-
vide for perpetuation of the forest. These
rules will form a part of the agreement for
purchase of the land. Since, however,
the government cannot pay high prices,
it is not regarded as probable that much
land bearing a heavy stand of merchant-
able timber can be bought. Culled and cut-
over lands may be bought, as well as land
covered with brush which is useful for
watershed protection, burned land, and
abandoned farm land, whether cleared or
partially, or wholly covered by young tim-
ber growth. Good agricultural lands will
not be considered. Owners may reserve
the right to remove valuable mineral de-
posits which are known to exist.
Proposals will be received for small as
well as for large tracts, although small
tracts can be examined only where the pur-
chase of a considerable total of land in
the same neighborhood is under consid-
eration. With regard to the price which
can be paid, Secretary Wilson indicates
that the policy of the Commission will be
to make the money available go as far as
possible. “For the most part,” he says, “we
shall have to buy cut-over lands or lands
without much merchantable timber. I want
to make it plain at the start that I shall
recommend this class of land only when
it is offered very cheap. Proffers of land
at exorbitant prices will not be consid-
ered. I am frank to say that I hope to
see a great deal of public spirit manifested
by land owners. I expect some lands to
be offered at merely nominal prices, in
order to aid the government in getting
235
well started upon this wise and _ neces-
Sary policy.
“The lands acquired by the government
will be held as national forests. They
will be protected from fire and the growth
of the timber will be improved as much
as possible. The lands will not be game
preserves, but will continue to be open to
the public for hunting and fishing in ac-
cordance with the laws of the state in
which they are situated. All their resources
will be availabie for the public under rea-
sonable conditions. Another point which
| wish to emphasize is that we are not
going to take from people their homes
in order to put the lands into national for-
ests.”
The areas within which offers of land
are desired are set forth in detail in the
circular of the Forest Service. The approxi-
mate location of these areas is as follows,
although Secretary Wilson warns those
wishing to offer land that they should
first secure the circular in order to see
whether their holdings fall within the more
detailed areas therein indicated:
In New Hampshire, lands in the White
Mountains region.
In Maine, lands in a portion of Batchel-
der’s Grant in Oxford County.
In Maryland, a portion of the western
part of Garrett County.
In Virginia, parts of Shenandoah, Rock-
ingham, southwestern Warren, western Page,
northern Bedford, eastern Botetourt, south-
ern Rockbridge, southern Washington,
Smyth, and Wythe counties, and western
Grayson County.
In West Virginia, parts of Pendleton,
Hardy, Randolph, and Pocahontas counties.
In Tennessee, parts of northeastern John-
son County, Cocke, Sevier, Blount, and
Monroe counties.
In North Carolina, parts of Wilkes, Cald-
well, Wautauga, Buncombe, Yancey, Me-
Dowell, southwestern Mitchell, Haywood,
Swain, Jackson, Henderson, Transylvania,
Macon, Clay, Cherokee, and Graham coun-
ties.
In South Carolina, a part of Oconee
County.
In Georgia, parts of Rabun, Habersham,
and White counties.
New Grazing Regulations
The Secretary of Agriculture has ap-
proved a revised form of the grazing regu-
lations, which govern the use of national
forest ranges. The most important de-
partures from the old regulations are found,
first, in the fact that provision is made for
recognition of a permanent national ad-
visory board representing the sheep and
cattle interests, which will confer an-
AMERICAN FORESTRY
nually with the Secretary of Agriculture
concerning grazing matters;and secondly,
in the laying down of a rule that on for-
ests where the quality of range and ad-
vantages for raising cattle and sheep are
equal, the yearlong rate for sheep after the
season of 1911 will be thirty per cent of the
yearlong rate for cattle.
The new regulations have been made the
subject of extended and most careful con-
sideration, and are promulgated at the
present time as the result of a general
revision made of all the regulations gov-
erning the use of the national forests.
Before deciding on the grazing regula-
tions, Secretary Wilson invited representa-
tives of the two national organizations of
stockmen, the National Wool Growers’ Asso-
ciation and the American National Live
Stock Association, to present their views
to him on grazing matters, and to make any
suggestions which they might wish to offer
concerning the proposed regulations. The
proposed regulations, as they had been
drafted by the.Forest Service, were sub-
mitted to delegates of the two associa-
tions, who came to Washington in response
to the Secretary’s invitation. Secretary
Wilson recognizes that the one and one-
half million cattle and seven and one-half
million sheep, which are annually grazed
on the forests, bear an important re-
lation to the price of beef and mutton in
this country, and that the public need of
increased food supplies no less than the
best interests of the stock industry call
for careful methods of regulation to pro-
mote the full use of the grazing resource.
Regulated grazing on the national for-
ests seeks not only to make available,
to the fullest degree consistent with proper
protection of the range itself and of forest
growth and streamflow conditions, the an-
nual forage crop, but also to allot the graz-
ing privilege equitably. By giving the
stockmen themselves a chance to be heard
with regard to the rules established, and
by securing tneir help in the adjustment
of disputes between claimants for use of
the range, the department officials con-
sider that the task of administering the
range satisfactorily has been made much
easier.
No radical changes in the regulations
have been made. As a result of the con-
ferences with the representatives of the
stockmen’s associations, a number of
changes were made in the details concern-
ing the conditions under which owners
may surrender, transfer, or renew appli-
cation for grazing privileges. Both the de-
partment and the stockmen are anxious to
prevent speculation in grazing privileges,
and suggestions for minor modifications of
the rules, offered by the stockmen to this
end, were readily accepted.
STATE WORK
Report of the Forest Commission of Maine
In his annual report Edgar E. Ring,
forest commissioner of Maine, refers to the
fire peril and to the lessons of the past
season. Of the new Maine forest fire law,
he says:
“The forest fire law enacted by the last
Legislature was a long step toward the con-
servation of our forests by protecting them
from fire. We know the principles of the
law are correct because we have tried them
out. The necessity of patrol is so generally
admitted that it hardly needs mentioning.
Putting out fires already started is better
than letting them burn, but, as the real
foundation of a protective system, it is
about like lowering the lifeboat after the
ship has struck. Patrol is better than
fighting, because the incipient spark or
camp fire can be extinguished before it be-
comes a forest fire that has to be fought.
One patrolman can stop a hundred incipient
fires cheaper than one hundred men can
stop one large fire.
“Results in forest protection are most
truly measured, not by the number of fires
extinguished, but by the absence of fires
at all.
“Another feature of the new law is that
the small assessment upon the land owners
makes it co-operative. Just as the individ-
ual cannot maintain a properly organized
and equipped fire department to look after
his city property as well alone as through
joining with the community, neither can he
do so in protecting forest property. If one
patrolman can cover the land of several
owners, it is unwise for each to hire a man.
If a fire starts and threatens several tracts,
it is better to share the expense of putting
it out. The sale value of timberland in any
region is increased by public knowledge
that those interested there unite in sup-
porting progressive protective methods.
“Again this law has been the means of
compelling the non-resident owner, the
small owner who is unable to employ any
one alone, and the non-progressive owners
who would otherwise do nothing, to con-
tribute their share toward the general cost,
and the public take far more kindly to the
enforcement of fire laws by the state than
to similar activity on the part of the in-
dividual owner, against whom a prejudice
might exist.
“Our forest wealth is mainly community
wealth. All the owner can get out of them
is the stumpage value. The people get
everything else. On every acre of land de
stroyed by fire the citizens of this state
who are not land owners bear at least 75
per cent of the direct loss and sustain seri-
ous injury to their future safety and profits.
The forest district plan, recently pro-
vided for, by which the land owners of
Aroostook, Franklin, Hancock, Oxford,
Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset and
Washington counties are annually assessed
one and one-half mills (in 1909 and 1910,
$63,945.44) for fire patrols, has the com-
missioner’s hearty approval.
Concerning the fire patrol and lookout
system, Mr. Ring says: “One of the first
things attempted and carried out under the
conditions made possible by creating the
Maine Forestry District, was the enlarge-
ment of the patrol and lookout systems.
“Hight years ago when the first law was
passed looking to the protection of Maine’s
forests a goodly number of fire wardens
were appointed. and so far as possible dur-
ing the dry and dangerous periods the most
exposed places were patrolled, but neces-
sarily only a limited amount of such work
could be done with an appropriation of only
$10,000, which had to be devoted to extin-
guishment as well as prevention.
“Experience has taught all who have
made a study of the protection of forests
against fire that first in importance is the
protection that can be gained by proper pa-
trol. It has been the custom of the forest
commissioner each spring to meet the land
owners of the different sections of the state
at some convenient and central point to
talk over and plan the season’s work. At
the meeting held in 1909 after the passage
of the Maine Forestry District act we made
known our plans for extending the patrol
system and such plans met with hearty
approval of the land owners.
“An efficient corps of chief wardens were
appointed, men being selected who were
recommended by the land owners as being
thoroughly familiar with the territory as-
signed to their care. Under the chiefs were
placed enough men to cover the most ex-
posed sections and there was not a town-
ship of wild land that was not included in
the routes of the patrolmen. The water-
ways and roads most frequently traveled
by rivermen and sportsmen were particu-
larly well looked after as were the town-
ships lying along the railroads.
“Of the amount appropriated in 1909
there was used in the patrol system alone,
including amounts paid the chief and
237
238 AMERICAN
deputy wardens the sum of $31,131.79,
making more than one-half of the entire
amount expended in 1909 going directly
for patrol work and supervision of the
same. In 1910 for the same class of service
there has been expended up to November 1,
$38,708.97. Included in the work of patrol
and constant watch for fires there has been
posted by these men over 20,000 danger-fire
notices, printed largely in Hnglish, al-
though when it seemed wise notices printed
in French and Italian have been put up.
“Close touch with the men employed has
been made possible by weekly reports re-
turned to the department by the regular
patrolmen.
“In case of fire of any proportion and
causing the hiring of extra men the chief
or deputy wardens in charge file reports
containing the following facts: County and
township in which fire occurred; time dis-
covered and number of hours before it was
entirely extinguished; direction of wind at
the time; method employed in extinguish-
ing same; cause of fire; area burned; esti-
mated damage; names of men and hours
employed and the total expense of extin-
guishing the fire; the report to be signed
and sworn by the warden in charge and
approved by the chief warden of the section
in which the fire occurred.”
According to the report fire losses in in-
corporated towns in 1909 amounted to $32,-
965, in unincorporated townships, $63,734.
The loss from forest fires in incorporated
towns in 1910 was $1,906 and in unincor-
porated townships $935. The year 1909, the
first season under the Forestry District, the
appropriation for prevention and extin-
zuishment was about $64,000 and the select-
men of towns also worked under the new
law making their municipalities liable for
their negligence.
The forestry department has equipped its
wardens with tools for fighting fires, which
are distributed in convenient localities and
are branded with the stamp of the district.
The amount invested in this manner is
$5,000. There are twenty-four lookout sta-
tions on the high elevations. The con-
struction and equipment of these stations
has cost $14,664.49 the past two years. In
connection with these stations many lines
of telephone have been constructed, bring-
ing the most remote sections into quick
communication with the chief warden and
localities from which help can be easily
secured.
By arrangement with E. C. Hirst, state
forester of New Hampshire, a system of
co-operation was entered into in 1910
whereby Maine gets the benefit of the Kear-
sarge Mountain station in Chatham, N. H.
Other stations overlooking Maine forests
are contemplated by New Hampshire. In
return Maine wardens watch for fires in
FORESTRY
New Hampshire from the Aziscoos Moun-
tain station in Lincoln plantation, Oxford
county. A system of reversing telephone
tolls distributes the expense equitably.
A Gift to Vermont
Vermont has just received a gift of 106
acres including the summit of Bromley
Mountain in the township of Peru, eleva-
tion 3,260 feet, from Hon. M. J. Hapgood.
Mr. Hapgood has long been interested in
forestry, and in addition to this gift has
placed his own holdings under the direc-
tion of the state forester.
Commissioner Conklin’s Report in Pennsyl-
vania
In his annual report Commissioner of
Forestry Conklin of Pennsylvania says:
“Tt is the duty of a government to per-
petuate itself, and in perpetuating itself
there is a further duty to provide for the
common welfare of its citizens. With these
objects in view, it is wise for a state to
see ‘to it that every square foot of soil,
the source of wealth, be made to produce
its highest revenue. Whenever elements
of production are allowed to be wasted,
the whole moral fiber of those in connec-
tion with the waste is lowered and gen-
eral dissatisfaction follows. The state in
turn suffers from undesirable citizens, loss
of industry, income, and at the same time,
outlay for remedial measures and a host
of economic conditions which can hardly
be followed.
“There must be more co-operation on the
part of the departments concerned, prin-
cipally those of education, agriculture and
forestry. School gardens, elementary agri-
culture, agricultural clubs, Arbor day and
so on must be gotten into the schools. The
school building should be the social centers
of the communities and, if necessary, the
government must send out social settle-
ment workers. Agriculture and forestry
must no longer be left out of county and
local teachers’ institutes, nor should a
consideration of the schools and forestry
be left out of farmers’ institutes. There
are no forestry institutes, but lectures,
bulletins, sample plantings and all man-
ner of assistance must be provided for. It
behooves every member of our departments
to make each appropriation reach as far
as possible, but it is more important that
results are obtained from what is done,
and then the results themselves must and
will speak for increased assistance from the
legislature. a
There have been added to the reserve
area 17,000 acres, during the past year,
making the total area of reserves now
owned by the state 933,582 acres: There
are thirty-nine trained foresters and eighty-
STATE WORK
five rangers in charge of this large area,
using every means available to develop
it as rapidly as possible and to bring it
up to the best economic production.
The Oregon Conservation Commission on
Forests
Oregon has had a particularly able and
clear-headed conservation commission. This
body issued for 1910 a comprehensive and
valuable report. The commission has re-
cently resigned to relieve Governor West of
any embarrassment, and because of the
failure of an appropriation to carry on the
commission’s work. The Governor declares
that the state is to have a conservation
commission, and he may reappoint some
or all of the old board—J. N. Teal, chair-
man; F. G. Young, secretary; J. B. Wilson,
Cc. B. Watson, Frank J. Miller, J. N. Hart,
J. C. Stevens. The section of the report
of the commission devoted to forests de-
serves wide reading for its fair and tem-
perate discussion of current forest prob-
lems of the Northwest. We print this
section entire:
FORESTS.
Whether considered as a source of great-
est direct revenue shared by all the people,
or for their part in maintaining condi-
tions favorable to the highest general de-
velopment along all industrial and so-
cial line, Oregon’s forests, next to land
itself, are far her most important natural
resources. No other represents equal po-
tential wealth; any other could be spared
with less injury to present and future
prosperity.
We are supposed to have a fifth of the
merchantable timber in the United States.
Even at current prices it should bring
us $5,000,000,000.00. This prodigious
wealth is better than gold, for its produc-
tion will employ an industrial army, afford
market for our other commodities, and in
every way tend to the development of a
great prosperous commonwealth. Forest
wealth is community wealth. Protection
of forest industry is the best form of pros-
perity insurance a timbered state can buy.
Notwithstanding these facts, Oregon is
far behind other timber states in forest
protection and management. While other
states with far less at stake, from Maine
in the extreme east to Washington and
California on either side of us, are con-
tinually improving their forest laws and
appropriating more and more liberally to
safeguard the community welfare. Oregon
does practically nothing. With an excellent
code of forest laws, as far as punitive and
regulative provisions go, it provides no
machinery for their enforcement.
The result is what might be expected.
The Federal Government and private forest
owners, where they are interested, do much
to prevent and fight fires. But without
239
state aid neither can enforce the laws
that would prevent fires, and large areas
do not: even profit by even their handi-
capped effort. During the season just
closed we have lost, by fire alone, timber
which if saved for manufacture would
have brought $23,000,000.00 into Oregon.
Other property worth many thousands of
dollars has been lost by settlers who could
ill afford it, many human lives have been
sacrificed, and untold though usually un-
realized injury has been done to the thous-
ands of acres of second growth which other-
wise would have made the forest of the
future. Little or no progress in reforesta-
tion to retrieve this injury is possible
under existing conditions.
All of it is unnecessary, for forest des-
truction is preventable. The state is di-
rectly responsible. Its responsibility and
the remedy which lies in its hands are
set forth in the following pages.
OUR FOREST RESOURCES.
While an accurate census is still lack-
ing, authorities generally agree that Ore-
gon has approximately four hundred bil-
lion feet, B.M. of merchantable timber.
This estimate is probably conservative, for
standards of merchantability become less
exacting and vast quantities of wood ma-
terial now unconsidered will have future
value. The government estimates that
about one hundred and thirty-five billion,
or approximately a third of the total, is
in national forests. The other two-thirds,
the most valuable and accessible, are mostly
in private hands. The state itself owns
comparatively little timber, having dis-
posed of most of its educational grant
lands.
Board foot figures, however, fail to con-
vey any adequate idea of the tremendous
economic importance of this resource. We
are further prevented from realizing it
because its exploitation has scarcely com-
menced. We regard our forests largely as
a wilderness, or at most as a speculative
asset for their owners, instead of com-
puting their function in the early future
as producers of community wealth. But
the world’s demand for timber must inevit-
ably lead to the manufacture and ship-
ment of most of this material within the
next fifty years, thus bringing billions of
dollars into Oregon. For this reason prob-
ably no other resources can approach our
forests in distributing new wealth per
capita among our population and conse-
quently in upbuilding every industry we
have, or may hope to have in any portion
of the state.
Without counting increasing export to
other countries, the United States already
uses (1908) 40,000,000,000 feet of lumber a
year, besides 118,000,000 hewn ties, 1,500,-
000,000 staves, over 133,000,000 sets of head-
ing, nearly 500,000,000 barrel hoops, 3,000,-
000 cords of native pulp wood, 165,000,000
240
cubic feet of mine timbers, 1,250,000 cords
of wood for distillation, and 90,000,000
cords of fire wood. One by one the timber
states, which have met this enormous
drain, are becoming exhausted. Washing-
ton nows bears the heaviest burden, but
Oregon will soon be called upon.
But, while Oregon’s stock of four hun-
dred billion is almost incalculably valu-
able in the light of these figures, it is
scarcely more so than our immense area
of cut and burned over land. Upon our
management of this depends whether we
shall continue the period of prosperity
permanently. Here again accurate figures
are lacking, but it is probable that an
area quarter as great as that now bear-
ing merchantable forest is capable of equal
production in the comparatively early fu-
ture. This fact, practically ignored, is of
the utmost importance.
Nowhere else is forest reproduction as
rapid and certain as in the Pacific North-
west. The same natural influences which
made our existing forests the most mag-
nificent in the world will perpetuate them
with equal success if given slight co-opera-
tion by man; indeed they ask little help
but prevention of fire. Saw timber can
be grown in 40 to 60 years; ties, timbers
and piles in less. It is reasonable to sup-
pose that while the quality may be in-
ferior to that of the old forest being used
now, timber scarcity will make a second
crop equally profitable per acre in 60 years.
Our deforested land of today should bring
us in a billion dollars within the life-
time of our boys and girls, if we do not
deliberately destroy its capability to do so.
RELATION OF FORESTS TO THE AVERAGE
CITIZEN.
The Oregon lumber industry nows brings
about $25,000,000 a year into the State:
as much as our apples, fish, wool, and
wheat together. In a year or two our
forest revenue should certainly equal
or surpass that of Washington, already
over $75,000,000. Eighty per cent of this
immense sum goes to pay for labor and
supplies. Practically all finds its way into
general circulation. The lumber industry
is like any branch of manufacturing in
that it creates business, and more than
most it consists of labor and so supports
every industry of the community. The
money brought into Oregon by lumbering
is the greatest source of revenue to la-
borer, farmer, merchant, and professional
man. As the product is mostly sold else-
where, this revenue is clear gain to the
state. Forest products constitute eighty
per cent of the freight shipped out of
Oregon.
The interest of the average citizen in for-
est protection and use is affected very
little by the passage of title to forest land.
The owner gets only the stumpage, which is
AMERICAN FORESTRY
a small part of the value. The people
get everything else. Moreover, the people
of Oregon are also consumers of forest
products. Waste of existing forest, or
failure to produce new forests, adds in-
evitably to the price they must pay, besides
reducing the per capita wealth with which
to pay it. And the price of almost every
other commodity we use is affected by the
cost of forest material used directly or in-
directly in its manufacture and marketing.
It is unnecessary here to point out the
relation of forests to stream flow and the
imperative necessity of protecting our agri-
culture and water power industries from
alternating flood and failure. Less com-
monly considered is the intimate relation
to every citizen, the farmer especially, of
forests as a source of tax revenue. This
form of property is one of the chief con-
tributors to the support of local and State
government. Every acre of timber de-
stroyed, or failing to grow where it might
grow, adds to the tax burden of the holders
of other property. Were all Oregon’s tim-
ber to be destroyed, this burden would
suddenly be augmented. Partial destruc-
tion has precisely the same effect in cor-
responding degree and so does failure to
reforest.
Oregon’s forests are the assests of all its
citizens. The lumberman or timber owner
is, economically, only their agent in us-
ing them. The lumberman can change
or move his business, but the people as a
whole have a stake in forest preservation
that is unalienable and paramount. Their
prosperity depends upon it now and always.
The question involved is not one of per-
sonal property, but one of a community
resource.
PRESENT WASTE,
Blinded by the fallacy that it is the tim-
ber owner who pays, we let nearly one
and three-quarters billion feet of timber
burn this year without having taken any
steps to prevent it. If saved for manu-
facture this would have brought at least
$23,000,000 into Oregon, or over $30 for
every man, woman and child in the state.
This sum would pay the entire cost of state
government for nearly ten years. It would
pay every dollar of state and county tax
together in Oregon with money to spare
for improvements. The interest on it at
only one per cent for one year, if spent
for systematic protection, would have
prevented the loss.
In addition to the loss of merchantable
timber six human lives were sacrificed and
the destruction of buildings and improve-
ments amounted to many thousands of dol-
lars. Property losses by citizens, in no way
connected with the timber industry, were
many times what it would have cost to
prevent these fires. Thousands of acres
of cutover lands were also burned over,
STATE WORK
jestroying all reproduction and seed trees.
Only a fortunate break in weather condi-
tions prevented an even more serious catas-
trophe. All available agencies were taxed
to the utmost fighting fires already under
way, and had rain not come when it did
countless others would have passed _ be-
yond control. Oregon’s escape from one
of the most fearful forest fires of history
was not due to its own precaution.
Nor, after all, was the season of 1910
so unusual as to be reassuring as to the
future. Seasons vary, and Oregon has no
adequate system of reporting fire damage,
but competent authorities estimate that
the average annual loss in the past has
been fully half a billion feet and probably
more. This means an annual loss to the
community of six or seven million dollars
at least.
Second, only to the fire loss, as a result
of Oregon’s apathy toward forest preserva-
tion, is its unfavorable affect upon re-
forestation. To the careless waste of ex-
isting resources which we and our families
should share, we add the idleness of all
the land cut and burned over each year,
a dead loss of many millions of dollars.
Fear of fire and discouraging taxation
justly warrants the owner in not taking
the necessary steps to make this land use-
ful, hence much of it reburns and turns
into desert, ultimately to be untaxable,
non-productive, and offering no reward to
labor.
Milling and logging waste constitute an-
other leak in our forest economy and will
persist as long as neither state nor pub-
lic show any recognition of fundamental
principles. So long as our lumbermen must
bear the entire burden of forest preserva-
tion and still compete with those of other
states where the community assists, they
can do only what it pays to do.
EXISTING PROTECTIVE EFFORT.
The federal Forest Service is the only
public agency doing anything to take care
of the Oregon forests. Its expenditures
for protection alone in 1910 will exceed
$200,000. Of this approximately half is
for patrol and half for trail and telephone
building and additional fire fighting labor.
The U. S. Army and the Oregon National
Guard also gave valuable assistance dur-
ing the August fires, but this was an un-
precedented emergency action and can
hardly be considered in discussing Oregon’s
protective system. Ordinarily the Forest
Service confines its work to the national
forests, but this year the menace to homes
and property outside led it to disregard
official boundaries in many instances. In
either case the benefit accrues to the state
for national forest timber is a state asset
in all but stumpage returns and twenty-
five per cent of these also are paid to the
counties. As adequately as congressional
appropriations permit, the Forest Service
241
takes care of about a third of the timber
in the state. It has also begun reforesta-
tion.
The only fire protection is that given by
private timber owners. Through individual
and co-operative patrols they spent about
$50,000 in 1909 and, while reports for 1910
have not been prepared, presumably that
amount was doubled or trebled this year.
About 290 regular patrolmen and over
1,000 extra fire fighters were employed.
The Coos County Fire Patrol Association
and the Klamath Lake Counties Forest
Fire Association are strongly organized
co-operative patrols in which the members
pro rate the cost upon their acreage. The
Northwest Oregon, North Williamette, Lin-
coln-Benton and Polk-Yamhill Forest Fire
Associations are looser alliances of tim-
ber owners maintaining individual or inform-
ally co-operative patrols. For central effort
in increasing the extent and efficiency of
patrol, all these organizations combine in
the Oregon Forest Fire Association, which
in turn is affiliated with the Western
Forestry and Conservation Association em-
bracing all similar organizations from Mon-
tana to California. These private patrols
have been of immense value to the State.
It is notable that where they were best
organized, losses this year were insignifi-
cant. They vary in efficiency, however,
and do not cover sufficient area.
The Oregon Conservation Association rep-
resents a purely public spirited reform
movement, supported by annual dues from
all classes of citizens, and not particularly
pledged to promote forest protection more
than that of other resources. So far it
has devoted itself chiefly to this end, how-
ever, in the belief that no other problem
is equally urgent. Its chief function has
been to supply means for carrying on the
work of the State Board of Forestry, which
is unprovided for by the state itself. By
meeting expenses for postage and clerical
work, and allowing its secretary to act
as secretary of the state board in prepar-
ing publicity matter concerning the fire
evil, appointing and aiding voluntary State
fire wardens, collecting statistics, ete., it
alone has prevented the forest laws from
being absolutely inoperative. It is hardly
likely, however, that it can continue this
work indefinitely, in view of the claims
of its members interested in other lines
of conservation. The Western Forestry
and Conservation Association, mentioned
on a preceding page, is even more active
in propaganda’ work seeking to interest
both general public and forest owners in
systematic forest protection.
The State Board of Forestry, created in
1907 by a statute that also provided an
excellent forest code, remains practically
powerless because it is not supplied with
any machinery for active work. It is
thus shorn of any real function except
to make recommendations to the legis-
949
lature and has not the means of collect-
ing information to make these effective.
Its appropriation in only $250 a year.
This insignificant sum is Oregon's total
contribution, as a state, to the cause of
forest preservation. It is the least appro-
priated by any state in the Union that has
any forest system at all.
The statute referred to (Chapter 131,
Session Laws of 1907) has three excellent
features. In the principle of a non-po-
litical Board of Forestry, composed mainly
of representatives of agencies, competent
to deal with forest matters, it follows the
example of most progressive states. By
enabling the authorization of voluntary
fire wardens to control the use of fire in
the dry season, it provides the only safe-
guard practicable without actual state aid,
Its regulative and punitive sections, or
“fire laws,” are well drawn as far as they
do. On the other hand, it is only frame-
work, lacking the life to make it really
effective. It provides for no educational
work to create the necessary public un-
dertaking of the subject, no means of in-
vestigating forest conditions, no means
of enforcing the fire laws, no machinery
for actual forest protection, and above all,
no head to develop and execute any State
forest policy. In effect it amounts to giv-
ing in legal language the state’s gracious
permission to its forests to take care of
themselves. This authority is of consider-
able use, for without it still less would
be accomplished, but it is only the first
step toward meeting a situation in which
the state’s welfare is vitally concerned and
in which the state is primarily and un-
aviodably responsible.
That the state’s present policy, or rather
lack of policy, is hopelessly inadequate
may be seen in the following counts:
1. There is no one to enforce the fire
laws. Every other law to protect life
and property has its provided officers. The
fire laws do not lend themselves well to the
ordinary established machinery, but are
not for that reason any less entitled to
respect. There is no moral or economic
difference between firing a forest and fir-
ing a city, yet to violate one excites hor-
ror and leads to the pentitentiary, while
conviction, or even prosecution, for the
other is almost unknown. If detection is
more difficult, there is all the more rea-
son for providing for it. This is a police
function and only the state can exercise
it. The employee of an individual or cor-
poration can patrol or fight fire, but he can-
not successfully exert police power or prose-
cute. At present violation of the fire laws
is the rule. The violator cannot be ex-
pected to take in earnest a law which
the state itself does not recognize. With
the laws enforced, few fires would start.
2. There is no means of stopping fires
that do start. Forest protection is left
absolutely to the enterprise, judgment and
AMERICAN FORESTRY
financial responsibility of anyone or no
one. To the extent that he believes it pays
him to do so and where he believes it
pays him to do so, the forest owner will
do his part. But this is exactly like not
policing a city in the hope that some
individual will be willing and able to do
it to our satisfaction. And the result
corresponds. Those who can least afford
to lose receive least protection.
3. There is no means of helping the pro-
gressive timber owners to secure the co-
operation of their unprogressive brothers.
Probably the greatest retarder of efficient
private organization which would other-
wise reduce the need of state financial
aid to the minimum is the failure of the
unrepresentative minority owners to bear
their share.
4. There is no one to educate the public
in the need of forest preservation. So
long as this work is left to private effort
it is not only uncertain in quantity and per-
sistence, but accomplishes the minimum re-
sult because suspected of selfish motive.
By not recognizing this need, the state
in effect declares it non-existent and ad-
vocates forest waste.
5. There is no one to study and promul-
gate improved methods of protection, man-
agement and reforestation. Even the inter-
est in forestry, which is growing, without
propaganda is unable to get the technical
information and assistance necessary to
secure actual practice.
6. There is no progress toward a solu-
tion of the forest taxation problem, espe-
cially as regards cut-over lands, without
which there will be continual dissatisfac-
tion on all sides and small progress toward
reforestation.
7. Above all, there is no agency with
facilities and technical competence to de-
velop, to say nothing of executing, a ra-
tional far-seeing forest policy for the state
which needs this more than any in the
Union.
To sum up, although Oregon is trying
to bring about wise use of its fish, its
game, and its agricultural resources, and
spends money to this end, it absolutely
neglects its most vulnerable resource—its
forests.
WHAT IS NEEDED AT ONCE,
On the other hand, it needs no theory
to outline a remedy. We have only to
look at experience elsewhere. Where there
is an adequate fire service the losses are
reduced by a hundred times its cost and
few fires are set. Where there is someone to
study and report conditions, the laws are
constantly improved. Where good laws
are strictly but intelligently enforced, the
people respect and endorse them. Where
the lumberman can get competent advice
and encouragement, he is quick to see that
both protection and reforestation are profit-
able. The essentials of such a policy for
STATE WORK
Oregon are cheap and simple. They are
as follows and should be provided for
without delay.
1. A trained state forester familiar with
western conditions and experienced in or-
ganization for the prevention of forest
fires. He should not be a cheap man, but
the best available, and chosen absolutely
independently of politics. He should be
allowed to appoint one or more assistants.
2. A liberal appropriation for forest fire
patrol, with ample latitude for such co-op-
eration with other agencies as the state
forester shall find for the best interest of
the public, especially through the encour-
agement of further extension and efficiency
of private and county effort.
3. Improvement and strict enforcement
of laws against fire, the state to exert
its police authority to this end.
4. Systematic study of forest conditions
and needs, to afford basis of intelligent
action and of any further desirable legis-
lation.
5. A system of general popular educa-
tion, with specific advice to individuals in
proper forest management.
The following are equally important as
part of an early rational policy but per-
haps less urgently in need of immediate
action by the legislature:
1. Dependable low taxation of deforested
land not more valuable for agriculture
which will encourage its being held and
protected for a future crop, the state to
be compensated by adequate tax upon the
yield.
2. Thorough study of the subject of tax-
ing mature timber, with a view of secur-
ing the adoption of a system which will
Tesult in the greatest permanent com-
munity good.
3. Study on which to base the early appli-
cation of advanced forestry principles to
the management of state-owned forest
lands, and the purchase of cut or burned
over lands better suited for state than
private forestry. This to furnish educa-
tive example as well as to maintain state
revenue and proper forest conditions.
LESSONS FROM OTHER STATES.
Hardly any two states have exactly the
same policy in fire prevention. But, bar-
ring, of course, those which do practi-
cally nothing and consequently cannot be
considered to have studied the subject, the
greatest divergence is in the manner of
making the work a public charge after
admitting that it should be one. In other
words, progressive states recognize that it
is a public function and seek to make
the general population share the cost, but
their customs of local government influ-
ence decision as to whether state, county
or township should collect and expend the
funds which are borne by the taxpayer
in elther case. This is largely a question
243
of constitutional power to lay burdens upon
local units against their will.
Pennsylvania, which in all forestry work
makes the state chiefly responsible, bears
four-fifths the entire expense by direct
appropriation. The counties pay the other
fifth. Michigan pays one-third, Connecti-
cut one-fourth. The majority of eastern
states, however, share costs equally with
the town governments which exist there.
Vermont solves the problem by assuming
it should be a town charge but preventing
bardship upon poor towns by providing
that any expense in excess of five per cent
of the town’s “grand list” shall be borne
by the state. In 1908 this worked out to
make 70 towns with small fires pay their
own bills, while in 20 towns, severely rav-
aged, the state bore two-thirds the expense,
of fire fighting at a cost to it of $6,000.
Some states, including Massachusetts and
Wisconsin, make the towns bear all fire ex-
pense except on state reserves. Maine plac-
es a special one and one-half mill tax on all
property in (not timber land alone) the
forest portion of the state, and the state
collects and spends it. As a rule eastern
and central states do not consider private
protection by the owner any more logical
than private fire protection in cities. To
put it another way, they assume the forest
tax payer entitled to the same protection
under the forest statutes that he or any
other citizen receives under the statutes
against murder, theft or arson. The ques-
tion is only whether state or local govern-
ment shall finance and provide it, by di-
rect appropriation or otherwise.
Oregon conditions are different in many
ways. The people’s interest in forest pro-
tection is in no way decreased by the ex-
istence of larger individual holdings, for
the use of timber brings the same wealth
for distribution and its destruction equally
injures all industries. Indeed the pub-
lic’s stake is greater in exactly the meas-
ure that forests constitute a greater pro-
portion of our total resources. Neverthe-
less, the system of production must be
modified to fit our constitution, our dis-
tribution of wealth and population and our
less advanced public sentiment in the
matter. Axiomatically, Oregon should
spend as much more money than Pennsyl-
vania, as it has more forest values to pro-
tect, but spend it differently.
No project, in which the public does not
share, receives public support. So long
as forest preservation is by the lumber
industry alone, it is looked at as a meas-
ure of private profit only. Carelessness
and lawlessness cannot be prevented or
prosecuted, for public sentiment is not
with the property owner. But, when the
average citizen is made to pay something
to protect his own welfare, he wants re
sults for his money, even if he does not
approve of paying it. He sees that de
244
crease of fire hazard decreases his share
of the expense.
Town or county responsibility for actu-
ally performing work cannot be relied on
at our present stage of popular education.
Politics, inexperience, apathy, are twenty
times as hard to overcome in twenty units
of government as they are in one. Theo-
retically, the nearer the administration
is to the thing administered the better,
but this is true only when equal compe-
tency and interest exists. This is borne
out by results where the experiment has
been tried, as in California. There the
law authorizes counties to appropriate for
fire prevention, but they do almost nothing.
The only way this plan could be made
effective is by compelling the counties to
act.
Our wealth, population, and dependent
industries which should help pay for forest
protection are largely outside of the for-
est itself, not scattered through it as in
many eastern states. Only by state dis-
tribution can the cost be fairly equalized.
It is unlikely that our voters would con-
sent, as they do in many states, to re-
lieving the timber owner entirely of the
burden of protecting his property. Nor
is it necessary that they should. A strictly
official system, in which only office holders
spend only public funds, seldom if ever
has the maximum efficiency until removed
from politics, and this is hard to ac-
complish until its object is so thoroughly
approved and understood by the public that
no trifling is permitted. Self-interest must
be appealed to in order to insure sin-
cerity and, until the public fully realizes
its own self-interest that of the timber
owner must be utilized.
The timber owner and lumberman him-
self, by no means always wholly above
education, must also abide by the opera-
tion of the law. He will support it bet-
ter if he has a part in it than if he regards
it solely as officially restriction of his lib-
erties.
For these reasons, the most practical
system for western applications is one
which—
(a) Places a fair share of the finan-
cial burden on the timber owner;
(b) Leaves execution with him insofar
as his self-interest and technical compe-
tence tends to secure economy and effi-
ciency;
(c) Assists him to make less willing
owners do their part:
(d) Makes the state bear enough of the
financial burden to discharge its obliga-
tion, enlist public support, and insure ade-
quate protection;
(e) Gives enough supervision to insure
honest execution and enough backing to
enforce the law.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
(f) Provides for education and senti-
ment-molding that cannot be charged with
selfish motives.
There are two ways to carry out this
policy. One is to enact a detailed law
which attempts to govern the co-opera-
tion between state and private effort so
specifically that neither can secure undue
advantage. This assumes that both will
try to. The other way is to take every
precaution to get a competent non-political
state forester and leave him as free as
possible to deal with the matter. The
latter is by all means preferable. By its
very nature, and also by reason of its
infancy, forest work is insusceptible of
accurate forecast of detail. It may vary
from year to year, from place to place.
While the state’s attitude may be fixed by
legislation, that of the agencies it must
co-operate with must be developed; and not
by legislatures, but by the officials with
whom they deal. A cumbersome or in-
flexible law prevents progress of any kind.
A flexible law permits experiment and pro-
gress, which may be excellent. While it
also permits abuse, this may always be
stopped before much harm is done, be-
cause only one appropriation is involved.
State funds for forest work may be raised
by direct appropriation or by a special
tax. The latter seldom can, or should, be
imposed until a thoroughly satisfactory ad-
ministrative system is established. We
should first get a competent forester to
work out a permanent, financial policy, and
present it to a later legislature for adop-
tion. Until this is done, liberal direct
appropriation is probably all that is safe.
The amount of this appropriation should
have an actual basis, governed by the
acreage and value of the state’s forest re-
sources and the risk to which they are
subject. The state’s participation is merely
paying insurance to protect its prosper-
ity. Every thousand feet of timber saved
for manufacture and sale means the dis-
tribution of from $10 upwards among its
population. Every thousand feet destroyed
means an equal loss. The interest alone
on the annual loss by Oregon would pay
many times the entire cost preventing it.
Not to insure against this loss is folly.
There should, however, be some way of
inducing forest owners as a class to live
up to the policy adopted by the state.
While it should be possible to meet emer-
gencies anywhere that public welfare so
demands, as a general policy state funds
should go to help districts that help them-
selves, thus acting as a lever to encourage
private and county efforts. ‘This also fits
the plan of placing the actual fire work
in the timberman’s hands to ensure effi-
ciency. Again, it is obvious that where
the most private money is spent is where
large fires must be fought, and as large
STATE WORK
fires mean property destruction also, the
private cost is now borne by those whose
losses make them least able to bear it.
Here we arrive at a distinction between
patrol and fire fighting, and it is in this
that most eastern systems are weak. They
tend to provide for fire fighting or for
prevention, and consequently cost more
than they need to, with less actual pro-
tection. The ideal is to assist patrol, as
well as fighting, in equal proportion of the
cost, and this can scarcely be done without
close co-operation between state and owner
without a districting system determined
chiefly by owners. Prevention, not fire
fighting, is the end to be sought. It de-
pends, in cost and efficiency, upon local
hazard and ownership.
Any state falls into a greater or less
number of districts demanding different
measure and method of patrol best deter-
mined by those interested therein. The
owner of the majority of the forest property
in each should have chief voice in fix-
ing the cost and method essential, all
owners within this district should bear
equal proportionate burden, and _ the
state’s proportion should bear the same re-
lation to the acreage cost that it does in
any other district. Like division should
be possible for cost of fire fighting labor
additional to patrol.
The most practicable darhtion of these
many problems, at least at present, seems
to be to modify the present Idaho dis-
trict system so as to escape its regulation
of state expenditure solely by state owner-
ship, which is not adequate in Oregon.
Wherever the owners in a suitable dis-
trict will make concerted effort, the state
should agree to bear a certain proportion
of the cost provided there is a responsibe
local organization to carry out the protec-
tive policy decided upon. In localities
where the owners refuse or neglect to main-
tain such organization, independently em-
ployed wardens should be appointed upon
request, but without compensation by the
state, as at present. In such localities,
also, the state forester should be em-
powered to take any additional steps de-
manded by the public welfare in emer-
gency, and perhaps to recover a fair part
245
of the cost from the owners of the land
concerned.
To sum up, although the state’s inter-
est and financial responsibility is great,
it can accomplish most not by building
up an immense fire organization of its
own, inviting political interference and at
best requiring complicated and expensive
supervision, but by encouraging and aid-
ing local action by those whose own inter-
est insures the maximum efficiency with
the least state machinery. Where it can-
not obtain this relief, and only there, it
should take charge of the situation it-
self. If this system is followed, the ex-
penditure of the state fire funds will be
to best advantage, and the state’s own
forest service will be left fairly free to
devote itself to other branches of forestry
work, such as reforestation, public edu-
cation, and making the many investiga-
tions badly needed before a permanent
policy can be developed. Otherwise the
state forester’s entire time is occupied by
fire work, which can do no better than
others, and he has no opportunity to do
the things which he alone can do.
Pennsylvania spends $180,000 a year for
forestry and fire protection, New York $118,-
000, Maine $64,000, and the other eastern
and middle western forest states follow
in line. Michigan expects to treble its
present annual appropriation of $19,000 this
year. Minnesota appropriates $21,000 and
the towns bear the rest. Washington ex-
pects greatly to increase its present an-
nual allowance of $23,000. Idaho shares
on a pro rata basis, amounting to about
$15,000 last year and double that this
year. It is unnecessary to prolong the re-
view further than to say that down even
to little New Jersey, with $13,500 a year,
other states have left Oregon at the foot
of the list in preservation of forest wealth
and industries. None of them, having be-
gun the work, abandons it. Their people
endorse further progress by each legis-
lature. Shall Oregon, with most at stake,
remain the only laggard, inexcusably in-
different to the life and property of its
citizens, and hazard worse disasters than
those of 1910.
NEWS AND NOTES
Consumption of Tanning Materials
Tan bark and tanning extracts were con-
sumed in the United States during the cal-
endar year 1909 to the value of $21,904,927,
as against $21,361,719 in 1908 and $21,205,-
547 in 1907. Of these totals the outlay for
extracts formed 49.2 per cent during 1909,
49.4 per cent in 1908, and 45.5 per cent in
1907.
While the total expenditure for vegetable
tanning materials has been divided between
the group of barks, etc., on the one hand
and that of extracts on the other during the
past three years, the average cost per cord
of barks has advanced steadily from $9.52 in
1907 to $9.58 in 1908 and $10.31 in 1909.
This increase in the average cost per cord
has been accompanied or followed by a cor
responding decrease in the quantity an-
nually consumed during the same period,
the total for 1908 being 7.2 per cent less
than that for 1907, and that for 1909, 4.3
per cent less than that for 1908. The most
marked decrease in annual consumption
is shown for hemlock, which was the bark
used in greatest quantity in all three years,
the reported total of this species for 1909
being less than that for 1908 by 13.8 per
cent, and less than that for 1907 by 14.4
per cent.
The showing for extracts is similar to
that for barks, etc., with respect to cost,
though entirely different when the annual
consumption is considered. The average
cost per pound of extracts of all kinds
consumed during 1907 was $0.0264, while
in 1908 it was $0.0269 and in 1909 $0.0278.
The total consumption in 1909 was greater
than that in 1907 by 21,918,360 pounds, or
6 per cent, though slightly less than that
reported for 1908, the total for which year
was the largest of which there is record.
The most marked increase among the
leading extracts was in chestnut extract,
the consumption of which in 1909 exceeded
that of 1908 by 24.5 per cent and that of
1907 by 35.6 per cent. This movement in
the tanning industry toward the supplant-
ing of barks as materials with extracts has
been discernible in the showings for sey-
eral years past and follows logically the
growing scarcity and rapidly increasing
cost of the barks. Furthermore the fact
that the supply of barks is not only dimin-
ishing but at the same time becoming more
remote from transportation facilities con-
tributes to the decreasing use of tanning
materials in this form.
246
The tanning industry, or that portion of
it using vegetable tanning materials, is
widely distributed. The consumption of
extracts was reported from 33 states, and
of barks from 25 in 1909, but the four
states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, West
Virginia, and Michigan, ranked in point of
consumption in the order named, used near-
ly two-thirds of the total quantity of barks
reported, and, with Massachusetts, about
three-fifths of that of extract. Pennsyl-
vania continues, however, to be far in the
lead of all other states in the quantity of
both barks and extracts annually consumed,
this state alone reporting 28.8 per cent of
the barks and 32.2 per cent of the extracts
used during 1909.
The Southern Appalachian Rivers
A detailed report upon the surface water
supply of the south Atlantic coast and the
eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico is con-
tained in Part II of a series of government
reports entitled “Surface water supply of
the United States, 1909.” This paper is pub-
lished by the United States Geological Sur-
vey as Water-Supply Paper 262 and may be
obtained from the Director of the Survey
on application. It wili be of particular in-
terest in connection with the protection of
streams by national forests under the new
law.
Determinations of rates of water flow
are of importance in leading to the most
complete utilization of the power of a
stream. At any reasonable valuation per
horse power, the undeveloped power of
these streams is an important industrial
asset. In Georgia and the Carolinas, more
than 100,000 horsepower has been developed
and is being used by the cotton mills alone,
and public service corporations in these
three states are to-day developing 300,000
to 400,000 additional horsepower to turn
the hundreds of mills and light the many
towns and cities in the region. In the
operation of the power plants already con-
structed and in the financing and building
of those yet to be developed the problem
of water flow is an important factor.
Projects for providing water for domestic
supply, for irrigation, and for generation
of power for factories can not be designed
intelligently without a knowledge of the
flow and the behavior of the rivers from
which the supply is to be derived.
Methods of taking records and of com-
puting rates of flow are described im detail
NEWS AND NOTES
in the paper. The instruments employed
are illustrated, and the manner in which
they are used is shown.
Among the river basins considered are
those of the James, Yadkin, Santee, Sa-
vannah, Altamaha, Appalachicola, Choc-
tawhatchee, Mobile, and Pearl, with their
most important tributaries. A summary
showing the great divergencies in sea-
sonal rates of fiow exhibited by these
streams is appended to the text.
A Canadian View
A very interesting letter has recently ap-
peared from Senator W. C. Edwards, presi-
dent of the Canadian Forestry Association,
in favor of the reciprocity agreement. Com-
ing from one of the leading lumber opera-
tors, timberland owners, and paper mill
men in Canada, this letter contains some
statements that are well worth noting.
Among other things, Mr. Edwards says:
“Amongst the questions that attract more
or less attention in the discussion going
on at present in Parliament is that of the
capturing and despoiling by the Americans
of our natural resources. Our principal
natural resources, so far as I am aware,
are the products of the farm, the forests,
the mines and fisheries, and of these, where
the most fear is apprehended, are our for-
est products, say lumber and perhaps more
particularly pulp wood; there are, in the
minds of very many of our people, some
very mistaken ideas with regard to this
subject.
“In the minds of many Canadians the
Americans have practically exhausted their
forest resources, and are in immediate need
of securing their requirements from Can-
ada. This is not true. The United States
possess to-day vastly more lumber than
Canada and cutting as they are, say 40
billion feet per annum, they are said to
have sufficient to supply their wants for
from twenty-five to thirty years. Just
where she is to look for her supply after
that time I have no idea. Most people
think Canada will then be her source of
supply, but this is an error. For while it
is true that up to date no approximately
accurate estimate has been made of our
timber resources, yet quite enough is as-
certained to make it well known that the
total timber resources of Canada suitable
for lumber for immediate cutting would
not supply the United States for more than
eight or ten years.
“As far as pulp wood is concerned the
situation is different. Our resources in
spruce, suitable for pulp making, are very
much greater than theirs, and again the
total quantity required annually for paper
making is quite a small item compared with
the quantity of lumber consumed.
247
“What the position of the United States
is to be 20 to 30 years hence in her lumber
requirements is a great and important ques-
tion, and one which is in their hands to
solve.
“But the important question engaging
the minds of some Canadians at the mo-
ment is that should the duty on Canadian
lumber entering the United States be abol-
ished, and that should the further provis-
ion take place, viz., that for the free entry
of Canadian pulp and paper into the United
States, the provinces relax their regulations
that pulp wood cut from the crown do-
main shall be manufactured in Canada,
that what will follow will be greatly in-
creased exhaustion of our forests conse-
quent on improved prices for our lumber
and the sale of our pulp wood to the
United States, and I at once admit that this
is a most reasonable deduction to arrive at
on the part of those unfamiliar with the
true situation.
“The agitation against the exportation
of pulp wood first arose on the part of the
pulp and paper makers of Canada, with
the view of circumscribing the market for
their own selfish ends; but misguided and
uninformed patriotism has now carried
them away.”
Continuing, he refers to the removal of
the duty on lumber, and says it will not
stimulate lumber production, but will let
the Canadians penetrate a little further
into the United States.
Then he continues “It cannot be attrib-
uted to me that I have any selfish ends to
serve in what I suggest, as I am a pro-
tective pulp and paper maker and have
never exported pulp wood and never ex-
pect to, and that my firm conviction is that
the free admission of our lumber into the
United States will not have the effect of
increasing Canadian products, and that the
removal of the manufacturing provision of
the provinces, as applied to pulp wood, will
do Canada incalculable good and no harm
whatever.
“My frank opinion is that by far the
greater benefit to be realized by Canadian
lumbermen will be from the general im-
proved conditions Canada will most cer-
tainly enjoy if the suggested lowering of
tariffs on both sides of the line takes place.
This, I believe, will be far and beyond the
most sanguine expectations of the promot-
ers and supporters of the proposition. And
now as to pulp wood, I affirm that forest
conservation is a matter by itself, and
stands on its own bottom. The crown,
represented by the various provinces, en-
acts the regulations and through such reg-
ulations controls the cutting. The matter
of forest conservation is not involved in
dictating to the limit holder the form
in which he shall sell his product.
248 AMERICAN
“Many of the United States mills have
abundant supplies of pulp wood for many
years to come. This is true of many of
the Eastern mills, and in the West there
is an enormous supply. In Oregon and
Washington the pulp mills are cutting the
largest and finest spruce, capable of mak-
ing the longest and largest of dimension
timber, into pulp wood for their immedi-
ate and prospective wants, and for a few
years back have been buying some pulp
wood in Canada, cut almost entirely on
private lands, and the cheap price of Scan-
dinavian pulp enables them to import from
there. But many of these mills suffer
another and most serious disability, viz.,
a shortage of water for grinding the wood,
and this shortage is becoming more in-
tense as time advances. There is the
further condition that many of the Amer-
ican mills, and particularly those who have
but a limited supply of wood ahead of
them, are but temporary, and one by one
will go out of existence.
“With our very large resources in pulp
wood and our numerous and never failing
water powers, particularly in the province of
Quebec, there is but one sequence to this
question. The ultimate destiny of a large
share of the pulp and paper making of
North America will be in Canada. But
this result will come automatically and by
evolution. Mills will gradually disappea;
in the United States, and excepting in
places where there is a future supply of
wood no new mills will be built there,
and as fast as market demands their con-
struction they will be built in Canada; but
the construction in Canada will not be
hastened one day by the provincial restric-
tion existing, but otherwise. It will be
retarded just as long as the maintenance of
the American duty remains a consequent
provision, and Canada will be most seri-
ously injured. Freedom of entry into the
United States for pulp and paper would
encourage the construction of mills in
Canada, but the reverse will deter judici-
ous Canadians from so investing.
“That it is wiser that the transference
of that large part of pulp and paper mak-
ing that is to come to us should come
fairly gradually, I personally feel no doubt
of, and if the American market is open
to us I am certain that the paper making
will come to us as well as that of pulp,
for apart from the transportation condi-
tion so favorable and advantageous to paper
over pulp, there is the water power ques-
tion I have mentioned, which is very es-
sential.
“And in the meantime, as this auto.
matic transference goes on, a rich harvest
can be obtained by those who have spruce
which they wish to dispose of, as the Am-
FORESTRY
ericans who need the pulp wood will pay
during the lifetime of their mills, a high
price for it, and earn even small dividends
on their properties rather than no divi-
dends.”
A Gift to the Yale Forest School
The gift of $100,000 for a building for the
Yale Forest School is announced. The name
of the donor is not made public. The
building will be erected upon the Pierson-
Sage square. Following so closely upon
the gift of $100,000 by Mrs. BE. H. Harri-
man, to endow the chair of forest manage-
ment, in memory of her husband, this in-
dicates the interest which those of large
means are beginning to take in forestry,
and the recognition of the profession, and
the need of thorough training therefor.
Conservation in Hawaii
On Wednesday afternoon, November 16,
1910, there was held in Honolulu, Hawaii,
a public meeting to consider the local
application of the five cardinal points of
conservation—the right use of lands,
waters, forests and minerals, and the safe-
guarding of public health. It was under
the joint auspices of the Territorial
Board of Agriculture and Forestry and the
Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association. In
the audience were a majority of the sugar
plantation managers and other members
of that association, but tn addition there
was also present a goodly company of per-
sons representative of the best thought
and influence in the territory in other
lines. Short addresses were made by Gov-
ernor Frear, Messrs. Marston Campbell,
Ralph S. Hosmer, Dr. E. V. Wilcox, Hon.
W. O. Smith, Dr. W. C. Hobdy, Prof. C. H.
Hitcheock, and Mr. Alonzo Gartley on vari-
ous phases of the conservation problem
in its local aspects.
In the speaking, mention was made of im-
portant co-operative work by the terri-
torial bureaus, the United States Forest Sery-
ice, and the United States Geological Sur-
vey. Ralph S. Hosmer, superintendent of
forestry of the territory, spoke on the part
played by the forest in conservation. He
summed up the importance of forestry to
Hawaii in these sentences: “In Hawaii
forestry is a business necessity. Wood and
water are the first needs that must be satis-
fied in any community. Both are products
of the forest. Wherever it can be got water
is the most valuable product that the na-
tive Hawaiian forest can be made to yield.
In Hawaii, without the native forest we
should be without water. And in our
planted forests, we have, too, an asset
constantly increasing in value; for the pro-
duction of wood is one of the pressing needs
of local conservation.”
NEWS AND NOTES
To Get In Under the New Law
It has just been discovered that Kentucky
alone of the Appalachian states has not
passed a law permitting the United States
to hold land within the state under the
new national forest law. Unless this is
promptly remedied, therefore, the Blue
Grass State will have to be left out of con-
sideration for the present. As the Ken-
tucky delegation in the House of Repre-
sentatives cast five votes against the Weeks
bill and none for it, and one of her senators
voted against it, this seems a little like
poetic justice, but it is rather hard on
Representative Stanley, who worked for
the bill long and consistently in the Com-
mittee on Agriculture, and would have been
present to vote for it but for illness.
{In this connection it is interesting to
note that a bill to authorize the national
government to establish forest reserves in
Pennsylvania has been introduced in the
legislature of that state. It is said to be
part of the general plan of the flood com-
mission for putting a stop to the periodical
flood loss in Pittsburgh. Federal, state,
county and city government are expected
to co-operate in the carrying out of meas-
ures which will eventually be the means
of impounding flood waters at their sources
and using them during dry seasons.
Hardy Catalpas for Iowa
That the hardy catalpa is one of the best
fence post trees that can be grown in Iowa,
is the conclusion reached by the Iowa Ex-
periment Station. Eighteen-year-old trees
that have been properly cared for will yield
from 2,000 to 2,500 posts to the acre. The
gross annual return per acre per year on
the Iowa plantations studied varied from
$10.77 to $20.34. Copies of Bulletin 120,
249
giving directions for growing catalpas, can
be obtained free by writing to the Iowa
ixperiment Station at Ames.
Publications of the United States Geological
Survey
A new list of publications of the United
States Geological Survey, just issued, con-
tains the titles of more than a thousand
books and pamphlets. These reports cover
a wide range of subjects. They include
not only papers on geology and topography
but reports on water resources and on tech-
nology. The Geological Survey was the
nursery of the United States Reclamation
Service and the Bureau of Mines, which
now, in full growth, are carrying along
successfully work begun by the Survey
vears ago. The Survey, however, still con-
tinues its work on water resources and in-
cludes discussions of technology in its an-
nual volume “Mineral Resources of the
United States.”
A glance at this list will show the great
diversity of the subjects considered and the
manifold nature of the science of geology.
The reports include discussions of geologic
chemistry, mineralogy, petrography, and
paleontology, as well as ore deposition and
other matters of very practical importance.
Much of the Survey’s late work has been
directed to the study of mineral deposits of
economic value. The work done in land
classification has not yet found detailed
expression in the Survey’s reports, but
some papers prepared as a result of land-
classification surveys have been printed an-
nually in bulletins entitled “Contributions
to economic geology.”
The list may be obtained by applying to
the Director of the Survey at Washington
Ds C-
Adopted by the Cornell Forestry School
Every Forestry Library Should Own at Least One Copy of
Trees and
Their Life Histories
By PROFESSOR PERCY A. GROOM, M.A., D.S.C., F.L.S.
(Cantab. et Oxon.)
The Most Superbly Illustrated Tree Book
Ever Issued. @ With 512 Reproductions
of Photographs of Trees by Henry Irving,
the Result of Years of Study
ACCURATE, THOROUGH, READABLE A MARVEL OF ILLUSTRATION
i gee exceptionally complete and magnificently Mr. Henry Irving has been engaged for a number of
illustrated work is meeting with the highest years in making an exhaustive series of photographs of
eammendation and approval from the numerous Trees, a field in which he is acknowledged by leading
Tree authorities and Forestry students who are nature photographers without a peer. The finest results
acquainted with it. Numbers of our Forestry of his work are embodied in Professor Groom’s
School Libraries have already purchased it. It “TREES AND THEIR LIFE HISTORIES”
is pre-eminently a work for Nature Lovers,
practical Tree Experts and students of Tree Life. This book contains over one hundred large plates
Analytical tables, diagnoses of families, and 22d four hundred smaller ones, showing each tree
numerous illustrations, together with a brief in its summer and in its winter appearance,
mention of distinctive features, enable the 180 of each tree the trunk and bark, the
reader to identify each of the seventy-five varie- bud and twig, the leaf spray, the flower
ties of trees that are here fully treated. spray, and the fruit cluster. Neither pains
Particular trees have been selected for more nor expense have been spared to make
aka ot panes 9 For example, branching of the illustrations, as they have never
e tree is specially illustrated by the Larch, ef
Yew, Horse Chestnut, and others; branching of pore ters. pases ina typical,
a shrub and weeping tree, by the Elder and The work i a
Laburnum; the repair of injuries, by the Scots i s a large Octavo,
Pine; the shape and conduct of a light- printed with great care on the
demanding tree, by the Larch and Birch; the finest quality surface paper
degeneration of flowers, by the Sweet Chestnut 2nd strongly bound in green 5
and Ash. And #0 on. silk cloth and gold. S
Price, $10.00 Net, Sent on Approval
LET US SEND YOU THIS VOLUME WITH THE
UNDERSTANDING that should it fail to substantiate
New Yerk.
Gentlemen:
NS
x Find enclosed $10.00
Ss (check, money order, or
currency), for which please
i bs send me, carriage paid, 1 copy
all our claims, you may return it to us by Express Collect. & of“-TREBS AND THBIR LIFE
We will in this case refund you the full amount of Wy HISTORIES,” by Professor
remittance upon the arrival of the volume in good ” Percy Groom. I reserve the privi-
ee Ke
condition. lege of returning the volume to
you if unsatisfactory, and if I should,
you agree to refund me at once the
CASSELL & COMP ANY full amount of my remittance.
Established 1848
43-45 East Nineteenth Street
NEW YORK ADDRESS... -ceccecccvccicccccccscccccccseses
eer eerereeeserreeeree®
BU to know the Notch truly, one
must take the drive from the
Crawford House to the top of Mt.
Willard, and look down into it. A
man stands there as an ant might
stand on the edge of a huge tureen.
The road below is a mere bird-track.
The long battlements that, from the
front of the Willey House, tower
on each side so savagely, from this
point seem to flow down in charm-
ing curves to meet at the stream.
And let us again advise visitors to
ascend Mt. Willard, if possible, late
in the afternoon. They will then
see one long wall of the Notch in
shadow, and can watch it move
slowly up the curves on the oppo-
site side, displacing the yellow
splendor, while the dim green dome
of Washington is filled by the sink-
ing sun ‘with heavenly alchemy.’”’
STARR KING
€6% GDVd AAS “HOOTA AVTIVA AHL DNOTV
GvOU ADVINAVO AHL GNVY LHYSIN AHL NO SMOHS /
GNIT AVMIIVE FHL ‘HLAOS DNIMOOT ‘MATA YALNIA V HOLON GHOUMVUO AHL
American Forestry
VOL. XVII MAY, 1911 No. 5
STATE FORESTS IN VERMONT
By WALTER K. WILDES
step to meet this need and to acquire areas suitable and available for
state forests and the consequent development of this phase of the state
forestry policy, was taken up by the legislature of 1908. At this time an act
was passed creating a Board of Agriculture and Forestry consisting of four
members—two ex-oflicio, the Governor and the Director of the State Experi-
ment Station, and two to be appointed by the Governor. This board has the
authority “to accept gifts of land to the state, to be held, protected and admin-
istered as a state forest reserve” and “to purchase lands in the name of the
state” for the same purpose.
Such areas in a state possessing the physiographic features of Vermont.
together with the natural beauty and scenery to attract many thousands of
tourists and summer residents, will naturally be divided into three distinct
classes, namely, demonstration forests, protection forests and areas that serve
primarily as parks. Each class is represented in the four tracts now owned
by the state of Vermont.
From the standpoint of the development of a state forestry policy the
demonstration forest is first in importance. All such areas need not neces-
sarily be forested for they serve in two essential capacities, the one to illustrate
proper forest management and natural reproduction primarily ; the other to illus-
trate the methods and results of reforesting areas with desirable species by arti-
ficial methods. In the former, thinnings of the proper intensity and species
are made, either for the immediate improvement of the stand or to provide for
such reproduction as the site and existing desirable species will allow.
Another important advantage of such areas, where lumbering is practical, is
to convince local operators that scientific cutting is profitable; that it is not
necessary to cut clean in order to realize a legitimate return. Often times a
contractor is skeptical when he is asked to figure on a cut where only marked
trees are to be removed or where lopping and piling coniferous tops, in order
to eliminate as far as possible the danger from fire, is demanded, or where
closer utilization is required. Both owners and contractors learn, after an
actual operation, that the extra expense imposed by the above conditions is
only a very small percentage higher than the cost based upon the usual
methods and that this excess is amply justified by the results.
WV iitep to me need of and uses for state forests are emphatic. The initial
253
254 AMERICAN FORESTRY
On the latter areas, such as have been clear cut or burned over and are
either not reproducing at all or with undesirable species or old pasture land
that is producing only a small annual return per acre, reforesting operations
appeal strongly to the people of almost all communities. It creates a more
direct response and interest in forestry than any other phase of the work.
The first purchase of land as authorized by the Act of 1908 was made in
the autumn of 1909, when the L. R. Jones State Forest at Plainfield was
acquired. At the same time the state came into the possession of the Downer
State Forest at Sharon by gift. Early in the present year two more areas
were added, one given by the Hon. M. J. Hapgood at Peru, the other by Col.
Joseph Battell near Huntington.
The development of this policy will be continued in various parts of the
state as money and the disposition of those interested in granting similar
areas will allow.
THE DOWNER STATE FOREST
This area of 310 acres, the gift of Mr. Charles Downer, comprises the
following types:
Woodland: .. 2.0 6.202 ok eee ete Cie aes 90 acres
Ta DLe: (id bes SS Scterag etary eee ee ot eae 50 acres
Pastule | ik eis s Hee eee eee 150 acres
Apple / Orchard. J. eae ee eee 5 acres
SS WV ARMIN 5 aie bees rete eee ter are eee 15 acres
For a considerable period this tract will serve as a demonstration and
experimental area, where improvement and reproduction cuttings will be
made; plantations of various species, spacing and combinations set out; and
silvical studies of several species, more especially sugar maple, will be carried
on from year to year. It is the wish of the donor that a part of the area be
utilized as a game preserve. The area is rough but not rugged, varying in
elevation from 1400 to 1800 feet. The variation in soil conditions from swamp
to the dry, thin soil at the highest elevation, gives a wide range for planting
experiments and choice of species.
The woodland consists for the most part in sugar maple, varying in age
from seedlings to over maturity. Other species are basswood, yellow birch,
beech, ash, white birch, poplar, ironwood and hemlock. The minimum stand
per acre is two cords, the maximum 6,000 board feet and 45 cords.
The treatment of the various blocks will include reproduction and
improvement thinnings; the selection system ; and the final cuttings of the stand
system. All are advised with the idea of favoring either maple alone or maple,
basswood and ash collectively.
A forest nursery was established in the spring of 1910. It will serve as
a distributing point for that part of the state and, at the same time, provide
stock for state planting. Only half an acre is now in nursery but this will be
increased each year. There were planted in the nursery in the spring of 1910:
3,500 two year old white pine seedlings; 20,000 two year old red pine seed-
lings; 15,000 one year old white pine seedlings. Twenty-five pounds of white
pine seed was sown. In 1911 fifty pounds of white pine and twenty pounds
of Norway spruce seed will be sown. In addition 50,000 two year old white
pine and 3,000 Austrian pines will be transplanted from the state nursery
at Burlington. In 1910 plantations set out on final sites totaled 34 acres,
consisting of: 12,000 four year old white pines; 7,000 four year old red pines;
10,000 three year old Scotch pines; 5,000 four year old Norway spruce.
STATE FORESTS IN VERMONT 255
In 1911 and 1912 ninety-four acres will be added to the area already
planted and the following species used, in addition to those already named:
Black walnut, black locust, white ash, red oak, European larch, basswood,
Adirondack spruce and hickory. This gives a total area of 128 acres in plan-
tations. Their purpose is to provide information relative to the effect on
growth of different spacing, of pure and mixed stands, and the adaptability
of the species to soil and altitude. In the final allotment of areas there will be:
NAGOMLESTECL (a) ows. tee Bix pane taakate a Eiko ate = 90 acres
EPLSIVCS ATG "his ath oe Se eh ced eee ab eneatiend Pea aber at eas 128 acres
PRG tz ei ake ee eel See cd ee ane ee 30 acres
MTP AG. o's er bea eo ah oe Seam Each b 50 acres
Apne; Orchards sy ee tae wane ae deine « 12 acres
The area of pasture land will thus be reduced from 150 to 30 acres and
the orchard increased from 5 to 12 acres. A complete system of trails will
be constructed. These will lead to the different plantations and through sey-
eral blocks of woodland.
The danger from fire, which is inconsiderable, has been provided for by
limiting the extent of area of pure coniferous plantations and maintaining a
fire line 100 feet wide at the most dangerous point.
THE L. R. JONES STATE FOREST
The L. R. Jones State Forest is an area of a different type and will be
used more to illustrate proper lumbering methods and provisions for natural
reproduction, together with plantations.
This area consists of 500 acres, 400 being purchased in the autumn of 1909
and 100 in the autumn of 1910. Of this total area there are 135 acres to be
planted and 365 acres of woodland, thus utilizing the total area as forest
land. Much of this area has been lumbered but there is still a considerable
amount to come out. In the autumn of 1910 60,000 board feet of spruce and
hardwoods were marked. The cutting will be completed by January, 1911.
This material is cut, skidded and hauled, five miles, at $7.00, and is being
sold at $10.00 per thousand, leaving a profit of $3.00 per thousand, which is
fairly satisfactory considering the small size of the material and the difficulty
of cutting in dense spruce thickets.
There are two types of woodland. Hardwoods consisting of white and
yellow birch and maple and beech from which the spruce and fir have been
cut, comprise about 215 acres. The spruce and fir type, comprising about 135
acres, is an area formerly in pasture land or clean cut about twenty years
ago, and since reclaimed by this growth. There is also a small area of older
pure spruce that will be marked and harvested as soon as possible. The area
is rugged, having a variation of elevation of 900 feet with considerable granite
outcrop.
In the spring of 1910 there were planted 25,000 four year old white pines
and 10,000 three year old Norway spruce. This work will be continued for
the next three years, by which time the total open area will be planted with
white pine, Norway spruce and arborvitae.
Lumbering operations will go on each fall, taking out the material marked
during the summer. The maximum coniferous stand per acre is 18,000 board
feet and 30 cords. The maximum hardwood stand per acre is 5,000 board
feet and 15 cords. This area will consequently be upon a revenue producing
basis considerably before the Downer State Forest.
256 AMERICAN FORESTRY
There is already a very good road system, to which an extension has
been staked out, running across the plantation made in 1910.
Because of the recent acquirement of the two areas last mentioned no plan
for management has been formulated. They differ, however, in the possibili-
ties for their development and use for forestry purposes, as they were given
with certain restrictions, which will detract from their value as such.
The gift of Mr. Hapgood comprises 106 acres and includes the summit
of Bromley Mountain in Peru; that of Mr. Battell contains about 800 acres,
including Camel’s Hump, one of the highest points in the state. These tracts
will serve primarily for protective and park purposes.
TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS
A Review of Recent Studies in New Hampshire and Wisconsin
By Epwin A. Start
HE vital importance to forestry of the question of taxation of forest lands
© is generally recognized and the subject is frequently attacked by for-
esters, lumbermen, economists and legislators; but so far without any
tangible results. The crude remedy of exemption has been tried by some states
but never with success. Attempts to remedy the recognized evils have been
occasionally made but these have generally run upon the rock of unconstitu-
tionality. For instance, in Massachusetts it was found that any application
of sound principles to forest taxation would conflict with the provision of the
state constitution, a provision which appears in many other state constitutions,
which requires equal and proportionate taxation of all classes of property.
The Massachusetts Forestry Association, therefore, united with the Boston
Chamber of Commerce in an effort to secure a constitutional amendment pro-
viding for classification of property for purposes of taxation. So far this
movement has been headed off by the innate conservatism of the state.
We are not in a position in this country to apply the elaborate methods of
forest taxation that are in operation in Europe, because our forest conditions
are so different and we have not a sufficient body of trained men of technical
knowledge to administer laws based upon such knowledge; but it is admitted
that we must do something and we are thus thrown at once upon the necessity
of a thorough study of our own conditions and the evolution of a system appli-
cable to them. Two comprehensive studies have been made by Forest Service
experts cooperating with state officers, and the results have been published.
The first of these was made by J. H. Foster in New Hampshire in 1908. The
second, the results of which have just been published, was made by Alfred J.
Chittenden and Harry Irion in Wisconsin in 1910.
These states are geographically wide apart and different conditions are
found in them, but it is curious to note the parallels between them and how
closely the two taxation studies run with each other. In both states lumbering
and pulp and paper making are industries of great importance. Both states
divide naturally into two sections—a southern agricultural district, where
forests chiefly exist in the form of farm wood-lots, and an extensive northern
district where natural forest lands predominate. In both the northern type of
forest is the prevailing one, though the hard-wood belt reaches up across south-
VIEW SHOWING BUILDINGS IN THE DOWNER
STATE FOREST
STATE FORESTS IN VERMONT
Photo by A. F. Hawes
RED PINE PLANTATION MADE IN SPRING OF
1910. DOWNER STATE FOREST
Photo by A. F. Hawes
STATE FORESTS IN VERMONT FOREST NURSERY. TRANSPLANTS OF RED AND
WHITE PINE. DOWNER STATE FOREST
Photo by A. F. Hawes
NATURAL REPRODUCTION OF SUGAR MAPLE,
THREE TO TEN FEET HIGH. UVOWNER STATE
FOREST
\.
‘.
|
455
:
iM
Photo by A. F. Hawes
MAPLE ORCHARD THINNED TO HELP
STATE FORESTS IN VERMONT YOUNG
OF BEST TREES. DOWNER STATE
GROWTH
FOREST
Se,
Photo by A. F. Hawes
GENERAL VIEW IN L. R. JONES STATE FOREST.
NOTE EVERGREENS RECLAIMING OLD PASTURE
STATE FORESTS IN VERMONT
TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS 261
ern and central Wisconsin. In general it may be said that the conclusions of
the investigators in regard to existing conditions and desirable changes were
very similar.
Both of them start off with the statement that owing to the difference
between the agricultural and wild land portions of the states, the study of taxa-
tion and of the fire problem falls naturally into two divisions. Mr. Foster, in
his earlier report, reached the general conclusions that “(a) the actual tax
burdens imposed on forest lands of the same value are not equal or propor-
tionate as the state constitution requires, either as between the different towns,
or different tax payers in the same town. (b) In general the law has not been
strictly inforced in the past as is shown by the fact that little land reverts to
the town because of unpaid taxes. Sometimes an owner believes that the
tax is more than the land can stand but in such cases a purchaser has always
been found. This is due to the fact that growing timber has usually been
assessed much below its actual market value and the burden of taxation thus
has been lighter so that the lands can carry it. (c) In the search for revenue
to meet the natural necessities of the town a strong tendency has recently
developed to enforce the law more rigidly and valuations have in many cases
been increased with startling rapidity. This rapid increase in valuation can-
not be long continued and applied to these cut-over lands after the owner has
been forced to cut without causing abandonment. Such has been the result of
the policy. in California and in Michigan where the state has acquired and
owned a million and a quarter acres of abandoned tax lands, and to a less
extent, in other Lake states. (d) As between the farmer and the mill-man, to
whom he sells his wood-lot, taxes have in the past been very low to the farmer
while the timber was in his hands and some attempt has been made to appraise
it at more nearly its actual value, or rather to approximate the selling price,
which is often unduly low, when it is bought for lumbering. Usually, however,
if is cut at once and the town collects taxes at the new appraisal but one year
if at all. The consequence is that the timber escapes its fair share of the
public burden. (e) The present law, granting a percentage exemption to own-
ers who have planted their land to timber, is not taken advantage of to any
extent and is wholly inaedquate. Most of the land upon which there is growing
timber is seeded naturally and therefore does not come within the law. The
exemption ceases wholly in thirty years, at the time when it is to the advantage
of the town as well as of the owner to let it mature further. Moreover, tax
exemptions are of questionable advantage and excite hostility to those taking
advantage of them.”
This statement of general conclusions resulting from an examination
of New Hampshire conditions will be recognized by residents of other states
who have had occasion to look into this matter of the taxation of forest
lands. So closely do the conclusions of the Wisconsin report follow those that
have just been quoted from New Hampshire that it is unnecessary to repeat
the latter. The differences are only in minor points.
In discussing the question of how forest property in New Hampshire
should be taxed, Mr. Foster calls attention to the fact that if the land tax is
to be equal as between different land owners, it must take one of three forms:
(1) a uniform percentage of the actual sale value of the property as it
stands; (2) a uniform percentage of the actual income from the property; (3)
a uniform percentage of estimated power of the soil for potential income.
He then notes that in this country the first form is the one in use, although
the assessment of agricultural lands in actual sale value is generally placed
unconsciously upon the fertility of the soil for its potential yield. The assess-
ment of forest lands is based upon their supposed actual sale value, but the
262 AMERICAN FORESTRY
land itself is not considered. It is the value of the growth upon the land which
indicates its sale value. Agricultural crops, being harvested annually, escape
taxation entirely. Forest lands, therefore, are not taxed upon the same basis
as agricultural lands, although there is no provision in the law for such dis-
tinction. Herein, of course, is one of the essential elements of injustice in the
taxation of forest lands, as it is applied generally in our agricultural com-
munities. The second and third forms of taxation, as analyzed in the state-
ment above, are applied in Europe to a large extent and forest taxation is
much more equitable there and this tends to promote good forestry. “In this
country,” says Mr. Foster, “the system of assessing property at its actual sale
value and taxing it at a uniform percentage of that value works well enough
when applied to agricultural land; but when applied to growing forests it is
both unjust and unwise. It is unjust because it ignores the fact that growing
timber, before it is large enough for market, has only a prospective value
and the income or return can only be obtained at long intervals. It is unwise,
because the system often forces the owner to cut the timber before it is
mature.” Later on the author calls attention to the danger of the present law
if it is enforced to the letter. Should it be applied to growing timber lands
generally, there would be, he says, a tremendous slaughter of half-grown timber.
In this connection, there may be cited by way of illustration, a case which
arose a few years ago in a northern state in which a non-resident owner of a
thousand acres of timberland in a rural town had his valuation raised from
$7,500 to $22,500, that is, the valuation was tripled in one year without warn-
ing and the owner had no redress against this arbitrary action of the local
board of assessors. The laws of this state are those in common application in
most of our eastern states and this thing can be done almost anywhere. It
raised a serious question with this owner as to whether he should cut off the
timber and dispose of the land or not. He was a public spirited gentleman,
interested deeply in forestry, and had held the land rather for the public
benefit than for his own.
The New Hampshire report states the requirement of the situation there
as follows: “What is needed in this state is a method of taxing forest lands
which can be administered by the towns in conformity with the established
function and procedure of our local government; which insures an annual
revenue while the timber is immature commensurate with that formerly derived
with the low appraisal of immature timber held by farmers and others; which
imposes a fair burden upon the timber crop when it is cut and collects it from
the person who cuts and sells the timber. This burden will be a tax on the
yield or income and not on the land or capital. It should, therefore, be rela-
tively high. To prevent speculative holdings without taxing of land chiefly
valuable for residence, manufacturing or farming purposes, the law should be
restricted to lands found by the selectmen and assessors to be chiefly valuable
for the production of wood and timber. Timber cut from land so classified
should be taxed when it is severed from the land and should not be removed un-
til a tax of 15 per cent of the value of such timber has been assessed and collect-
ed by the selectmen, or proper security shall have been given to them. Finally,
since timber now half-grown or mature has presumably been taxed in accord-
ance with the present law, and since it is desirable to introduce the new system
gradually, the new method of taxation should be applied only to forest tracts
upon which forest growth has recently started, and then only at the option of
the land owner.” Following this, the report suggests a form of act covering
its recommendations and this was made the basis of a bill in the New Hamp-
shire legislature which, however, failed to pass.
This draft provided for the separate classification for taxation of land
chiefly valuable for the production of wood or timber, and occupied by a natural
TAXATION OF FOREST LANDS 263
or planted growth of trees, approximately three-fourths of which do not exceed
the age of ten years. The land so classified and recorded according to pro-
visions specified in the act, is to be assessed annually at the average value per
acre, exclusive of the value of any wood or timber thereon. The timber and
wood removed from any such tract is to be assessed for the year following the
first of April after such cutting at the uniform and equal rate of 15 per cent
of the appraised value on the stump. There is an exemption of $25 in value
in any one year of wood cut for home use on a farm. The act provides in great
detail for the carrying out of these main provisions.
The Wisconsin report, which is somewhat more extended than its prede-
cessor, although following the same general plan, after a description of forest
conditions in the several counties of the state and the citation of numerous
actual examples of forest taxation, considers the methods of assessing timber
lands. In this respect Wisconsin seems to labor under about the same condi-
tions as other states. There are the same elastic interpretations of the law, the
same inequalities of administration, and the same incompetence frequently on
the part of local officials. The views of lumbermen are given and make an
interesting feature of the report. The relation of fire protection to the taxa-
tion question is discussed, for it is well understood that these two must go
together. Probable returns from forest investment are considered and tables
are given to show the possible returns by decades in periods from thirty to
eighty years. The authors note that the fact that taxation has not materially
affected lumbering in Wisconsin in the past is no indication that it will
not in the future, and they say plainly that ‘the possibility of the practice of
forestry by private owners depends on two things—an equitable system of for-
est taxation and protection from forest fire.’ In making recommendations for
legislation in Wisconsin the proved inefficacy of bounties and exemption is
noted. For the encouragement of the cultivation and care of wood-lots, it is
suggested that owners may have tracts not exceeding forty acres separately
classified for taxation by application to the state board of forestry under whose
direction all cutting and removal of trees shall take place. Such land is not
to be assessed at exceeding ten dollars per acre and taxed annually on that
basis. Before any timber is removed from the land the owner shall pay to the
proper county officer an amount equal to ten per cent of the stumpage value
of the timber, provided that any material which is actually used for domestic
purposes by the owner or his tenant shall not be subject to such a tax. This
plan, it is explained, is to encourage and make it profitable for the small
owner, especially the farmer in the agricultural district to utilize a part of his
land for the production of wood and timber.
For private forests without limitation as to area it is also suggested that
they may be separately classed for taxation, such classification being subject to
the determination of the state board of forestry as to whether or not the land
is suitable for timber growing. If it is decided to be suitable for that purpose,
in making the assessment the land shall not be valued at more than one dollar
per acre and the assessors shall in no case take into account the value of the
growing timber. Whenever any timber or wood is cut from such land the
owner shall be required to pay an amount equal to ten per cent of the gross
value on the stump of the wood and timber so cut. There are various provi-
sions for making proper returns and securing the state and penalties for mak-
ing false returns. The report says that “conditions in Wisconsin indicate that
a tax on the yield together with a nominal, annual tax on the land, is superior
to any of the various tax laws that have from time to time been proposed.”
The authors, however, express their opinion that it would be better if no annual
tax were levied on the land and the whole tax were made upon the yield, but
264 AMERICAN FORESTRY
the objection to this is the usual one that it might disturb the fiscal affairs of
the community.
It will be seen that the recommended legislation for these two states
while showing slight differences in application is on the same general principle,
and this, it may be added, is the only method that has yet been proposed that
seems to be adapted to present American conditions.
In conclusion, the report does not hold out any great hope that private
forestry on a large scale would be extensively promoted even with such an
adjustment of the tax laws. The authors believe that for a future permanent
timber supply the main dependence must be upon state ownership and it is
recommended that the state secure by purchase in the open market such lands
as it is desirable for it to own for this purpose.
These two reports will be found an interesting study by all those who are
interested in this important public question of the taxation of forest lands. It
will be seen even from this somewhat cursory review that the conditions and
conclusions are not materially different from those which have been found by
other students of the subject in various eastern states. The final result of all
such studies seems to be the necessity of adequate fire protection by the state
in order that property in forest lands may have in a measure the same security
that other property enjoys; equitable taxation, so that owners of such property
will not feel obliged to cut over their lands and dispose of a crop which is
unprofitable to them, although it may be needed by the state; and finally that
we must come ultimately to the same end as the most progressive European
states and include as state property lands which are valuable only for the pur-
pose of growing forests and which, therefore, have a greater value to the com-
munity than to any individual. When the main object was to clear the land
of the forests, such a condition as this did not exist, it was unnecessary for
the state to intervene, although it might well have done so at an earlier date;
but now that the necessity of husbanding our forests for a future timber supply
and protecting our water sheds for the permanence of a water supply and the
equable flow of our streams is generally recognized, our attitude toward forest
lands and the question of state ownership of such lands, must be radically
changed. Such lands can be handled to the best advantage by a well organized
department directed by experts and doing its work on a large scale. In most
cases, especially in our populous states, the state is the only agent through
which this work can satisfactorily and economically be done.
Reforesting in the National Forests
Tree planting is not a leading activity in the national
forests, but it has its place, which is one of increasing impor-
tance. In March we published an article on the harvesting of
the annual seed crop in the national forests. The accompany-
ing series of pictures illustrating various processes in the work
of artificial reforestation, from the national forests in several
states, will give an idea of the nature of this interesting work.
DRYING CONES IN SUNSHINE. WASATCH NA-
TIONAL FOREST, UTAH
IN FOREGROUND TRANSPLANT DOUGLAS FIR SEEDLINGS, ONE
YEAR OLD, TWO INCHES HIGH; IN BACKGROUND, TRANSPLANT
WESTERN YELLOW PINE SEEDLINGS ONE YEAR OLD, TWO AND
ONE HALF INCHES HIGH. NURSERY, WASATCH NATIONAL
FOREST, UTAH
ie
-
‘ : ; be, Pr.
am" 4 ° xt iy ey Fe fit el if ¥
+ ‘ Lb: ¢: J ‘
yee! ul a y Let Af tat
Ke
} re \
tubes
he ut
A PLOT IN THE FREMONT EXPERIMENT STATION, MANITOU,
COLORADO, SOWN JULY 23, 1910, BROADCAST AFTER HARROW-
ING, WITH YELLOW PINE SEED, 18.59 POUNDS PER ACRE
THIS PLOT SHOWED 819 SEEDLINGS ALIVE AND 21 DEAD.
EACH SEEDLING IS MARKED WITH A STICK
iii viet I
SEED BEDS AT PLANTING STATION NEAR PALMER LAKE, PIKE’S
PEAK NATIONAL FOREST. DRILLS ARE SIX INCHES APART
AND STAND VARIES FROM 70 TO 150 PER SQUARE FOOT OF
DOUGLAS FIR, AND 40 TO 60 OF YELLOW PINE
SPRAYING APPARATUS AT WORK IN TWO-YEAR-OLD SCOTCH
PINE SEEDLINGS. NEBRASKA NATIONAL FOREST NURSERY,
THOMAS COUNTY, NEBRASKA
VINYOALIVO ‘LSaMO
HViIN ‘LSa4Ot TVNOILVN HOLVSVA TIVNOILVN VUVdYVE VINVS NI AAASHON
AHL NI AYASHON AHL LY LNANdIHS SOOUVIT NVS ‘SHAUL AAITO Ad CGAACVHS
a0 ANId MOTIOXA ONIHONONA GNV SNIDDSIC ATIVILuvVd ‘SGQUa LINVIdSNVUL FO NOILOAS
SPT Nae xy
a VEPON Goae
HEELING IN SEEDLINGS. LYTLE CREEK PLANT-
ING STATION, NORTH FORK OF THE SAN
GABRIEL, CALIFORNIA
BED OF RED CEDAR TRANSPLANTS PLANTED AT
GARDEN CITY PLANTING STATION. KANSAS
NATIONAL FOREST, KANSAS
VINYOALTVO “daas
HONUdS ANOO DId YAHLVY OL AAUL V ONTAINTTO
VINO
-IIvO ‘LSHYOL TVNOILVN SWIQGDNVY ‘SLS2
-AOX IVNOILVN NI DNIENVWId YOX SUADNVA
OL SDNITCQHS LOO DYNIMOVd JO COHAN
SEEDING MEN SOWING CEDAR SEED BY THE
SEED SPOT METHOD. SKAMANIA COUNTY,
WASHINGTON
SEED SPOT SOWING OF SCOTCH PINE, NORWAY
SPRUCE, AND EUROPEAN LARCH, ON A BURN OF
1909, IN THE WENATCHEE NATIONAL FOREST,
WASHINGTON
PLANTING GANG ON PLANTING SITE IN CHAP-
ARRAL. SANTA BARBARA NATIONAL FOREST,
CALIFORNIA
WHERE SEEDS HAVE BEEN SOWN BROADCAST
CUSTER PEAK EXPERIMENTAL STATION,
LAWRENCE, SOUTH DAKOTA
FOREST FIRES IN NORTH AMERICA
A GERMAN VIEW
By Proressor Dr. E. Deckert, FRANKFORT.
TRANSLATED By GEORGE WETMORE COLLES.
(This article is condensed from the essays of the author in Nos. 241 and 243 of
Frankfurter Zeitung. It is valuable as showing the view of a trained German observer
who has traveled extensively through our American forests. Naturally there are minor
errors of fact, which it does not seem necessary to correct as it is the general viewpoint
that is of value.—EDIToR.)
EVASTATING conflagrations of an extent elsewhere unheard of have
1) always been the order of the day in the United States. From time
to time they have swept Boston, Chicago, Baltimore and San Francisco.
Forest fires also have always occurred in the domain of the Union far more
frequently and have been more devastating than in any of the countries of
Europe, and in numerous cases have raged over many thousand acres, continu-
ing for weeks and even months, until they have been brought to an end in one
way or another. Human measures for confining and extinguishing them, such
as ditches, earth-walls and back-fires have met with success only in rare cases;
in the majority of fires it was rather the greater natural boundaries, such as
broad streams and lakes, bare rock and sand-wastes, or heavy precipitation
of snow and rain, which put an end to the fire. Burning limbs have been
quite frequently borne over considerable obstacles, even over streams three
hundred feet in width, so that the fire continued on the other side.
The damage which the natural resources of the United States have suffered
from forest fires has long been known to be colossal, but to state it in exact
figures, in a country in which lumbering, until the present, has almost always
been carried on in the most extensive and wasteful manner, is extremely
difficult, if not impossible. Moreover, the causes of the fires, the manner and
reasons for their propagation and the possibility of effectually fighting them,
have long been a matter of doubt and dispute, so that the most contradictory
and absurd views on these points have obtained currency. In American
lumbering circles the conviction began to grow in the eighties that the first
cause of the evil was bad American customs and want of conscientiousness,
and that the “ghost of the American forests” could be laid if a change in this
respect were brought about.
The first effort to determine the number and extent of forest fires for the
different sections of the country and hence the most necessary foundation for
the proper diagnosis of the root of the evil was made by the well-known
American economist, Francis A. Walker, who took advantage of the United
States census figures of 1880. He found from the incomplete reports which
he collected that in the year 1880 there had been 2,580 fires, and about
273
~
274 AMERICAN FORESTRY
7,750,000 acres more or less had been burned over in the United States. In
the number of fires, the principal states in their order of importance, were
as follows:
Pennsylvania 3.02) 55)2) Ne ae
Michigam i) 22, 24020 lg Ge
North Carolina. 0) 2) 02° 09 Roe eee
CIO. ee a
Massachusetts... 4. 2) a TH eee
Wisconsin 26.08 ee
Kentuckyii i ob) ee) Shh eat een
New York 3... 0544. nol ees eae eee
In the total area of forest burned over, the list is as follows in the order
of importance:
Tennessee. ):\s. 5.) Ves Ga ee ere
Missouri...) <.6 si) 0) os a ete ee ees
Georgia. 8) ee eNO OE Seon ee ene
Pennsylvania... 0 63) 6 SUAa ea ee ee eee ea eeres
Alabamai os) < 562 WEN Ver eee ee
Kentucky (3.0003. sO HOS ee a ees
North Carolina... 3S sere 55) oe ees
Wisconsin. 2 a Rea i ae ees
Michigan. (6602. 72 Ba Ores We he eee ge eee
New “York eos. 2s") a ae ie el ea ere
Massachusetts Mpmrarie aa eno imei! i: 23) 0 10 oe i
The figures give no conclusion with regard to the extent of the individual
fires and the value of the property destroyed, but it can be deduced from the
above that the average extent of the fires was:
Massachusetts’). 20)" 2st een teerins 88 acres
Michigan. (5001209 2 it hy I ete has Ae ces rea ie maas
New Mork...) 0/8) Go ees sagan ere an eee eae
Pennsylvania. Sai a oa ae te es
Wisconsin. (2). so Re eae een
Alabama cs) e808 2) a ee ce ene en oe a
Missouri. ear ea UAT eet bim co |) Up i
Georgia 05 DE ese Sere Mee anon ees
Tennessee wo 305500. UE st eet ace
From the above, it will be seen that there is a wide difference in the extent
of the fires in the different states, and that there is a certain connection
between this figure and the condition of culture of the state, showing that in
the highly cultivated northern states, people have already learned better
how to police the forests and keep fires under control than in the southern
states, with their meager population and large negro element. The high figure
for Missouri is to be accounted for by the climate, which is a notably drier
one and more favorable for the spreading of fires than that of Massachusetts
or New York. In general, it goes without saying that great confiaence cannot
be placed in the statistics of a single year, even if the reports were complece.
With respect to the causes of fires, an indisputable conclusion is drawn
from Walker’s investigation that sparks from locomotives are to blame in a
a great number of cases. Out of the 2,580 fires of the year 1880, no less than
505, or 19144, per cent are laid to this cause. The individual states give the
following percentage:
FOREST FIRES IN NORTH AMERICA 275
ew Jersey 205) USC es Ta Ra ee: per cent
New! Hampshires'\)Stiys 32 ae on eae per cent
New Yorks.) SNe haves heres Hae 2 ene eee CONE
Delaware. (0/0 Velie Cy SR teed Per Cee
Pennsylvania: Sue Wade esis Mh eorper COME
Massachusetts 9 2/801 Wa ASR ee BE, CRE
so that in the most highly cultivated districts, and those having the thickest
network of railways, the figures rise to a fearful height, which suffices to
explain the above given high totals of the individual fires in these districts.
In Tennessee, only 8 per cent of the total was due to locomotive sparks; in
Alabama 6 per cent, in Georgia 4 per cent, and in Mississippi but 3 per cent,
because the railway systems of these states are much less developed, so that in
general, fires in those states must be ascribed to other causes. For the north-
ern states the results of this investigation had a practical fruit, inasmuch as
it led to the passing of laws to regulate the railways and to compel them to
take steps to prevent damage or at least to confine it to the narrowest limits.
These laws have been enforced with unquestionable success,
That the carelessness and conscienceless negligence of hunters, stockmen,
lumbermen, prospectors, and tourists, who light fires for one purpose or
another in the forests or around their borders, was the cause of a very much
larger number of forest fires in every state of the Union without exception, has
been sufficiently proved by the statistics of the year 1880. But in so broad
an area of what is still largely a primeval wilderness, the root of the evil is
much more difficult to get at. What is needed above all is a thorough-going
organization of the forces and available means for forest protection, as well as
a slow and long-continued campaign of education. In this direction the sta-
tistics in question have evidently borne fruit, especially since a later census
of forest fires taken in 1891 by the Forestry Division of the Department of
Agriculture, which gave similar conclusions to the previous ones of Walker.
It is true these reports were still extremely incomplete, but then they related
to a much larger area burned over in the year in which they were taken,
namely, 12,000,000 acres. Besides, everyone who was familiar with the facts
recognized that the figures of the years 1880 and 1891 were far below the
maximum of damage to the national domain which the forest fires of a single
year could reach, and that this maximum for the eighties and nineties
amounted to about ten times the value of the annual useful consumption of
wood.
What a contrast was this situation to that in European countries, where
good forestry laws were in force! In the Prussian states, for the decade
ending with 1891, there were in all 156 greater fires, four of which were caused
by locomotives, three by lightning, 53 were of incendiary origin and 96 caused
by negligence, and the total area devastated during the year 1884 and 1887
was 3100 acres. Bavaria, in the year 1892, with its unusually hot and dry
summer, has a record of but 49 fires covering only 5000 acres. These figures
in comparison to those of North America are absolutely negligible, and form
a brilliant vindication of the forestry system of middle Europe, while at the
same time they force us to the conclusion that in North America there are
other factors to be considered besides those above mentioned, although these
latter doubtless represent the principal causes of forest fires.
The movement for a better system of forest management and forest pro-
tection became a very strong one in all the states of the Union during the
nineties and everywhere was productive of good results. In New York, Penn-
sylvania, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin,
California, Oregon, and other states laws were passed for the protection of
276 AMERICAN FORESTRY
forests and foresters appointed for their execution. In Biltmore, Ithaca,
Cambridge and Ann Arbor schools of forestry were founded, state forest
reserves were established (in Pennsylvania 600,000 acres), and in particular,
special fire wardens, with a greater or smaller number of assistants, called
rangers, were put in charge. But the most significant result of the movement
was the resolution of the federal Congress, 1891, constituting a large part of
the forested areas of the public lands still existing United States Forest
Reserves, and subjecting them as such to the management of the central goy-
ernment. At first only 18,000,000 acres were set aside, but since then more
than 150,000,000 acres have passed into the reserves, but of this amount, only
120,000,000 acres are actually forested, so that at ‘present a full quarter of
the total forest area of the United States belongs to either state or federal
reservations. In these public forests, which embrace the largest part of the
western mountainous districts, in more than 50 large tracts—almost the entire
Sierra Nevada of California, the Cascade Mountains, the Mogollon Mountains
of Arizona, great stretches of the principal mountain chains of Colorado, Big
Horn Mountains, ete.—the natural conditions of the North American forest
growth and hence also the principal causes and conditions of forest destruc-
tion by fire and other factors have been thoroughly studied out by experts in
their special lines, and thereby with surprising rapidity ways and means
have been found to combat the inception and spread of fires very effectively
in most years.
In 1909 President Roosevelt, who had taken a great personal interest in
the movement for forest conservation, was able to announce with well-justified
satisfaction that during the preceding year only about one-tenth per cent of
the entire area of the forest reserves had been visited by fire; while in 1906
the area visited was about one-sixth per cent, and in 1907 about one-seventh
per cent. This was indeed a brilliant success for the new forestry system,
and it must be conceded that the officials concerned, both of the Land Office
and Department of Agriculture, did their full duty. In 1899 there were nine
superintendents, 39 supervisors and 300 rangers, and with the growth of the
forest reserve area several thousand were subsequently added. In the years
1896, 1897, 1898 and 1900 some still very destructive fires had raged in these
areas and the proportion devastated annually had amounted to 8 to 15 per
cent, but careful investigations in the reservations established the fact that in
earlier years far greater portions of them had been frequently burned over. In the
Black Hills reservation of South Dakota, the Big Horn reservation of Wyoming
and the Priest River reservation of Idaho, the forest floor showed everywhere
more or less fresh traces of fire. In the Cascade mountains, out of 3,000,000
acres only 25,000 (eight-tenths per cent) showed no traces of previous fires;
in the northern Sierra Nevada out of 2,950,000 acres, only 77,000; in the
Pike’s Peak and Bitter Root reservations, only about twenty per cent. Even
in the forests of the east, which for the most part had remained in the control
of private persons or local governmental bodies, the new era brought with it
a decided change for the better, notwithstanding the fact that in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and Michigan, during 1889 and 1894, a succession of immense fires
took place. The years 1908 and 1909 brought no essential alteration in the
favorable condition of things in the west, while on the other hand in New
England and in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, there were during 1908
a number of the most frightful ant devastating conflagrations; and now this
year 1910 has brought to the west in its turn, and especially to the states of
Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California, a baptism of fire, which
is absolutely without parallel in the history of these states. In such a case
as this, the police system of United States fire wardens and rangers, and in
FOREST FIRES IN NORTH AMERICA 27T
fact the brand new system of the United States forest reserves, completely
broke down just as the incomplete organization of the eastern states had
done in 1908, and a large number of the brave fire-fighters met their death in
their zealous efforts to extinguish the flames.
How such a catastrophe could take place after the great progress of the
previous decade is a question easily answered both on general geographic
considerations and also with the assistance of the information provided by the
numerous handsome volumes of the United States Geological Survey relating
to the different reservations. In the first place, it is to be observed that in
the United States, and especially in the west, it is unfortunately impossible
to combat the original causes of forest fires in as effective a way as is done
in Germany. The rough men who find their living in the eastern or western
wildernesses, in mining, hunting, stock-raising or other interests, can not be
prevented from building camp-fires, which are positively necessary for pro-
tection against the cold of night as well as for cooking, nor on the other hand
can they be forbidden the enjoyment of their only pleasure, tobacco; and to
find a spot absolutely free from danger for camp-fires is, in such circum-
stances, simply an impossibility. On this point, the author of these remarks,
who knows the wild west and its inhabitants quite well from his own expe-
rience, must confess that even he, when on his journeys of investigation, has
frequently built his camp-fire under press of circumstances in places which
he knew in advance to be dangerous, and in several cases narrowly escaped
the responsibility of thousands of others for negligent fire-setting. In one
case it was only with the greatest difficulty that he and his party succeeded
in extinguishing a blaze which unexpectedly leaped its bounds and which
would have utterly destroyed an extensive forest area of Arizona. Camp-
fires in the woods which are carelessly watched or are abandoned without
being extinguished must necessarily escape in large part the. notice of the
forest guards on account of the enormous extent of the areas under their
jurisdiction and the fact that wide stretches are unprovided with roads or
trails. Even those fires which are negligently caused by locomotive sparks
can not be prevented in North America in the same degree as in Europe,
simply because much greater lengths of track are concerned and because the
lay of the land in many cases does not permit the laying out of fire-lanes.
With the experience of the last decade, however, it can no longer be doubted
that with a well-organized patrol, fires of this sort can generally be extin-
guished before they reach a too great extension. In a similar manner it may
be possible to effectively combat a large proportion of intentional fires. It
was formerly common for both Indians and white hunters to thoughtlessly set
underbrush ablaze merely to scare up game, and many of such fires were
propagated indefinitely. Such vandalism is at the present time limited in
most places, and in so far as it yet exists, there is a good prospect that its
days are numbered. But far more numerous have been those fires which have
been started for clearing purposes or for burning brush and rubbish. Partic-
ularly in the northwest, in Oregon and Washington, where the growth of
the giant trees in many places is so great that it seems impossible to dispose
of them with axe and saw alone, it is quite general to resort to fire and
dynamite to accomplish the clearing. In the east, too, it has been the rule to
get new land for cotton or grain plantations by burning off extensive wooded
areas, and the farmers care little for the charred trunks which are left stand-
ing. Not a few of the fires so produced have continued far beyond the limits
set for them, and this has been one of the most frequent causes of very great
forest fires in the newly settled districts. Of course the new forest guards of
the United States have given special attention to this cause, and by insisting
278 AMERICAN FORESTRY
upon proper preventive measures in clearing lands they have succeeded in
preventing serious damage in most Cases. gy
More difficult to handle have proved cases of malicious incendiarism. It
is a matter of experience that evil doers in North America can much more
easily escape the eye of the law than in European countries, simply because
of the greater area and more numerous hiding places, and the lynch-law sys-
tem as commonly practised can hardly improve the matter, as in such cases
an innocent party is taken and punished for the guilty even more frequently
than in the case of other crimes. Fortunately the number of malicious fires
in the United States has probably never been great. But besides these human
fire-setters, there is a natural one which assumes importance in the least ac-
cessible districts, namely, lightning. In the North American west fires are
started by lightning with uncommon frequency, and as many storms there
yield hardly any rain, the flames which follow it are not as a rule extinguished
as in the east. From his investigations in the San Francisco mountains of
Arizona, J. B. Leiberg, the most distinguished expert of the United States
Geological Survey, came to the conclusion that in this reservation by far the
greatest number (about sixty per cent) of all fires are caused by lightning.
And this brings us to another principal factor which must be considered
responsible for the rise and spread of forest fires in North America—the cli-
mate. It has long been known not only that the North American climate is
much drier than the European, but that in the west the drought is long-con-
tinuing, even to the point of complete rainlessness, while in the east, in spite
of the large annual rainfall, there are periods of drought of greater or less
length. What effects are produced by such a climate on the forest and its
inflammability can be readily understood. In Germany, double precautions
are taken in dry years, and in spite of this the fire damage increases in such
years; in North America, the highest possible degree of care is demanded
every year, and in dry years the greatest conceivable care is insufficient to
prevent the spread of individual fires over immense areas. Such a year in the
east was 1908 with its gigantic conflagrations, in the west 1910; so that we
are not to presuppose for such years an unusual number of malicious or
negligent persons, for natural conditions are without doubt principally re-
sponsible in these special cases. The forest-floor of the western woods with
its dry pine-needles, twigs, moss, grass and general undergrowth and its
millions of dead trunks thrown down by storms forms in late summer and
autumn a tinder which can be set off by any small spark; but in the present
year, in which the summer drought set in in the middle northwest unusually
early and was extremely severe, it was still drier than usual, and fires had
passed human power to control before their existence was known.
Since the woods of the west consist principally of conifers, whose large
content of rosin makes them much more inflammable than other trees, it is
to be presumed that the destruction was very complete. Certain species, how-
ever, more particularly the yellow pine, offer a great resistance to forest fires,
and where they stand unmixed and without any great undergrowth they
frequently escape being killed. For this reason even in the dryest parts of
the west, such as Utah, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico, where there are
many pure stands of yellow pine, the destruction by fire is seldom so radical
as in the less dry areas of Idaho, Montana, Washington and Oregon, in which
the stands are usually mixed and in addition present a ground covering which
is very combustible after it has been exposed to the summer drought; besides,
the numerous standing dead trees, and areas of dead trees, which have been
killed off by insects or other conditions, are highly favorable to the spread of
fires in the forests of the northwest.
FOREST FIRES IN NORTH AMERICA 279
Naturally, before the nature of these latest fires can be determined in all
their details we must wait for a more exact determination of the facts. The
area covered by them must have reached well over 250,000 acres, and that the
forest reservations in spite of their good patrol service have suffered extremely
heavily is already established. But hardly anyone would advocate the restric-
tion of the forest service on this account. Rather after this new disaster, will
measures be taken in the future to place twice or three times the number of
rangers on guard over the dangerous districts in years in which summer
drought sets in early and is particularly severe.
In the eastern half of the union climatic conditions are quite different
from those in the western half, both as regards the character of the trees and
also that of the fires, and taking it all in all, it is much easier to maintain an
effective fire guard there. Only once in many years is there a complete drying
out of the forest-floor like that of Idaho or Colorado, and natural fire lanes are
provided by broad rivers and numerous lakes and marshes, and moreover the
land is rendered much more accessible by roads and trails than in the moun-
tainous districts of the west. Nevertheless whenever a fire breaks out in the
vast white and black pine woods of Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minne-
sota, the danger of its spreading over a wide area is still very great, and
especially in dry years the guards have a much more difficult task to extin-
guish fires than in Europe. Even in those districts the forest-floor is drier
on the average in late summer than it is in Europe, and the woods are clogged
with fallen and standing dead trunks.
Similar conditions exist in the turpentine woods of the great coast plain
which extends from New Jersey to Texas. In these woods the great pitch
content of the trees increases the danger, while the presence of broad stretches
of marsh along all of the streams diminishes it.
In the mountain forests of the southern Appalachians, in which oak,
hickory and other foliage trees predominate, fires are still frequent, yet on
account of the greenness of the fuel they seldom do the same damage as in
other parts of the country. Ayres and Ashe have established the fact that in
the Appalachian area four and one-half million acres, about 80 per cent of
the total, have been damaged by earlier or later brush-fires, but only 78,000
acres totally destroyed. In the mountain woods of the northern Appalachians,
where conifers predominate, fires are generally of a more devastating char-
acter, and even in the Adirondack state reservation of New York as many as
467,500 acres suffered heavy damage from fire in 1904.
Relatively small was the fire-destruction in the northwestern coast forests,
according to the investigations of the United States forest service, that of
the Olympian peninsula amounting to only 112,500 acres, consisting wholly
of conifer stands in the north and northeast portions. The interior of this
wilderness has not yet been penetrated by white settlers. In the Canadian
west, where already Dumerous miners, hunters, and lumbermen pursue their
calling, conditions were the same as in the neighboring portions of the United
States, and the fires of the current year in British Columbia have reached the
same degree of destructiveness, and for similar reasons.
PURPLE BASKET WILLOW
By C. D. M&LL
INTRODUCTION
N EFFORT has been made in this paper to compile information dealing
¢ i with the commercial value of the purple willow (Salix purpurea L.)
and its most important varieties and hybrids commonly planted for the
production of rods used in making furniture and basket ware. The success
of a basket willow plantation depends upon the kinds planted as well as upon
the system of management. The purple willow is more generally cultivated
in this country than any other variety and yields material that is highly
esteemed by the consumers of willow rods. In northern New York, Michigan,
Wisconsin, and Minnesota it forms more than 90 per cent of the willows
grown. A number of experiments with the purple willow were made by the
Forest Service, United States Department of Agriculture, for the purpose of
determining the most suitable system of management. Numerous private
holts throughout the eastern Central States were also investigated with a
view to determine the varieties grown and to ascertain their soil and climatic
requirements. The suggestions offered in this paper are therefore based partly
upon the practical results of several years’ tests in the experimental holt
at Arlington, Virginia, and partly upon suggestions furnished by experienced
growers in this country and abroad.
A great many common names have been given to this willow, and therefore
it was considered advisable to select a name which should be given preference
in future references. Although French osier is most commonly used by a large
number of growers of basket willows, especially in New York State, it has
been decided that a translation of the botanical name is more descriptive and
appropriate. In order that the reader may determine what willow is referred
to under the term purple willow, the following vernacular names are added
which are often used by growers to designate this species: stone willow, com-
mon stone willow, Welsh willow, crab willow, osier, red osier, French osier,
green-leaf osier, French willow, purple willow, common purple willow, bitter
purple willow, and common basket willow.
BOTANICAL CHARACTERS
Purple willow has very distinct characters by which it may be readily
recognized. The leaf blades are oblong to lanceolate or sometimes apatulate
and broadest above the middle where they are more or less distinctly serrate ;
below the middle they are always entire. On the upper surface they are very
smooth, of a rich shining purple and somewhat glaucous; on the under surface
they are light-bluish green and often show a yellowish midvein. They are
from two to four inches long and from one-fourth to three-fourths inch
wide, and are sometimes arranged opposite on the slender, smooth and
somewhat reddish (when young) shoot. The leaves of nearly all varieties of
this group of willows turn black in drying. The petioles are very short and
without glands. The stipules vary from linear to semi-linear, toothed, and
280
PURPLE BASKET WILLOW 281
are very deciduous. The mature shoots have a smooth, yellowish gray bark
and possess a number of appressed, obtuse ,and generally glossy and occa-
sionally red buds. The inner bark of the young twigs, especially during fall
and winter, is orange yellow but toward the top becomes red. In poor soil
and particularly in sandy soil the shoots have a yellowish color.
The catkins appear earlier than the leaves and are sessile, cylindrical
and densely flowered. The male catkins at first appear purplish red, but
during pollination become golden yellow, and after blooming brownish black.
They are from half to two inches in length and about half inch in diameter.
The bracts at the base of the catkins are small and leaflike. The small,
round, concave scales are black in the upper half of the catkins and covered
with hair; at the base they are red. The male flowers have a single stamen
which is drooping and is formed by the union of the two filaments and
anthers. The female catkins are purplish red; the fruit pods are densely
tomentose and contain a single upright ovule. The empty cells of the brownish
capsule recurve very strongly.
Willows are subject to considerable variation. The size, shape and surface
of the leaves, their serratures, and the general characters and qualities of the
rods vary greatly, depending upon soil and climatic conditions. The purple
willow may be considered as a mean around which all its varieties are grouped.
The constancy of these varieties is dependent upon the conditions which
originally brought about the variations; when external conditions change,
either those of soil fertility or soil moisture, changes in the character of the
plant again take place, and the variety either reverts toward the mean, or, in
its struggle to adjust itself to new conditions, gives rise to characters still
more remote from the original form.
Hybrids -are raised from different species and are generally considered
not susceptible of propagation by seed. The terms hybrid, blend and bastard
are limited to forms produced by cross fertilization. Some of the most
important basket willows have been obtained in this way.
VARIETIES OF THE PURPLE WILLOW
The purple willow occurs in a great number of varieties which are more
or less useful. The better ones yield the bulk of the rods used in the manu-
facture of wicker ware. They produce very thin, flexible, slender, cylindrical,
and branchless rods. In Germany the twigs used for binding the vines
are produced by varieties of this species. In selecting varieties for planting
the kind of material furnished by them must be kept in view, since different
varieties often differ very greatly. A number of them are good and persistent
producers while others do not yield a full crop until the fourth year and
diminish again after a few years.
The following varieties are recognized as the most important ones in this
eroup:
; Salia helic Smith (not L.). Rose willow; longleaf purple willow;
green stone willow. Noethlichs, a German authority, gives a very favorable
report concerning this variety and claims that there are two sub-varieties of
this which are underscribed. The one has greenish-gray bark turning dark-
green during the winter, while the other has pale rose-colored bark near the
top of the shoots which are exceedingly slender, and its wood is heavier than
of any other variety. The bark is rich in salicin and in Europe is also used
for the production of tannin and coloring matter. This willow does not require
a very rch soil and yet produces numerous long and slender rods.
Salix lambertiana Smith. Lambert’s willow. This is a large-leaved
variety with very beautiful catkins. It is the tallest among the purple willows
282 AMERICAN FORESTRY
“Om
but is not praised very highly by growers in Europe. According to Pursh, it
was introduced into this country very early for the production of basket
willow rods. Owing to the graceful character of its slender shoots and glau-
cous foliage it is often planted for ornamental purposes.
Salix bractea rubra Koch. Red willow. The red brick colored scales of
the catkins of this variety at once distinguishes it from the common purple
willow that has black scales. It produces very long, straight and cylindrical
rods, and in England is esteemed very highly. It grows in almost any soil, but
in rich moist soil it yields an exceedingly heavy crop. It is used in certain
parts of Europe for game coverts and fences. The rods are used for making
willow ware requiring strength and durability.
Salix purpurea emendata Hort.* Noble willow. This variety is also
easily recognized from the common purple willow by its thrifty growth and
slender rods. It is planted extensively in Germany and the rods are used
for all purposes in the manufacture of willow ware.
Salic purpurea kerksii Hort.* English willow. The twisted leaves of
this willow furnish a character that makes it easy to be distinguished from
other varieties. Although this kind is equally as valuable as the noble
willow, it is more often used for fences and hedges than for the production
of basket rods. It produces numerous slender and branchless shoots after
the second year.
Salix uralensis Hort.* Ural willow. This is a native of Galicia and is
considered equally as good as the English willow and produces in dry soil, or
in cold situations, a large number of very tough and slender rods. The
first year after planting the shoots spread out considerably, but during the
second year and thereafter they grow straight up to the height of 10 feet
The rods are almost perfectly cylindrical and for this reason this variety is
often called cord or string willow. It has been grown in this country with
very good success.
Salix uralensis serotina Hort.* Black Ural willow. In Europe this
variety is often referred to as the late Ural willow, since it matures later
and has smaller shoots than the Ural willow. It thrives in poor soils and
unfavorable situations, but in this country it has been planted with only
indifferent success.
Salix purpurea glauca Hort.* Blue green stone willow. In moderately
fertile sandy soil this variety produces very thin and long rods which are in
great demand among manufacturers of fine basket ware. It matures later in
the fall than any of the other varieties and on this account is sometimes
injured by frosts.
Salix purpurea gracilis Wimmer. Fine purple willow. This willow pro-
duces rods that are considered among the best in Europe, but the shoots
frequently branch. It has been tested on a small scale in this country and
found to make excellent growth with no side branches.
Salix purpurea pyramidelis Hort.** Pyramidal willow. In France where
the pyramid willow is most widely cultivated it is known as Belle Josephina
(Salix purpurea josephina). It is an excellent willow for hedges as well as for
basket willow rods. It has been cultivated in Germany for more than sixty
years.
Salix purpurea elata Hort.* High stone willow. This willow is known to
have yielded a very good crop the first year after planting. It occasionally
*Horticultural varieties.
**J. A. Krahe, in his “Lehrbuch,” page 104, states that this variety must be regarded
as Saliz helix Smith, but without first seeing both male and female flowers this can not
be definitely determined.
PURPLE BASKET WILLOW 283
produces shoots 6 feet long the first season; in height growth it approaches the
Ural willow.
Salix purpurea sericea Wimmer. Silken-haired willow. In Germany the
silken-haired variety is considered one of the most valuable and profitable
basket willows. Its leaves while young are covered with a dense silky down
which disappears at maturity.
Among other varieties* of the purple willow the following may be
mentioned :
Salix wisconsinensis Cat.
“ — malensis
“purpurea atropurpurea
? angustifolia
¢ s macrophylla
- i lutescens
% es utilissima
" + mirabilis
* FS graminea
procumbens
Hybrids of the Purple Willow
Salix viminalis « purpurea Wimmer. Common hybrid. This is the most
important hybrid resulting from the cross fertilization of the white willow
(Salix viminalis L.) and the purple willow. It belongs indisputably to the
basket willows of the highest rank. The common hybrid possesses more char-
acters of the viminales group of willows than of the purpurea group. The rods
are very long and more nearly uniform in length, though thinner than the
white willow, but just as slender, smooth and flexible as the purple willow.
Furthermore the bark is thin and peels easily. The wood is very tough and
remains white for a long time after peeling. The rods split easily and can be
planed without difficulty. The holt retains the vitality of the purple willow
and is extensively planted in Europe.
Salix rubra Hudson. Rose willow. Another hybrid of the purple and
white willows is recognized by its yellow anthers which are long and narrow
and somewhat tapering at both ends; also by the leaves which are remotely
serrated. If the leaves are green below and either smooth or with a few
scattered hairs the hybrid is Salir rubra Hudson (Salix helix L.) including
Salix angustissima Wimmer.
Catalpa by Wholesale for Arbor Day
From the cities of Columbus, Kansas
City, and Philadelphia come news of the
enterprise of local merchants in furnishing
the children trees for Arbor Day planting.
In Columbus 50,000 little catalpas were so
provided, in Kansas City, 100,000 of the
same tree, and in Philadelphia, 400,000—
also catalpas. It is not necessary nor
would it be just to question the motive of
these gifts to the public. If they were
made for advertising purposes it is a kind
of advertising that we may welcome. It
may be open to question whether it is well
to make all these contributions catalpas.
For the middle west the hardy catalpa is
one of the most serviceable of trees, but
for Philadelphia, it may be questioned
whether it was the best tree that could be
chosen. It is to be hoped that due care
was exercised to obtain the right variety, for
it would be a misfortune to have so many
trees planted of the bignonioides, and those
who investigated catalpa at all know how
difficult it is to distinguish that very dis-
appointing tree from speciosa. In Phila-
delphia fifty large trees (not catalpas)
were given to eleven schools by the Penn-
sylvania Forestry Association.
The Delaware & Hudson Railroad’s Forestry
Work
At the nursery of the Delaware and
Hudson Railroad Company at Bluff Point,
Lake Champlain, the railroad is growing
thousands of Norway spruce and other
conifers for use in reforesting waste land
in the Adirondacks and other places along
the Saratoga and Champlain divisions. At
Oneonta the company is growing red oak
seedlings for the purpose of providing tim-
ber for ties. The company has decided to
devote three acres to a nursery for the
growing of red oak seedlings. The com-
pany plans to plant over 1,000,000 red oak
trees, most of which will be furnished
from this nursery. The industrial depart-
ment of the Delaware and Hudson in col-
laboration with the superintendent of
woodlands, Mr. Bristol, is preparing a
booklet to be issued this spring in which
the subject of planting trees is to be
brought to the attention of farmers and
others along the company’s line. In addi-
tion to the distribution of the pamphlet the
company will offer to farmers and small
land owners the advice and instruction of
Mr. Bristol free of charge.
New England Railroads Waking Up
It is announced that a railroad bureau
for the industrial development of New
England has been organized and will be
opened at Boston May 1. It will be under
the control of the New Haven, Boston and
Maine and Maine Central railroad systems
and will have the title of the New England
Lines Industrial Bureau. Its head will be
William H. Seely, now general freight and
passenger agent of the Central New Eng-
land Railroad.
The object is the promotion by the in-
fluence of the three railway systems of
313
314
every form of industrial development in
New England, notably farming, fruit cul-
ture, dairy interests and every form of soil
production, as well as factory industries
and forestry and forest preservation. Later
it is planned that the bureau develop va-
rious agencies throughout New England
for the same industrial purposes. The ex-
pense of the enterprise will fall upon the
three railroad corporations.
The plan has been under consideration
for some years by the New Haven com-
pany and was expedited by signs of a farm-
ing revival in New England, as shown by
the census returns and the larger values of
New England farms, as well as their adap-
tation to new products, especially in the
line of scientific fruit culture. It is time
that the New England railroads learned
something from the development work of
southern and western roads. Hitherto they
have done little to help their section.
The Adirondack Lumber Cut Decreasing
Statistics collected by Superintendent of
State Forests Pettis of New York indicate
that timber operations in the Adirondacks
are decreasing owing to a lack of available
timber. The amount of lumber cut in 1910
as reported to the state, is about 516,000,-
000 feet, board measure. This is a de-
crease of nearly 100,000,000 feet in the last
year. The amount cut for pulp wood last
year was considerably greater than that
cut in 1909, but while the total amount of
timber cut for all commercial purposes was
more than a billion feet a year in 1908 and
1909 the total was considerably below the
billion mark in 1910.
The Protection of Native Plants
The Society for the Protection of Native
Plants has printed on cotton for outdoor
use notices reading:
SPARE THE FLOWERS
Thoughtless people are destroying
the flowers by pulling them up by the
roots or by picking too many of them.
CUT what flowers you take, and
leave plenty to go to seed.
These notices can be obtained from the
secretary of the society, Miss M. EH. Carter,
Boston Society of Natural History, Boston,
Mass. We should like to add to the above
notice that too many wild flowers are
picked without any special object. Many
of our wild flowers that are beautiful in
their own homes lose almost immediately
their freshness and charm when picked.
Why not leave them where they grow for
others to enjoy? Some people when in the
woods and fields have a manga for picking
every flower they see, although often it is
ee away without even being carried
1ome.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Pennsylvania's Thrifty Forest Policy
E. A. Ziegler, director of the Pennsyl-
vania Forest Academy at Mont Alto, gave
a lecture in the Lehigh University forestry
course last month. Speaking of the work
of the state he said: “The Pennsylvania
state expenditures for forestry are proceed-
ing on an economical and safe basis and a
valuable state property is being created
with a net income promised, beside the in-
valuable benefits of water, creation of raw
materials for large industries and the
building of homes in the forests them-
selves, and the financial advancement of
the entire state.” Mr. Ziegler described
the method and work of the forest acade-
my, which trains foresters for the state
service, graduating ten each year, and dis-
cussed at length the cost of growing for-
ests and probable returns.
Frank J. Philips
The Forest Club Annual of the Univer-
sity of Nebraska, have an appreciate note
by F. B. Moody on Professor Phillips:
“With deep regret the announcement is
made of the sudden and untimely death of
Frank J. Phillips, professor of forestry in
the University of Nebraska. He died at his
home in Lincoln, February thirteenth, nine-
teen hundred eleven. Professor Phillips
was born in Grandville, Michigan, Septem-
ber twenty-fifth, eighteen hundred eighty-
one. After graduating from the Grandville
High School he worked his way through
the Michigan Agricultural College, and
completed the work in nineteen hundred
three with the degree of bachelor of
science. The same year he entered the
branch of extension in the bureau of for-
estry studying forest conditions through-
out the middle west until the fall of nine-
teen hundred four. His intense interest
in forestry together with his great love
for outdoor life caused him to take up that
study in the University of Michigan. For-
estry School where he received the degree
of bachelor of arts in nineteen hundred
five, and the degree of master of
science in forestry in nineteen hundred
six. After completing this course in the
university he received an appointment as
forest assistant in the Forest Service and
spent a year in the southwest. In nineteen
hundred seven he was appointed professor
of forestry in the University of Nebraska,
which position he held until his death.
Prof. Phillips was a self-made man in
every sense of the word. By hard knocks
he had learned the practical side of for-
estry and his knowledge, coupled with keen
powers of observation and a brilliant mind,
served to make him a splendid leader and
teacher, whose enthusiasm, cheerfulness
and great appreciation of the efforts of
others, will leave a lasting impression upon
all who knew him.”
. CG" yreat is the value of national
forest area for recreation, and
so certatn ts this value to increase
with the growth of the countru and
the shrinkage of the wilderness,
that ruven tf the forest resources of
wood and water were not to be re-
quired bu the ctuilization of the
future, many of the forests ought
certainlu to be preserued, in the in-
terest of nattonal health and well-
being, for recreation use alone”
Treadwell Cleveland, Jr.
SNOWIAND S.NOLONIHSVM JO THMAL
GaLOGIOAN VY—OVWOLOd AHL AO STIVA LVAYD LSAUOA IVLIAVO IVNOLLVN V
2 ee
American Forestry
VOL. XVII JUNE, 1911 No. 6
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST
By WILLIAM M. ELLICOTT
HE object of this paper is to recommend the creation of a national forest
( ) for demonstration and experiment and as a setting for the United States
capital. Such a forest would be a fitting background, worthy of the
dignity of the nation’s seat of government and would give continuity and
variety to the impression gained from the magnificence of buildings, boulevards
and monuments of the city proper.
Some of the western states are happy in having areas set aside as national
forests and national parks, and national forests are now to be established in
the East, in the northern and southern Appalachian Mountains. We look
also to Biltmore, in North Carolina, as a great achievement, and should
view it as an object lesson in practical application of the principles of forestry
to private lands. All these examples, however, are unfortunate in one
respect—their remoteness from the main traveled routes, rendering them
inaccessible to the vast majority of our people, for whom they exist but as
shadows, exerting the minimum of influence in their daily life.
The necessities of the present time are such as to demand a full and
thorough demonstration of the possibilities of the management of forests and
their rehabilitation.
The experience of European nations illustrates, first, the dangers arising
from denudation and, second, the commercial value of reforestation when it is
done under scientific management.
The use of forests by the people becomes a habit which inures to the
benefit of the whole population, adding to its vigor and zest of life.
Agricultural expansion in America has left certain areas unconquered
because of their unfitness for cultivation, and in these rests the hope of future
generations. One of these tracts, though sadly mutilated, has remained to
our day a vast forest useful for no other purpose. Providentially also, it
exists in a place which above all others should recommend it for protection
and improvement to the people of the United States. It forms the background
of the national capital, beginning at the bounding line of the District of
Columbia at Bladensburg and extending northeast nearly twenty miles until
it crosses the Patuxent River, a tract of 41,000 acres, while separated from it
by a narrow strip between Washington and Laurel, there is another body of
16,000 acres. Beyond the Patuxent it swings eastward touching the Severn
and South rivers and reaching the outskirts of Annapolis, the seat of the
United States Naval Academy, and thereby adds another area of 43,000 acres.
317
318 AMERICAN FORESTRY
Another forest district of vital importance to the nation’s capital, con-
taining some grand scenery which, though separated from the main bodies by
the breadth of Montgomery county should be included in the purchase, borders
the banks of the Potomac River from the District line to a point beyond the
Great Falls, an area of 10,000 acres. Conditions here are distressing in the
extreme, as no effort has so far been made to care for it, and year by year
injury to the landscape is done. Surely devotion to the public welfare should
prompt Congress to protect this great possession.
The value of the lands in question is comparatively small, but as the
pressure of population increases this will not continue, and it is not wise to
defer provision for its purchase. Altogether these areas cover one hundred
and ten thousand acres. The Forest Service should ascertain the merits of
the various districts for forest purposes and study the replanting of certain
parts, and a commission should plan for the maximum of beauty and utility,
which are lost for want of skillful and intelligent handling.
Water courses should be improved and artificial lakes could be made
as beautiful as natural ones, and the attraction of the woods may be enhanced
by the erection of suitable buildings properly located. A structure of the
character of a German schloss or a small chateau to serve the traveling public
as an inn or automobile club would not be out of keeping.
Here, then, at the gateway to the capital lies a splendid domain such as
the kings of the earth from the earliest time have taken for themselves and
jealously guarded as among their dearest possessions. We see it in the New
Forest in England with its 90,000 acres—established by the Conqueror—in
Fontainebleau also; and in that one which existed in the shadowy past within
the present borders of the city of Paris, of which the Louvre retains the
name of the king’s hunting lodge of that day.
Many other forests might be mentioned, as, for instance, that proud pos-
session of the city of Ziirich, given to it by Charlemange himself.
Looking, then, for a moment at the forest through the silver birches among
the laurels, and into the hemlocks beyond—or turning about and gazing across
the lake over the receding hills at sunset, you may, in spirit, visualize what
you have seen with the eye of the flesh and thus discern what the people may
do for themselves and why they should do it for their own well-being and
for the benefit of generations to come.
At the southern apex of the territory indicated is the old town of Bladens-
burg and neighboring hamlets. Here are found historic specimens of colonial
architecture—the Calvert mansion, the inn at which General Washington used
to put up when he was planning the great city, and Parthenon Heights, a
quaint old house of Revolutionary days. It is here that the two main branches
of the Anacostia River meet, the one stream coming down from Tacoma Park,
near the northern corner of the District of Columbia, and the other, or North-
eastern Branch, emerging from the principal forest areas with which we have
to do. The road leaving Bladensburg crosses the Anacostia bridge and arrives
soon at the border of the forest and after traversing several miles of quite
interesting country, the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad is reached. It then
turns north and enters the forest again, passing through spruce, pine, oak, and
poplar, all of which, under present ownership, is kept thinned out as it becomes
of commercial value in the local market for timber, railroad ties, pulp or
firewood.
Reference to the accompanying map which is made from detailed charts
of the forest areas of the Maryland Forest Department will show that the
District is approached by numerous electric and steam railways as well as
by county and turnpike roads.
Y
Sx,
—
< DistRicT Yen
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST LANDS MAP SHOWING IN THE DOTTED AREAS THE
PROPOSED NATIONAL FOREST
320 AMERICAN FORESTRY
On approaching the height of land between the Anacostia and the
Patuxent watersheds, there are hills of considerable height. Thence one
descends rapidly to the Patuxent River valley, across which the forest still
continues, reaching out towards the Patapsco, whose twenty miles of lovely
nature extend from the harbor of Baltimore to Relay, thence to Ellicott City,
six miles, and continues beyond between Baltimore and Howard counties, all
of which is designated as a part of the parking system of Baltimore.
To render the forest available for use as a pleasure ground it must be
opened to access. Intersecting alleys should be planned concentrating, per
haps, at some quiet pool or pretty refuge, and the roads which traverse it
should be improved and the system extended to connect by way of the
Potomac, the Anacostia and Rock Creek with the parking system of the District
of Columbia, and with that future pantheon of American greatness, the “Mall,”
which will one day rival the most splendid examples of formal landscape
design of the old world.
The undertaking of such a scheme will not only be the glory of our beau-
tiful capital, but it will offer to a dense urban population and to countless
transient visitors every form of sylvan pleasure which the inheritance of past
ages can suggest from periods when the joy of life and pleasure in beauty went
hand in hand.
For these reasons the purchase of a large tract of forest land at a cost of
from two to three million dollars by the United States government is advo-
cated. -Had another site been chosen for the capital it is likely that the
problem of its surroundings would have been entirely different, because the
existing conditions are unique, and the suggestion of a forest background
might have been chimerical and impractical.
Fortunately, however, for the project, both as to its direct bearing upon
the adornment of the capital and its value in assisting in the promotion of
forest cultivation and protection whether private, state or national, all the
circumstances illustrate the wisdom and even necessity of prompt provision
for the need of the near future.
Its value for experimental and demonstration purposes can hardly be
overestimated. The product of an average acre of such land planted in forest
at a cost of eight dollars and cared for at an almost negligible annual expense,
at the end of a period of forty years is about two hundred dollars, which
represents a handsome profit from otherwise valueless property. Large tracts
in private hands thronghout the eastern states are available for this purpose
only, and their almost universal neglect constitutes at once a great menace .
through their injurious influence upon climate and water supply and an
immense financial loss, while to demonstrate the possibilities of this branch
of agricultural industry and science should be a great advantage to the nation.
If the United States government desires to regard it simply as an object
lesson it may look forward to a handsome revenue without contemplating such
extensive cutting as to materially diminish its beauty and attraction.
Nearly all the great forests of Europe pay large profits, and the example
of some of our great railroads in reforesting tracts to produce railway ties,
telegraph poles and other timber, shows that the time has come when the
original forests must be replaced by artificial means. The plan here outlined
has been widely approved by societies interested in the public welfare and
by the press. For the sake of brevity an editorial of the New York Evening
Post, which appeared also in the Nation, is quoted as follows:
“Probably the first impulse of nine persons out of ten, on reading the
proposal that the government shall create a national forest of 100,000 acres
immediately adjacent to Washington city, will be to say that it is nonsense.
Ervesss
r ie
Courtesy of Art and Progress
GLIMPSE OF THE PARK AT VERSAILLES
Courtesy of Art and Progress
CONVERGING ALLEYS IN A FRENCH PLEAS-
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST URE FOREST
Courtesy of Art and Progress
IN THE FAMOUS FIFTY-MILE AVENUE OF
NIKKO, JAPAN
raed IN WOODWARD GROVE, A PART OF THE
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST FOREST PARK OF MADISON, WISCONSIN
ST,
XED HARDWOOD FORE
MI
COUNTY,
ES
ORG
GE
PRINCE
MARYLAND
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST
PROPOSED
THE
IN
WASHINGTON NATIONAL FOREST AREA
ROADS
COUNTRY
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST
REPORT ON THE WASHINGTON FOREST 325
But it is anything but nonsense. * * * That there is a considerable forest
area in a primitive state in the region bordering on Washington must strike
every one at all acquainted with that section. * * * If the tract is all
Mr. Ellicott thinks it is, there is probably no investment of a few million
dollars that would be better worth while. To preserve in perpetuity a genuine
national forest 150 square miles in extent, within a stone’s throw of the
national capital, would be an invaluable achievement.”
A REPORT ON THE WASHINGTON FOREST
By F. W. BESLEY
SraTrE FoRESTER OF MARYLAND
(A report from surveys, maps and data in the Maryland Forestry Department.)
HE area proposed for a national forest represents some of the oldest
( settled lands of the country. Since its occupation 250 years ago many
changes have taken place. A considerable portion of the land under
cultivation prior to the Civil War has since grown up in forest, not alone
because of the scarcity of labor necessary for its continued cultivation, but
because much of it was found better suited to the growing of timber than for
agricultural crops. These young forests of hardwood and pine coming as a
second growth have attained considerable importance, and by proper manage-
ment they can be moulded into forests of great value. There are still to be
found in small tracts some of the virgin forests showing the magnificence of
the original growth and further illustrating future forest possibilities. For
the botanist and the dendrologist, this is one of the most interesting regions
of the eastern United States. Here on the border of two great physiographical
divisions, the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau, the flora of the North
mixes with that of the South, and gives a variety of species difficult to find
in any other area of equal size. As a natural arboretum, this region is unsur-
passed. There are over sixty-five tree species alone, to say nothing of a large
number of arborescent shrubs. Most of the valuable commercial species of
the entire eastern United States are represented here. The great diversity
of soils and forest types offers exceptional advantages as a demonstration
field for applied forestry.
A forest survey of the Maryland counties, partly included in the proposed
national forest, was made by the writer in 1907-1910 and furnishes the
forest data upon which this report and the accompanying map is based. In
establishing a national forest, such as is proposed, it is very desirable to
include, as far as possible, lands that are now largely wooded. The large
wooded areas, lying between Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis, afford a
rare opportunity for carrying out such a plan. The area shown on the map,
lying between Washington and the Patuxent River, to the west of the Balti-
more and Ohio Railroad, covers approximately 16,000 acres, of which about
8,300 acres, or 50 per cent, is now wooded. For the purpose of the forest
description, any given area is considered wooded where there is a tree growth
on the land at least ten feet high and where the trees are close enough
together to form a stand. The main body of forest lying east of the Baltimore
326 AMERICAN FORESTRY
and Ohio Railroad, including spurs extending along South River and the
Severn River, covers approximately 84,000 acres, of which 50,200 acres, or 60
per cent, is wooded. The portion south of the Patuxent River is more largely
wooded than the rest, amounting to 70 per cent. The portion to the northeast
is 50 per cent wooded. The forests differ in character and composition,
dependent upon soil conditions, especially as to moisture content, and also
dependent upon the extent of previous cutting. On the few high gravel ridges
along the edge of the Piedmont Plateau, the characteristic species are rock,
post and black oaks. The higher slopes generally throughout the area are
covered with scarlet and Spanish oaks, and chestnut; while on the lower
slopes are found hickory, white oak and yellow poplar, walnut and black gum
as the predominating trees. Along the streams a great variety of species
are found, notably the maple, sycamore, beech, ash, birch, elm, ete. The
characteristic trees of the swamps are red gum, willow, pin oak and willow oak.
The forests of the region have been cut over rather closely so that they
consist principally of young growth, with scattering trees of larger size. Since
it is easier to develop a young forest into good form than it is to improve an
old one, the present situation has decided advantages. Furthermore, a forest
largely composed of young growth can be purchased at a much more reason-
able price than one containing timber of merchantable size. The probable
cost of these lands can only be approximated. The average for the woodlands,
exclusive of timber, would probably not exceed $20 per acre. The value of
merchantable timber based on the average stand for the entire area is
approximately $6 per acre, giving an average of $26 per acre for the land and
timber. Some of the land can be purchased for much less than this, while
some, if included, will cost more, depending upon location and the value of
the timber thereon.
The proposed extension of the national forest along the Potomac River,
above Washington, includes a section noted for its natural beauty. The steep
hills on the Virginia side of the river are well wooded, almost all the way
from the District line above the Great Falls. On the Maryland side of the
river the slope is less abrupt and there is more cleared land. The area indi-
cated on the map, including a large tract west of Rockville, which is very
largely wooded, is approximately 10,000 acres, of which about 6,000 acres, or
60 per cent, is now wooded.
The combined areas available for forest reservation as indicated on the
map comprise about 110,000 acres, of which practically 64,500 acres, or 58
per cent, is now wooded. By making the boundaries more irregular, or
excluding tracts that are nearly all cleared land, the area might be reduced
and the percentage of woodlands correspondingly increased. The presence
of cleared lands within the forest boundaries would not be a disadvantage.
The best of the farm land could be used as experimental farms in cooperation
with the Department of Agriculture, while those less adapted for agriculture
could be planted in forests. It is safe to say that 85,000 acres of the tracts
mentioned are typical forest lands already in forest or suitable for reforesta-
tion. There are many foreign trees that have not been fully tried in this
country under forest conditions. The rate of growth of most of our native
species under the most favorable conditions as would result in planting have
not been determined. The field for forest experimentation is a large and
promising one which would find here the ideal conditions for its fulfillment.
Photo from U. S. Forest Service
ZURICH’S FOREST ESTABLISHMENT IN
THE SIHLWALD
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FOREST
Photo from U. S. Forest Service
THINNING
AFTER
IN THE SIHLWALD OF ZURICH
REPRODUCTION
ATURAL
eee ee er eee
een RET RRC RENN pe I mse git Peo aerraninay spe *
re ae
Li ET EOE PANE CS
Photo from U. S. Forest Service
ADLISWIL,
TOWN FOREST,
PATE SN
TOURIST
ZURICH
ST
~
u
A NATIONAL CAPITAL FORE
HANDLING THE FIRE PERIL
By E. T. ALLEN
FORESTER, WESTERN CONSERVATION AND FORESTRY ASSOCIATION
rain fell for months, when the winds were veritable hurricanes, when fires
sprang up everywhere and were numbered not by hundreds but by thou-
sands—the Western Forestry and Conservation Association and its constituent
membership carried safely through the season fully 16,000,000 acres of forest,
containing at least the stupendous amount of 300,000,000,000 feet of timber. They
spent $700,000 for patrol and fire fighting and extinguished over 5,580 fires.
Of the vast area protected, barely half a million acres were burned over, includ-
ing timber, second-growth and cut-over land. Not more than half of one per
cent of all the private timber in Idaho, Washington and Oregon, the states
which suffered heaviest from the 1910 fires, was damaged, and the actual loss
will not exceed a quarter of one per cent.
True, this loss was serious, and there was destruction of villages and
human lives, but this was only the greater evidence of the test to which the
associations were subjected. It proves only too well the hazard which applied
equally to the immense area saved and compared to which the loss was
msignificant. Had it not been for the associations, the West would have
suffered one of the greatest calamities the world has seen.
During the legislative season following, the Association made an active
campaign for more adequate state protective work, especially in Oregon
and Washington, and due chiefly to its efforts these states passed completely
new forest codes and increased their annual appropriation from $23,000
to $68,000.
The Association receives continual requests for information about
organization and methods of cooperative work from all parts of the United
States and Canada, and many new associations have resulted. It is mentioned
more frequently in press and periodicals than any forest protective agency in
the United States except the federal forest service.
All this means a record of achievement. It means that the timber owners
of the Pacific Northwest are held up as protectors of the nation’s resources
instead of destroyers, as worthy of public commendation rather than suspicion.
It means conceding an honestly earned right to a voice in laws and policy of
conservation. It means that the stability of investments in western timber is
being impressed on capital. Consequently it must mean sound principles,
effective methods, and expenditures both liberal and well directed. What are,
then, the objects and methods of the cooperative work which has given the
Pacific Northwest this distinction?
The first principle of the movement is to preserve the forests. Not to tell
some one else how, but to do it. There is a difference. Propaganda associa-
tions, like newspaper articles and speeches, are good in their way, but it takes
real money and work to put out fires. The Pacific coast associations get the
money and spend it. If two cents an acre suffices, well and good; if it takes
329
Be 1910, probably the worst fire year in American history—a year when no
330 AMERICAN FORESTRY
fifteen cents, why fifteen is spent. Probably this is the single greatest differ-
ence from the popular two-or-three-dollar-annual-due association and from the
watch-dogged congressional system of guarding the public domain.
The second cardinal principle is community of interest. The associations
do only those things by which the private forest owner, the people, the state
and the government unquestionably benefit equally. Consequently they have
no criticism or suspicion to fear and, what is far more important, are always
in position to enlist support or join forces anywhere without embarrassing
themselves or any one else. During all the recent controversies between
factions regarding federal conservation policies, states rights and the like,
the association meetings and affairs have been participated in with the utmost
harmony and on equal footing by lumbermen, state officials, forest service
officers and conservation enthusiasts. Whatever each may think of existing
conditions or proposed changes in them, his work with the association is
to make the very best of them as they are, with his own hands or money, for
the common public good. Without denying that the question of for whom our
resources are to be conserved is important, the association concerns itself not
at all with this question, but proceeds to conserve, actually and practically,
dealing with the resources themselves instead of views concerning them, to
the end that they may not be destroyed before disputants agree as to who shall
eventually enjoy them.
Related closely to community interest is the cooperative principle which
has been applied, not only in theory, but to its utmost lengths in finance,
counsel and objects. In the actual fighting of fires and publication of educa-
tional material, as well as in interchange of experience and suggestions, the
forest owners work with each other, with the public and with state and govern-
ment. Every effort is made to perfect a system under which all agencies for
forest preservation may work not only without friction and with the strength
of numbers, but with the least unnecessary expense of duplicated effort.
Cooperation is a word often employed but seldom really applied. With us it
means more than mere voluntary give or take, where each secures the other’s
help with the least return and both are mutually suspicious and guarded.
We pool the work so each has to contribute his very best effort, or suffer him-
self in consequence.
Finally, publicity has been sought and welcomed, and in two ways. There
has been an unremitting educational campaign to convert public and lumber-
man alike to necessity and methods of forest preservation. Furthermore, the
actual work of the associations has been laid bare for scrutiny in every detail.
Meetings and reports are public. There can be no charge that the influence
of the organization is used for any hidden or improper purpose.
So much for general principles, now as to definite objects. It is the
belief of the several forest owners’ associations of the Pacific Northwest, afiil-
iated in the Western Forestry and Conservation Association, that, while con-
Servative management in all ways shouid be adopted as fast as conditions
permit, the underlying foundation is safety from fire. They believe that to
secure it there must be extensive education, strict enforcement of good fire laws,
vigilant trained patrol to suppress before they spread the fires which start in
spite of all preventive effort, and means of marshaling quickly an efticient
force to fight the very few large fires which will occur, notwithstanding the
foregoing precautions, just as a Baltimore or San Francisco burns.
They attempt to provide as much of such a system as private effort can
provide, and to secure provision of the rest by the public. They believe that
division of responsibility should be something like this: The forest owner
should do his full share financially and is best equipped through local and
HANDLING THE FIRE PERIL ; 331
practical knowledge to patrol and fight fire. The state should assist him, for
life, property and forests are community resources, and it is in the strongest
position to do educational and law-enforcing work. But since to bring about
such an ideal division in itself requires much education, the associations now
have to assume much of this burden also.
These policies, and the methods by which they are put into practical
application have developed from comparatively small beginnings. The first
step was installation of patrol systems by individual owners. This led to
cooperative patrols to reduce the expense of duplication. This, again, quickly
proved the far greater efficiency of systematic organization, wholly aside from
the question of cost, and also greater influence over careless public and
lumbermen. Varying in extent of territory from a single watershed, as in
Idaho, to half a state, as in Washington, patrols were consolidated into formal
associations which assess each member at an equal acreage rate and transact
the entire business of employing, supervising and supplying the fire forces,
having them authorized by the state, building trails and telephone lines,
ete. The cost is modified to suit the season by adding or laying off men, and
danger points are given special attention, much better than through individual
effort. Especially advantageous is the covering of gaps between holdings.
Cooperation with state and government forces is placed on a systematic
basis. The terrfitory of each association is divided into districts, each having
its local patrol, and these are grouped by districts under inspectors. A chief
fire warden controls the whole system. Every officer, in addition to straight
patrol and fire work, is held responsible for keeping settlers, campers and
loggers advised of the fire laws, dealing with violators, looking after dangerous
slashings, etc. They are as severe upon lumbermen as upon any one else and
pay no attention to ownership. The same work is done upon land belonging
to non-members as upon that of members. This principle of equal treatment
is a cardinal one throughout. The member owning but 40 acres has the same
vote in the affairs of the association as the member with 100,000 acres.
The cost of this protection varies from 114 cents an acre annually to as
high as 15 cents expended last year by some of the hardest-hit Idaho associa-
tions. In Idaho, the state is a member of the associations, paying its pro
rata on its timbered grant lands. In Washington it helps defray the expenses
under agreement by the state forester.
One of the early lessons learned was that results in forest protection are
most truly measured not by the fires put out, but by the absence of fires
to extinguish. Patrolmen are selected largely for their ability to command
public respect and enlist public interest in the first problem. Similarly each
association gives its work and results the greatest possible publicity, which is
an easy matter, for press and public accept the work as for community
good and the information obtained as reliable.
It soon became apparent that the same advantage secured by local
cooperation would apply to the working together in other than local matters
by the several associations. Consequently the Western Forestry and Conser-
vation Association was formed to afford central facilities for all forest protec-
tive agencies in the five states of Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and
California. It is a sort of grand lodge, without individual membership except
that the chief state and federal forest officers are prominent and valued
members. Al] associations devoted to forest conservation are eligible, includ-
ing the public conservation associations having no connection with the timber
industry, and have equal vote.
A forester is employed, with facilities for investigative and educational
work. One of the chief duties of his office is to act as a clearing house for all
332 AMERICAN FORESTRY
the affiliated organizations, not only for exchanging experience and suggestions,
but also for issuing publicity matter, dealing with outside agencies and gen-
erally representing the movement in all ways. Being recognized as a disin-
terested authority, the central association is invited into council on subjects
of forest protection and legislation all over the United States, by public,
private and official agencies of all kinds. It furnishes material for the reports
of state conservation and forestry commissions, prepares and advises upon
forest legislation, supplies copy for educational literature and fire warnings,
assists public speakers in the preparation of papers dealing with forestry
subjects, and is frequently called upon to address conventions of all kinds.
One particularly important function of the central association is to collect
and distribute frequent and reliable information concerning fire conditions,
steps to meet them evolved by the several agencies, and the results in protec-
tion and losses. It affords the only means of combining state, federal and
private reports. Two meetings a year are held, at which representatives of each
of these agencies from the five states confer and to which are invited any others
who may be concerned. For example, last December’s meeting was made
the occasion to discuss cooperation with officials of the transcontinental
railroads.
All of this costs money. To insure against any possible charge of
selfish influence by those who supply it, no individual contributions or dues
are permitted. Once a year the affiliated organizations vote a pro rata assess-
ment to cover the following year’s estimated expenses, and in its use the
forester is governed only by a semi-annual meeting of five trustees, one from
each state, elected at an annual meeting in which every local association has
equal voice regardless of the amount of its contributory assessment.
The history and future of this movement are of much significance. The
five states involved contain half the standing timber in the United States
today. The protection of this national resource is of the highest importance.
But quite as important is the fact that here, where such forests can be produced
more rapidly than elsewhere, is the great field of future American forestry—
the nation’s woodlot, as it were. And so far from requiring compulsion in the
public’s behalf, the private owners who hold these great forest areas in trust
are doing their part to safeguard the future consumer more liberally than state
or Congress, and by doing so today give the best earnest of their part in
the future.
SPRUCE TIMBER KILLED BY THE SOUTH-
BEETLE IN THE MOUNTAINS
OF NORTH CAROLINA
~
u
ERN PINE
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FORESTS
SLSHYUOA OL SNOIMOLNT SLOUSNI
SAUTLAIA MWUvA AM AATIM SAGIL _ dWVO NOLLVELSNOWAG TOWLNOD LOASNI
sulydoyy “q °y aq oj0yq sulydoyy “qd ‘“¥ 4q 0104
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST TREES
HE true relation of forest insects to forest conservation has not generally
been fully recognized, yet the annual loss of standing timber that is
killed or reduced in value by injurious insects is estimated by the Bureau
of Entomology of the United States Department of Agriculture, through its
expert in charge of forest insect investigations, Dr. A. D. Hopkins, at
$62,500,000. If this estimate is approximately correct it will at once be seen
that insect control assumes an importance beside fire control in any scheme of
forest conservation.
Fortunately, while this danger to our forest trees has been given so little
popular attention, no subject relating to our forests has received more thorough
and exact scientific investigation. The Bureau of Entomology, starting ten
years ago with very little knowledge of the conditions, has accumulated in that
period a notably full and exact knowledge of the life-history and habits of the
principal species of insects that are destructive to our forest trees, and not
only that but also, based upon it, a clear conception of means and methods of
control, so that Dr. Hopkins does not hesitate to say with absolute certainty
that these species can be controlled so as to be comparatively harmless. This
conclusion is based not upon laboratory work and theory, but upon results
actually accomplished on so large a scale as to afford positive proof of the fact.
The results of the Bureau’s work in this field have been made accessible in a
series of circulars of the Bureau of Entomology, prepared by Dr. Hopkins,*
and in the bulletins from which they are derived.
In this connection it is worth while to note that an important work is now
being done in the Northwest through cooperation of the United States Forest
Service, the states, and private owners, under the direction of United States
Bureau of Entomology experts. This is on the largest scale yet undertaken.
It is the beginning of a system of field stations to be established by the Bureau
of Entomology in every forest district. By means of these stations the expert
knowledge of the bureau can be made available and forest rangers, state forest
officers, and the foresters and cruisers of private owners can be trained to put
into practice the principles of scientific insect control. For it must always
be remembered that successful control must be based upon complete knowledge
of the insects and must be rightly directed. It would not be wise for laymen
to undertake this work even after a study of the publications summarized in
this article, without expert direction. And here is where the value of the
Bureau of Entomology comes in, for it places at the command of land owners,
at insignificant cost, expert scientific knowledge of the highest type.
INSECTS WHICH KILL FOREST TREES
Of all classes of insects which attack our forest trees and their products,
the bark beetles of the species Dendroctonus are the most serious menace to
our forests, and fortunately are among the best known and understood. It is
*Circular No. 125. Insects Which Kill Forest Trees.
Circular No. 126. Insects Injurious to the Wood of Living Trees.
Circular No. 127. Insect Injuries to the Wood of Dying and Dead Trees.
Circular No. 128. Insect Injuries to Forest Products.
Circular No. 129. Insects in their Relation to the Reduction of Future Supplies
of Timber, and General Principles of Control.
These circulars are all revised extracts from Bulletin No. 58, Part V., Bureau of
Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture.
335
336 AMERICAN FORESTRY
with this species that the first of these circulars deals. The principal species
in extent of their depredations are the southern pine beetle, eastern spruce
beetle, Engelmann spruce beetle, Black Hills beetle, mountain pine and western
pine beetles, Douglas fir beetle, and hickory bark beetle.
The southern pine beetle is one of the most dangerous insect enemies of
southern pines. The eastern spruce beetles ravaged the spruce forests of New
York, New England and southeastern Canada prior to 1900. The Engelmann
spruce beetle, with habits similar to the last named species, has frequently
done serious damage in Engelmann spruce forests in the Rocky Mountain
region. The Black Hills beetle is one of the most destructive of the forest
beetles, and during ten years is estimated to have destroyed more than a
million feet of timber in the Black Hills National Forest. It is distributed
throughout the middle and southern Rocky Mountain regions. The mountain
pine and western pine beetles attack the sugar, silver, western, yellow and
lodgepole pines of the region north of Colorado and Utah, westward to the
Cascades, and southward through the Sierra Nevadas. The Douglas fir beetle
occurs wherever that tree does. The hickory bark beetle has caused heavy
loss in the last ten years from Wisconsin to Vermont and southward to central
Georgia.
The bark beetles which kill trees attack the bark on the trunk and destroy
the life of the tree by extending their burrows, or galleries, in all directions
through the inner, living bark. The broods of young grubs or larve develop
within the inner bark on which they feed. Those of some species develop to
the adult stage within the inner bark and are exposed when the bark is
removed, while those of other species transform to the adult in the outer corky
bark, and the larve are not exposed when the bark is removed. Some species
have two or more generations in a season, or annually, while others have but
one; and in a few species it requires two years for a single generation to
develop. From this knowledge of life-history and habits of beetles of this class
are derived general directions for their control, which are embodied in the
following rules: (a) Give prompt attention to the first evidence of a destruc-
tive outbreak as indicated by an abnormal percentage of yellow or red topped
dying trees and especially when such trees occur in groups of ten or more, or
cover large areas; (b) secure authentic determination of the particular species
of insect responsible for the trouble; and (c) take prompt action towards its
control according to specific expert advice. Some of the methods to be adopted
to meet the requirements of local conditions are as follows:
(1) Utilize the infested timber and burn the slabs during periods in
which the broods of destructive beetles are in immature stages, or before the
developed broods emerge from the bark.
(2) Fell the infested trees and remove bark from the main trunk and
burn the bark, if necessary.
(3) Remove the infested bark from the standing timber and burn the
bark when necessary.
(4) Immerse the unbarked logs in ponds, lakes or streams where the bark
will remained soaked long enough to kill the insects.
(5) Remove the unbarked logs or products to a locality where there are
no trees liable to attack within a radius of twenty miles or more.
The circular further suggests an insect control policy by which groups of
dying trees can receive as prompt attention as that required for the prevention
or control of forest fires. In state and national forests those in charge should
have equipment and instructions for locating beetle-infested trees and for
taking necessary action. In private forests the owners should be led to under-
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST TREES 337
stand that their personal interest demands that proper action be taken in
cooperation with other interests, according to reliable advice.
These general suggestions are based upon actual demonstrations of
successful control, some of which may be cited by way of illustration. An
alarming outbreak of the eastern spruce beetle in northeastern Maine in 1900
and 1901 was controlled by the concentration of regular logging operations in
the areas of infested timber, placing the logs in lakes and streams and driving
them to the mills on the Androscoggin River. Thus, with little or no addi-
tional expense there was a saving to one firm, according to its estimate, of
more than one hundred thousand dollars.
Complete control of the hickory bark beetle, threatening the destruction
of hickory trees on Belle Isle Park at Detroit, Michigan, in 1903, was effected
by felling and removing the infested trees, converting them into merchantable
products, all without cost to the park commission.
An extensive outbreak of the Black Hills beetle in the vicinity of Colorado
Springs in 1905 and 1906 was brought under control through the efforts of
the private owners and of forest officials in the adjoining national forest. It
was accomplished by cutting and barking about one thousand beetle-infested
and beetle-killed pine trees. The cost of the operation was largely, if not
entirely, covered by the utilized felled timber, although there was considerable
unnecessary expense involved through the felling and barking of trees from
which the beetles had emerged and from the unnecessary burning of the bark
and crop.
Another striking example of what is possible in the way of controlling this
most destructive enemy of the pine timber of the central Rocky Mountain
region, was shown on a large private estate and the adjoining Pike National
Forest in Colorado. In the spring of 1907 a ranger of the Forest Service, under
instructions from the Bureau of Entomology, examined the timber on this
estate and found that the Black Hills beetle had been making depredations
for the past ten years or more, resulting in the death of the choicest timber
to the extent of more than 800,000 board feet. At the time of examination
about 65,000 board feet was infested. The owner was notified of the conditions
by the Bureau of Entomology, but no action was taken. Another examination
in the autumn of the same year showed that the infestation had increased
fourfold. This led to the prompt adoption of the recommendations and by
May of the following spring, 1908, a small number of trees on the national
forest was cut and barked to kill the insects in the inner bark and one
thousand trees on the private estate were felled, the logs converted into lumber
and the slabs burned, which accomplished the desired purpose of destroying
the broods of beetle. The owner realized a sufficient revenue from the timber
to cover the expense and leave a net profit of over $1,200. Examination of the
area in the fall of 1908 showed that this effort to control the beetle was a
complete success. Thus the average death rate of about 100,000 feet of timber
annually for ten years or more was reduced to a minimum at a net profit on
the cost.
In 1909 a threatening outbreak of mountain pine beetles in the Snowy
Mountains of Montana adjacent to and within the Jefferson National Forest,
involved more than 1,500 infested and dying trees. Thirteen hundred and
fifty-five trees were cut and barked to kill the broods of beetles. Four hundred
and twenty-two trees were cut at private expense, and seven hundred and
eighty-three at the expense of the Forest Service and the remainder by local
owners. The average cost for felling and removing the bark from the infected
portion of the trunk was thirty cents per tree. Careful examination in
December, 1909, of the area showed that while some fifty-six trees had been
338 AMERICAN FORESTRY
attacked by the mountain pine beetle the broods were being destroyed by wood-
peckers and other natural enemies, and that therefore the effort to control the
beetle depredations were a success. In 1910 no timber died.
These examples have shown that outbreaks of beetles in the forests can be
controlled at moderate expense and that it is perfectly practicable for the best
methods to be applied by private owners.
INSECT INJURIES TO THE WOOD OF LIVING TREES
A eertain class of insects attack the wood and bark of living timber and
and while they do not contribute materially to the death of trees, or give much
external evidence of their presence, they produce wounds in the bark and worm-
hole and pin-hole defects in the wood which result in a considerable deprecia-
tion of commercial value. These defects are not detected until the trees have
been felled and the logs converted into lumber. Thus the expense of handling
and manufacture is added to the loss from defective material. Among insects
of this class is the oak timber worm, which enters the wood of the trunks of
the living trees through wounds in the bark and at the base of broken or dead
branches and extends its burrows in all directions through the solid hard wood.
Another is the chestnut timber worm, which damages the chestnut in the
same manner throughout its range. It is estimated that the reduction in value
of the average lumber product at any given time is not far from thirty per
cent. This insect also attacks oaks, and-especially the red oak.
Carpenter worms are another enemy of the oak, making holes through the
hard wood of the best part of the trunk, sometimes one and five-tenths inches
in diameter by seventy-five hundredths of an inch. Other insects of this class
noted by Dr. Hopkins are the ambrosia beetles, to which is due one of the
commonest defects in white oak, rock oak, beech, whitewood or yellow poplar,
elm, ete., known to the lumber trade as “grease spots,” “patch worm” and
“black holes”; the locust borer, turpentine beetles and turpentine borers, which
are the cause of what is known as basal wounds, or basal fire wounds, in various
species of pine: the white pine weevil, which is responsible for the abnormal
development of white pine trees as a result of successive attacks on the
terminals of saplings and young trees. This jist is not complete, but includes
some of the most serious enemies of the living forest trees.
Insects of this class, which cause defects in the wood of living timber, can
best be controlled by (1) The utilization of all defective and infested timber
that will pay expenses for manufacture into merchantable products: (2) the
burning of infested timber and waste material not available for use, including
dead and fallen timber to remove the breeding of insects like the oak timber
worm and the chestnut timber worm, which go from the dead to the living
timber; (3) the prevention of wounds of any kind in the bark of living trees;
(4) the prevention of future losses by the practice of improved forestry
methods to eliminate conditions favorable for injuries and contribute to a
perpetual supply of vigorous, healthy timber to be utilized before it passes the
stage of profitable increment.
INSECT INJURIES TO THE WOOD OF DYING AND DEAD TREES
Among insects, which by extending their burrows through sound sapwood
and heartwood in dying and dead trees contribute to the deterioration and
decay of a commodity which otherwise would be available commercially during
periods of from one to twenty years or more after the death of the trees, are
the sawyers, ambrosia beetles and pin-hole borers in cypress, all of which do
extensive injury to the wood of coniferous trees; and the round-headed borers,
timber worms and ambrosia beetles which similarly injure hardwood trees.
Photo by A. D. Hopkins
INSIDE OF BARK WORKED BY SOUTHERN
PINE BEETLE
ENGELMANN SPRUCE KILLED BY BEETLE
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FORESTS ABOUT 1853-6. PIKE NATIONAL FOREST
FIRE
AND THE ENGELMANN SPRUCE BEETLE
IN THE LINCOLN NATIONAL FOREST
ENGELMANN SPRUCE KILLED BY
ENGELMANN SPRUCE KILLED BY THE
SWEPT BY FIRE IN PIKE
NATIONAL FOREST
BEETLE AND
CTS INJURIOUS TO FORESTS
9
“4
INSE
INSECTS INJURIOUS TO FOREST TREES 341
This injury is best prevented by prompt utilization of timber within a few
months after it is dead or found to be past recovery; by removing the bark
from the merchantable portion of the trunk within a few weeks after the trees
are dead; by felling the trees and placing the unbarked logs in water; or by
the adoption of a system of forest management which will provide for the
prompt utilization of all trees dying from any cause.
INSECT INJURIES TO FOREST PRODUCTS
Damage is caused by various species of insects which are attracted by the
varying conditions prevailing at different stages during the process of utilizing
the forest resources from the time the trees are felled until the logs are
converted into the crude and finished product, and until the latter reaches the
final consumer or until after it is placed in the finished article or structure.
As a result additional drains are made upon the timber to meet the demands
for higher grades of lumber and for other supplies to replace those injured or
destroyed. Dr. Hopkins states that from his personal investigations of this
subject it is evident that the damage to forest products of various kinds from
this cause is far more extensive than is generally realized. This loss differs
from that resulting from insect damage to standing timber in that it represents
more directly a loss of money invested in material and labor.
Injury to crude products, such as round timber with the bark on, poles,
posts, mine props, saw-logs, etc., is caused by the same class of insects. The
damage is especially severe when material is handled in such a manner as to
offer favorable conditions for attack, as when the logs are left in the woods on
skidways or in mill yards for a month or more after they have been cut from
the living tree. Round-headed borers, timber worms and ambrosia beetles are
all serious enemies of timber under such conditions.
Ambrosia beetles and other wood borers also attack freshly sawed hardwood
placed in close piles during warm, damp weather during the period from June
to September, and wood borers injure lumber and square timbers of both soft
and hardwoods with the bark left on the edges, the borers hatching from
eggs deposited in the bark before or after the lumber is sawed. Seasoned
products in yards and storehouses suffer from the powder-post beetle, and old
hemlock and oak tan bark is often so badly damaged by various insects which
infest dead and dry bark that in some tan yards as much as 50 to 75 per
cent of the bark that is over three years old is destroyed. The greatest loss
of finished hardwood products such as handle, wagon, carriage and machinery
stock is caused by powder-post beetles, and these, together with white ash or
other wood-boring insects, follow the product into its finished state in imple-
ments, machinery, wagons, furniture and inside finish.
The control and prevention of such injuries as these offer less difficulties
than that in many other branches of the general subject of forest insect control.
In most cases the principle of prevention is the only one to be considered,
since the damage is done soon after the insects enter the wood so the wood
cannot be repaired by destroying the enemy. A great deal depends upon the
proper degree of moisture and the period of danger varies with the kind of
timber and the time of year it is felled. This applies to crude products, and,
in a measure, to manufactured seasoned products. The general principles of
control are on the same lines as those indicated in the other sections, and may
be summed up in the general statement of prompt utilization and care in the
conditions of storage. In utilized products material may also be treated with
preservative.
342 AMERICAN FORESTRY
INSECTS IN THEIR RELATION TO FUTURE SUPPLY OF TIMBER AND GENERAL PRINCIPLES
OF CONTROL
In the final circular of the series Dr. Hopkins states that investigations
conducted by him and his assistants in all sections of the country during the
past ten years indicate to them that the average percentage of loss in merchant-
able timber in the forests of the country to be charged to the insects is infinitely
greater than most people realize. The author’s estimates for a ten-year period
have already been given.
Insect-killed timber makes, as is well known, better fuel for forest fires
and fire contributes to the multiplication of insects which depredate on the
bark and wood of dying and dead trees, so that in forested areas where fires
are frequent, the damage to the wood of such trees is more severe, and fewer
injured trees recover on account of the abundance of secondary bark beetle
enemies which do not as a rule attack and kill living timber. Sometimes, when
the infested areas are swept by fire, the broods of insects are destroyed and
therefore complete fire control may easily contribute to more extended depreda-
tions by insects on living timber, thus increasing rather than diminishing the
need for insect control. The setting of fires, however, or permitting them to
burn for the purpose of combatting insects, should never be undertaken or
permitted. Insect-killed timber could often be profitably utilized were it not
for the secondary attacks of wood-boring insects and the destruction of insect-
killed timber by forest fires. Injury by insects also often opens the way for
fungi, although certain species and groups of both insects and fungi are
trees.
It is admittedly difficult to estimate losses in terms of board feet, or
dollars, there are so many contributing factors; but those estimates that are
made in these circulars are the best that can be presented on available evidence.
On this basis the author estimates the loss of standing timber killed or damaged
by insects at an equivalent of more than ten per cent of the quantity and
stumpage value of the total stand of merchantable timber in the United States
at any given time. Considering this in its various relations to the nation’s
wealth and welfare and its effect on land values, it is difficult to estimate the
loss chargeable to insects. Considered from the standpoint of loss in cash
revenue, it means an annual loss in timber and its products of more than one
hundred million dollars.
PREVENTION AND CONTROL
It is, as a rule, useless to attempt to exterminate. The insect forces
must be weakened 75 per cent or more to have the control effective, and this
can be done by proper management. The author lays great stress upon forest
management, but urges that any. adjustment or modification in management
or business methods should be based on expert technical knowledge of the
species, habits, life-history and natural enemies of the insects involved, supple-
mented by expert knowledge of principles of technical and applied forestry, and
by practical knowledge and experience as to local conditions.
The value of natural checks and factors of control of injurious insects
without which such control would be impossible is dwelt upon. These natural
factors consist of parasitic and predatory insects, diseases of insects, birds and
climatic conditions, and all of them play an important part which can be more or
less controlled by man in accomplishing the results. Finally he urges the
prompt utilization of all insect-infested timber, so that losses may be limited
as much as possible; especially as by so doing we can contribute more, perhaps,
than in any other way to the reduction of the insects to or below their normal
numbers and thus provide against serious injury in the future.
BAMBOO PULP AS PAPER MATERIAL 343
In reading the circulars upon which this article is based it must be borne
in mind that they represent a body of knowledge which is still rapidly
progressing. Some later facts are indeed mentioned in this article. The
principles embodied in them, however, are well established, and it is the
practice under those principles that is being perfected. Nor are these publica-
tions intended to be complete lists of the insects injurious to our forests. They
include only those types that are of most importance and of which the Bureau
of Entomology has sufficiently complete data to know how to deal with them.
BAMBOO PULP AS THE PAPER MATERIAL OF THE
FUTURE
By HARRY VINCENT
HAT bamboo pulp is the one material that is likely to come to the front
( ) as a main source of paper stock supply, is the opinion of the World’s Paper
Trade Review of London (February 24, 1911). The difficulty heretofore
has been in the bleaching, as the coloring matter could not be eliminated
except by the expensive caustic soda process. This has now been obviated.
The great advantage that bamboo has over other pulp material is in the
growing. A piece of land once established in bamboo can be cut over annually
for an indefinite period, as given a favorably watered situation, and preferably
a gravelly soil, the bamboo in the tropics grows to an altitude of thirty feet
or more yearly. As it requires but a three-year period to establish a field, it is
perfectly plain that neither wood nor any other material can compete with it.
As the United States has control over large territories in Porto Rico and
the Panama Zone most suitable for bamboo cultivation (which is extremely
simple) there should be no difficulty in getting a permanent future supply
up to millions of tons a year.
The advantages of bamboo as a pulp maker are: (1) It has a good, strong
vegetable fiber; (2) it is in general easily accessible for water transport; (3)
it is cheap and easily collected; (4) it is available in large quantities and
abundant within a given area; (5) it is available for a regular and constant
344 AMERICAN FORESTRY
supply, and not subject to violent fluctuations either in quality or price; (6)
it admits of simple and ready treatment, mechanical, chemical or both, for
easy and inexpensive conversion into bleached pulp; (7) land established in
bamboo, which will take three years from first planting to reach a height of
thirty to forty feet, can then be reaped annually for an indefinite period.
Ordinary thick-walled bamboo, which, when given suitable soil and
climate, grows with amazing rapidity and yields annually at least forty tons
to the acre, contains fifty per cent of a very strong, yet fine and flexible, fibre,
easily digested by the ordinary bi-sulphite process, and by a new method
simply and inexpensively bleached, yielding when properly treated an excellent
pulp, felting readily, and producing a paper, pliant, resistant and opaque, of
enduring color, thicker than other paper of the same weight, and forming one
of the very finest of materials for writing and printing, and of exceptional
value for engraving.
The oldest bamboo is thoroughly and completely digested, knots and all,
by the ordinary bi-sulphite process; but care must be taken in the cooking, as
there is no reason to suppose that all bamboos are alike. Pine
spruce, and poplar are treated quite differently in cooking, and
nearly every factory has its own formula, and different strengths and tem-
peratures are used. Direct steam should never be used with bamboo, but
always steam coils with not more than forty pounds pressure until the last
two hours, after first liberating the gases derived from bamboo which are
different from those of wood. The mechanical portion which is absolutely
essential to this process is a preparation of the bamboo for cooking as well
as for bleaching. After being selected and assorted the bamboo has to be
crushed in exactly the same manner as sugar cane, when it will appear after
removal of the sap somewhat similar to mogass, almost pulverized and a
slightly damp, spongy mass. In this form the bamboo is extremely permeable
by the cooking solution, which can be used comparatively weak and without
any necessity for a high pressure of steam. In all cases a solution to be used
with bamboo should be as nearly neutral as possible. It may be slightly
alkaline or slightly acid, but excess in either direction will waste a large
amount of the fine fibres, and acts adversely on the chemical constituents of
bamboo. These fine fibres are, according to Wildridge and Ekman, of great
value in forming a close, opaque sheet of paper. They represent about a third
of the cellulose, and unless the necessary precautions are adopted, they will
be lost in the strainers and washers. So, obviously no part of the preparatory
treatment can be carried out away from the place of growth of the bamboo.
The bleaching process is entirely new and differs from any other used
for making pulps. It consists in an intermediate process the object of which
is to prepare the pulp for bleaching, by steeping the bamboo after it has been
cooked for a few hours in a solution made from electrolysed sea-water, salt,
and diluted sulphuric acid, then after drawing off the solution (which can
be used over and over again), giving the pulp a further bath in a very weak
alkali and thoroughly washing it, when the whole coloring matter comes away,
and a clean, fine and strong, light-colored pulp is left, which is now more
easily bleached than any other pulp now in use. No other ingredients
are necessary than those specified, which are of the cheapest possible descrip-
tion, and only a light electric current is required. The whole expense of the
intermediate process will not add, including the bleaching, more than $4 per
ton to the cost of the pulp. Both the process and the apparatus for producing
the solution (which makes use of a novel process in electrolysis) are patented,
and there is no other known means of fully bleaching matured bamboo, except
the antediluvian Chinese method of “retting.”
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BETWEEN ROCK AND FORTNER CREEKS, NORTH-
ERN GEORGIA
A RAILWAY FOREST ENTERPRISE 395
sign, not only for Massachusetts but for New England as a whole, for the
membership and influence of the Chamber extend over that entire section.
Through an energetic committee on forestry, composed of active business and
professional men, some of them lumbermen, and all much interested and
well-posted in the subject, the Chamber is working in harmony with the
forestry association, and is ready to enter fields not so readily accessible
to the association. The machinery for producing important results is, there-
fore, well-nigh perfect in Massachusetts, and there is no reason why it should
not work smoothly and speedily. The test will come during the next twelve
months.
A RAILWAY’S FOREST ENTERPRISE
By FILIBERT ROTH.
past, has been actively engaged in the agricultural development of the
great Canadian Northwest. Not only has the company encouraged and
assisted agricultural settlement, but it has established experiment stations,
demonstration farms, irrigation enterprises, etc., to develop right crops and
right methods for the best utilization of the great plains lands.
Of late this company has turned its attention also to forestry. As a
holder of large areas of forest lands in different portions of Canada, notably
British Columbia, it has begun work in the usual quiet and yet energetic and
businesslike way which so long has been a distinguishing feature of this
company. The objects and policy of the company, as indicated by the head
of the forestry department, are primarily to develop thorough protection for
the great forest wealth along the lines of the railway. That this is a most
timely enterprise, meeting with the hearty approval of every right-minded
person, interested in the welfare of Canada, goes without saying.
The necessity for this was amply demonstrated by the experience of 1910
and by the enormous destruction of forests of other recent years. But in
addition to this work of fire protection, the company plans also the establish-
ment of a regular forest service to take charge of certain forest tracts and
develop on these tracts a system of forestry, well planned and thoroughly
suited to the country, to the forest, the land and climate, and to the economic
conditions of the different regions in which these forests are to be selected.
That such work will serve, like the agricultural stations, as a valuable object
lesson, is quite apparent. That these forests may also serve as supply areas
for the timber used by the company, would seem quite natural, though this
appears rather secondary in the program at the present time. At present
the company has a number of educated young foresters in addition to its
old staff of experienced timbermen and all in all, it has probably the best
organized and most promising forest service of any private concern in the
New World.
That this development will serve a most valuable purpose, not only for the
railway company itself, but for Canada and for each of the provinces, is
evident; and the work will be watched with great interest by every friend
of forestry. Good Speed!
Le IS well known that the Canadian Pacific Railway Company for years
REPRODUCTION OF ENGELMANN SPRUCE
AFTER FIRE
By L. J: Youn.
I.—PARKS AND THEIR ORIGIN.
UCH of the beauty and picturesqueness of the extensive forests of spruce
and balsam that clothe the higher slopes of the mountains in south-
western Colorado is due to the many so-called “parks” that are scattered
through the timber. As locally used, the term means any grassy opening in
the forest, regardless of size, for they vary in extent from less than a single
acre to many hundreds of acres. That they have been rightly named, anyone
must admit, especially if seen in early July just after the snow has left them.
Then they are covered with thick, fresh grass and an abundance of brightly-
colored blossoms from the big, gorgeous columbine of the Rockies to the
delicate, little, blue bells of the aconite flower. The whole effect of the grass,
the flowers, and the little scattered clumps of trees cannot be excelled for
quiet, peaceful beauty, placed as it is in the midst of the big, dark forest, which
offers its long, mysterious vistas as a background to the scene. A park in a
city is only an imitation.
However, these parks have much more than beauty to their credit, for
it is upon them that the stockman depends for a great part of the summer
range, which he must have to maintain his great flocks and herds that mean
meat and wool and hides to the people of the East. So we see that the park
has also a considerable economic significance that is not to be despised.
Upon seeing these parks for the first time, admiration is pretty apt to be
closely followed by curiosity as to the reason for the existence of such open-
ings, where the conditions of soil and moisture are, so far as it is possible to
see, the same as in the dense forest just alongside. Inquiries among the
people do not give much satisfaction on this point, for all they are so wise in
many things not known to “tenderfeet.” But the story is there for anyone
who has a chance to read it. A summer’s work in the Engelmann spruce of
the La Plata Mountains in southwest Colorado gave the opportunity for
observations, the conclusions from which form the basis of this paper.
It is so simple that the pictures alone can almost tell it. But it will
doubtless be much clearer if a few remarks are added to furnish the con-
necting links and bring out certain facts that the pictures do not show.
Figure 1 shows part of a stand of fire-killed timber, where the damage
has been comparatively recent, since most of the trees are still standing. Not
only has the timber been killed here, but all the young growth, together with
the forest floor, has been destroyed. After such a catastrophe, one of two
things usually happens. Either grass gains possession of the ground soon
enough to seriously hinder the return of the spruce by seeding, or the light
seeds of the aspen blow into the area in large numbers and establish a dense
stand before even the grass has had a chance. The picture shows the grass
and shrubs appearing in this particular case, as well as a few spruces in
the background that have come up since the “burn.”
396
REPRODUCTION OF ENGELMANN SPRUCE AFTER FIRE 397
As time goes on, one dead tree after another blows over and begins to
decay, until the timber is practically all down, as in Figure 2. This is the
next step in the process that was begun by the fire. The grass has become
still more firmly established, and part of the timber that went earlier has
decayed and disappeared. The exposure of the area to the action of sun and
wind has made conditions very unfavorable for the moisture loving spruce,
so that only a few have gained a foothold near the edges of the “burn.”
After the timber is once down and in contact with the ground, the pro-
cesses of decay go on much more rapidly, and in a relatively short time, the
area assumes the appearance of that in Figure 3. Most of the timber has
gone back to the soil and air from which it came, and what was once a heavy
spruce forest has already become a summer home of the cattle, tempted thither
by the abundant grass.
The final decay of the small remaining amount of dead wood leaves a
clear, grassy expanse, either dotted with scattered spruces or absolutely
treeless, and the park has arrived at completion. (See Fig. 4.)
Now someone may ask whether some parks at least may not owe their
existence to windfall. It is true that large areas of spruce are sometimes
blown down, thus forming openings in the woods. But there are several
reasons why these areas do not become parks. For the sake of completeness,
it may be well to briefly state those reasons here.
An unusually heavy wind may overthrow all of the timber on a given
area, but the destruction is not complete, as in the case of fire, since many
of the small trees, most of the seedlings, and the forest floor, or duff, are left
unharmed by the wind. The presence of the duff and the shade afforded by
the down timber tend to prevent for a time the unfavorable drying out of
the soil, so that the seedlings that are left have a chance to readjust them-
selves and continue to grow, and seed that blows in from the nearby timber
has a better chance to germinate. On account of these conditions, the area is
again more or less covered with a young forest before the down timber has
had time to disappear.
Again, most of the parks occur on south slopes, and practically all of
them occur on south, east, or west slopes. These exposures are the ones
that are most subject to drying-out, so that fire starts most easily on them
and also runs more readily after it is once started. Practically all areas that
still show evidences of burning-over are also on the same slopes. This
strengthens the appearance of a relation between the two.
A little digging in any park soon reveals charcoal not far below the
surface, showing conclusively that fire once passed over the area and found
timber to feed upon where there is none at present.
The circumstances, therefore, seem to point to the conclusion that fire,
and fire only, has been the primary cause of parks.
IIl.—THE FATE OF THE PARK.
Next comes the question, Does the park, once formed, always remain a
park?
Take the case of such a park as is shown in Fig. 4, where a few spruces
have succeeded in starting before the grass came in. On account of their
open position, such trees have branches clear to the ground. These branches
shade out the grass around the base of the tree and keep the soil relatively
moist and loose. Such conditions are favorable to the germination of the
seed, some of which the tree is bearing nearly every year. The result is
shown in Figure 5. A large number of seedlings of all sizes have grown up
around the “mother tree” in the area protected by its branches.
As these trees continue to bear seed that is carried here and there by the
wind, other trees occasionally succeed in starting at some distance from the
398 AMERICAN FORESTRY
mother trees, in spite of the grass. (This probably happens chiefly during
unusually favorable seasons.) Such trees in turn become the centers of
additional groups. The seedlings themselves in each group grow into trees,
bear seed, and continue the work of conquering the grass. Each group also
continues to spread and so shade out more grass, which favors the starting
of still more seedlings. All of this takes an immense amount of time, on
account of the slow growth of the existing trees and the difficulty with which
new ones get started.
But, slow as it is, there comes a time when the number of groups has
increased sufficiently and each one has so spread out that all of them are
in contact with one or more other groups. This is the last stage before the
complete return of the forest. Small openings, a few yards in diameter,
still occur, but most of the land is now covered with trees. Figure 6 shows
a portion of such a stand. Practically all of the trees in the picture have
come from the large mother tree, marked “x.” The opening here is only ten
paces wide. It is interesting to note the wide variation in size, and so in
age, of the different trees. This stage also shows that the very small parks
are only a result of the breaking up of the large ones.
Ultimately, of course, all of the small openings are filled up, and the
forest cover is reestablished after an interval of hundreds of years. Extensive
stands occur at present which have obviously originated in this way. They
are extremely uneven, aged, and, though the cover is complete, can still be
easily resolved into the original groups with the big mother tree distin-
guishable in the center of each one. The very conical form of these mother
trees and the numerous, persistent branches that extend clear to the ground
prove that they lived a great part of their existence in the open, rather than
in such a closed stand as the present one.
The filling-in process, described above, is further hastened by a seeding
in from the side along the edges of the timber that remained uninjured by the
fire.
Fig. 7 shows a narrow arm of a park that is being rapidly filled up from
the end and sides.
III.—REPRODUCTION OF SPRUCE UNDER ASPEN.
Since the seed of the aspen is very much lighter than that of the spruce,
it is carried by the wind for longer distances and in large numbers. When
such seed falls into a fresh “burn,” where grass has not appeared, it produces
a dense stand of this inferior wood. If there were such a thing as a portable
pulp-mill, however, there ought to be some money even in aspen.
These stands often cover extensive areas, growing to an average diameter
of twelve to sixteen inches and an average height of sixty to seventy feet.
Apparently they own the land. But
Usually the aspen is surrounded by spruce forests. Now spruce can
start and grow well under the shade of aspen, but aspen cannot live under
spruce. Every year some spruce seed blows into the edges of the aspen stand
and starts to grow. In time, the trees thus started also bear seed, which they
scatter farther into the ranks of the aspen. (See Fig. 8.) Finally, the spruces
and balsams overtop the aspen and kill it with their heavy shade. The aspen
is also at a disadvantage in being a short-lived species, while the spruce is
long-lived. Thus it is that aspen is called a “temporary” type. The spruce
has triumphed again, but in this case does not show the group arrangement
that is so characteristic when the park was the first step in the process.
It was also found that spruce sometimes reproduces without interference
from grass and without the aspen stage upon areas near timberline that have
been denuded by fire or by snowslides.
Gen ll
ENGELMANN SPRUCE
WIG. oe
ENGELMANN SPRUCE
ENGELMANN SPRUCE
~é
FIG,
.
8
FIG.
SPRUCE
NGELMANN
E
FORESTS AND STREAMFLOW
nor peculiarly American. Engineers, foresters and hydrologists in
Europe have been debating it for many years with the result that while
controversy continues as to the precise relation of the forest on the watershed
to the flow of the stream, European opinion has accepted as settled the opinion
that forests are necessary to the maintenance and equability of streamflow,
and has acted upon it.
In this country practice, since we took up forestry, has followed the same
conclusion, but when the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives
gave its opinion that the proposed Appalachian national forest legislation must
stand or fall by its effect upon navigation, the whole question was thrown
open to be debated with some heat and some scientific thoroughness. This
controversy is recent history. Several printed papers were contributed to it,
the first being that of Lieutenant Colonel Chittenden, of the army engineer
corps, who argued ably and forcibly against the accepted view. His position
was substantially that held, so it is understood, by a majority, though not all,
of the army engineers. Colonel Chittenden was answered by Prof. George N.
Swain and others. Outside of those whose preconception was supported by
the views of the army engineers, there was an unwillingness to regard the
army men as the only engineers in the country, and when eminent civil
and electrical engineers controverted their views, and the great national
organizations—the Society of Civil Engineers, and the Institute of Electrical
Engineers—were put on record officially as believing in the beneficial effect of
forest cover on streamflow and the actual need of such cover to protect water-
sheds, the normal judgment of the layman seemed to be restored to its
former basis.
Then came the report of the Chief of the United States Weather Bureau,
issued something over a year ago as a congressional document and widely
distributed. This raised a distinct issue between two bureaus of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture—the Forest Service and the Weather Bureau; but the
restraint of department discipline prevented a rejoinder by the Forest Service,
and the controversy was carried on outside, the weightiest contributions
to it as opposed to the Weather Bureau’s position being the articles by able
specialists published in AmMmrican Forestry for April, 1910.
These steps in the controversy are recalled because it is reviewed at some
length and with an intelligent understanding of its animus in the /ndian
Forester for March and April, 1911. The Indian Forester quotes an editorial
from the Allahabad Pioneer referring to the controversy and then publishes a
letter from one of its correspondents calling attention to the Pioneer article
and suggesting that “the whole makes very interesting reading and those
who live for tariff reform and similar many-sided questions and are in need
of something new would be well advised to add this subject to their list as it is
one not likely to be exhausted in their time.” The Forester then states the
two contentions of the American Weather Bureau as follows: (1) that forests
have no effect upon the amount of rainfall; (2) similarly, that forests have
no effect upon the severity of floods; and it is concluded that no case can
be shown where deforestation has augmented drought or flood. To the dis-
403
ino pecati of the relation of forests and streamflow is neither new
404 AMERICAN FORESTRY
cussion of these propositions the Forester contributes a few observations out of
experience in India:
“As regards (1) there are in India no series of reliable observations
carried out over a sufficiently long period to throw much light on the subject.*
The Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1887, Part II, No. 1, contain
an interesting article by Blanford. He showed that the only satisfactory
evidence would be that obtained by comparing the rainfall of a district when
well wooded with that of the same district after deforestation. He endeavored
to apply this principle to the southern Central Provinces. He gives evidence
that in that area prior to 1875, while five-sixths were nominally under forest,
so much damage had been done by dahya (i.e., shifting) cultivation that by
far the greater part of the forests had become devastated. He quotes the
introduction of the Central Provinces Gazetteer of 1870 where Mr. C. Grant
says:
“
FIMBEFED SECTION x
FIG. 3.
F. 8. Circular 111, issued Oct. 10, 1907—called Prolonging the Life of Mine
Timbers, by John M. Nelson, Jr. It is from Mr. Nelson’s circular that the
diagram (Fig. 1) and the photograph (Fig. 2) have been taken.
Experiments with concrete and steel construction have been carried on
for a number of years. The mine which is best fitted out with these modern
appliances is the Allport Mine at Barnesboro, Pennsylvania. It is to be
noted that in connection with the new government Bureau of Mines a gov-
ernment mine is to be opened at Brucetown, Pennsylvania, in the near future.
It is the obiect of Dr. Holmes, Director of the Bureau of Mines, to make this
mine, run by the government, typical of actual mining conditions. Accord-
ingly, parts of the mine are to be timbered in the old way (see Fig. 3), and
parts are to have all modern appliances. It is proposed in connection with the
government mine, to change the testing chamber where explosives are tried
out and where experiments in the explosibility of coal dust are made, from
Pittsburg to the new government mine at Brucetown. By having this chamber
in connection with the mine it is thought that experiments can be made first in
the chamber and then in the mine itself. In this connection, it is noteworthy
that the part of the mine in which explosions are to be set off is to be
entirely constructed of concrete and steel. (See Fig. 4.) And the government
expects to be able to entirely control explosions within this area.
A new era for the mine is approaching, an era without the old waste, the
old lack of efficiency. Explosion and fire with its attendant loss to life and
property will in the future be done away with. The cost of “timber” per ton
of coal will be made smaller and the annual timber consumption will be
materially decreased.
Fretpfarcing Arches
2 Sguare Iron 32"Apeork
Box ond Fe For
“ Wiring odd Ligh ts.
Longitudinal reinforcement
¢ Found Bors 12 Apert
Foundotion Llock 6° fo 18 “Deep Ditch
Accorcting Yo Hardness of Better
FIEINFORCED CONCRETE SECTION
FI@. 4,
LOUISIANA
FOREST REGIONS
1-Shortleaf pine uplands
a-Longleaf pine region
3-Alluvial region (Cypress)
7 4-Bluff region (Hardwoods)
d-Prairie region
6-Sea marsh
|
Gi
lig
ae
Y
Field examination by
J.H Foster
Feb and March i910.
wNs '
SKK
THE CASE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA
in Louisiana. To understand it thoroughly one must go back a bit
with a mental image of the state which has gradually climbed to a
position which ranks second only to the state of Washington in the amount
of lumber produced annually.
In 1909 the state legislature decided that an inventory of the resources
of the state was necessary and appointed a conservation commission for this
purpose to make a report to the legislature. Henry E. Hardtner, a lumber-
man, was made chairman of this commission. The commission at once began
its work of making an inventory with the funds appropriated by the legis-
lature for this purpose. This commission for the time being took the place of
the state forestry bureau.
‘Omerys the past year an interesting situation has been developing
414
THE CASE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 415
In the early part of 1910 with the assistance of an appropriation of $250
from the office of the register of the state land office and ex-officio commissioner
of forestry, the government sent J. H. Foster, assistant chief of codperation
of the United States Forest Service, to look over the forestry resources of
Louisiana. Mr. Foster made an extensive report covering some 120 pages
to the ex-officio forester.
After review of the timber resources of the state Mr. Foster proceeded
to state with great clearness the fallacy of over production. Thus:
“The usual regulation of the supply to meet demand does not hold in the
yellow pine industry; the production at present is at least two or three times
as great as the market normally requires. It would be a good thing for the
forests if all the mills could be run on half time until the present over-supply
was reduced and the prices of lumber advanced to a degree which would
yield a fair profit.
The consequent effect on the forest of overproduction and low prices is
deplorable. Many companies are actually compelled to leave on the ground
to decay as much as 2,000 board feet per acre in tops and logs partially affected
with red heart, because there is no profit in manufacturing low grades into
lumber. The tendency is to haul to the mills only such portions of the trees
as will make high-grade material. The lumbermen believe they are in no
position to consider conservation methods of logging or to look forward to
a future cut of timber on the same land. It would not be entirely just to the
lumbermen of Louisiana for the state to regulate or restrict the cutting of
timber and thereby increase the cost of logging, unless this increase is uniform
among all yellow pine states, and the lumbermen are able to increase the prices
of the manufactured product accordingly.
It seems inevitable that the reckless exploitation must continue as long
as there is sufficient virgin timber to keep in operation the extensive establish-
ments of the present time. When the big mills have passed, as they are
rapidly doing in Alabama and Mississippi, small saw mill plants will be
organized on a more permanent basis.
The lumbermen, however, are not without responsibility to the people
of the state. They have obtained their lands at low prices and have made
fortunes from the increase in the value of the timber. The chief asset
of the region is being removed, and the land usually left in a desolate con-
dition. The industry does not develop the country permanently and the
earnings are seldom invested where they are of any benefit to the community.
Local residents, attracted by work which furnishes them with regular wages,
leave the farms for the mills, and when the mills are abandoned, they are
too often not satisfied to return to the farm work, but follow the mills to
other sections not yet exploited.”
This report contained a great deal of valuable information on the basis
of which the conservation commission made its report to Governor J. Y.
Sanders early in June, 1910. The recommendations of the commission are
summarized as follows:
(1) Protection from fire of cut-over pine lands.
(2) Prevention of waste in logging, such as: injury to young growth,
use of valuable timber where inferior timber would answer the purpose, leaving
sound logs in the woods.
(3) Establishment by gifts and purchase of a state forest reserve.
(4) Establishment of correct system of forest taxation, viz: (a) “Tax the
land without the timber according to its value annually ;” (b) “Tax the timber
10 to 15 per cent when it is cut.”
Upon the theory that the taxation of the lumbermen should be different
from that of all other enterprises, as the facts set forth in the accompanying
416 AMERICAN FORESTRY
table will show, Mr. Foster framed a revenue bill which was introduced into
the legislature of Louisiana and passed before the end of the session. This
revenue bill became law, but it has been inoperative the past year owing to
the activities of certain lumber companies. And this is the reason why, in
order to assess the license tax of one cent on pine and one-half cent on hard-
woods to produce the revenue by means of which fire patrol is to be main-
tained, it was found necessary to frame an amendment to Article 229 of the
constitution.
QUANTITY AND VALUE OF FOREST LANDS IN LOUISIANA, 1909
I. ACTUAL FOREST LANDS
TOTAL STAND AVERAGE VALUE
TIMBER SPECIES (Arce a ics ToraAL VALUE TOTAL ASSESSED
Ws arden Me LA 8 fh in A a a ee Ig Sine Deer AT On ee
Yellow Pine 4,116,800 $10.75 $44,204,009 LANDS ON A 50
Cypress 520,123 12.90 6,249,912 PER Cent Basis
Hardwood 4,343,744 3.52 15,318,224 $125,000,000*
TOTAL 8,980,667 $6.76 $65,772,145
Il. FARM LANDS (MORE OR LESS TIMBERED) ToTaL ASSESSED
VALUE OF TIMBER
(Note.—20 per cent of the more or less timbered lands of the state rated as_| ON “FARM LANps”
“farm lands” are not included in the above figures.) $25,000,000*
Il. DENUDED TIMBER LANDS—(WASTE LANDS) ToTaAL ASSESSED
VALUE ON A
ACREAGE AVERAGE VALUE PER ACRE ToTAL VALUE Basis OF ONE-
NINTH VALUE OF
STANDING TIMBER
$7,610,424
4,814,746 $1.58
Figures from State Conservation Commission Report, 1910.
For in 1902 a general license act had passed the legislature carrying a
license tax on the manufacture of lumber and when an attempt was made to
collect this tax, the case was carried to the supreme court of the state, which
held that the tax was unconstitutional and in violation of Article 229.
Upon the amendment of Article 229 of the constitution, the entire con-
servation program of the state was found to depend. A joint resolution
therefore proposed an amendment to Article 229, which read as follows:
“Those engaged in business of severing natural resources as timber or
minerals from the soil or water, whether they thereafter convert them by
manufacturing or not, may also be rendered liable to a license tax, but in this
case the amount to be collected may either be graduated or fixed according
to the quantity or value of the product at the place where it is severed.”
Note in the above amendment that no attempt is made to levy a tax on
the manufacture of lumber, but on the cutting down of trees. This act pro-
tects practically all of the natural resources of the state; the timber, the
oil, the gas, and the mineral.
THE CASE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 417
This resolution passed the legislature subject to a referendum vote of the
people at the fall election of 1910. The people voted the amendment.
Meanwhile in June, 1910, the revenue bill, framed by Mr. Foster, was
passed by the legislature, but with the “tag,” contained in section 9:
“Be it further enacted, etc., That this Act shall not go into effect unless
and until the proposed amendment to the Constitution of this State, amend-
ing Article 229 thereof, has been adopted, which amendment is to be sub-
mitted to the people as provided by this Legislature.”
Upon the technicality involved, the great lumber companies of the state
have held up the revenue bill, claiming in the courts that a bill cannot be
effective which depends upon an amendment to the constitution at some future
time.
This revenue bill, which involves double taxation, a tax on standing
timber and a tax on the timber when cut has therefore remained inoperative
the past year pending settlement of the question in the courts.
The general forestry bill, therefore, stands as the achievement of the
legislative session of 1910. The bill as originally framed provided for the
appointment of permanent fire wardens, thus keeping those offices outside the
domain of politics. Owing to political feeling, the permanent appointment
was eliminated, thus changing the original intent of the bill. The text of
the bill follows:
AN ACT
To amend and re-enact Act No. 113 of the Session of 1904, approved July 4, 1904,
entitled “An act to establish a department of forestry; to provide for its proper
administration; to provide for the preservation of the forests of this state and
the suppression and prevention of forest fires; to provide for the reforesting of
denuded forest lands, and for the proper instruction relative to forestry in the
schools of this state; to provide penalties for the violation of this act and for
other purposes; to provide for the appointment of deputy forester by the governor;
to fix the assessed valuation, for a period of from ten to thirty years, of lands
which shall be planted in trees; to create a forest reserve fund and to provide
for the payment of all fines, forfeitures and penalties arising under the pro-
visions of this act into said fund.”
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, That
Act No. 113 of the session of 1904, approved July 4, 1904, be amended and re-enacted so
as to read as follows:
An act to establish a department of forestry, to provide for its proper adminis-
tration, to provide for the services of a state forester, to provide for the acceptance
of gifts of land by the state forests, and the administration thereof; to provide for
the preservation of the forests of the state and the prevention and suppression of
forest fires; to provide penalties for the violation of this act, and for other purposes.
Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That there be and is hereby established a
Department of Forestry, to consist of the register of the state land office, who shall
be ex-officio forester, and one deputy forester, who shall be a person educated in
sylviculture, and who shall be appointed and commissioned by the governor, on the
recommendation of the conservation commission, for the period of one year at a time;
provided, the ex-officio commissioner of forestry shall receive as compensation for the
performance of duties imposed on him by this act $500.00 per annum, payable out of
any funds of the state not otherwise provided for, on the warrant of the commissioner
of forestry, and an expense fund of $300.00 per year for traveling and incidental
expenses; the deputy forester and such assistants as may be provided, to be paid as
hereinafter provided for.
Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of the state forester,
provided for in section 1 of this act, under the general supervision of the conservation
commission, to have direction of all forest interests and all matters pertaining to
forestry within the jurisdiction of the state; take such action as is authorized by law
to prevent and extinguish forest fires, and enforce all laws pertaining to forest wood-
lands and prosecute for any violation of such laws. He shall carry on educational work
in the state in the interest of forest preservation by means of correspondence, publi-
eation and lectures, especially in the schools of the state. It shall be his duty to
co-operate with private timber owners in laying plans for the protection, management
418 AMERICAN FORESTRY
and replacement of forests and in aiding them to form protective associations. It shall
be his duty to examine all timbered lands belonging to the state, and report to the
conservation commission upon their timber condition and actual value, and also whether
some of those lands may not be held as state forest reserves. He shall be responsible
for the protection and management of lands donated to or purchased by the state, and of
all other lands reserved by the state as state forests. He shall make statistics of
forest conditions, or forest resources of the state, the extent for forest injuries, conduct
experiments in tree planting and note the effect of forest grazing and turpentining and
along other lines of forest work. He shall prepare an annual report of the progress
and conditions of the state work in forestry to the conservation commission and
therein recommend plans for improving the state system of forest protection, manage-
ment and replacement. Whenever it shall be reported to him that any person or
persons engaged in a timber business subject to license tax are operating without
license, he shall cause the same to be collected according to law.
Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., That the governor of the state is hereby
authorized to accept gifts of land to the state to be held, protected and administered
by the conservation commission as state forests, and to be used to demonstrate their
practical utility for reculture and as breeding places for game. Such gifts must be
absolute except for the reservation of all mineral rights, and in no case shall exceed
(10) ten per cent. of the area of any parish wherein such lands may be situated. The
attorney general is directed to see that all deeds to the state are properly executed
and that the titles thereto are free and clear of all encumbrances before the gift is
accepted. When any donation exceeding six hundred acres is made, the name of the
donor, or any name he may suggest, on the approval of the conservation commission,
shall be given such donation, as the designation of such reserve.
Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, etc., That any person that wilfully and negligently
sets on fire or causes to be set on fire any wood, brush or grass land not his own, or sets
on fire or causes to be set on fire any land belonging to himself and allows such fire
to escape to any wood, brush or grass land not his own; and any person that wilfully
suffers any fire set by himself to damage any property of another, is guilty of a mis-
demeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than $20.00 nor
more than $300.00, or by imprisonment of not less than ten days nor more than six
months, or both such fine and imprisonment. Every person that wilfully or maliciously
sets on fire any such wood, brush or grass lands or causes to be set on fire any such
wood, brush or grass lands, whereby the property of another is injured or destroyed,
shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not less than $25.00 nor more than
$1,000.00 or by imprisonment for a term of not less than three months nor more than
five years, or by both such fine and imprisonment. Any person who shall cause a
fire in any wood, brush or grass lands by carelessly, negligently or deliberately dropping
a burning match or emptying fire from a pipe, or dropping a lighted cigar or cigarette,
or discharging a combustible wad from firearms, or failing to extinguish a camp fire
upon leaving it, shall be deemed guilty of setting the forest on fire.
Sec. 6. Be it further enacted, etc., That nothing in this act shall be construed as
affecting the right of action for damages. The liability of persons or corporations
for all damages shall include the injury to young growth resulting from fires. The
damage to young growth shall be calculated as the expense of artificially planting and
cultivating such small growth to the point of development at the time when the fire
occurred.
Sec. 7. Be it further enacted, etc., That it shall be the duty of all railroad com-
panies operating any railroad through forest lands within this state to keep their
right of way cleared of all combustible materials and safely dispose of the same within
said limits of said right of way between the fifteenth day of November and fifteenth day
of April. No railroad company shall permit its employees to leave a deposit of fire or
live coals on its right of way other than between the rails, in the immediate vicinity of
woodland or lands liable to overrun by fires, and when engineers, conductors or trainmen
discover that fences or other materials along the right of way, or woodland adjacent
to the railroad, are burning or in danger from fire they shall report the same promptly
at the next telegraph station that they pass. In seasons of drought the railroad
companies shall give particular instructions to their section foremen for the prevention
and prompt extinguishment of fires originating on its right of way, and they shall
cause warning placards furnished by the forest commissioner to be posted at their
stations in the vicinity of the forest lands. Any railroad company wilfully violating
the requirement of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and be punished by
a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars for each offense, and railroad employees wilfully
violating the requirements of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall
be punished by a fine of not less than five dollars nor more than fifty dollars. But this
section shall not be construed to prohibit or prevent any railroad company from
LONG-
OF
STAND
YOUNG
EXCELLENT
LATE I.
P
AL-
WHICH COMPRISES
INE,
Pp
LEAF
OF
OF THE FORESTS
MOST ONE-HALF
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LOUISIANA FORESTS
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THE CASE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 421
piling or keeping upon the right of way cross ties or other material necessary in the
operation or maintenance of such railroads.
Sec. 8. Be it further enacted, etc., That in a prosecution for the wilful and
negligent setting fire to forests, when the evidence has been heard on the guilt or
innocence of the party or parties charged with the crime, it shall be within the
discretion of the court to take evidence as to the cost of fighting the fire which the
accused is charged with setting, and it shall be within the discretion of the court
to assess such costs as a part of the penalty of the person or persons charged, if he
shall be found guilty.
Sec. 9. Be it further enacted, etc., That there shall be appointed by the governor,
upon the recommendation of the conservation commission, a person practically and
theoretically educated in sylviculture, who shall be deputy state forester. His duties
shall be as herein prescribed for the state forester, and he shall be the chief assistant,
under the supervision of the state forester, in carrying out the forest policy of the
state. He shall receive a salary of $1,800.00 per annum, and, under the supervision of
the state forester, shall have an allowance not exceeding $600.00 per year for office
and traveling expenses, which shall be paid by the state forester from the conservation
fund, established by the law of this state.
Sec. 10. Be it further enacted, etc., That the state forest warden shall prepare
notices, printed in large letters upon cloth or strong paper, calling attention to the
destruction caused by fires and to the forest, fire laws and the penalties for their
violation. Such notices shall be distributed to all forest wardens, parish officials,
railroad and lumber companies, private citizens, officers, railroad stations, in public
squares, along public highways and in other places. Any person who shall maliciously
or wilfully destroy, deface, remove or disfigure any sign, poster or warning notice
posted under the provision of this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and punishable
upon conviction by a fine of not less than fifteen dollars nor more than one hundred
dollars, or by imprisonment for a period of not less than ten days nor more than
three months, or by both said fine and imprisonment.
Sec. 11. Be it further enacted, etc., That the consent of the state of Louisiana
be and is hereby given to the acquisition by the United States by purchase or gift of
such land in Louisiana, not exceeding one hundred thousand acres all told, as in the
opinion of the federal government may be needed for the establishment of a national
forest reserve in this region; provided, that the state shall retain a concurrent juris-
diction with the United States in and over such lands in so far that civil process in all
cases and such criminal process aS may issue under the authority of the state against
any persons charged with a commission of any crime without or within said juris-
diction, may be executed thereon in like manner as if this act had not been passed;
that power is hereby conferred on congress to pass such laws as it may deem necessary
to the acquisition as herein provided for incorporation in said national forest reserve
such forest covered or cut-over lands lying in Louisiana as in the opinion of the federal
government may be needed; that power is hereby conferred upon congress to pass
such laws and to make or provide for the making of such rules and regulations of
both civil and criminal nature and provide punishment for violation thereof, as in its
judgment may be necessary for the management, control and protection of such lands
as may from time to time be acquired by the United States under the provisions of
this act.
Sec. 12. Be it further enacted, etc., That all monies, minus the cost of prosecution,
received as penalties provided for the violations of this act, shall be paid into the
state treasury and placed to the credit of the conservation fund.
Sec. 13. Be it further enacted, etc., That in order to encourage the practice of
forest culture in this state, when the owner or owners of any land which has been
denuded of trees or any other land the assessed value of which shall not at the time of
application exceed the sum of five dollars per acre, shall contract in writing with the
commissioner of forestry to supervise planting and growing upon the said land suitable
and useful timber trees in such manner as they shall prescribe, to protect the said land
from fires, as far as practical and to maintain the trees so planted or grown upon it
in a live and thrifty condition for a period of not less than thirty years and not
more than forty years, and to cut or remove from said land within that time no tree
or trees except as permitted in the said contract; it shall be lawful for the state board
of equalizers, and the assessors of the several parishes, and they are hereby authorized
upon the recommendation of the commission of forestry, to fix a valuation of $1.00
per acre upon said lands and timber, and this valuation to remain fixed and unchangeable
for the period of the contract entered into by the land owner aforesaid with the com-
mission of forestry.
Any land owner who has made such a contract with the state shall be entitled to
demand an annual inspection by the Chief Forester and a certificate as to whether the
contract has been carried out. At the end of the contract entered into by the land
owner with the commission of forestry, or at any time within that period that the
29 AMERICAN FORESTRY
—
owner or owners of said land shall fail to maintain it in all respects according to the
written agreement entered into by the owner and upon which the said land was given a
fixed assessment for a fixed number of years, the said land shall be restored to the
assessment roll and shall be taxed the same as other similar lands, and in addition
thereto the said lands shall be supplemented on the assessment rolls for an amount
that would equal the assessment of the land had it not been assessed under the
provisions of this act. Nothing in this act shall be construed as giving the Forestry
Commission jurisdiction over lands of any resident farmer without written contract.
Sec. 14. Be it further enacted, etc, That it is hereby made unlawful for any
electric lighting or power company to attach any wires or other lighting appliances to
any tree along any street of any town or city in this state, and in towns and cities
where such wires and lighting appliances are already attached to trees, the person,
firm or corporation owning the same be and they are hereby required to remove the
same within ninety days after the approval of this act. Any person, firm or corporation
violating any of the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and
upon conviction shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than
one hundred dollars for each and every offense so committed.
Sec. 15. Be it further enacted, etc., That the State Conservation Commission shall
have the power to purchase lands in the name of the state suitable for forest culture
and reserves at a price which shall not exceed $1.00 per acre, using for such purpose
any surplus money not otherwise appropriated, which may be standing to the credit
of the conservation fund; to make rules and regulations governing state reserves.
Sec. 16. Be it further enacted, etc., That the state and parish boards of public
education are directed to provide for proper courses of instruction by text-books or lectures
on the general subject of forestry of this state; and they are further directed to
provide for the celebration by all public schools of Arbor Day, on which day, trees,
flowers, etc.,.are to be placed, where practicable, on the grounds surrounding all public
school houses.
Sec. 17. Be it further enacted, etc., That this Act shall take effect on the date of
its passage and all laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.
The bill above quoted, which was approved July 7, 1910, is what is known
as the general forestry bill. Another bill (No. 172) passed the same session
refers to the establishment of the conservation commission. This commission,
according to law, is to consist of eight members, three of whom are ex-officio,
namely the superintendent of experiment stations of Louisiana, the state
forester and the chief engineer of the state board of engineers. The other
five are appointed by the governor. To this commission is given the super-
vision of all minerals and forests and the direction of the expenditure of the
conservation fund. According to the law its duties shall be to promote and
conserve the natural resources of the state. It has an appropriation of $1,800
per year for expenses.
THE REVENUE BILL
The complete text of the revenue bill whicli was originally framed by Mr.
Foster of the Forest Service but which was greatly changed in form as it
went through the legislature is given herewith. The bill has remained
inoperative pending court litigation brought by the lumber interests. The
final section of the bill, it will be noted, has furnished them with an excuse
to hold it up on this technicality. The bill, which was approved July 6, 1910,
follows:
AN ACT
To create a conservation fund by levying, collecting and enforcing payment of an annual
license tax upon all persons, associations of persons, or business firms and
corporations pursuing the business of severing timber and minerals from the
soil; and prescribing the mode and method in which said persons subject to
license tax shall make report of their business.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Louisiana, That
there is hereby levied an anual license tax for the year 1911, and for each subsequent
year, upon each person, association of persons, or business firm or corporation pursuing
the business of severing from the soil timber and minerals subject to license under
Article 229 of the constitution.
THE CASE OF THE STATE OF LOUISIANA 423
Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That on the second day of January, 1911, and
each subsequent year, each tax collector throughout the state shall begin to collect
and shall collect as fast as possible from each of the persons and corporations pursuing
within his district or parish the business of severing from the soil timber and minerals,
a license tax as hereinafter fixed.
The said tax collectors shall receive for collecting said license tax the same com-
pensation as for collecting other license taxes.
All license taxes collectable under this act shall be due and collectable during the
first (2) two months of each year, and all unpaid licenses shall become delinquent
on the first day of March of each year, and all firms who commence business after
that date shall become delinquent unless the license is paid within two months and
ten days.
See. 3. Be it further enacted, etc., Tkat the annual license tax for severing timber
from the soil shall be fixed as follows on the gross annual cutting:
Par. 1. That for carrying on the business of cutting pine timber for saw logs,
or square timber, the license shall be three-fourths of one cent per one thousand feet
log scale.
Par. 2. That for carrying on the business of cutting hardwood timber, for saw
logs, the license shall be three-fourths of one cent per thousand feet of log scale.
Par. 4. That for carrying on the business of cutting timber for stave bolts, the
license shall be one cent per each hundred bolts.
Par. 5. That for carrying on the business of cutting timber for telephone and tele-
graph poles, and piling the license shall be three-tenths of one cent for each pole and
piling, and one cent for each pile.
Par. 6. That for carrying on the business of extracting turpentine from standing
trees the license shall be (14) one-half (4%) of one cent each year for each cup or box.
Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, etc., That every mining company engaged in this
state in the business of producing oil, natural gas, sulphur, or salt shall on the first
day of February of each year, render to the Secretary of State a report signed and
sworn to by the president and secretary, of its annual production in each parish, the
total financial receipts in the sale of the annual product, and annual total quantity
of the products at the mines or wells in such form as he may require. The tax collector
shall demand from each company applying for a license a certificate from the Secretary
of the State certifying to the total amount of the product mined in each parish during
the preceding year by such company as shown by the sworn statement on file in his
office, and the license shall be based upon such certificate.
Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, etc., That each and every company, person, persons,
association of persons, or corporation engaged shall pay a license on such business
based on the gross annual output as follows, to-wit:
Par. 1. That for the business of carrying on the mining and production of oil the
license shall be (74) two-fifth of one cent on each barrel produced.
Par. 2. That for carrying on the business of mining and producing natural gas,
the license shall be (%) one-fifth of one cent on each ten thousand cubic feet
produced.
Par. 3. That for carrying on the business of mining sulphur, the license shall be
(2) two cents for each ton mined.
Par. 4. That for carrying on the business of mining salt, the license shall be (%)
one-fifth of one cent on each ton mined.
Sec. 6. Be it further enacted, etc., That the annual cutting of timber or pro-
duction of minerals, referred to as a basis of license, are those for the year in which
the license is granted: the stand and for their estimation shall be prima facie of the
preceding year if the business has been conducted previously by the same party or
parties, or the party or parties of whom they claim to be successors. If the firm or
company be new, the amount of cutting or production for the first two months shall
be considered the basis, and six times that amount shall be estimated as the annual
cutting or production of such business: providing that any person or company com-
mencing business after the first of July shall pay one-half of the above rates.
Sec. 7. Be it further enacted, etc., That the time and manner of collecting licenses
under this act; the method of determining the amount of same, the form of the license
receipt; the manner of filing and recording affidavits by the tax collector and rendering
accounts to the auditor shall be the same as now provided or may hereafter be provided
for the collection of other taxes, except as different provisions are made in this act.
Sec. 8. Be it further enacted, etc., That all monies collected on licenses under
the terms of this Act shall be placed in the Treasury to the credit of the “Conservation
Fund,” which is hereby created.
Sec. 9. Be it further enacted, etc., That this Act shall not go into effect unless and
until the proposed amendment to the Constitution of this State, amending Article 229
thereof has been adopted, which amendment is to be submitted to the people as provided
by this Legislature.
EDITORIAL
OFFICIAL OBSTRUCTION
OME of the dangers of bureaucracy in government become evident at
Gy times in Washington, although not a general characteristic of our
system, in which the various bureaus and departments are, as a rule,
responsive to the public will. It becomes possible at times, however, for a
bureau to actually override the popular will, as expressed through congress,
and a double example of this has appeared in connection with the Appalachian
forest legislation.
It was the obvious intention of the House when it passed the Weeks bill
in 1910 to appropriate $11,000,000 for the purchase of land on the watersheds
of navigable rivers in the Southern Appalachian and White Mountains. Every
step in the debate shows this. The appropriation was distributed over a term
of years in order not to make too heavy a draft on any one year’s revenue;
yet the controller of the treasury, by a decision which takes no account of
evident legislative intention, cuts off practically between two and three million
dollars of this amount which it is impossible to expend before certain dates.
With regard to the one million for 1910 carried by the House bill which was
held up in the Senate until 1911, there is some justification for the controller’s
decision, although the grounds for it are technical, the intent of the bill being
plain. But the remaining annual appropriations should have been regarded
as continuous. Otherwise, the controller’s decision does the country an injury
and practically nullifies an act of Congress in this respect, for if the law is
beneficial, and Congress decided that by enacting the law, a decision impairing
its action impairs a national benefit. On the other hand, if the administration
of the law were not in conscientious hands, the decision might lead to hasty
and unwise expenditure in order to secure the full appropriation.
Such unlimited power to modify legislation cannot safely be lodged in any
one man. If Congress is looking for usurpation of the legislative function, it
need not cast its eyes upon the Supreme Court or the President. Here is a
subordinate treasury officer who exercises legislative functions.
When the Weeks bill was passed it introduced the Geological Survey as
a competent, scientific bureau to act in an advisory capacity in the purchase
of land under the act. The plain purpose of the bill was to purchase forest
land on the watersheds of navigable streams to the amount of eleven million
dollars in five years. It was perfectly well known that the White Mountains
of New Hampshire and the Southern Appalachians were the watersheds for
securing which the bill was drawn. It became known soon after the passage
of the act that the Geological Survey would be very slow and cautious in
carrying out its part under the law. The position of the Geological Survey
was made clear in a statement of its director given to the press and published
last month in this magazine. It is perfectly evident that the exhaustive
scientific inquiry therein indicated could not successfully be carried out
within the term set for the operation of the law. It cannot be said that the
Geological Survey is going beyond the powers conferred upon it by the bill
if it chooses to read only the letter of the law and overlook the intent, which
was to accomplish results along the proposed lines with sufficient promptness
424
EDITORIAL 425
to avert severe public losses. But thus far the Geological Survey has done
practically nothing to meet the plain obligation resting upon it even under its
own interpretation.
It is probable that when the law was passed it was supposed that the
Survey had at its disposal the necessary information regarding the physi-
ography of these two well-known regions, and that it had experts who could
determine by a simple survey with sufficient correctness for all practical pur-
poses the questions involved in so far as the Survey is called upon to determine
anything. It is certainly not for the Geological Survey to say what con-
stitutes a navigable river, or on what rivers the watersheds should be taken.
The sole question is, will the protection of the watershed indicated by the
Secretary of Agriculture affect the navigability of the stream, assuming it to
be navigable?
Yet it is possible for the controller of the treasury and the Geological
Survey to practically nullify an act of Congress simply by obstruction.
IS FORESTRY PRACTICAL?
L* AN address on practical forestry before the National Lumber Manu-
facturers’ Association, Dr. C. A. Schenck disclaimed knowledge of the
exact meaning of practical forestry, even after twenty years’ experience
as a professional forester. If so able an authority will pardon the criticism,
this seems to us to have been an unfortunate admission, although the turn
of the phrase doubtless pleased many of the lumbermen present and ingratiated
the speaker with a part of his audience.
From our point of view the expressions “practical forestry” and “theoretical
forestry” involve an essential fallacy. Forestry, rightly considered, is, in its
very nature, a practical or applied science and needs no qualifying adjective.
Tt is in the last analysis the application of scientific principles to the culti-
vation and management of trees and land. There cannot be any theoretical
or unpractical side to real forestry. Probably Dr. Schenck would be prompt
to assert this, as his mind is eminently practical. Nevertheless, his remark
in opening the address referred to, gave an opportunity for some of the
lumber trade journals which, notwithstanding a growing sympathy with
forestry, still like to find weak spots in the forester’s armor.
There may be unpractical carrying out of forestry teachings, but forestry
in its fundamental principles cannot be otherwise than practical; nor are its
misapplications either so numerous or so harmful as the wasteful practices of
a very large number of lumbermen, which are unpractical even from the
erude standpoint of dollars and cents returned. What does it mean when
the claim is continually made by individual lumbermen and by lumber journals
that their business is conducted at a loss, that the only money made in it
is by speculation in timberlands? If that is true, lumbermen as a whole are
a most unpractical class.
But is it true? Is it not a fact that those who are conducting their
business along systematic lines, who are following more or less the principles
of what is coming to be known as scientific business management, are making
profits, and that the reckless and wasteful operators are losing? From the
standpoint of profits, then, lumbering is no more practical than forestry. It
all depends on how it is carried on.
However, this tu quoque method of debate would be extremely unprofitable
if it did not lead to some conclusion tending to harmonize the difference.
The fact is simply that forestry and lumbering are entirely practical if
rightly handled. They have sought different ends, but these ends must be
426 AMERICAN FORESTRY
harmonized for the future good of society. Forestry must be practiced in
this country or there will soon be no lumber industry worth mentioning, and
the ablest lumbermen see this and acknowledge it. It is a repetition of a
well-worn illustration to say that the idea in the past of the lumberman has
been to turn the forest into money as the miner turns the product of the
mine; a plan which worked well in early days of sparse population and
great virgin forests. The idea of the forester is permanent cultivation, forest
farming, and this is every year more necessary as population leaps forward
and the original virgin forest supply diminishes. The lumberman must turn
to the forester for help. The lumbermen of the future will be foresters. The
difficulty now is that lumbering is still in the hands of men of the old idea,
men with fixed business habits, enterprising, seeking large and quick returns,
and willing to expend enormous energy to obtain them. They can be satisfied
with nothing less. But the great and quick profits of the old days of
lumbering accessible virgin forests are gone with the forests. To these men the
methods of forestry are unpractical. It is necessary for them to readjust
their view and to recognize forests as a resource in the perpetuation and
permanent productiveness of which the whole people have an interest that
must dominate any private interest.
Then again the markets are not adjusted yet to new conditions. We are
the most extravagant users of lumber in the world and we chafe at increased
prices. The consumer has a duty in this matter of adjustment that is quite
as serious as that of the forester and the lumberman. The general application
of forestry will not cheapen lumber products. It will steady the market, but
scientific production and intensive cultivation always cost something, and
those who look for a return to former low prices of forest products as a result
of forestry are doomed to disappointment. The saving must be made through
more careful and economical use. Our consumption per capita is the highest
of any nation of the world. The consumer must learn to pay the price for
good stock and make his saving by more care and restraint in use.
Practical? There is no theory about it at all. It is everyday economics
based on cold facts. If forestry ever occupied the realm of theory the advanced
practice of other nations has removed it therefrom.
NATION AND STATE—AND ASSOCIATION
N THE course of recent correspondence in which a writer expressed
dissent from the principles of the American Forestry Association, an
inquiry as to the reason for this dissent brought out the statement that
“the American Forestry Association stands for federal control, whereas we
all in this part of the country believe in state control of all natural resources.”
To the readers of this magazine it is not necessary to point out the error
involved in this statement. It arises from a misconception, both of the
attitude of the Association and of the issue involved in the control of natural
resources. On the first of these points proof is easy. The attitude of the
American Forestry Association has had official expression in resolutions
adopted each year at the annual meetings, and especially in the admirable
statement of the current year. To say that the American Forestry Association
stands for federal control is both true and untrue. The preamble to the
resolutions of 1911 states its position very clearly:
“Whereas the American Forestry Association stands distinctly for the
agencies, national, state, municipal and private which are working for con-
servation and perpetual renewal of our forests;” and the fifth paragraph of
EDITORIAL 427
the resolution says “that the states should encourage private forestry by
extending the facilities for popular information on forestry subjects, by estab-
lishing demonstration forests, and especially by improving the system of
protection from forest fires and by reforming the laws on forest taxation.
That they should inaugurate the policy of buying land and acquiring a per-
petual forest cover and of managing such land by the state as an owner with
all the rights of an owner. That they should enforce a reasonable degree of
regulation on lands where the direct influence of the forest on streams and ero-
sion is clearly proven. That they should put the interpretation of such regu-
lation in the hands of a qualified forester with the power and with sufficient
assistance to ensure full enforcement.”
This is certainly a clear and explicit statement of the right and the duty
of the state to act in the field of forest conservation. The Association assumes
no doctrinaire position on this question. Probably among its members vary-
ing views are held as to the extent to which federal control should be excer-
cised, but we believe its members in every state in the Union are at one in their
desire to find the best solution of all the problems relating to the perpetuation
of our forests.
The fact is that the line has been drawn altogether too sharply and
definitely between state and federal control in the popular mind by recent
discussions which have been carried on with some carlessness as to statement
and definition. The general issue is one older than the Constitution, and it
can never be settled simply for or against our federal system. Compromises
and adjustments, however distasteful to either side, always have had to be
made and always will be. It is undoubtedly true that modern means of com-
munication have united states and communities as never before, have brought
the states closer together and have nationalized many questions; but the
states still remain the units of our political system and in forestry matters
the American Forestry Association holds the function of the states to be of
the highest value, as the resolution above quoted shows. But it is also true
that the boundaries of forests and watersheds do not correspond with those of
states, and one state cannot do those things that would injure its neighbor.
Thus there is a legitimate field for national action for the common good, as
there was when the Louisiana territory was secured by the action of the
nation, which created from that territory the state from which our cor-
respondent writes, as a part of the United States.
Furthermore, the nation possesses a great unalienated domain which it has
been found necessary to protect from private exploitation in order that the
people of all the states may not suffer loss for the profit of a few. Only
selfishness can question such an exercise of national control; but to say that
the American Forestry Association stands, without qualification or explana-
tion, for federal control is one of those half-truths which is more injurious than
a complete misstatement.
STATE FOREST LEGISLATION
the field of forest legislation promises well for the early development
of a nation-wide forest system in which each state will do its part.
It indicates an awakened public interest that is not abstract and concerns
itself with the immediate home problem. On the Pacific coast, California,
Oregon and Washington have all been active during their last legislative
sessions. In the middle west Minnesota has adopted a model forest code,
published last month in AMmeEricaAN Forestry, and has organized a forest
© it intelligent activity of state legislatures during the last months in
428 AMERICAN FORESTRY
service on modern lines under an efficient forester. Wisconsin, which has
long stood in the front rank, is working on a series of forestry measures,
designed to further enlarge and strengthen the state forest service and to
increase the forest property of the state. In the south, Florida has a forest
law under consideration, and Louisiana, to which we give some space this
month, has adopted an interesting legislative policy, some phases of which
still have the gauntlet of the courts to run. In the east, the states that have
already shaped forest policies are protecting them at points where weakness
has been shown. New Hampshire, in particular, has formulated a very com-
plete forest law which seems to be a model for the conditions to which it
applies.
It is not surprising that in all this new legislation, protection from fire
is emphasized. The fires of the last year and the active agitation of various
associations and individuals, united with the self-interest of the timberland
owners, have inevitably forced to the front this most obvious phase of forestry—
a phase which has all the pressing urgency of general property protection.
It is equally interesting to note that another subject, confessedly of the
first importance, that of forest taxation, is conspicuous by its absence from
legislative action. It is a melancholy fact that in all the thousands of years
in which human society has been experimenting with various forms of taxation
for the support of government, no well-reasoned, scientific system has received
general sanction and been put into effect. We have to acknowledge that
all our systems of taxation are unscientific makeshifts. The taxation of
our forests suffers especially under these conditions, because the forestry
question has been so imperfectly understood, and the means of securing a
public income from private forest lands that will be at once just to the public
and to the private owner, has not presented itself clearly to our lawmakers.
It is very difficult to secure a frank and intelligent discussion of this subject.
Everybody is willing to talk about it and everyoue acknowledges the importance
of reaching some intelligent conclusion, but very few are willing to commit
themselves definitely to any policy. The whole subject of taxation seems to
have its terrors which increase with knowledge.
CURRENT LITERATURE
REVIEWS
Forest Life and Sport in India. By Saint-
hill Eardley-Wilmot, C.I.E., late In-
spector-General of Forests to the Gov-
ernment of India. Illustrated with
photographs by Mabel Eardley-Wilmot.
New York: Longmans, Green & Com-
pany; London: Edward Arnold. pp.
xi, 234. Price, $3.50 net.
The dedication of this interesting ming-
ling of description, personal experience, and
account of Indian forest conditions and the
organization of the Indian forest service,
is to “Theodore Roosevelt, forester and
naturalist, in admiration of his success in
the conservation of the natural resources
of his country,’ a fraternal tribute which
will give the book a place in the hearts of
many Americans. The author joined the
Indian forest service in 1873 as a subordi-
nate officer and continued in the service
until the end of 1909. rising through the
grades to the highest rank, becoming in-
spector-general in 1903, so that he writes
with the authority born of long and inti-
mate experience. The book is in part a
personal narrative, which under the cir-
cumstances is both entertaining and in-
structive. The forests of India in all of
their varying types are described with the
keenness of a man who knows them, not
from an occasional excursion or tiger hunt,
but from years of residence combined with
professional duties which compelled study
and knowledge. The organization, meth-
ods, and problems of the forest service are
also well set forth. The author’s long
service covered very largely the develop-
ment of forestry in India and this is
brought out in the narrative which opens
with his early experiences in the province
of Oudh, and closes with his work as in-
spector-general in improving the conditions
of the service which he had worked with
for over thirty years.
The concluding chapter contains a warn-
ing to England that she must help herself
in securing the direct benefit of the forest,
showing by a brief survey of conditions
in the world’s supply and markets that
neither from India, Canada, nor other
countries can an adequate supply of forest
products be expected. The author’s obser-
vation regarding the object of state for-
estry in India should be. applicable else-
where. It is, says Mr. Eardley-Wilmot,
“to supply the requirements of its popula-
tion in forest products, to protect the water
supply of the country, and to afford help
in its industrial development. As is the
case in European countries the forest man-
agement should, as it always has, result in
profit, but this profit should be subsidiary
to the main objects in view; it should be a
consequence of, and not a reason for, a
forest policy.”
This is a book simply written by a man
who has a story of significance to tell; a
book to be read by those who wish to know
what the world is doing in forestry; a book
that graphically describes a phase of Indian
life not presented in other books. It is
interesting to note the interest in forest
sport, the almost affectionate regard even
for the tiger developed in the man who has
been their neighbor for years and matched
his strength against theirs, and the
thought, more than once referred to, that
the disappearance of the big game would
take away one of the attractions of a
torester’s life in India, and make it harder
to recruit the service.
Shade Trees in Towns and Cities. Their
selection, planting, and care as ap-
plied to the art of street decoration;
their diseases and remedies; their
municipal control and supervision. By
William Solotaroff, B. S., Secretary and
Superintendent of the Shade Tree
Commission of East Orange, N. J.
New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1911.
pp. xviii, 287. Price, $3 net
In reviewing Dr. B. E. Fernow’s ex-
cellent hook on “The Care of Trees” in
June, 1910, the remark was made that it
filled a long-felt want. Mr. Solotaroff’s
volume now comes to meet the same need.
Dr. Fernow found this work called for as
an addendum to his long experience in for-
estry work; the New Jersey specialist
writes from his own intimate study and
experience with the care and manage-
ment of public shade trees. These two
books, together with a handsome pamphlet
by Colonel William T. Fox, the late super-
intendent of state forests of New York, and
a bulletin published several years ago
jointly by the Massachusetts Agricultural
Experiment Station and the Massachusetts
Forestry Association form, so far as we
know, the whole comprehensive literature
of the subject. There are, of course, num-
erous studies of certain phases of it, such
429
430
as tree surgery and insect pests. The
present volume is a welcome addition to
the brief list and should have a wide sale.
It is sane, careful, concise, and complete.
The opening chapter discusses trees in the
life of a city and is followed by chapters
on selection of trees for street use; species
for street planting; the planting of street
trees; the care of street trees; injuries to
shade trees and how to protect them; in-
jurious insects, fungous and other diseases;
insecticides, fungicides, and spraying; the
repair and replacing of trees; who shall
plant and care for street trees; a depart-
ment of municipal arboriculture; and leg-
islation.
Mr. Solotaroff joins Dr. Fernow in a pro-
test against the use of the term “city
forester,” preferring that of “tree warden.”
The present reviewer made the same pro-
test years ago against the use of this mis-
nomer. It is something more than a mere
cuestion of name. It gives a wrong idea
and should be avoided.
The illustrations in this book have been
earefully made and selected. They are
admirable and tell a great deal of the story
well. For the rest it may be said that
there seems to be nothing omitted that is
really essential, and nothing included that
is unnecessary. It is a good thing to be
able to say this in these days of many
books. If this manual, or Dr. Fernow’s,
or better both of them are thoroughly
studied by those who have in charge the
shade trees of our towns and cities, a great
improvement in conditions should be at-
tained in a few years. Not those in actual
charge of the trees only, but all of those
citizens who wish to know the standards
to be worked for and the conditions of
attaining them, can study such books with
profit.
MONTHLY LIST FOR JUNE, 1911
(Books and periodicals indexed in the Library
of the United States Forest Service)
Forestry as a Whole
Proceedings of associations
Society of American foresters. Proceed-
Ings; Volz 6; DO, dae) PL ip Wiese ase
1911.
Forest Education
Forest schools
A summer for-
Missoula, Mont.,
Montana, University of.
estry cruise. 7 p.
1911.
Exhibitions
India—Imperial forest research institute.
Catalogue of the economic museum of
the Imperial forest research institute
and forest college, Dehra Dun, brought
up to date on the 1st September, 1909.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
265 p. Calcutta, Supt.
printing, 1911.
government
Forest Description
Tkachenko, M. Die wialder Nord-Russ-
lands. 91, 13 p. pl. S—Peterburgh,
M. A. Aleksandrova, 1911.
Forest Botany
Trees, classication and description
House, H. D. Check-list of the woody
plants of western North Carolina. 13
p. Biltmore, N. C: (?), 1910:
Woods, classification and structure
Sudworth, George Bishop, and Mell, Clay-
ton D. Fustic wood; its substitutes
and adulterants. 14 p. il. Wash.,
D. C., 1911. (U. S—Dept. of agricul-
ture—Forest service. Circular 184.)
Plant physiology
Bailey, Irving W. Reversionary characters
of traumatic oak woods. 7 p. pl.
Chicago, University of Chicago press,
1910.
Silvics
Forest influences
Austria—Hydrographisches zentralbureau.
Jahrbuch, vy. 24-15; 1906-7: 1). Das
Donau-gebiete. diagrs., maps. Wien,
1908-10.
Lauda, Ernst. Die hochwasserkatastrophe
des jahres 1899 im Osterreichischen
Donaugebiete. 162 p. il, maps. Wien,
1900. (Austria — Hydrographisches
zentralbureau. Beitrage zur hydro-
graphie Osterreichs, heft 4.)
McGee, W. J. Soil erosion. 60 p. il., pl.
Wash., D. C., 1911. (U. S—Dept. of
agriculture—Bureau of soils. Bulletin
al))
Ecology
Engler, A. Untersuchungen tiber den blatt-
ausbruch und das sonstige verhalten
von schatten-und lichtpflanzen der
buche und einige anderer laubhodlzer.
82 p. pl. Zitirich, 1911. (Schweizer-
ische centralanstalt fiir das forstliche
versuchswesen. Mitteilungen, v. 10, pt.
2.)
Silvical characteristics of trees
Belgium—Conseil supérieur des _ foréts.
Rapport sur l’introduction des essences
exotiques en Belgique par Amédée
Visart et Chas. Bommer. 381 p. pl.
Bruxelles, C. Bulens, 1909.
Studies of species
Weigle, W. G., and Frothingham, Earl H.
The aspens; their growth and manage-
ment,)) (35.0 pii0, Wash.) Dai@h a wot dag).
S.—Dept. of agriculture—Forest serv-
ice. Bulletin 93.)
CURRENT LITERATURE
Silviculture
Planting
Canada—Dept. of the interior—Forestry
branch. Successful tree planters; let-
ters from all over prairie provinces
tell of benefits derived from planta-
tions’ 37 p. il, pl. Ottawa, 1910.
Guilfoyle, W. R. Australian plants suitable
for gardens, parks, timber reserves, etc.
478 p. il. Melbourne, Whitcombe and
Tombs I’t’d.
Forest Protection
Insects
Reiff, William. The “wilt disease’ or
“flacherie” of the gypsy moth. 60 p.
il., pl. Boston, Mass., State foresters’
office, 1911.
Rohwer, L. A. Studies in the sawfly genus
Hoplocampa. 10 p. pl. Wash., D. C.,
1911. (U. S—Dept. of agriculture—
Bureau of entomology. Technical
series no. 20, pt. 4.)
Forest Economics
Statistics
MacMillan, H. R. Forest products of Can-
ada, 1909; poles purchased. 7 p. Ot-
tawa, 1911. (Canada—Dept. of the in-
terior—Forestry branch. Bulletin 13.)
MacMillan, H. R. Forest products of Can-
ada, 1909; tight and slack cooperage,
boxes and box shooks. 12 p. Ottawa,
1911. (Canada—Dept. of the interior—
Forestry branch. Bulletin 19.)
Maxwell, Hu and Sackett, H. S. Wooden
and fiber boxes. 14 p. Wash., D. C.,
1911. (U. S—Dept. of agriculture—
Forest service. Circular 177.)
United States—Bureau of the census. For-
est products of the United States, 1909.
Miso: wWash:. 1s Cagis
Forest Administration
Norway—Skovidirektoren. Indberetning om
det Norske skogvaesen for 1909. 248 p.
Kristiania, 1911.
Switzerland—HidgenOssisches departement
des innern—Inspektion fiir forst-
wesen, jagd und fischerei. Etat der
schweizerischen forstbeamten mit wis-
senschaftlicher bildung. 21 p. Bern,
1911.
Switzerland—Hidgendssisches departement
des innern—Inspektion fiir forstwesen,
jagd und fischerei. Rapport sur sa
gestion en 1910. 17 p. tables. Bern,
aS aL
National and state forests
Burns, Findley. The Olympic national
forest; its resources and their manage-
ment. 20 p. pl. map. Wash., D. C.,
1911. (U. S—Dept. of agriculture—
Forest service. Bulletin 89.)
431
United States—Department of agriculture—
Forest service. The national forest
manual; special uses. 35 p. Wash.,
De Cra oLi.
Forest Utilization
Wood preservation
Kempfer, Wm. H. Preservative treatment
of poles. 55 p. il., pl., diagr. Wash.,
D. C., 1911. (U. S—Dept. of agricul-
ture—Forest service. Bulletin 84.)
Auxiliary Subjects
Conservation of natural resources
Tucker, Mrs. Fred H. Handbook of con-
servation. 91 p. Boston, Mass., state
federation of women’s clubs, 1911.
Irrigation
Western Canada irrigation association. Re-
port of proceedings, 4th annual con-
vention, 1910. 155 p. il. Ottawa, 1911.
(Canada—Dept. of the interior—For-
estry branch. Publication.)
Periodical Articles
General
American conservation, May, 1911.—Mexico
and her resources, by R. Escobar, p.
119-22; South America is conserving;
ruthless exploitation of her natural re-
sources no longer allowed, by J. Bar-
rett, p. 129-39; America must grow its
own timber, by R. Zon, p. 140-6.
Botanical gazette, May, 1911.—Notes on
ginkgo biloba, by W. W. Tupper, p.
374-7.
Bulletin of the Pan American union, May,
1911.—Balsam of Peru; a Central
American contribution to the pharma-
copeia, by Albert Hale, p. 880-91.
Canadian century, April 22, 1911.—Reci-
procity in lumber will not pay Canada,
by H. R. MacMillan, p. 18-19.
Farmer’s magazine, May, 1911.—The im-
portance of a forest reserve policy, by
H. R. MacMillan, p. 97-105.
Gardener’s chronicle, May 27, 1911.—The
electric current and trees, p. 324.
Grizzly bear, June, 1911—Santa Cruz grove
of big trees; Sequoia sempervirens, by
Martha J. Garvin, p. 6-7.
Leslie’s weekly, May 18, 1911.—Hunting
for a lumber trust; despite the cry of
alarmists, there is a steady increase
in our forest resources, by R. Fuller-
ton, p. 568, 567.
National geographic magazine, April,
1911.—Pests and parasites, by C. L.
Marlatt, p. 321-46.
National magazine, May, 1911.—Is the lum-
ber trust fact or fiction, by W. G.
Jenkins, p. 146-52.
Nature, April 6, 1911—Tree planting in
towns, by E. P. Stebbing, p. 165-8.
432
Outlook, April 22, 1911—Appreciation of
valiant trees, by M. Going, p. 875-81.
Overland monthly, March, 1911.—Shall we
use fires as an aid to forestry, by
H. W. Fairbanks, p. 304-12.
Plant world, May, 1911.—The seedling of
Quercus virginiana, by I. M. Lewis, p.
119-23.
Proceedings of American national live stock
association, Jan., 1911.—Rehabilitation
of some arid grazing ranges in Arizona,
by J. J. Thornber, p. 47-56; The grazing
side of the Forest service work, by
W. C. Barnes, p. 58-65.
Proceedings of Arizona cattle growers’ as-
sociation, 1910.—The relation of the
Forest service to the cattlemen, by
W. C. Barnes, p. 13-18; The restoration
of some arid grazing ranges in Arizona,
by J. J. Thornber, p. 19-28.
Scientific American, May 27, 1911.—The
seventeen-year locust or periodical ci-
cada, by L. O. Howard, p. 524-5; For-
ests and water supply, by R. L. Dunn,
p. 525.
World to-day, May 1911.—Forest trees
killed by insects, by C. A. Sidman, p.
616-7.
Trade journals and consular reports
American lumberman, May 13, 1911.—
Block paving; creosoted wood the pre-
ferred material in many cities for mak-
ing roadways, p. 44.
American lumberman, June 3, 1911.—Lay-
ing out a logging camp, by G. I.
Ritchie, p. 50.
American lumberman, June 10, 1911.—
Killer of killers of Douglas fir, by
R. D. Pinkerton, p. 32.
Canada lumberman, May 15, 1911.—Log
scaling in British Columbia, by A.
Haslam, p. 36.
Craftsman, May, 1911.—Beauty and char-
acter of our native hardwoods of the
east, by J. Burroughs, p. 175-8.
Engineering record, May 13, 1911.—Creo-
soted wood block pavement in Chicago,
p. 538.
Hardwood record, May 25, 1911.—Practical
forestry, by C. A. Schenck, p. 65-6.
Hub, May, 1911.—Growth and diseases of
timber, p. 41-2; What is lac, p. 45.
Journal of electricity, power and gas, June
3, 1911—The application of electric
power to logging, by E. G. Robinson,
p. 488-9.
Lumber review, June 1, 1911.—Wood blocks
for paving, p. 42.
Lumber trade journal, May 15, 1911.—Long
and short leaf pine and anti-steam pro-
cess; soda treatment does not affect
its strength or hardness, p. 15-17;
“Sugi” cypress a unique interior fin-
ish; a new process, p. 23.
Lumber trade journal, June 1, 1911.—Letter
to the National lumber manufacturers’
association, by H. S. Graves, p. 27.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Mississippi Valley lumberman, June 9,
1911.—The logged off land problem, by
G. S. Long, p. 38-9.
National coopers journal, June, 1911.—
Metal vs. wooden barrels, p. 11-13.
Paper trade journal, May 11, 1911.—Euca-
lyptus a paper making material, by
R. S. Hiltner, p. 52, 56, 42.
St. Louis lumberman, May 15, 1911.—Agri-
cultural possibilities of cut-over pine
lands, p. 56-9; Wood block paving, p.
63; Relation of our forests to wealth
and life, by D. C. Ellis, p. 64-5; Report
of the forestry committee of the Na-
tional hardwood lumber association, p.
“1,
St. Louis lumberman, June 1, 1911—A
knock and a boost for wood block
paving, p. 54.
Savannah naval stores review, May 17,
1911—How turpentine and rosins are
made in Dixieland, by Albert Pridger,
p. 1-9; Turpentine experiments out in
Arizona, by H. S. Betts, p. 15; The
naval stores industry in France, p.
22-28; How turpentine is worked in
Uncle Sam’s forests, by I. F. Eldredge,
p. 29; Turpentining in the land of
Astecs, by C. W. Saussy, p. 30-33; Wood
turpentine; its failures and its suc-
cesses, by H. A. Grant, p. 34.
Southern industrial and lumber review,
May, 1911—The Yale foresters at
Trinity, Texas, p. 32-33, 70; Wood block
pavements in St. Louis, p. 44-5.
Southern lumberman, May 20, 1911.—Con-
servation and the turpentine operator,
p. 32.
Timber trade journal, June 3, 191i1.—The
timbers of Natal, p. 757.
Timberman, May, 1911.—Important posi-
tion of dry kiln in the lumber trade,
by M. C. Cantrell, p. 52-3.
United States daily consular report, May
16, 1911.—Timber regulations in Brit-
ish Columbia, by A. E. Smith, p. 713;
German hardwood trade methods, by
R. P. Skinner, p. 714-15.
United States daily consular report, May
23, 1911.—Lumber outlook in New
Brunswick, by C. Carrigan, p. 830.
United States daily consular report, May
24, 1911.—Machine for felling trees, by
A. M. Thackara, p. 842-4.
United States daily consular report, June
5, 1911.—Ontario’s woods and forests,
by F. S. S. Johnson, p. 17; Reforesta-
tion in German China, by J. C. Mc-
Nally, p. 1019.
United States daily consular report, June
10, 1911.—Trade and industries of Que-
bec province, by G. Willrich, p. 1089-92.
West coast lumberman, May, 1911.—Sky
line logging system, p. 557-8.
Wood craft, June, 1911.—Bookcases; their
design and construction, by J. Boving-
don, p. 73-7; Shellac; its origin, prep-
aration and uses, by A. A. Kelly, p.
78-80.
CURRENT LITERATURE
Wood-worker, May, 1911.—Manufacturing
broom and other handles, by H. B.
Alexander, p. 34-5.
Forest journals
Allegemeine forst-und jagd-zeitung, April,
1911.—Der Wagnersche plentersaum-
schlagbetrieb in den griflich Piickler-
Limpurgschen waldungen bei Gaildorf,
by C. Miller, p. 113-18; Der kapitalwert
der wutrttembergischen staatsforsten,
by Schickhardt, p. 118-26.
Allegemeine forst-und jadg-zeitung, May,
1911.—Wertsberechnung der im bereich
des Truppentibungsplatzes des 14. ar-
meekorps gelegenen waldungen auf der
Schwablischen Alb, by K6nig, p. 149-
54; Anbau fremdlandischer holzarten,
by Walther, p. 154-67.
American forestry, June, 1911.—A national
capital forest, by W. M. Ellicott, p. 317-
25; A report on the Washington forest,
by F. W. Besley, p. 325-6; Handling the
fire peril, by E. T. Allen, p. 329-32;
Insects injurious to forest trees, p.
335-43; Bamboo pulp as the paper ma-
terial of the future, by H. Vincent, p.
343-7.
Bulletin de la Société centrale forestiére
de Belgique, April, 1911.—Incendies de
foréts; causes, dégats, remédes, p. 229-
40; L’ameublissement du sol dans les
futaies de hétre, by Huberty, p. 241-
51; Commerce d’importation et d’ex-
portation des bois en 1909, p. 252-60;
La rusticité du Douglas, by D. Cannon
and others, p. 260-70.
Bulletin de la Société centrale forestiére
de Belgique, May, 1911.—Les taillis
sous futaie de la Flandre occidentale,
by A. Glorie, p. 324-9.
Canadian forestry journal, March-April,
1911.—The forest ranger, by S. J. Rec-
ord, p. 30-4; The Riding Mt. forest re-
serve, by George King, p. 35-6, 56; A
long fight ended; forest reserves in
Appalachian and White Mts. now as-
sured, p. 41-3; One means of fire de-
tection; one of Maine’s lookout sta-
tions, p. 44; La pépiniére de Berthier-
ville, P. Q., by A. Bédard, p. 45-6. The
great Miramichi fire, p. 49-51; Making
maple sugar, p. 52-3.
Centralblatt fiir das gesamte forstwesen,
April, 1911.—Die ausdehnung der ver-
jiingsflache, by L. A. Hauch, p. 147-61;
Beitrag zur kenntnis der dynamischen
vorgange beim abriesen des holzes im
holzriesen, by F. Angerholzer von Alm-
burg, p. 161-79.
Forstwissenschaftliches centralblatt, May,
1911.—Heinrich Mayr, by L. Fabricius,
p. 241-7; Neues und altes vom zuwachs-
bohrer, by Heck, p. 247-68; Zur frage;
“Die forstlichen verhialtnisse Badens,”
p. 268-73; Die volkswirtschaftliche be-
deutung der forstkultur fiir England,
by H. Walter, p. 280-5.
433
Indian forester, Mar.-April, 1911.—The in-
fluence of forests on rainfall and floods,
p. 119-30; The forestry court of the
U. P. exhibition held at Allahabad,
1910-1911, p. 131-60; Tanning extracts,
p. 160-71; Paper-pulp testing at the
forestry court cellulose laboratory, Al-
lahabad exhibition, by W. Raitt, p. 171-
8; Mechanical road transport of timber,
p. 180-3; Notes on some F. M. S. tim-
bers, by H. N. Ridley, p. 223-7; Timber
resources of the world, p. 228-34.
Revue des eaux et foréts, April 15, 1911.—
Le blanc du chéne, by M. Mangin, p.
225-39.
Revue des eaux et foréts, May 1, 1911.—
Estimations et exploitabilités forest-
iéres, by P. Bizot de Fonteny, p. 257-
67; L’Oidium du chéne, p. 270-2.
Schweizerische zeitschrift fiir forstwesen,
April, 1911—Die drahtseilriesen im
forstkreis Misox (Graubiinden), by
E. Schmid, p. 105-13; Hichhérnchen-
schaden, by F. Fankhauser, p. 116-22.
Zeitschrift fiir forst- und jagdwesen, April,
1911.—Die Kiefernzangenbohrer-pflan-
zung, by Kranold, p. 358-67; Der schiit-
tepilz der kiefer, by Haack, p. 329-57.
Zeitschrift fiir forst- und jagdwesen, May,
1911.—Zum kampf gegen die nonne, by
Laspeyres, p. 424-30; Zur nonnenbe-
kampfung in Sachsen, by Bluhm, p.
430-3; Zum nonnenkrieg in Sachsen,
by Schall-Riaucour, p. 433-5.
Some Reports and Bulletins
The Biennial Report of the State Geolo-
gist of North Carolina, Dr. Joseph Hyde
Pratt, is to a considerable extent a forestry
report, dealing at length with the condi-
tions in the state and work that is being
done. On this point the report says that
the protection and the perpetuation of the
forests of North Carolina has become one
of the more important problems and stud-
ies of the North Carolina Geological and
Economic Survey. It is estimated that
approximately eleven million acres of land
in the state are now supporting some kind
of forest growth and one-half of this area
is probably absolutely forest land. Prob-
lems relating to forestry are vital to the
industrial life of the state, which should
put forth every effort to make the forests
as nearly perpetual as possible and encour-
age and stimulate their conservation by
their owners. The forestry work of the
Department has consisted of: (1) An in-
vestigation of the forest conditions of
North Carolina; (2) a study of forest fires
in North Carolina; (3) a statistical study
of the wood-using industries of North Caro-
lina; (4) the examination of timber areas
in regard to practicing scientific forestry;
(5) examination of watersheds belonging
to municipalities in regard to their protec-
tion from fire and contamination; (6) in-
vestigation regarding the re-forestation of
434
abandoned farm lands and cut-over lands.
This work was conducted by W. W. Ashe
until May, 1909, since which time J. S.
Holmes, formerly of the United States For-
est Service, has been the forester of the
state.
The latest issues in the series of studies
of wood using industries in the several
states cover Kentucky and Oregon. The
former is by Roger E. Simmons, statisti-
cian of the Forest Service, and is published
under the direction of M. C. Rankin, chair-
man of the state board of agriculture, for-
estry, and immigration, and commissioner
of agriculture, labor, and statistics of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky, and H. S&S.
Sackett, chief of the office of wood utiliza-
tion of the United States Forest Service.
The latter is by Howard B. Oakleay of the
Forest Service, published under the direc-
tion of A. B. Wastell, secretary of the Ore-
gon Conservation Association, and J. B.
Knapp of the Forest Service. They are
done on the lines of similar studies of
other states that have been already noticed
in these pages. Both states are of great
interest in this connection.
Museum Bulletin 147 of the New York
State Museum, issued as Education De-
partment Bulletin No. 490, is the twenty-
sixth report of the state entomologist on
injurious and other insects of the state of
New York and is of interest to tree grow-
ers as well as horticulturists. There are
a few pages on forest tree insects, includ-
ing the large black carpenter ant, Abbott’s
pine sawfly, the spotted cornus sawfly, the
blue cornus sawfly, the spotted pine weevil,
the snow-white linden moth, the birth leaf
skeletonizer, beech tree blight, and silver
fir aphid.
The annual report of the State Board of
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Forestry of Indiana is a survey the experi-
1aental and educational work which is go-
ing on in the state. Indiana is having the
experience of all of our states and there
is proceeding there a slow and patient de-
velopment of public sentiment. The bien-
nial reports of the state foresters of Cali-
fornia and Wisconsin, two states where for-
estry has already arrived, have also ap-
peared and contain much matter of inter-
est to the student of state forestry, which
should mean every American citizen. An-
other annual report is that of the commis-
sioner of forestry of Rhode Island, and this
is largely a practical essay on the man-
agement of woodlands by the commissioner,
Jesse B. Mowry.
The Forest Club Annual of the Univer-
sity of Nebraska for 1911 is an interesting
pamphlet of 119 pages containing num-
erous articles, many of them illustrated, of
more than local interest.
The Biennial Report of the Board of
Commissioners of Agriculture and Forestry
of Hawaii, for the period ending December
31, 1910, has been received. This report
contains 80 pages devoted to the division
of forestry and embraces the whole field
of forestry, as the territorial forest service,
under Mr. Hosmer, is active in all direc-
tions. Our continental foresters will envy
a department which is able to say that the
territory has not had any forest fires of
sufficient importance to justify more than
passing mention.
The annual Report of the Director of
Forestry of the Philippine Islands for the
year ending June 30, 1910, is a compact
summary of the work of the department,
the peculiar problems of which have been
discussed in recent articles in AMERICAN
FORESTRY.
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
Grazing and Fires in National Forests.
In reply to a letter signed Helena, Mon-
tana, published in the New York Evening
Post of the 25th of May, and full of the usual
inaccuracies and threadbare misstatements
made so familiar to us through the oratory
of Senator Heyburn, Mr. Graves, the For-
ester, made the following reply, which was
published Monday, the 12th of June, 1911.
To the Editor of the Evening Post:
Sir: A letter under the heading “The
Cause of Forest Fires,’ has just come to
my attention. Since it was written by a
man who speaks as one familiar with west-
ern conditions and without bias of personal
interest, I fear that readers who are not
informed concerning national forest mat-
ters may be led to form wrong conclusions.
The natural inference from the letter would
pe that under the present system of na-
tional forest administration the annual
growth of grass is not utilized, but is al-
lowed to accumulate year after year until
its presence, dry and inflammable, becomes
the real cause of forest fires.
The letter asks ‘“‘Why did not these ter-
rible fires occur before the government’s
preservation system was introduced?” As
a matter of fact, they did. The forests
themselves furnish conclusive proof, in
enormous old burns, that fires quite as
terrible as any of recent years were com-
mon before the national forests were cre-
ated. The answer of your correspondent
to his own question is, “Because the grass
was mostly eaten and not stored up year
after year to be used as kindling by some
stray spark or burning match,’ and he
speaks of the “persistence” of the govern-
ment “in storing inconceivably large quan-
tities of dry grass in close proximity to
+imber.” But under national forest ad-
ministration the annual forage crop is not
stored. Last year permits were issued for
the grazing of nearly one and one-half mil-
lion cattle and horses and over seven and
one-half million sheep on the national
forests.
The Forest Service not only allows graz-
ing, up to the limit set by the necessity
of protecting the range itself, the young
forest growth, and the flow of streams
against the evils of overgrazing; it also
seeks to develop the use by stockmen of
range which is now unused because of
‘naccessibility. It recognizes the value of
regulated grazing as a means of fire pro-
tection. Instead of closing the forests
against stock, as your correspondent’s let-
ter would lead one to believe, the Forest
Service has steadily and _ energetically
sought to discover methods by which the
amount of forage annually produced may
be increased, making possible a correspond-
ing increase in the number of stock on
the forests. On understocked ranges every
effort has been made to increase the num-
ber of stock. To open up new ranges roads
and trails have been built and favorable
freight rates have been sought from rail-
roads. Studies have been made and ex-
periments conducted to learn how the
waste of forage due to trampling may be
reduced. Reseeding investigations have
been made. In short, every effort has been
put forth to bring about the fullest use
of the range resource consistent with the
preservation of this and the forest and
water resources.
Opposition to regulated grazing is due
as a rule not to restrictions upon the
amount of stock allowed, but to the fact
that those who use the national forest
ranges are not allowed free use, but must
pay a moderate charge for the privilege:
and to the further fact that as demand for
use of the range increases the number of
stock which any one man may graze is
cut down. The grazing charge is fixed at
i rate decidedly below the value of the
privilege. As new men enter the business,
room is made for them. This is done in
crder to encourage the settlement and de-
yelopment of the country. Those whose
allotments are reduced are, naturally, loath
to give way to the newcomers.
HENRY S. GRAVES,
Washington, D. C., June 9. Forester.
“Care With Fire” Rules
According to a press report of the 5th
of June, the California fire season has al-
ready begun. Two fires, due to incendi-
arism, in Siskiyou County and in Tulare
County have been reported. The protection
force, which has been greatly increased,
has controlled them both and found the
person who was responsible for the fire in
each case. Incendiarism is usually due to
inflammatory oratory in Washington, but
for the simple camper or traveller without
wicked intent, the District Forester at
435
436
San Francisco has drawn up a set of simple
rules. If travellers in the mountains would
but observe these rules, the fire record
would be less than half as bad as last year,
For sixty-three of the worse forest fires
last year were started by hunters and
campers. The “Care with Fire’ Rules are
as follows:
i. Be sure your match is out before you
throw it away.
2. Knock out your pipe ashes or throw
your cigar or cigarette stump where there
is nothing to catch fire.
3. Don’t build a camp fire any larger
than is absolutely necessary. Never leave
it, even for a short time, without putting
it out with water or dirt.
4. Don’t build a camp fire against a tree
or a log. Build a small one where you can
scrape away the needles, leaves or grass
from ail sides of it.
5. Don’t build bonfires. The wind may
come up at any time and start a fire you
cannot control.
6. If you discover a fire, get word of it
to the nearest U. S. Forest Ranger or
State Fire Warden just as quickly as you
possibly can.
The Wallowa Forest Divided.
For purposes of administration, Presi-
dent Taft has signed a proclamation effec-
tive July ist, establishing the Minan Na-
tional Forest, Oregon, which has been a
part of the Wallowa Forest. The division
was made to permit a more efficient fire
patrol.
Troops Cannot Be Assigned For Fire
Protection.
A resolution has recently passed the
California Legislature requesting of Secre-
tary of War Stimson detachments from
the regular army, to be stationed in Cali-
fornia Forest Reserves during the three
fire months, July, August and September,
for prevention in fighting forest fires. Sec-
retary Stimson has refused the request,
saying that other states would probably
ask of him the same privilege, and stating
that too many troops would thus be re-
quired. The troops may, however, be called
out in case of emergency.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
The Florida National Forests.
Plans are being laid in the office of
Supervisor Eldridge, at Pensacola, Fla., for
the improvement of the two national for-
ests in Florida, the Choctawhatchee and
the Ocala. These improvements, which
will be begun when the apportionment of
the fund for District 3 has been made,
consist of the building of several ranger
stations, barns, wharfs and some sixty-
seven miles of telephone lines, which will
be constructed through the Choctawhatchee
Forest this summer.
Appropriation Allotment for District 4.
The officers in charge of District 4, of
the United States Forest Service, with
headquarters at Ogden, Utah, have received
news from the Washington office that dur-
ing the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1911,
they have an increase of $70,720 over the
allotment of any previous year. The
amount for the district for the coming year
1s $907,210. Of this the following sums
are available for the purposes named:
For supply depot and office of
property auditors tease see $168,320.00
- For general administration of
Districk:4ink. see eee 738,890.00
(Of this) For the District office 73,590.00
For the administration and pro-
tection of thirty national for-
eSts’ is District 4. c0e ee are 665,300.00
(Of this) For permanent im-
PrOVEMeENUS! ic yee es eee 75,000.00
Mor Torest, nuTseriesen. eerie 34,000.00
For extraordinary emergencies
in fighting, fire. . cs ase 10,000.00
Hon Wire patrolo. sere eee 13,297.00
With the liberal provisions made for the
protection of the forests, an additional ap-
propriation for the Agricultural Depart-
ment during the coming fiscal year, a
special emergency fund of $1,000,000 is to
be available for fire protection. No allot-
ment of this amount is made to each dis-
trict, but it will be used as conditions de-
mand and circumstances warrant. The of-
ficers in charge feel confident that with
such forehanded provision the fire disasters
of last year will not be repeated.
STATE WORK
Florida.
A bill introduced by Senator Williams,
in the Florida legislature, which is in-
tended to promote conservation of the
forests of Florida along the line of the
national laws, provides for the establish-
ment of a state forest commission and
the conservation of forest resources of the
state.
The bill provides for the commission con-
sisting of the governor, the commissioner
of agriculture, the director of the state
experiment station, the attorney general
and the state geologist, which commission
shall act without compensation, but shall
be reimbursed for actual necessary ex-
penses. It provides also that a state for-
ester shall be appointed by the forest com-
mission who shall be designated fish, game
and forest commissioner, and who must
be technically trained. He shall have the di-
rection of all matters pertaining to forestry ;
have charge of all forest wardens; enforce
all laws pertaining to forests and woodland
and prosecute for any violation thereof;
eollect data relative to forest destruction
and forest conditions; deliver annually a
course of lectures at the University of
the State of Florida upon forestry and
silviculture; carry on an educational course
of lectures on forestry at the farmers’ in-
stitute, act as secretary to the forest com-
mission and prepare an annual report with
plans for improving the state system of
forest protection, management and replace-
ment.
The state forest commission shall, by this
bill, have the power to purchase, in the
tame of the state, lands suitable for state
reserves at a price which shall not exceed
one dollar per acre for cut over land and
two dollars per acre for any other land.
The governor of the state is authorized
to accept gifts of land and the attorney
general is directed to inspect the deeds.
If, for any cause, lands revert to the
state, the title of these lands shall be per-
manently vested in the state after a period
of two years and shall become, if suitable,
a forest reserve.
Strict penalties are in force against every
individual or corporation which carelessly,
negligently, wilfully, or maliciously sets
fires.
Logging and railroad locomotives, donkey
or threshing engines, operating in, through,
or near a forest, which do not burn oil,
shall be provided with appliances to pre-
vent the escape of fire and sparks.
Upon examination by the commissioner
and recommendation of the state commis-
sion, state lands suitable for forest growth
can be maintained permanently as such.
Pine trees under ten inches in diameter
cannot be boxed one foot above the ground.
Railroad ties must be cut from trees which
are fourteen inches in diameter or more.
Cedars cannot be cut less than eight inches
in diameter, six inches above the ground.
The forest commission is authorized to
regulate the sizes of green timber in the
different portions of the state.
The “forest fund’ shall be created by a
ten-cent stamp which must be affixed to
all naval stores.
Manufacturers of lumber must once a
month make a sworn statement to the col-
lector of revenues of every thousand feet
manufactured and pay to the collector three
cents for every thousand feet, the money
to be added to the “forest fund’ named
above.
An appropriation of four thousand dol-
lars annually for each of the fiscal years
1911 and 1912 is made for carrying out
the provisions of this act.
Massachusetts
Governor Foss has recently (June 10,
1911) proposed an amendment to the state
constitution in regard to taxation, one
portion of which is of interest to the read-
ers of AMERICAN Forestry. This amend-
ment gives to the general court full power
“to prescribe for wild or forest lands such
methods of taxation as will develop and
conserve the forest resources of the com-
monwealth.” At a hearing on this propo-
sition, Henry James, Jr., spoke for the
Massachusetts Forestry Association, and
urged the adoption of the amendment
which, he said, would give relief to the
owners of forest lands during the long
growth of new timber when the burden of
the present tax is too great for the small
owner to bear. Mr. James quoted from
the report of the state forester that there
are three million acres of waste land in
Massachusetts which ought to be covered
with forests. Following the plan of Europe
these forests should yield a revenue of up-
wards of $2.50 an acre, thus a revenue of
$7,500,000 upward would accrue to the state
and, Mr. James went on to point out, re-
437
438
forestation on such a scale would mean an
increase in the water powers of the state
of from 100,000 to 300,000 horsepower, an-
other element of profit. Growing timber
should be taxed no more than growing
corn. The tax should be on the tree when
eut, was the substance of the contention.
Mr. D. Blakely Hoar, speaking for the
Chamber of Commerce, buttressed Mr.
James’s argument.
New Hampshire.
Early in June the forestry commission
of the state met to receive the report of
the state forester on the forest fire pro-
tection work, started this spring, and to
consider plans of future action. The state
forester reported that from the 19th of
April to the 9th of June, 1911, twelve thou-
sand acres in New Hampshire were burned
over. This all happened in the southern
part of the state, where celebration of the
Massachusetts. holiday, the 19th of April,
started the conflagration. Ever since that
date fire patrol has been maintained and
on Sundays the force has been doubled.
Each patrolman has put out incipient fires
and warned a great number of people, and
yet he seems unable to cope with the law-
less spirit of the holiday season.
A tract of land of 210 acres in the town
of Warner has been given to the state
of New Hampshire for a state forest as
a memorial to Walter Harriman, governor
of the state from 1867 to 1869. The donor
is Joseph R. Leeson of Newton, Massachu-
setts, a son-in-law of Governor Harriman.
The land lies on the south slope of Stewart
Mink Hill, near the birthplace of Governor
Harriman. Stewart Mink, the scuthern
extension of the Mink Hills, is over 1800
feet high, and commands a view of the
entire country from the White Mountains
on the north to Monadnock on the south.
The reservation will be under the care
of the forestry commission and will be
used as a demonstration forest. It con-
tains a small area of old growth spruce
near the top of the hill and lower down
a mixture of spruce, maple, beech and
birch, which gradually emerges into a
thrifty stand of pure hardwoods containing
a large percentage of red oak. The open
land is seeding rapidly to spruce and pine.
It is proposed to carry on experimental
cuttings to improve the present stands of
timber and to plant a variety of species
on the open land.
In giving this land to the state, Mr.
Leeson expressed the hope that it may lead
to the acquisition of other tracts, on which
the principles of forestry may be demon-
strated.
It is much to be desired that the an-
nounced name—Walter Harriman Reserva-
tion—should substitute the term State
Forest for Reservation. The latter term is
AMERICAN FORESTRY
a misnomer and is always obnoxious, as
was determined in the case of the national
forests. State forest, on the other hand,
conveys the dignified idea, not of some-
thing set apart, but of a useful public
domain.
A New York Appointment.
William Gibbs Howard, a graduate of the
Harvard Forest School of 1908, has been
appointed assistant superintendent of for-
ests of the state of New York. In addition
to forestry work in New England, Mr.
Howard has had practical experience in the
work of the United States Forest Service
in the west. He has also a working fa-
mniliarity with the New York forestry prob-
lems gained by nearly two years’ work
as forester in the Adirondack forest re-
serve. He has been stationed at Albany
for two years.
Washington.
A new forest fire law became effective
in the state of Washington early in June,
a law so drastic in its provisions that com-
plaint has been made that some of the
logging companies may be driven out of
business. The new law ranks among the
three or four best in the United States
except in the matter of appropriation.
For the most part the law represents the
conclusions of the commission appointed
by Governor Hay. One of the principal
changes made in the law was a reduction
of the appropriation asked for. The state
has now only $76,000 available for the
next two years, although undoubtedly more
will be forthcoming if this amount is
wisely spent. The following are some of
the provisions of the law: The operation of
donkey engines is prohibited; logging loco-
motives must be watched by track patrol;
mill waste cannot be burned unless con-
fined; when rights of way are cut for
railroads or wagon roads, all the debris
must be burned; snags and dead trees shall
be cut and disposed of before a slashing
fire is Set.
These are some of the provisions of the
new law which it is said will drive the
lumbermen out of business, but the state
of Washington had a bad scare last sum-
mer when the extensive forests of the
western part of the state were threatened.
And the legislature, at the instigation of
the governor, has come to the belief that
torest fires and not preventive measures
will drive the lumbermen out of business.
Wisconsin.
Wisconsin has become the synonym for
progressive legislation and the three new
bills on the subject of conservation which
represent the labors of the special joint
committee seem to warrant this reputation.
The legislature has recently voted:
EDUCATION
1. An appropriation of $250,000 a year
for ten years for the purchase of interven-
ing forest land in order to bring the pres-
ent reserve of 385,000 acres up to 2,000,000
acres.
2. A county fire warden system for the
northernmost twenty counties of the state,
to be paid for out of a fund of about
$250,000 to be raised by special tax of two
cents per acre on all lands to be benefited
by the system.
3. A public domain commission to take
the place of the present state board of
forestry and the fish and game warden
department; the state forester as super-
intendent of the public domain commission
to have charge of the bureau of forestry
and the bureau of fish and game; the com-
mission to be constituted as is the present
forestry board, namely, the president of
439
the state university, director of the state
geological survey, dean of the agricultural
college of the state university, the attorney
general and one member at large, named
by the governor to serve without pay.
The original recommendation of the for-
estry committee was that of a 2-10 mill
tax to be levied on all property in
Wisconsin in order to provide a fund of
$600,000 to take care of both the purchase
of additional forest reserve land and of
the proposed county fire warden system.
As arranged in the new bills the forest re-
serve appropriation is directly from the
general fund, but within a few years the
lands of the state forest reserve (it is
estimated) will be bringing into the treas-
ury of Wisconsin at least two million dol-
lars from the wood-using industries of
Wisconsin.
EDUCATION
Colorado College
The Colorado School of Forestry of Colo-
rado College has had a successful year,
with an enrollment of thirty-six students
in its undergraduate course. A two-year
course, leading to Degree of Master of
Forestry, open to persons who have already
received a Degree, is advertised in the re-
cent Announcement.
The Ranger course which was given last
year in codperation with the Forest Service,
until the decision of the attorney general
made its discontinuance necessary, will
probably be given in the fall by the faculty
of the School alone.
The School has been in charge of Prof.
P. T. Coolidge, as Director. Mr. E. I. Terry,
a graduate of the Harvard School of For-
estry, who has had several years’ experi-
ence in the Forest Service on the national
forests, was appointed as an Instructor in
Forestry in January.
In accordance with a working plan pre-
pared by the Senior class last spring, con-
servative lumbering has been in active pro-
gress during the last year at Manitou
Park, the 10,000-acre tract of yellow pine
owned by the School. The results of these
uperations are the removal of considerable
over-mature timber and the creation of
available funds for the expense of instruc-
tion in the School.
New Hampshire State College.
J. H. Foster, Assistant Chief of State Co-
operation, United States Forest Service,
leaves the Service September 1 to take
charge of the new department of forestry
in New Hampshire State College, provided
for by the new forest legislation of this
year. Mr. Foster has had a wide experience
and is well known through the published
results of his studies of forest taxation in
New Hampshire and Louisiana.
Biltmore Forest School.
The Biltmore students studied practical
forestry in the Atlantic coast pineries, as
the guests of the John L. Roper Lumber
Company, from May 1 to 10. Then five
aays were spent in Asheville and Biltmore,
after which the school went to Canton,
North Carolina, which will be the address
of the school until July 15. From that date
until August 7 it will be Cadillac, Michi-
gan, and from that until September 27,
Marshfield, Oregon.
THE LUMBER INDUSTRY.
The National Lumber Manufacturers’
Association.
The ninth annual convention of the
National Lumber Manufacturers’ Associa-
tion was held on the 24th and the 25th
of May, 1911, in Chicago, with President
Hines in the chair Addresses were made
by lumbermen and one by a forester. The
elections resulted in Major E. G. Griggs,
of Tacoma, Washington, as president, and
upon authority of the resolution of the
Association, he has moved the manager’s
office to Tacoma, Washington. The secre-
tary’s office remains as-before in St. Louis.
The following officers were elected: Presi-
dent, E. G. Griggs, Tacoma, Wash.; vice-
presidents, R. H. Vansant, Ashland, Ky.;
J. D. Conrad, Glenwood, Fla.; R. H. Down-
man, New Orleans, La.; treasurer, J. A.
Freeman, St. Louis, Mo.; secretary, Geo. K.
Smith, St. Louis, Mo.; manager, Leonard
Bronson, Chicago, Il.
Resolutions were adopted opposing fur-
ther reduction of Schedule D (lumber) of
the present tariff law; endorsing “Aldrich
measure” for national monetary commis-
sion; urging adoption and passage of either
the Mann bill or the Fordney bill for a mer-
chant marine made necessary by the open-
ing of the Panama Canal; and supporting
federal investigation of the fire waste (Joint
Resolution H. J. 97), introduced by Con-
gressman Jackson, of Kansas.
An address was made by R. A. Long, an
ex-president of the association, and by the
retiring president, Edward Hines. Also a
report by Leonard Bronson, manager.
There followed an address, informal and
fragmentary in its nature, by J. A. Free-
man, on “European Forestry’; by James
A. Emery on “Working Men’s Compensa-
tion”; by W. B. Townsend, on “The
Hardwood Situation”; and also (upon
the request of President Hines), “Practical
Forestry as it Relates to Hardwood”; Har-
tington Emerson, on “Principles of Effici-
ency as Applied to the Lumber Industry”;
J. H. Bloedell, on “The Panama Canal—Its
Relation to the Lumber Industry of the
Pacific Coast”; Robert Fullerton, “Popular
Ignorance of the Lumber Industry”; W. E.
Gilchrist, “Advertising Lumber vs. Its
Substitutes”; A. T. Garrins on “Advertis-
ing.” There was one address by a forester,
Dr. C. A. Schenck, on “Practical Forestry.”
H. 8. Graves, United States Forester, was
to have spoken, but was not able to attend
the meeting.
440
The Yellow Pine Manufacturers’
Association.
Immediately preceding the National
Lumber Manufacturers’ Association meet-
ing in Chicago, the Yellow Pine Manufac-
turers held their meeting in the same city
the 23rd of May. President Thompson in
his address referred to recent history, to
the suits brought before a special federal
grand jury and Judge K. M. Landis by
the Department of Justice for the purpose
of investigating the lumber business in
the west in the light of the Sherman anti-
trust law; to the testimony taken by Com-
missioner Robert M. Reynolds, representing
the state supreme court of Missouri in
the ouster proceedings brought by the at-
torney general of Missouri against forty-
three yellow pine lumbermen; and to the
articles upon the “lumber trust’”’ appearing
in various magazines and newspapers.
R. A. Long spoke on “An Advertising
Campaign for Wooden Paving Blocks” and
Charles Keith on “The Labor Situation in
the South.” It was Mr. Keith’s speech in
behalf of reciprocity and especially for free
lumber that raised a storm of protest from
the association. Mr. Keith maintained that
the $1.35 duty on lumber did not protect,
for this duty and the fight necessary to
maintain it had intensified the belief in the
minds of the public that there was a “lum-
ber trust.” He favored a resolution to be
sent to Congress that would show that the
Association was not fighting for the tariff
on lumber. In this he was supported by
C. M. McDoris.
W. B. Stillwell strenuously opposed the
idea of such a resolution, for, he main-
tained, such action on the part of the
Yellow Pine Manufacturers’ Association
would acknowledge that lumbermen had
been wrong in the past. For the agitation
for reciprocity Mr. Stillwell blamed certain
powerful organizations that wanted free
wood-pulp. Others discussed the question,
but it was dismissed without action.
American Lumber Trades Congress.
The third meeting of the congress was
held in St. Louis on the 28rd of May.
The object for which the congress meets
is to put before lumbermen a code of trade
ethics for the manufacturer, the whole-
saler, the retailer and the consumer, to
provide for the settlement of disagree-
ments not covered in a purchase contract.
‘ THE LUMBER INDUSTRY
It is the principle of the ‘square deal,”
Lut in the words of its president, it is
described as “the square way to treat a
man.”
There was much discussion as to the an-
tagonism of the press towards the lumber
industry and the reasons therefor. The
American Lumber Trades Congress, in its
plans for future activities has constituted
itself a bureau of information for the
Jumber industry.
The Interstate Commerce Commissfon.
Two recent decisions of the Interstate
Commerce Commission affect vitally the
lumber industry. The first suspends until
441
the 21st of September the tariffs of trans-
continental railroads from Missouri River
points to the Pacific Coast, which proposed
to advance rates on staves and heading.
The second denied an application filed
by the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Pacific
Railway for a rehearing in the matter of
suspending lumber rate tariffs. According
to the lumber journals, this is what hap-
pened. Some time ago the Commission
1efused to suspend these tariffs. The lum-
ber interests asked for a rehearing. Mean-
while the tariffs went into effect. Now,
the Commission, through Commissioner
Meyer, says that it has no power to suspend
tariffs already in effect, and thus the case
rests.
NEWS AND NOTES
The Forestry Meeting at Bretton Woods.
The Society for the Protection of New
Hampshire Forests makes further an-
nouncement of the forest conference to be
held at Bretton Woods and the Crawford
House in the White Mountains on the
2nd and 8rd of August, in connection with
the tenth annual meeting of the Society.
At the request of the state forestry com-
mission and of the society, the Governor
and Council of New Hampshire have in-
vited the National Forest Reservation
Commission to meet at the same time and
place. The state forestry commission and
the fire wardens of New Hampshire will hold
meetings in connection with the conference
The state foresters of New England and
ieighboring states have been invited, and
the Hon. John W. Weeks, the author of
the Weeks bill, and other members of Con-
gress have indicated their expectation to
be present.
Headquarters and meetings will be at the
Mount Pleasant House, which makes a
special rate of $3.50 per day. Some of the
sessions will be held at the Crawford
Fiouse, which makes the same rate. The
Mount Washington Hotel makes a special
rate to members of the Society of $4.50
per day.
On the afternoon of August 1st there will
be a trip to the top of Mt. Willard, over-
looking Crawford Notch, and on the morn-
ing of August 2nd there will be an excur-
sion through the Crawford Notch.
A cordial invitation to this conference is
extended to all who are interested.
The Calaveras Trees.
There is a general impression that the
national government has purchased the Big
Trees of Calaveras, a matter which was
agitated vigorously some years ago. As
a matter of fact, the law which was passed
at that time and which has been very
little understood, was unworkable, and
nothing has yet been accomplished. The
law provided for an exchange with the
owner of the Big Trees of unreserved gov-
ernment land on a basis of acreage value.
The question has been taken up within a
few days in Washington. Judge Raker,
the representative from the Calaveras dis-
trict, who has taken a great interest in
the preservation of the Big Trees, arranged
a conference between Robert Whiteside, of
Duluth, the owner, Chief Forester Graves
and Secretary Fisher. Mr. Whiteside is
willing to make any reasonable arrange-
ment with the government which will se-
442
cure him the value of his property, and
plans are under consideration for the pro-
posal of new legislation which will be satis-
factory to Mr. Whiteside and under which
1f will be possible to bring the Big Trees
into government ownership—a consumma-
tlon which everyone must regard as most
desirable, for these trees are one of the
most important historic monuments of the
country.
Uniform Forestry Legislation.
Beyond question there is need of uniform
forestry legislation in both state and na-
tion. There is, perhaps, less likelihood of
unwise legislation being enacted at Wash-
ington than in the various state legis-
latures, for all proposals to Congress are
studied and carefully followed by organ-
ized foresters and conservationists, while
almost any kind of a bill that looks plausi-
ble to the lay mind meets little opposition
or even discussion by the state law-makers.
The subject is crudely understood, at best,
by the average citizen or legislator and he
experiences a sense of relief when each
particular forestry bill is disposed of. Step
by step the forestry movement is gaining
ground, and as the public mind advances
toward a broader knowledge of its possi-
bilities, and its great value to future as
well as to present generations, it will be
less difficult to secure intelligent action
and support from executive and legislative
branches of the government and from the
public at large. Each state can and should
have a forest policy, devised by experts to
meet the requirements of each particular
state. With broad and intelligent treat-
ment of the subject in each state a basis
would be formed which would aid each state
in perfecting its own system, and in this
way we would gradually reach the ideal.
Several states already have fair laws, and
in one state a strong committee is at work
making a careful study of the laws in other
states as well as the requirements in the
home state with a view to developing a
forest policy that shall be economically and
scientifically practical—The Lumberman’s
Review.
A Correction.
In our June number, in the article on
“Insects Injurious to Forest Trees,’ the
legend of the cut at the top of page 339
should have read “Inside of bark worked
by western pine beetle,” instead of “south-
ern pine beetle” as printed.
——_——_————
“The State as quasi sovereign and representative
of the interests of the public has a standing in court
to protect the atmosphere, the water, and the forests
within its territoritv : ‘ : ‘
This public interest is omipresent wherever there
is a State, and grows more pressing as population
grows : : ‘ ‘
We are of opinion, further, that the constitutional
power of the State to insist that its natural advan-
tages shall remain unimpaired by its citizens is not
dependent upon any nice estimate of the extent of
present use or speculation as to future needs.
The legal conception of the necessary is apt to be
confined to somewhat rudimentary wants, and there
are benefits from a great river that might escape a
lawver’s view.
But the State is not required to submit even to an
esthetic analysis. Any analysis map be inadequate.
It finds itself in possession of what all admit to be
a great public good, and what it mav keep and give no
one a reason for its will.”
SUPREME CouRT OPINION
By Mr. Justice HoLMEs on 6 ApRIL, 1908
QUOTED BY
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT, 13 May, 1908, At WHITE HousE
VINOSSIN JO ALIO HHL GNV VNV.LNOW JO ALISHHAIND FHL
American Forestry
VOL. XVII AUGUST, 1911 No. 8
THE FOREST RANGER
By E. R. JacKson
of ours are those bold dashing outriders of civilization, the pioneers and
frontiersmen like Daniel Boone, Kit Carson and “Buffalo Bill.” These
men who have led the van of the westward moving army of settlers, going
always just a little ahead, their lives just a little more wild and unrestrained
than those of their fellow-men. But now with San Francisco just as near
to the centers of civilization as Savannah, and Portland, Oregon, no harder
to reach than Portland, Maine, we have at last reached a stage of develop-
ment when our country no longer has any frontier. The tide of civilization,
like the flood in the days of Noah, has slowly but surely swept across the
continent from sea to sea and engulfed all but a few isolated spots lifted
high above the world of man and guarded by Nature by rocky obstructions or
impenetrable forests. But a few mountain fastnesses now afford safe retreats
to the grizzly and the gray wolf. The savage no longer lurks in the forest
to threaten the progress of the immigrant, and ’ere now most of the timbered
hillsides have re-echoed with the blow of the ax or trembled at the shock of the
miner’s blast.
With the passing of the frontier there has gone as well the scout and
the frontiersman. Even “Buffalo Bill” and the “Wild West” now suggest
to us the stifling heat of a July day, the hustling, jostling crowds of the
metropolis, the peanut and balloon venders, the big, free street parade followed
by a magnificent performance in the main tent—with utter exhaustion and
a feeling of intense relief when it is all over and the children are at last
finally tucked away in bed.
So have times changed. The “forty-nine” played his little part in
the drama of the West, then yielded the center of the stage to the scout and
plainsman. Then came the cowboy, with his jingling spurs, his chaps, his
ready gun. But even the cattle ranches, which furnished the setting for
the cowman’s stage, are now disappearing and in their places the prairies
are being dotted with small farms. What then shall the cowboy do when
the range has been converted into fruit farms and truck gardens? Will he
be compelled to give up the freedom and picturesqueness of his life, to settle
down at pulling weeds or drying prunes? Where is there a calling to which
he may turn, that he may still preserve the traditions of the Golden West?
JO": outs the most picturesque figures in all the history of this country
445
446 AMERICAN FORESTRY
But one chance—one hope is left him—the life of the forest ranger. In days
to come, when the trapper, the scout, the Indian fighter, even the cowboy
are all dim memories, the forest ranger will remain the last embodiment of
the Spirit of the West—the link which unites a glorious past to a practical
present. Strange it seems to me, that the modern dramatist, who so constantly
and eagerly is searching for material for new thrills which he may perpetrate
upon the public, has not yet seized upon this bronzed fighter of forest fires as
his subject. If I were a prophet, I should not hesitate to prophesy that
within a few seasons we shall see some Edson or Faversham drawing upon
himself the plaudits of the pit by his rendition of the ranger in some thrilling
new play—some melodrama of the West. The forerunners of this drama
have already appeared—the novelists have begun their work and already two
or three books whose heroes are forest rangers are advertised at the book
stalls; while writers in the special feature sections of the Sunday newspapers
find in the life of the ranger material for unlimited copy.
To my mind, then, when Congress, on March 3, 1891, empowered the
President of the United States to withdraw certain forest lands from settle-
ment, and later in 1897,provided for the administration of these forest lands
as national forests, not only was a new policy inaugurated as to the manage-
ment of the forest resources of the Nation, but incidentally, a means was
presented of preserving the fascinating and picturesque life of the pioneer
and woodsman; for with the necessity of administering the national forests
came the work of the forest ranger.
On January 1, 1911, there were in the United States and its territories,
152 national forests. In direct control of these forests are 140 supervisors;
but the men who do the real work—“the men behind the guns” (sometimes
literally)—in the national forests are the 1,200 rangers, whose duties we
are to discuss for a few moments.
Although perhaps no other subject has been so much before the people
of the United States during the last few years as forestry, yet the work of
the rangers, and the reasons why we have such a body of men in Uncle Sam’s
service is perhaps not clearly understood by the average citizen. In a recent
article in “Technical World,” one writer has said:
“<*The new profession of forestry’ has come to mean to the casual reader
a sort of cross between a botanical excursion and a Sunday school picnic.
The chief duty of the forest ranger is conceived to be to act as a sort of wet
nurse to a lot of pine saplings. And because it is so foreign to American
tradition to make a business of saving—rather than making and spending—the
man in the street has come to regard forestry as something amateurish and
foreign—a newly imported fad ranking with polo and the raising of ringed-
tail pheasants as an amusement of the idle rich.”
This, perhaps, is somewhat exaggerated, yet it is nevertheless true that in
many sections of the country there is a serious misunderstanding both as to
the duties imposed on the guardians of the national forests, and as to the real
purpose for which these forests are maintained. I shall not have time to go
into the latter question in detail—so large a subject requires treatment by
itsel{—but that we may know why the national government has provided for
the establishment of the national forests (which will give us the key to the
ranger’s duties) allow me to quote from the “Use Book,” which is the official
code of the forest officer:
‘The national forests are created to preserve a perpetual supply of timber
for home industries, to prevent destruction of the forest cover which regulates
THE FOREST RANGER 447
the flow of streams, and to protect local residents from unfair competition in
the use of forest and range. They are patrolled and protected at government
expense for the benefit of the community and home builder.”
And again, from a letter of the Secretary of Agriculture, addressed to the
Forester, under date of February 1, 1903:
“In the administration of the forest reserves, it must be clearly borne
in mind that all land is to be devoted to its most productive use for the
permanent good of the whole people, not for the temporary benefit of individ-
uals or companies. AI] the resources of the forest reserves are for wse, and
this use must be brought about in a thoroughly prompt and business-like
manner, under such restrictions only as will insure the permanence of these
resources.”
We see, therefore, that these rangers who patrol the forests, are working
for Us. It is their duty to see that these vast resources are not merely protected
from wanton injury, but that such material as can be used without “waste to
the inheritance” is made available for use—not by the monopolistic lumber
king, but by the settler and local resident. It is the ranger who transacts the
business of the forest, as to permits for the use of wood, or range, with the
people of the community, hence it is important that the men who fill this
important position be chosen with care. Let us, then, follow a candidate for
the job, to see how he secures his position, and what his duties are after he
has qualified.
The ranger secures his position by competitive examination under the
Civil Service. Local residents are given preference in these examinations, in
order to make sure that only men who are familiar with local conditions
are employed. The tests are both written and by demonstration. Practical
questions only are given and while experience is more desirable than mere
book learning, yet the ranger must have sufficient education to be able to make
maps and write intelligible reports upon forest business. It is also desirable
that he know something about the elements of surveying, timber estimating
and forest regulations. It is above all essential, however, that he know how
to care for himself and his horses when far away from settlements. It is said
that one candidate in reply to a question as to what provisions he would take
with him for a three weeks’ trip into the mountains in August began his list
with twenty pounds of beef, which would probably spoil the second day out.
Another, endeavoring to be thoughtful of his horse’s welfare, listed 50 pounds
of horse feed—when grass is never more succulent or easily found than in the
mountain meadows in midsummer. But perhaps the demonstration tests are
more important, and here is where our old friends, the cowboys, shine particu-
larly bright, though they may be short indeed on book knowledge. The
diamond hitch, the pack, the camp fire or the rifle have no terrors for these
men who grow nervous at the feel of the penholder between their fingers. And
in the end, the ranger must know more about horses and the wilderness than
about books, if he is to be successful. He must show himself to be able-bodied,
capable of enduring hard work and even privations. As the “Use Book”
perhaps somewhat ironically says, “Inyalids seeking light out-of-doors employ-
ment need not apply.”
If the candidate is successful in passing the examination, he is given a
six-months try-out as assistant forest ranger, and if he makes good, and is
recommended by the supervisor at the end of this probationary period, he
becomes a full-fledged ranger at a salary of $1,100 a year. The ranger provides
his own outfit—horse, saddle and personal equipment. He is now ready to
begin his job. He reports to the Supervisor of the Forest to which he is
448 AMERICAN FORESTRY
assigned and is given a regular district to patrol. The 152 national forests,
which are located almost exclusively in the West, include a total area of nearly
200 million acres. The average area per ranger is 104,000 acres or approxi-
mutely 168 square miles. This is necessary because of insufficient funds to
provide rangers to make possible a more efficient patrol.
The ranger’s work lies almost entirely within the national forests. Seldom
may he leave his territory, especially during the dry season when there is
danger of fire. There he lives and works, seldom even taking his 15 days
annual leave of absence.
It is the policy of the Government to provide the rangers with houses as fast
as funds will allow. Many ranger stations have already been built where the
ranger may live with his family, if he has a family. But sometimes, when no
cabin has been provided, the ranger must build one himself. One ranger has
taken advantage of a hollow Big Tree log and within it constructed his cabin.
Others provide for themselves substantial cabins, where they may live com-
fortably in spite of storms and rains and winter snows.
Probably the first duty assigned to the new ranger is to make a trip
over “his beat.” So he packs his blankets, cooking utensils, shelter tent and
other necessary equipment on a patient pack horse, mounts his saddle horse and
rides away, to be gone perhaps a week, perhaps a month. Sometimes he goes
alone, though occasionally some tourist will be his companion, or frequently in
summer, technical assistants may go with him part of the time to make scien-
iific studies in the forest.
The route of the ranger frequently leads him through scenery that is
kaleidoscopic in its variation and beauty. His pathway often runs from the
lowest gates of some vast canyon, through mountain meadows carpeted with
aromatic blossoms that lift bright, communicative faces to greet the solitary
passer-by, up along some mountain trail where beetling walls overhang on
one side and a sheer precipice threatens on the other, until the uppermost
limits of the forest are reached amid the snow-clad summits. Perhaps he
may even ascend far above the clouds that hang about the lifted heads of
the highest mountains and look out upon a billowy sea of mist illumined by
the rays of the sun.
Sometimes the ranger allows his faithful horse to rest and skirts the
shores of an Alpine Lake in boat or canoe. One ranger, in Montana, lives
almost continually in his canoe, patrolling the shores of a large lake. In
winter, the snow may be so deep that travel is impossible except by means
of snowshoes and sledge.
sut there is more for the ranger to do on his patrol trip than merely ride
gaily through the greenwood like some knight of “merrier old England”;
invariably he carries with him a hammer and a number of cloth signs warning
campers against the danger of allowing their fires to get away from them.
If a sale of timber is contemplated, the ranger must mark the trees that
may be cut, taking care to provide for thinning when necessary; for the
removal of dying or mature trees where the stand needs to be replaced by
young growth; and to get rid of defective trees as much as possible so as to
provide room for the better young stand beneath them. If there has been
a timber sale, he must see that the debris and brush is cleared up and properly
piled so as to prevent the spread of possible fires. And when a still day comes,
the brush thus piled is burned, so that it no longer is a menace to the forest.
This is often done when snow is on the ground to insure greater safety, since
then practically all danger of fire spreading is obviated.
Another task which requires great tact and much practical knowledge
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on the part of the ranger is the examination of claims of settlers within the
national forest. If there are lands suited to agricultural purposes within
the forests, they may be taken and cultivated just as other lands outside the
forest. But, of course, many proposed claims are established, under the
allegation of utilizing them for agriculture, when really the purpose is to
secure the timber from them. These claims are, of course, rejected in the
ranger’s report to the supervisor. This perhaps explains why some of the
western papers are filled with statements that the ranger is a stumbling
block in the path of the western country toward progress and development.
Other users of the forests also come under the supervision of the ranger.
Thousands of sheep graze within the forest ranges, but each owner must keep
to his assigned territory and not run on a number of animals beyond that
allowed in his permit. Cattle, too, are grazed under permit, and the old time
war between sheep men and cattle men has been made impossible because
the range is divided between them.
Many of the states in which the national forests are located have game
laws, and the rangers are made game wardens to enforce these laws. Thus
they are given police power to make arrests for illegal killing of game. On
the other hand, one of their duties is to kill predatory animals, such as
bears, coyotes and bobeats, which prey upon the sheep and other animals
of the range. Special assistants are sometimes hired whose sole duty it is
to hunt and trap these dangerous animals.
Thus the ranger lives and labors for weeks at a time, pitching his camp
at night amid the fragrant pines and spruce trees. Each morning he is
early astir, ready for a new day. And after weeks of travel, much of the
time alone, he finally emerges from the forest, bronzed and bearded, but
ready for whatever has turned up during his absence from headquarters.
But the ranger’s life does not consist, as one disappointed novice put it,
of merely “riding around under the trees and making outsiders toe the mark.”
There is hard manual labor to be done. There are stumps to be grubbed out
to clear ground for nursery sites and ranger stations; routes for trails must
be surveyed, not always over level land at that; and often this must be done
in winter, in spite of cold and snow. Much heavy work is sometimes necessary
to clear off these trails, which are absolutely necessary in order to make
possible rapid travel in the forest in case of fire. The trails are sometimes
actually cut from the mountain side.
Then there are bridges to be built across streams if these trails are to
be worth anything and access given to valuable timber. These bridges are
often temporary only, but sometimes more pretentious structures are erected.
These trails and bridges form very valuable permanent improvements, and
have added greatly to the value of the property in the national forests, not only
by making accessible otherwise inaccessible places, but by reason of the
increased facility with which fires may be reached and extinguished. By
means of them, also, the sheep and cattle on the forest ranges are enabled
to cross dangerous streams in safety.
Another form of permanent improvement in the national forests is the
telephone lines that are being installed. They enable the ranger to get
quickly into communication with the Supervisor’s office if he needs help to
fight fire, thus saving many a hard ride. The wires are often strung on the
tree trunks, but where no suitable trees are available poles are set. Perhaps
nothing has ever been done that renders a more efficient service in prevention
of fires than this.
The forest fire furnishes the most strenuous and the most exciting part
of the work of the forest ranger. During the hot, dry summer season, he
454 AMERICAN FORESTRY
must be constantly on the watch for this, his arch enemy. Perhaps some still,
hot day in Indian Summer, his route carries him to some high point where he
can overlook a vast stretch of forest. As he pauses at the highest peak his
quick eye detects what at first seems to be a thin rift of cloud far along the
side of the mountains. He leaves his horse and clambors to a higher vantage
point where he brings his field glass into play, for he must make sure whether
this is smoke or mist. Should he misjudge, the consequences might be untold
damage on one hand or a long, hard, useless ride on the other. When at
last he has satisfied himself that the enemy is really at hand, he hesitates
no longer. If he thinks he can cope with the situation alone he proceeds post
haste to the site of the fire, and perhaps he may succeed in beating it out
with his saddle blanket. Such fires are scarcely deemed worthy of mention
in the ranger’s diary and report.
But frequently it is not such an easy task, but one in which the ranger
requires aid. If a telephone line is close by he calls the supervisor or the
nearest ranger station for help, stating the location and extent of the fire.
It has been said that the rangers constitute the greatest fire department in
the world. But the ranger’s equipment consists of no polished engines or
towering ladder—it is often nothing more than a mustang pony and a pine
bough or his saddle blanket. If the fire is a grass or surface fire in or near the
forest, it has been found by experience that it can be fought effectively with
the aid of common garden sprinklers, followed by a beating with wet sacks
or blankets; shovels, axes, and heavy hose are necessary to combat the fiercer
crown fires. A plan is now being adopted of placing boxes of tools such as
these at convenient places ready for use when a fire breaks out. Armed
with these tools, the fire fighters hasten to the fire and endeavor to check
it before it grows too formidable, by cutting a lane or guard in front of its
path across which it cannot leap. Sometimes backfiring is necessary, and then
the ranger fights fire with fire, so that the two fires meet and die out for
want of fuel. The common plan is to dig and scrape trenches around the fire,
forcing it to a narrower and narrower front, and taking advantage of streams,
trails, slopes, and other topographical features that may assist in checking the
onrush of the flames. Not always are the fire fighters successful in checking
the flames, but the men of the Forest Service have a remarkable record of
efficiency in this respect. The Report of the Forester for 1910, contains the
statement that of 3,138 fires reported, 2464 were extinguished by the rangers
alone, without additional expense or aid.
A forest fire is a terrible menace. The lives of the rangers are constantly
threatened and work under more trying circumstances can hardly be imagined.
In the great fires of the Northwest last year, there were revealed heroes who
need not blush in the presence of any battle-tried veteran of history. The
story of Ranger Pulaski is typical.
Edward ©. Pulaski, of Wallace, Idaho, was the ranger in charge of a
gang of 40 fire fighters. When they found that the fire had gotten beyond their
control Pulaski started to lead them to a place of safety, placing them in
single file, himself in the lead. They had not gone far before they seemed to
be surrounded by fire. The men grew panicky. Pulaski, himself, says that
he saw columns of clear white flame spring up like will-o’-the-wisps, feeding
on nothing but air. The smoke was so dense that the men had to hold one
another to keep from getting lost. Their leader halted the apparently doomed
men, soaked a gunny sack with water and dashed off through the fire and
smoke to look for a way of escape. The men gave up hope, convinced that
he would never return. But he did return and finally led them to an aban-
ddoned mine tunnel into which he ordered them. It seemed like condemning the
THE FOREST RANGER 455
men to immediate suffocation. The mine timbers were on fire, and the tunnel
was filled with smoke. Pulaski stood at the mouth of the tunnel, with drawn
revolver and held the men back. In the gang of 40, there were but few
Americans. These helped Pulaski control the the others, most of whom before
long were lying on the ground gasping for breath, crying and praying. In
five hours, the cave became a mad house. Now and then tortured men would
rush upon the indomitable ranger, trying to get past him to the open, only
to be hurled back and grimly ordered to lie down with faces close to the
ground. That he was able to stand and fight men within and fire without
for as long as he did is a miracle and sets a new sandard for American hardi-
hood. At first it was thought that Ranger Pulaski would lose his sight, but
prompt treatment in a hospital saved his eyes. Pulaski is a great-grandson
of Count Pulaski, the polish exile of Revolutionary fame. He is the oldest
male in direct line of descent and inheritor of the title of count—but Pulaski
American forest ranger, does not care for that sort of thing.
Through the efforts of such men as Pulaski, the people of the United
States are saved each year thousands of acres of valuable timber land that
otherwise would be fire swept and worthless. But before fires can be alto-
gether prevented, larger forces of rangers must be provided, and much work
done in preparing permanent systems of fire protection. The bleached and
deadened tree trunks which cover many a western mountain side are mute
witnesses of the tardiness of our Government in giving needed protection to
its forests.
It is a big task to think of attempting to reforest these burned areas, yet
the Forest Service is making a beginning in this direction. The rangers, along
with their other duties, gather each year hundreds of bushels of cones from
which the seeds are taken and either sown broadcast or sown in seed beds in
nurseries, and the seedlings thus produced, set out on steep slopes, unsuited to
agriculture or beneath the chapparal or aspen that cover the burns where
forests once stood.
Not much is yet apparent in the way of visible results, but the work is yet
in its infancy and, doubtless, before long many a desolate spot will again be
brightened and made useful by tree planting. The work of the ranger is a work
that looks forward, and these humble servants of Uncle Sam are not easily
discouraged. Skilled men are planning the work they do, and the laborers
are worthy of their hire.
FORESTRY AND THE UTILIZATION OF LAND
By Ficsert Rota
farming people in all forested countries. Even the primitive people of
India and the island regions of the Pacific have long known this fact and
have practiced a simple form of agriculture by clearing (usually by burning) a
piece of land, raising a few crops and then abandoning the old and clearing
another piece. Even the most wretched sands of the Great Lakes region, of New
England, or the South will produce a few crops after the forest has “built
them up” to a reasonable degree of fertility.
From this great, wholesale experience, the world over, it follows that
the forest not only can exist, and produce timber on lands, too poor for perma-
nent agriculture, but also that it can improve impoverished lands. That this
is a most important fact seems clear enough when we consider that less
than one-fourth of the land of the United States is improved, that several
hundred millions of acres are acknowledged to be non-agricultural and that
many millions of acres more have been cleared and tried for farming and have
been entirely abandoned and that today, many millions of acres are farmed
at a loss, a loss to the poor farmer, a loss to the commonwealth. But this
vast area of poor lands and lands in difficult situations represent an enormous
capital, a most important, permanent asset. And surely it should be the
earnest concern of the nation and the states to learn what is possible and
feasible to keep these lands in some form of useful production to keep them
habitable and to prevent their becoming useless, hopeless, and unsightly
waste, detrimental to the surrounding country and to the state.
Barring the arid lands, it is the forest and forestry alone which have
thus far proven of permanent value in keeping our poor lands in satisfactory
productive conditions. And if we classify the value or importance of the
forest to the nation, on the basis of
C5 tart newly cleared land is especially fertile is a fact well known to all
supply of timber;
utilization of non-agricultural lands; and
protection of watersheds;
it is perfectly fair to place the utilization of non-agricultural lands second,
important as the third item is in our country.
It is clear that this great importance of the forest through the ability to
utilize inferior lands, like its great influence on water distribution, is primarily
of public importance; a matter of the state and nation and secondarily only
one of the individual.
And it is all the more surprising that this feature has not been more
emphasized even by writers on forestry matters. This is the more deplorable
since our state and national legislatures have thus far refused to consider
this importance of the forest and also since forestry has been attacked and
successfully so, more from the standpoint of the utilization of lands than from
all others combined. In Michigan, for example, we have more than one-
fourth of all land in the form of cut and burned-over sandy pinery lands, of
456
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73 EE
FORESTRY AND THE UTILIZATION OF LAND 401
which several million acres have drifted back into the hands of the state for
non-payment of taxes, and of which thousands of acres have been settled and
abandoned during the last forty years. The facts in the case are so thoroughly
established by sad experience, that everybody knows about the pinery lands
and their uselessness for agriculture. But a few interested land dealers and
politicians are makiug money out of the traffic in these poor useless lands.
Theirs is a clear-cut dollar statesmanship which the legislature fully
appreciates and the result is that today the state of Michigan sells these
lands at about one to two dollars per acre, though they are worth ten dollars
for forestry, and that the state established an Immigration Bureau to help
along the bad work of advertising these lands.
Michigan is not alone. The Heyburn arguments in Congress are exactly
of this same order.
The fact is clearly before our people. We have today in the United States
many millions of acres of land which demand attention. We have the choice
of allowing them to become waste lands, some of them hopeless, permanent
waste, or of having them cared for and preserved or returned to a productive
useful condition.
While thus in our country the states and people generally work to clear
away the forest, the people of Europe, though they have more and better
forests than we, have adopted the motto. Extension and improvement of the
forest.
And it is quite a surprise to the traveler to find this extension and restora-
tion of the forest in places where exactly the opposite might be expected.
Thus in Belgium, the most densely populated country in Europe, one sees
beautiful forests of beech and spruce and in addition, one finds the state
restoring worn out and abandoned sand lands by the thousands of acres and at
great expense. These are not sand dunes along the coast, but large areas
inland, and some of them only two hours’ ride from Antwerp, one of the great
markets and shipping places of the world.
Similar conditions occur in Germany. The Liireburger Heath is a surprise
to anyone interested in the material welfare of any country. A district settled
before the beginning of our era is largely today an unused waste. It is neither
grazing land nor field, sparsely populated, largely deserted. Here, too, the
fallacy of “It is needed for agriculture,” has borne its bitter fruit and the
present and future generations have to expend millions to restore these vast
areas to some kind of usefulness, for the experience of centuries has taught
Turope that these waste lands are not only a waste but even a menace. They
are the haunt and breeding ground of the “undesirable,” of poverty, vice, and
degradation. And if our politicians in the United States care to see and to
learn, they need not go far to find similar conditions already existing here
at home.
What the forest can do for just such lands is well illustrated by the fine
stands of beech and pine and spruce in the city forest of Nelzen and other
places.
In the vicinity of Berlin, one of the large and busy cities of the world, in
the midst of the best markets to be found anywhere, we again find the pinery
sands making people land-poor, abandoned, and finally restored to the only
crop that will be permanent, the forest.
Four hours east of Berlin in the vicinity of Kreutz, in the same great
North German plain the government has tried and is now trying every known
remedy to aid in the development of the country. Large farms, up to 600
acres and more had gradually degenerated into waste land. The people were
leaving the country to find work elsewhere. As a last resort the government
462 AMERICAN FORESTRY
has bought the land from many of these farmers, either the entire farm or
part of it. The prices even today range from $3 per acre up and averaged
for the entire forest district only $8 per acre. The government now pursues
two lines; agriculture and forestry. Every inducement is made to settlers,
only the better land is turned over to them and easy payments, low rate of
interest, long term loans, ete., all tempts the new comer. And yet, it is forestry
which alone can cope with the major part of this situation. Thousands of
acres are reforested every year.
But the most surprising cases one meets in the densely settled, highly
improved and well wooded states of South Germany and in Switzerland. Old
farms which have well supported their owners for centuries are converted
into spruce woods. Old families who have rented their lands for centuries at
fair rentals, find it profitable to quit renting and reforest. All through the
well-settled farming parks of Switzerland one sees hundreds of spruce and
hardwood plantations set out during the last 60 years. The chief forest
inspector of Baden, a man of experience, expressed both his surprise and
dissatisfaction at these changes. ‘When I was a young forest official it was
almost a daily affair to have to refuse a permit to clear away the forest on
certan lands. Today I have to counsel and plead with our people to keep
them from planting up good farm lands.”
But why is all this? Simply because the farmer is no longer willing to
work for nothing and to go without the comforts of life. He considers farming
as any other business is considered. Farm good land, where farming pays,
and leave the rest to others and to other uses.
To us the lesson of the Old World is most significant. With a scarcity
of timber before us; with most of our states now importers of timber at great
expense, with food to export and food enough to waste more than we can
eat, with all this clearly before us it is an unpardonable fallacy, nay a criminal
neglect, that we should go on encouraging the destruction of forests and
refuse to encourage their preservation and restoration.
THE STRENUOUS LIFE OF THE FOREST RANGER
of Uncle Sam’s forest policemen seems to be both happy and strenuous.
What the work of a forest ranger actually means can probably be fully
realized only by those who have lived long in the wilderness. The following
extract from a narrative of personal experience in the spring of 1911 of two
members of the Battlement Mesa National Forest reached AMERICAN Forestry
and is published, because it affords a glimpse into the amount and variety of
the work on a national forest to get ready for the busy season.
GJior tne wrote “The policeman’s lot is not a happy one,” but the lot
“The time of most of the men on the Battlement during January, February
and March having been almost entirely taken up with grazing business, reseed-
ing and forest investigation work, it became necessary in April to do such repair
work on the stations and telephone lines as would put everything in working
order for a busy coming field season. We have painting of roofs, ceilings,
doors and windows, and oiling of floors to accomplish on two three-room
cabins, one at the Park Creek and one at the Big Creek Ranger Station. These
stations are located at altitudes of 8,500 and 8,750 feet above sea level, where
the snow at this season was from four to five feet deep.
A telephone line 16 miles long connecting these two stations and thence
from the Big Creek station to the Supervisor’s office at Collbran, Colorado, had
to be repaired. The line from the Park Creek to the Big Creek Ranger station
traverses a country ranging from 8,500 to 10,000 feet in altitude. This line
was in bad condition from the heavy snows in some places, long stretches being
down and buried in the snow. We started carrying supplies on our backs and
sometimes hauling it on roughly constructed sleds to our stations, early in
April. From the lower snow line where we could go with pack horses to the
stations is four to five miles, we found that a man could pack only about
50 pounds to a trip on skis, and it would take an entire day to cover the ten
miles. We had bedding, food supplies, paint and oil, in five and one
gallon cans, telephone wire, brackets, insulators and tools, aggregating 500
pounds per station. By using sleds part of the time we transported the entire
load to the station in five days. The sleds were hurriedly constructed and
pulled mighty heavy, oftentimes we could not pull them more than a few
yards at a time without resting. The snow was generally soft and some-
times sticky enough to make it impossible to move the sleds while on our
skis, without stopping to scrape the frozen snow off from the bottom of runners
or skis and greasing them with tallow. When Supervisor Lowell saw the sleds
and attempted to pull one he remarked that it would have been as well to have
used the ranger station stove with the feet down for transporting the load.
When we arrived at the stations ice had to be shoveled off from the
shingled roofs so that they would dry for painting. The weather was cold and
we found it necessary to heat all paint and oil before applying it to the roof.
Before painting was attempted we started out to repair the telephone line on
skis, carrying with us the necessary wire, brackets, insulators and tools. One
of us is an expert on telephone repairs, but a new beginner on skis. The other
one had had considerable experience on skis and as a telephone pole and tree
climber. We were three days repairing the 16 miles of line. In several places
463
AMERICAN FORESTRY
we found it buried in six to ten feet of snow. In most of these places we
could pull it out with stretchers attached to a tree or a pole, but in some
instances it was frozen in so tight that the wire would break in the pulling
operation and it became necessary to leave it buried to be picked up later
when the snow goes off, so we had to replace it with new wire at this time.
We found repairing telephone line on the skis mighty hard work, especially
when it was all up hill. The long down hiJl slopes on our return to camp
after the day’s work had been completed. when the wind was our only
competitor for speed made us forget all our troubles in climbing the last big
hill. Disaster lurks in many places for the novice on skis, as was illustrated by
a conversation over the line after it had been repaired, between one of us
and the Supervisor. In response to our “Hello,” the Supervisor said, “How
are you?” The reply came, “One shoulder is knocked down and I have a
couple of bog spavins on each leg. caused by an attempt to climb a spruce
tree while coasting down a steep hill into Park Creek. Otherwise I am feeling
fine.’ In another place the same man was coming down a steep slope going
like the wind. He was loaded with tools and repair paraphernalia and at
about the middle of the hill he suddenly struck a high snow bank and all that
was left above the snow was his “Hello.” Even the other fellow, old skier
that he is, struck a bare spot one day in coming down a long grade resulting in
a large hole in the soft earth and a broken nose on an otherwise smooth
countenance.
At the Anderson Camp Ranger Station, one half way between Park Creek
and Big Creek, which is a partially abandoned summer camp with a dirt
roof on a three-room cabin and the center room entirely open in front, we
found the snow piled high above the cabin, but a space was left about two feet
wide between the open front room and the high snow bank. Through this
crevice we climbed in and examined the telephone located in the cabin and
made an effort to call up the office to test the line, but we found that although
we had finished repairing the line it would not work so we separated, one
of us going east and one of us west, to find the trouble. We latter found
a tree had fallen on the line two miles west of Anderson Camp. After
repairing the trouble we returned to the Park Creek Ranger Station.
We had skied all together about 20 miles this day and repaired three
miles of badly delapidated line, arriving in camp at 8 P. M., having put in 14
hours for one day’s work. We were tired, sure, but with an appetite that
could not be beaten and after a good night’s rest we were ready for the same
stunt again. Our work in repairing this line and painting the cabins has been
altogether a strenuous time, but after it was completed we felt fully com-
pensated in the knowledge that the work in our busy time during the coming
field season would be carried out with better success and efficiency.”
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8
REFORESTING BURNS IN CALIFORNIA
NATIONAL FORESTS
forest fires of last summer, but how many have heard of the efforts
made by the Secretary of Agriculture to reforest these burns with
valuable trees? Yet, hardly had the fires been put out and scarcely had the
ashes cooled off, when tree planting was begun. Plans for this work were
being made even while the fires were still burning.
A statement recently made by the District Forester in charge of the
national forests in California shows that during the year 1910 the Forest
Service planted or sowed a total of 2302 acres of land in this State. Of this
area 282 acres was planted with 244,581 young trees, while the remainder was
sowed with 6274 pounds of tree seed, mostly pine.
The 2,302 acres reforested last year is a small area compared with the
total forest burned over, but when one considers the rough country covered,
the lack of facilities for transportation, and the difficulty of getting in the
trees and supplies, the showing made is quite creditable. In connection
with this work 5,608 pounds of tree seed were collected from the forests in
California, while over 2,000 pounds were purchased in other states, mostly
in Colorado and South Dakota.
Most of the tree seed sowing in the forests of California was done by
means of the so-called “seed-spot” method. A small plot of ground, usually
18 to 24 inches square, is dug up with a mattock, spade, or harrow so as to
expose and loosen the mineral soil to a depth of several inches. From 12 to 15
seeds are then scattered evenly on this prepared plot and, after being firmed
into the ground, they are lightly covered with dirt. These seed spots are
Iccated usually eight feet apart, making about 700 spots to the acre. By
this method, even if only one seed out of each twelve germinates and grows
into a tree, the land is fully reforested.
In many cases the ground was covered with a dense growth of burned
chaparral and brush which would soon sprout and crowd out the young
seedlings. In order to make the tree sowing a success it was found necessary
to cut a certain amount of the brush around each seed spot. In a few cases
direct broadcast sowing was tried, the seed being scattered as uniformly as
possible over the land. This method is sometimes very successful in the
spring, when the melting snow draws the seed into the ground.
No sooner was the sowing and planting work well under way than a
serious drawback appeared in the form of numerous squirrels, chipmunks,
mice and rats, which came from all directions to feed on the seed so attrac-
tively prepared for them. It was remarkable how quickly the animals would
learn of the whereabout of the seed and the distance they would travel to get
to this food supply. Burns hundreds and even thousands of acres in extent,
with apparently not a sign of an animal on them would suddenly become
alive with the little marauders. In a number of instances the animals would
sit and wait expectantly until the seed was put into the ground. In some
CD terest. every one in California has heard or read about the devastating
467
468 AMERICAN FORESTRY
cases 30 to 70 per cent of the seed was destroyed. One chipmunk was seen to
visit 88 seed spots in four minutes. Further planting operations were useless
unless some means could be discovered to check these rodents. Accordingly,
several methods of treating the seed were tried. First, comparatively harm-
less solutions were applied to render the seed distasteful to the animals. This
did not prove successful, because the rodents would hull the seed and get
rid of the shell and the distasteful chemical at the same time. Consequently
more deadly poisons were tried, but as yet no really effective means have been
discovered of checking the ravages of the rodents. Experimentation along
these lines is still being carried on.
The work of reforestation is slow, tedious, and costly. At best it will
take many years before the trees now planted grow large enough to be of
commercial value for timber. In no business is the old adage more true than
in forestry, that ‘‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Efficient
and adequate protection of the forests from fire, and the regulated cutting of
timber are, after all, the most effective means of maintaining a perpetual
forest growth. Still, a certain amount of artificial reforestation by planting
or sowing will always be extremely important.
USE OF TELEPHONE LINES IN FIGHTING FIRES
this statement, one has only to inspect a trained fire department, used
to guard the lives and property, in any city. Most of us are more or
less familiar with their time-saving devices; we have admired the splendid
horses taught by months of patient labor, to spring to their places at the
sound of the gong; have seen them harnessed to the truck in the time it takes
to press a button; observed men drop to their places from the floor above.
All this training and expense to save a minute’s time in the battle against
the fire demon, in a city where man has used his utmost ingenuity to build
so as to thwart the ravages of this element.
Compared with such a well organized system, the Forest Service methods
seem crude indeed. One man with an ax and shovel guards from one to
two hundred thousand acres of timber land, worth from one-half to five million
dollars. In the greater part of these forests, nature seems to have invited
their destruction by strewing the ground with a carpet of dry leaves and
resinous needles, and covering the branches and trunks with moss, that,
when dry, burns almost as quickly as gun-powder. For one man to attempt,
single-handed, to check a conflagration under such circumstances seems worse
than foolhardy; and yet, let it be told to the credit of the tribe who wear
the Forest Service badge, that when necessity demands, they pit their strength
and cunning against the flames, and sometimes, aided by night dews and
bull-dog endurance, win out. The Forest Service records could reveal many
such cases of which the public has never heard. It is only when the battle has
been lost and the fire becomes a public menace that the matter gets into print.
It is obvious that chances are all against conquering a fire of any magni-
tude under these conditions; consequently, every human endeavor is used to
prevent the starting of such conflagrations. During the dry summer months,
a ranger’s waking hours are spent in patrolling the routes frequented by
travelers, to extinguish neglected camp fires, and in searching his district with
a FIRE fighting a minute may mean millions. To realize the truth of
RECONNAISANCE PARTY CAMP OUT-
FIT, KAIBAB NATIONAL FOREST,
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THE FOREST RANGER EXPERIMENT STATION, COCONINO
NATIONAL FOREST
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RANGERS CONSTRUCTING TELEPIIONE LINES,
PLUMAS NATIONAL. FOREST, CALIFORNIA
RANGER TRACING LINES IN WINTER UNDER
DIFFICULTIES MINNESOTA NATIONAL FOR-
EST
USE OF TELEPHONE LINES IN FIGHTING FIRES 471
a field glass from some lookout point, to detect the first faint column of
smoke that means the beginning of a forest fire.
With so much territory to cover, it is a physical impossibility to have
all parts of the district under his supervision at all hours of the day. There
will come a time when several fires will start at once. The causes are various;
sometimes they are set by lightning from the electrical storms that are
common in mountainous country; more often they are due to carelessness of
campers or tourists; occasionally they are started wantonly by some person
who objects to the arm of the law, as represented by the Forest Ranger,
reaching back into the wild places; again, it may be that an unextinguished
match, or a spark from a pipe or cigarette is dropped in the dry humus, as
the hunter or prospector wanders in places remote from the generally travelled
trails. The spark ignites the slow burning duff which smolders, perhaps for
days, unseen, the thin smoke being lost in the blue of the spruce tops above
it; slowly it burns its way to the resinous roots or mossy trunk of some
conifer; the mountain breeze fans it to a flame; it leaps up and seizes upon
the dry twigs and the pitch laden foliage; the tree bursts into a pillar of
flame and the destruction of the growth of centuries begins. Any of these
events may happen any day during the long drouth of summer. When they
do occur, the ranger needs help and needs it quickly, to save the heritage
he has been set to guard.
If he has a telephone, the call for help will be in at headquarters within
an hour, and in another the ranger will be at the fire planning his battle and
doing al] he can to check the flames. At headquarters the organization that
has been perfected for just such emergencies is set to work; by telephone the
nearest rangers are sent to his aid; from the lists that have been prepared
and kept on file of the available men and horses that can be hired at the
nearest settlement, crews and supply trains are organized within a few hours
and sent in, if additional help is needed.
With no telephone in his district the ranger must ride to the nearest
settlement where he gathers such help and supplies as possible, with the least
loss of time and returns to the fire after sending a messenger on to head-
quarters with the news. But, in the meantime, hours have been lost that may
mean thousands to the Nation. I have seen seven million feet of timber burn
in one afternoon, because a privately owned telephone line on the national
forest was out of repair in just such an emergency as has been described.
Several hours were lost in getting a messenger out to the nearest ranger and
the news to headquarters; a crew was organized and sent in without loss of
time, but arrived four hours after the fire had broken out of control of the
ranger and the few men he had gathered. In this short time it swept the
whole mountain side clean. The supervisor bought that telephone line before
another season opened.
While the principal reason for building these lines is for fire protection,
they pay for themselves in other ways by facilitating the business and adminis-
tration of the forest. Hardly a week passes but the ranger finds it necessary
to communicate with his supervisor upon some matter of business. Mail
routes are scarce in these remote districts. To get to headquarters he may
have to ride one hundred miles, or even more. This means several days of labor
lost, to say nothing of the risk of leaving the district without any patrol.
With a telephone the matter can be settled in fifteen minutes and the ranger
does not leave his work.
During the summer months the forests are used to pasture thousands of
head of sheep, cattle, and horses, that are trailed for scores of miles to these
summer pastures. The telephone is a boon to the owner in enabling him to
keep in touch with his foremen and outfit.
472 AMERICAN FORESTRY
This is why the Forest Service spends thousands of dollars of its appro-
priation each year in the construction of telephone lines. Besides those built
and owned by the Service, they have the free use of many miles of telephone
built by settlers in codperation with the Service. Free right of way and poles
are granted to any company, corporation, or private party to cross the forests
with such lines; in exchange for these privileges the Forest Service asks
the right to connect its lines, or to place an instrument where needed. Settlers
and miners are glad to have an instrument placed in their cabins free of
charge, the only fee required being that they notify the rangers of any smoke
seen in their vicinity. Ofttimes an abandoned telephone line, that has been
built into a once prosperous mining camp, is purchased or leased at small
expense. Temporary lines are often strung to some lookout point where the
instrument is placed in a box and nailed te a tree; such lines are generally
strung on trees or brush and taken down when the season is over.
A comprehensive plan for a telephone system has been worked out for
each forest; few of these have been completed to date, but something is being
added to them each year as appropriations are available. With their com-
pletion, and an increased force for patrol during the dry season, a serious
forest fire on the national forest will be a rare occurrence.
THE APPALACHIAN FOREST
The following is a statement recently issued by the President of the National Forest
Reservation Commission in regard to the work of the Commission, and in regard to the
authorization for the purchase of the tract of timberland in Georgia:
June 29, 1911.
HE NATIONAL FOREST RESERVATION COMMISSION has autho-
rized the purchase of a tract of about 31,000 acres of land lying in
Fannin, Union, Lumpkin and Gilmore counties in the state of Georgia.
The tract is located on the watershed of the Toccoa River, which, after uniting
with the Hiwassee River, flows into the Tennessee. The report of the Geological
Survey shows that it is a very important tributary, having in mind the purpose
of conserving the stream flow. The tract of land which it is proposed to
purchase is covered with virgin forest, consisting largely of chestnut, oak,
poplar, white pine, maple, locust and black gum. It is a mountainous tract,
ranging in elevation from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above sea level, in the heart of
the Southern Appalachian Mountains. The Commission is unanimous in
considering that it is a tract which is admirably suited to fulfill the purposes
for which the law was enacted.
The National Forest Reservation Commission consists of the Secretaries
of War, Interior, and Agriculture, Senators Gallinger of New Hampshire, and
Smith of Maryland, and Representatives Hawley of Oregon and Lee of Georgia.
The board has been proceeding with extreme care in making selection of the
tracts of forest to be first purchased, realizing the importance which such
purchases will serve in fixing the policy of the Commission for the future . It
is therefore selecting only such lands as from their location and character, will
directly tend to conserve the navigability of navigable rivers, and which may
also serve as the nucleus of any pressure to enter into haphazard or improvi-
dent selections, but will proceed with extreme care to lay the foundation of
what is intended to create a series of forest reserves in such locations and of
such character as will carry out the clear intention of Congress.
The Act under which the board is proceeding was not passed until March
1, 1911, and the board has been acting with the utmost diligence upon all
of the tracts which have been presented to them, according to the statute, by
the Bureau of Forestry and the Geological Survey. Three members of the
board have visited personally the tract in question. Both the Bureau of
Forestry and the Geological Survey strongly recommended the present tract
as fulfilling all of the characteristics required by the statute; and the
scintific demonstration made by the Geological Survey of the importance of
the stream flow out of the tract in question upon the navigability of the
Tennessee River was very clear and cogent.
Many other tracts, both in the southern and northern Appalachians,
including certain tracts in the White Mountains, are now under investigation
by the Forestry Bureau and the Geological Survey, and as soon as reports
are made by those bodies the Forest Commission will proceed to their
consideration.
In view of the magnitude of the enterprise which is being thus begun,
the board does not propose to pay any speculative or high prices for lands
and will not purchase any land which will not conduce directly to the purposes
of the Act. This is necessary not merely on grounds of sound policy and
economy, but is also made necessary on constitutional grounds, as the Act
under which the Commission was created is based upon the power of the
Federal Government to regulate commerce and protect the navigability of
streams.
473
FORESTRY IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS
By JOHN GIFFORD.
T SEEMS to me that forestry shorn of mathematics and theory is the
i growing of trees primarily for fine lumber. Except in a few places
devoid of wood of any kind, it is a mistake to plant trees for fuel wood
alone. Not only sawlogs, but sawlogs of such quality that they will bring the
very highest price on the market should be the aim of foresters. Fuel wood
we have in excess and soft coal is so abundant and so cheap that stock in a
soft coal company at the present time is a very poor investment. In the
major portion of this country under normal conditions the limbage and
waste ought supply all fuel demands.
It certainly does not pay to hire expensive men to look after cheap stuff
on cheap land. A dollar is simply a token for a certain amount of human
effort, and although in Europe materials are carefully conserved, there is a
woeful waste of human labor. We waste materials, but we certainly save
effort by the use of labor-saving machinery and up-to-date tools.
There are economic laws that govern development, and I think it is safe
to say that agriculture and forestry must develop hand in hand. In other
words, there must be a rural population. The cheapness and abundance
of land is due, of course, to a sparseness of population in the country. Our
census gives us little hope. Were it not for the incoming tide from elsewhere
our rural population would decidedly decrease and land would decrease in
value accordingly. The newcomers who settle in the country hardly offset
the drift to the cities.
I have been interested of late in the handling of lands and in keeping
tab on the prices of land throughout the South, including the West Indies.
I have been impressed with one thing—the ridiculous price that much of it
sells for regardless of what covers it. I will give but one instance of many
letters which I have received in reply to advertisements in local papers: 160
acres, 70 acres in cultivation, 40 acres pasture, balance in fine oak timber;
one six-room house, one three-room house, two hen houses, a granery, smoke
house, seed house, cow shed, a shop, two good barns, 300 bearing fruit trees
and vineyard, near to church and school, rural mail delivery and telephone;
fine water and a very healthy locality. Price, $1,000; on easy terms.
You will naturally say, just as I have said many times, that there must
be something wrong. A careful investigation will show that in nine cases
out of ten the old neighbors have gone to the towns, the newcomers are not
liked, or rather not understood, and the children are dissatisfied.
We may hope for change in time, but time is the important element.
Unfortunately, good growth is usually slow growth. This discourages private
enterprise and is the main reason for governmental control of a certain part
of our forested area. After ten years of experience in the American tropics
I have unlearned much that was laboriously taught me in school and have
come to the lamentable conclusion that our knowledge of tropical American
trees from a silvicultural standpoint is so meager that it hardly counts.
474
FORESTRY IN THE AMERICAN TROPICS 475
Foresters have collected data relating to fifty or more forest trees of the North
for many years, but of the three hundred or more forest trees of the tropics
practically nothing is known except their names and the names only imper-
fectly known.
For the bulk of our timber supply we must depend on private commercial
enterprise, but as yet, in the major portion of our country, the return, consid-
ering the risks, is not sufficient to tempt capital. A paltry return of five per cent
or ten per cent does not satisfy the common run of investors; in fact, a return
of twenty-five per cent or more is what is expected and what many tropical
ventures yield.
I have always worked on the theory that for forestry one should select
regions where there are the largest number of growing days, other things
being equal. We should also select those species which grow with the greatest
rapidity, provided they yield good wood. I know of no forestry proposition,
for instance, that would yield a larger return than growing eucalyptus in
Pinar del Rio for tobacco poles. The growing of fuel wood, or even tobacco
poles, however, does not appeal to me from a forestry standpoint. I would
prefer to grow a wood which yields lumber fit for constructive purposes.
As to location many of our best regions, such as rich inland valleys in the
tropics, are inaccessible. In South Florida and the West Indies, however,
there are vast areas within comparatively easy access of the markets of the
world.
In the matter of forestry, the political lines separating one country from
another, cut a small figure.
Every forester, in fact every person interested in forestry, should plant
a few acres of trees and care for them properly. It is easy to talk about
and easy to write about, and I am sorry to say that too few foresters actually
own forest land. There is nothing like bringing a proposition home for close
and careful inspection.
Of the quick growing trees of the world yielding timber of the highest
class, is the great order Meliaceae. It is to this order that mahogany belongs
and, although much of it is not mahogany from a botanical standpoint, it sells
as well, and sometimes better, than the wood of Swietenia, the true mahogany.
The trees to which I refer either belong to thé genus Cedrela or are closely
allied to it. There is Cedrela fissiles of Brazil and Paraguay called Acajou;
C. Toona, the toon or red cedar of the East Indies and Australia and Cedrela
odorata, the Cigar Box Cedar of the West Indies. The latter seems to exist
in three distinct varieties, at least commercially, cedro blanco, cedro hembra
colorado and cedro macho. Cedro macho or even cedro hembra colorado
sell under the name of mahogany. These trees grow quickly, on soils of
almost any nature, and so far I have succeeded in reproducing them from
cuttings. I have a Cedrela in my yard which has grown from a cutting at
the rate of more than two feet per month. The cutting was put in the ground
in March and the accompanying photo of this tree was taken during the
latter part of September. It is therefore only six months old from the time
the cutting was stuck in the ground. The cutting was not much larger than
a lead pencil. Of course, the cool weather will check its growth and some-
thing may happen to it, but if it continues to grow at this rate it will soon
afford ample shade and many cuttings for further plantings. Fashion may
change, since it was not long ago that they were trying to grow crooked oak for
the British navy; but these woods of the mahogany group have stood the
test of time and have always brought a high price irrespective of the price
of other woods.
476 AMETICAN FORESTRY
I have never tried to figure on the return from a plantation of Cedrela.
In forestry, as in other things, I find it never pays to count your chickens
before they are hatched, and I fear that is too often the case with foresters
and the promoters of enterprises in general. I| think it is safe to say, however,
that a Cedrela plantation, close to good transportation, ought to yield as
much, if not more, than any tree I know of.
Marden says that Cedrela australis, which is practically the same as
Cedrela toona, “is, without doubt, the most valuable timber produced in New
South Wales.” It is used for carriage building mainly, but has many other
uses, of course. It is by far the most popular tree with the foresters of
the part of Australia where it grows.
There are other genera of the great order Meliaceae in Australia with
which I am experimenting. One in particular, the Australian Rosewood
(Dysorylon Fraseranum) is 0 the mahogany class and, although as yet
but slightly used, it will come to us some day as a high-priced cabinet wood.
It is still cheap in Australia, but according to one forest officer, “the virtues
of rosewood cannot be overrated.” Another forest officer says, “there is a
tremendous future for this wood and it is worthy of careful nursing and
protection, more especially as red cedar (meaning Cedrela australis) is now
uearly extinct.”
It may be a mistake to pin oneself to one species or one order of woods,
but where their number is legion there is little else to do.
Closely related to these Cedrelas is the genus Quarea. Guarea trichi-
liodes, the guaraguao of Porto Rico, is a valuable tree with wood very similar
to Cedrela, but devoid of the cedary aroma. This cedary aroma is supposed
to keep insects out of cigars. There are several species of the genus Trichilia
and a dozen or more little known species of Cedrela.
In South America, especially the region bordering on the Carribean Sea,
there are still other genera.
This group of probably fifty or more species is all that could be desired
from a silvicultural stindpoint. They are quick growers, great seed pro-
ducers (not small seeds like the eucalypts and melaleucas which blow away
or which the ants deyour) and free from disease. The wood they yield is
fit for the very finest cabinet work, carriages, furniture, boards and shingles.
Even the small limbs may be cut into shingles. The value of lumber anyway
up to date is mainly the labor which has actually been put into it. The
stumpage value, including the land, is ridiculously low—low because land is
plentiful and people few.
I might add in conclusion that all planters in the tropics must take into
account that a hurricane comes now and then which blows the weaklings
flat to the ground and strips some of the stronger trees bare of leaves. While
I write (October 17) the barometer is low and the tall straight Australian
pines, which were made to withstand the gales, are bending and swaying like
whips.
A CEDRELA SIX MONTHS OLD FROM A CUTTING
SOUTH FLORIDA
A RANGER STATION ON THE
LOLC NATIONAL FOREST
A GROUP OF RANGERS AND INSTRUCTORS. UNI-
VERSITY OF MONTANA. SHORT COURSE FOR-
ESTRY CLASS, 1911
FOREST SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES
Oe
THE UNIVERSITY OF MONTANA
By J. E. Kirkwoop, Pu. D.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BOTANY AND FORESTRY
state. Missoula is on the main line of the Northern Pacific Railroad,
-and the newly constructed transcontinental line of the Chicago, Milwau-
kee and Puget Sound Railroad also passes through the city. Missoula lies
at the mouth of the famous Bitter Root Valley and near the main range of
the Bitter Root Mountains, which form for the most part the western boundary
of the state. Northward as the crow flies is Flathead Lake, 55 miles away, and
eastward it is 72 miles to the summit of the continental divide near the head
of the Blackfoot River.
The altitude of Missoula is about 3,200 feet. Its climate is pleasant, not
subject to extremes of heat or cold, and its annual rainfall amounts to about
18 inches. The location is healthful, and the natural environment attractive
in its plains, mountains and forests, its lakes and streams.
Natural environment is of undoubted importance in the location of a
forestry school, and in this respect the University of Montana is well situated.
On all sides the hills are clothed with timber, some near and others more
remote, but good stands of timber are in the immediate vicinity of the univer-
sity. A great diversity of condition prevails, which affords opportunity for the
study of forest ecology in its various phases. Extensive tracts of young growth
show different conditions of reproduction. The timber of the immediate
region is mainly western yellow pine and lodgepole pine, western larch and
Douglas spruce. In the region tributary to Missoula, within a radius of 75
miles of the city, occur sixteen species of conifers. Besides those mentioned
above are the western white pine (P. monticola) and the two subalpine species
the white-bark and limber pines. There are also Engelmann spruce and Lyall’s
larch, the western and black hemlocks, the lowland and alpine firs, the arbor
vitae, and the Rocky Mountain and common junipers. The western yew also
occurs in shrubby form. The hardwoods, so called, are not of much import-
ance, the largest and most abundant of these being the black cottonwood and
the aspen, sharing the stream bottoms with a smaller growth of choke cherry,
hawthornes, birches, alders and willows.
The timber of western Montana is largely reserved in the national forests.
The boundaries of the Missoula, the Lolo, and the Bitter Root National Forests
are within a few miles of Missoula, and these and several others including the
Deer Lodge, the Flathead and the Lewis and Clark are easily reached by rail
or stage.
The proximity of the national forests is a distinct advantage. Likewise
the fact that the main administrative offices of District No. 1 are in the city
of Missoula. These circumstances bring the work of the United States Forest
© « University of Montana is at Missoula in the western part of the
479
480 AMERICAN FORESTRY
Service to the convenient observation of the student. The administration of
the national forests is a matter of importance to every student of forestry
in this country, and especially inasmuch as the greater number of students
ultimately find their employment in the Forest Service. On the national
Forests may be seen extensive timber-sales managed on silvicultural principles,
nursery work and field planting, improvements, the operations of forces
engaged in forest protection, in the elimination of agricultural lands, ete.
In addition to these are the enormous logging and milling plants of private
interests.
The environment of the University of Montana offers rare facilities to
the student whose work is to be with the Forest Service. Western life and
conditions are essentially different from those of other parts of the country.
The West is vast and much of it sparsely settled. The state of Montana
itself extends 650 miles from east to west, and 275 or more from north to
south. There are large tracts of wilderness into which not even a trail pene-
trates. Far removed from the settlements the forester must often find his
work, and the man inexperienced in woodcraft is not likely to prove efficient
in the discharge of his duties under such circumstances. There is frequently
a vast difference between the theoretically desirable and the practical, between
ideally correct silyicultural treatment and the character of treatment necessi-
tated by local conditions, and which will be necessitated for many years to
come in western forestry. Moreover one needs to understand the people, the
settlers, whose interests are bound up more or less intimately with the admin-
istration of the forest reserves. Taking all these things into consideration, the
matter of experience under western conditions is by no means a negligible
quantity. It is rather a necessary asset in the equipment of the western
forester.
It is now two years since instruction in forestry was begun in the Univer-
sity of Montana. ‘Two general courses are now offered. A four years’ under-
graduate course is given in the fundamentals of an education in forestry. At
the outset facilities are such that it is deemed impracticable to give a full
technical course. The work as planned designs to prepare the student to such
an extent that he may be able to finish at one of the larger eastern schools
with a year of study of some of the more strictly technical branches. The
scope of the work will be broadened, doubtless, in the near future. As at
present outlined the four years’ course gives a thorough grounding in the
subects of mathematics and engineering, physics, geology, mineralogy, chem-
istry, botany, and zoology. It includes the study of modern languages, history
and political economy. Instruction is also given in dendrology, silviculture,
wood technology, and forest pathology.
An important feature of instruction in forestry at the University of
Montana is the winter school for rangers in the Forest Service. In 1910 the
course was first organized, instruction beginning in January with an enroll-
ment of 50 men. These men were detailed to take the course and came from
various parts of District 1 from Michigan to Washington. Owing to the
ruling from Washington, D. C., relative to the status of rangers while in
attendance at institutions of learning, many of the men were obliged to
discontinue and return to their homes. A reasonable number, however,
finished the course at their own expense. In 1911 the three months’ course
was again offered, with the result that 30 students registered (about double the
number completing the course the first year), and most of these at a sacrifice
of salary in addition to considerable incidental expense.
Thus the results justified the establishment of the ranger school and its
usefulness is made evident. As at first organized the course included the
FOREST SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED STATES 481
subjects of dendrology, silviculture, geology, mineralogy, surveying, mathe-
matics, mensuration, timber-sales, lumbering, planting, and grazing as required
work, with elective courses in chemistry, physics and botany.
In recognition of the need of more extended instruction in several of the
branches, and of the introduction of others, the ranger course has been
expanded to cover six months (two winters). This plan will be put into effect
next winter. There will still be the same opportunity for those who can give
but one season to the work, but those who wish to return for a second winter
will find additional courses to meet their demands. The subject of lumbering
will be divided into descriptive lumbering, forest products other than lumber,
and lumbering engineering; additional work will be given in surveying, map-
ping and drafting; botany will be taught from the systematic and ecological
standpoint, preparing men especially for work in connection with grazing and
grazing reconnaissance. Courses will be given in forest pathology, in forest
management, and in public land laws.
In addition to the four years’ course and the ranger school, the university
seeks to extend its usefulness to men who are unable to register as resident
students. To a limited extent correspondence courses are offered in dendrology,
silviculture, mineralogy, surveying and mathematics. This work is designed
chiefly for rangers in the Forest Service, who have not time or means to attend
the university.
A summer forestry cruise from the university has been announced. This
is designed as a tour of the Pacific Coast primarily for the study of the relation
between silviculture and practical lumbering. To this work about six weeks’
time is given, devoted largely to observation of large logging and milling
operations in the regions traversed.
A FOREST SERVICE TIMBER DEAL
NE of the largest deals in timber in the history of the United States
CQ) Forest Service is at present well under way, and the outlook for an early
consummation of the sale of approximately 600,000,000 feet, board
measure, of standing timber is extremely bright.
Application for this timber was made by the Navajo Development Co.,
a corporation chartered under the laws of Arizona; a careful examination of
the area has just been completed by representatives of the company and of the
Forest Service.
The tract is located in the eastern part of Arizona, comprising a large
portion of the Sitgreaves and Apache National Forests, and is estimated to
contain for cutting approximately 575,000,000 feet of western yellow pine,
15,000,000 feet of Douglas fir, 6,500,000 feet of white fir, 1,500,000 feet of Engel-
mann spruce, 1,000,000 feet of Mexican white pine, and 1,000,000 feet of blue
spruce and corkbark fir, board measure, of saw and tie timber, log scale.
The western yellow pine is frequently known as ‘‘western white pine,” and
possesses many of the qualities contained by the white pine of the north woods,
the lumber manufactured from it is light and soft, but has considerable
strength; the upper grades are much in demand for manufacture into finishing
stock, flooring and ceiling, sashes and doors, ete. The clear stock is highly
prized by pattern makers, and the entire output of this class of material of
one manufacturer is sold to one of the principal transcontinental railway lines
for use in making patterns in its shops.
Douglas fir is excellent for mine and other timber, and certain railroads
pay more for cross ties manufactured from this class of material than for
those made from other species, owing to the fact that they last much longer
in the ground. Many thousands of cross ties are made annually in the South-
west, from white fir and the other species mentioned.
The timber is located about 60 miles south of Holbrook, Arizona, the
county seat of Navajo County, situated on the main line of the Atchison,
Topeka and Santa Fe R. R. from Chicago to the Coast. From this point
a railroad will probably be constructed south to the timber, passing in the
vicinity of several small towns and through a section containing much agri-
cultural land, a good portion of which can be irrigated by means of driven
wells.
All of the cost of railroad construction will not have to be borne by the
lumber operations, since by making the road a common carrier, yearly many
thousands of tons of freight, now handled by slow, cumbersome freight wagons,
would be hauled on the new line. Large quantities of hay, grain and other
supplies, all of which must be shipped into the region, are consumed yearly
in the small towns and at Fort Apache, an important military post, located
about 20 miles south of the tract. In addition, considerable revenue will be
obtained from passenger traffic, since, besides civilian travel, several move-
ments of cavalry troopers and their horses to and from Fort Apache are
made annually.
Large deposits of coal, said to be of excellent coking quality, exist within
30 miles of the timber. The development of these deposits only awaits a rail-
road to the vicinity.
482
A FOREST SERVICE TIMBER DEAL 483
It has been the policy of the Forest Service in the past to limit the time
allowed for completing the cut contracted for in sales to five years. But in
order to protect the investment required in undertaking such a large scale as
the one proposed, this period is evidently too short. Therefore, ten years will
be allowed in which to complete the contract, beginning at the time of comple-
tion of the railroad and sawmill, for which two years additional time will be
allowed.
The minimum price which will be considered is $2.50 per M. ft. B. M. for
the first five years of the contract and $3.00 per M. ft. B. M. for the last five
years.
The tract contains what is probably the finest large body of timber
remaining in the Southwest, and is located on a large plateau, well watered,
with almost ideal logging conditions. The ground is smooth, level or gently
undulating, enabling logging to be done at mimimum cost, while owing to the
favorable topography spur tracks can be constructed very cheaply.
The stand of timber is heavy, and the quality is excellent, assuring a
large percentage of upper grade lumber.
The major conditions of the contract as proposed are: All timber to be
cut will be marked for cutting, by the forest officer in charge. All timber will
be scaled by Scribner Rule, Decimal C. The purchaser will co-operate in fire
protection by assisting in fighting fire and by disposing of the debris of
logging as directed by the officer in charge. Dead and marked green trees
which are a fire menace will be felled. Free special use permits will be granted
for the construction of necessary railroads, telephone lines, sawmills, camps,
commissaries, etc. The Government reserves the right to turpentine any of
the timber included in this sale, the turpentining not to interfere in any
way with the logging operations.
These regulations are those which have been in effect in timber sales
made by the Forest Service during the last five years.
A deposit of $10,000 is required with all bids and the successful bidder
must give a bond of $50,000.
A sample contract showing the provisions in detail together with further
information and regulations governing sale, can be obtained upon application
to the District Forester, Albuquerque, New Mexico, within whose jurisdiction
the sale lies.
Taken altogether this is one of the most attractive propositions to be
found in the Southwest, not only from the point of view of the lumberman, but
also from that of persons interested in opening up and developing new regions.
Yet this can hardly be called a new region, since settlement has been going
on for many years, and will undoubtedly be stimulated by the building of a
railroad to reach the timber under consideration. At the present time tens of
thousands of cattle, sheep and horses graze in the region, yet all beef, mutton,
wood and other products must be driven on the hoof to Holbrook, for ship-
ment, or else freighted by wagon, over distances varying from 30 to 100 miles.
Besides the timber involved in this case, other large bodies aggregating
one and one-half billion feet, board measure, will be made accessible by means
of the proposed railroad.
EDITORIAL
THE POLLUTION OF RIVERS AND HARBORS
are few that have so little excuse as the pollution of streams and coast
waters with sewage. Hardly a river that has large cities near its banks
runs pure and uncontaminated. Many of them are a stench in the nostrils
and an offence to men when they should carry health, pleasure and beauty in
their course.
Undoubtedly the rapid growth of urban population makes the disposal
of sewage a problem of some difficulty, but if modern chemistry and physics
are unable to solve it, sanitary science is a failure.
Filth and slime where cleanliness and purity should be; sources of disease
in an element that should be a powerful aid to health; an offence to the senses
when they should find joy and satisfaction—that is the condition today of
many of the rivers in thickly settled portions of the country and of some
of our harbors.
New York harbor is offensive at certain times of year because of careless
disposal of the enormous quantities of garbage and also of the emptying of
sewers into its waters. Gorged with the waste of the city, the harbor has at
last refused to take care of the accumulation and conditions threaten the
welfare of the metropolis.
The Merrimac River, receiving year after year the mill waste and com-
munal sewage from the cities along its banks, has become polluted beyond the
point of safety, not to mention comfort. Yet here is a stream that is fed by
waters of exceptional purity, following a course that would maintain that
purity if human intelligence would give attention to its protection.
We stand very much in need of careful study of our streams and their
relation to the life along their banks, a study that shall be scientific, compre-
hensive and practical. When our river systems are thus studied we shall come
to know these water courses as a great gift of nature to be guarded and
improved, not insulted and defiled. In this protection and improvement, the
part played by the forest will be recognized and forests, properly located
upon the watersheds, will be recognized as a part of the system, just as they
now are on the watersheds of the well-regulated municipal water supplies.
()’ THE evil and uncivilized things done by our modern civilization there
GETTING AT WORK
ATURALLY, in view of the great and widespread public interest in the
Appalachian forests and the long struggle to secure national legislation
looking toward their preservation, the working of that legislation now
that it is on the statute books is watched with intense interest by many people
in many states. The Forest Service, as soon as it became evident that the
\Veeks bill would probably become a law made ready an. efficient field and office
force to do its part in carrying out the law and work was begur immediately
484
EDITORIAL 485
after the enactment. Unquestionably this was primarily a Forest Service
problem.
But there were two other agencies involved besides the Forest Service,
which was the active representative of the Secretary of Agriculture. These
were the National Forest Reservation Commission, created by the act to be
the final authority in land purchases, and the Geological Survey, which because
of its staff of scientific experts and its fund of topographical, geological, and
hydrographical data was relied upon to be especially qualified to report upon
the relation of forests to the flow of the navigable streams, whose watersheds
might be recommended for purehase by the Secretary of Agriculture.
The Commission took up its work with commendable interest, even the
one commissioner, Representative Hawley, who had been an opponent of the
bill in the House, putting aside his prejudices and giving himself with
interest and intelligence to the task assigned him. We are glad to be able to
say this because we criticised, and not unreasonably, Speaker Cannon’s
appointment of Mr. Hawley on the Commission.
It became known, however, within a very few days that the Geological
Survey was doing nothing. Interviews with the Director by various persons
developed the fact that he took very seriously the responsibility of his bureau
under the law and proposed to act with great deliberation and thoroughness.
His first statement to the public when criticism of his known or supposed
attitude became vigorous and insistent, was published in AMERICAN FoRESTRY
in June. However impatient of delay the friends of the law might be, the
expressed intention of the Director to use proper care and scientific thorough-
ness in carrying out the part assigned to the Survey would certainly not be
fairly open to criticism.
It was felt, however, and justly, that inaction was not justifiable. If the
Survey felt so strongly its responsibility under the law, it should have been
ready to act promptly upon its passage for the life of the law is limited and
time is an essential factor in the contract with the people.
It must be said frankly that the Survey has been slow in getting into
action. Much was said at first of the need of topographical maps of the
regions involved. As these have all been mapped by the Survey, new mapping
is certainly not needed for the purposes of this law. In the water supply
records of the hydrographic division the Survey has more data in regard to
stream flow than it can assemble during the life of this act, and it is conceded
that such observations require a long term of years to be of real scientific
value. To experts accustomed to judging geological conditions, the soil
examination in districts so well known and so amply reported upon as the
White Mountains and Southern Appalachians should be a comparatively
simple matter. Nor does it seem that the practical purposes of this law
call for nice technicalities or elaborate and involved research. The question
is one of trained judgment applied to visible conditions.
With the question of navigability of streams we cannot see that the Survey
has anything to do. That is largely a matter of legal interpretation and rests
entirely with the Secretary of Agriculture and the National Forest Reserva-
tion Commission.
On the 22nd of June in reply to numerous newspaper criticisms, Secre-
tary Fisher of the Interior Department issued a brief statement endorsing
the course of the Director of the Survey, the substance of this being that the
action of the Survey could not be perfunctory. June 23rd the Director of
the Survey gave out a second statement to the Boston newspapers, explaining
his position at length. This statement was an eminently temperate one, in
view of the criticism to which its author had been subjected, but it was chiefly
486 AMERICAN FORESTRY
interesting because of its assurances which promise progress, if lived up to. The
Director said that not much, if any, topographic work will be needed in
the White Mountains. It will be gratifying to all New Englanders to read
the following “My purpose in the White Mountains is to make the most
careful investigation there in order to get what I am very anxious to secure;
that is the data on which I may base what I wish to present, a favorable report
for the consideration of the Commission.”
The Director further declared that geologists would go into the mountains
early in July and this has been done. The Director has been invited to
attend the forestry meeting at Bretton Woods, where many of the leading
friends of the Appalachian movement will foregather. It is to be hoped that
he will be there. It will bring about a better understanding and we hope
that from this conference complete harmony will result, and that cordial
co-operation of the official agencies for carrying out the new law may be
looked for during the remainder of its term.
If Congress during this, or the next session, restores to the appropriation
the three million dollars lost through technicalities, and this should be
easily accomplished in view of the conservative manner in which the law is
being administered, and if the Geological Survey interests itself heartily in
securing results, another year may see the friends of this great public measure
much more cheerful than they have been for some time, or are now.
There is a natural tendency on the part of men whose life is devoted
largely to scientific research to see that side of a project of this kind, but we
are compelled to look at it as a great practical measure under which results
must be accomplished at the earliest possible time in order that they may be as
productive as possible of benefit.
CURRENT LITERATURE
MONTHLY LIST FOR JULY, 1911
(Books and periodicals indexed in the Library
of the United States Forest Service)
Forestry as a Whole
Proceedings of Associations
Royal Scottish arboricultural society.
Transactions, vol 25. 91 p., map. Ed-
inburgh, 1911.
Western forestry and conservation asso-
ciation. Proceedings, 1910. 29 p.
Portland, Ore., 1910.
Forest Education
Forest schools
Hawes, Austin F. A summer school of
forestry and horticulture to be held at
the Downer state forest, Sharon, Vt.,
Aug. 14-24, inclusive, 1911. 6 p., pl.
Burlington, Vt., 1911. (Vermont—For-
est service. Publication no 8.)
Arbor day
Schauffler, Robert Haven, ed. Arbor day;
its history, observance, spirit and sig-
nificance; with practical selections on
tree-planting and conservation, and a
nature anthology. 390 p. N. Y., Mof-
fatt, Yard & Co., 1909.
Forest Legislation
Oregon-Legislative assembly. Orgeon for-
est fire law. 16 p. Salem, Ore., 1911.
Scott, Chas. A. Provisions of the state for-
est law. 4 p. Manhattan, Kans., 1910.
(Kansas—Agricultural experiment sta-
tion. Circular 10.)
Forest Description
Dickson, J. R. Report on timber condi-
tions, ete., along the proposed route
of the Hudson Bay railway. 27 p., il.
Ottawa, 1911. (Canada—Department
of the interior—Forestry branch. Bul-
letin 17.)
Sim, James. Extracts from a report on
forestry in southern Rhodesia. 44 p.,
pl. Salisbury, 1911. (Rhodesia—De-
partment of agriculture. Bulletin no.
71.)
Sutton, William J.
its conservation.
Our timber wealth and
20 p. Victoria, B. C.,
1910. (Natural history society of B. C.
Bulletin. )
Forest Botany
Maiden, J. H. The forest flora of New
South Wales, pt. 43. 16 p., pl. Sydney,
Govt. printer, 1911,
Mosley, Charles. The oak, its natural his-
tory, antiquity and folk-lore. 126 p., pl.
London, Elliot Stock, 1910.
Silvics
Forest influences
Burr, Edward. Merrimac river, Mass., be-
tween Haverhill and Lowell; together
with a report on an investigation of
the influence of forests on the run-off
in the Merrimac river basin. 123 p.,
maps, diagrs. Wash., D. C., 1911.. (U.
S.—62nd congress, 1st session. House
document no. 9.)
Mead, Daniel Webster. The flow of streams
and the factors that modify it, with
special reference to Wisconsin condi-
tions. 192 p., il., maps, diagrs. Madi-
son, Wis., 1911.
Stewart, C. B. Preliminary report on stor-
age reservoirs at the headquarters of
the Wisconsin river and their relation
to stream flow. 60 p., pl., diagrs. Mad-
ison, Wis., 1911. (Wisconsin—State
board of forestry. Publication.)
Silvical characteristics of trees
Zon, Raphael & Graves, Henry S. Light
in relation to tree growth. 59 p., il.
Wash., D. C., 1911. (U. S—Department
of agriculture—Forest service Bulle-
tin 92.)
Silviculture
Diiesberg, Rudolf M. J. Der wald als
erzeiher. 204 p., pl., diagrs. Berlin,
P. Parey, 1910. .
Planting
Leete, F. A. Memorandum on teak planta-
tions in Burma. 21 p., diagrs. Cal-
cutta, 1911. (India—Forest department.
Forest bulletin no. 2.)
Waldron, C. B., Windbreaks and hedges.
11 p., pl. Fargo, N. D., 1910. (North
Dakota—Agricultural experiment sta-
tion. Bulletin 88.)
487
488 AMERICAN
Forest Protection
Hawes, A. F. Instructions to forest fire
wardens and woodland owners regard-
ing forest fires. 19 p., pl. Burlingtin,
Vt., 1911. (Wermont—Forest service.
Publication no 7.)
Washington forest fire association.
nual report, 1910; 21 p.
Wash., 1910.
Washington forestry and conservation asso-
ciation. Fire in your timber; how to
prevent it. 12 p. Portland, Ore., n. d.
3d an-
Seattle,
Forest Management
Robertson, C. C. Farm forestry in the
Orange Free State. 15 p. Pretoria,
1911. (South Africa, Union of—Forest
department. Bulletin no. 1 of 1911.)
Forest mensuration
Krinbill, Howard R. Biltmore timber
tables. 12 p. Biltmore, N. C:, 1911.
Schenck, C. A. Cruisers’ tables giv-
ing the contents of sound trees, and
their dependence on diameter, number
of logs in the tree, taper of tree and
efficiency of mill. 61 p. Biltmore,
NaC:
Forest Economics
Statistics
Kellogg, Royal S. and Ziegler, E. A. The
cost of growing timber. 18 p. Chicago,
American lumberman, 1911.
MacMillan, H. R. Forest products of Can-
ada, 1909; tan bark and tanning ex-
tract used. 6 p. Ottawa, 1911. (Can-
ada—Department of the interior—For-
estry branch. Bulletin 20.)
Forest Administration
Connecicut—State forester. Report, 1910.
28 p., pl. New Haven, Conn., 1911.
India—Eastern Bengal and Assam—Forest
dept. Progress report of forest admin-
istration for the year 1909-1910. 113
p, maps.. Shillong, Ind., 1910.
India—Forest dept. Review of forest ad-
ministration in British India for the
year 1908-1909. 58 p., maps. Calcutta,
India, 1910.
Indiana—State board of forestry. 10th an-
nual report, 1910. 154 p., il. MIndian-
apolis, 1911.
New Jersey—Forest park reservation com-
mission. 6th annual report for the
year ending October 31st, 1910. 74 p.,
pl. Paterson, N. J., 1911.
Oregon—State board of forestry. Biennial
report for the years 1909-1910. 22 p.
Salem, Ore., 1911.
Oregon—State board of forestry. Official
proceedings, Feb., 1910. 18 p. Salem,
Ore., 1910.
National and state forests
Edgecombe, G. H and Caverhill, P. Z.
FORESTRY
Rocky Mountains forest reserve; re-
port of boundary survey parties. 27 p.,
il. Ottawa, 1911. (Canada—Depart-
ment of the interior—Forestry branch.
Bulletin 18.)
Forest Utilization
Lumber industry
National lumber manufacturers’ associa-
tion. National problems affecting the
lumber industry; official report, 9th
annual convention held in Chicago, IIl.,
May 24 and 25, 1911. 278 p. Chicago,
Te rotate
Yellow pine manufacturers’ association.
Official proceedings of the 6th semi-an-
nual meeting, held at Chicago, II1.,
ed 23, A905, 19) .p.0 (St. Louisse Mos
1 ‘
Wood-using industries
United States—Tarriff board. Report on
the pulp and newsprint paper industry.
134 p., diagr. Wash., D. C., 1911.
Wood technology
Cline, MaGarvey and Knapp, J. B. Prop-
erties and uses of Douglas fir. 75 p.,
il., pl. Wash., D. C., 1911. (U. S—
Department of agriculture — Forest
service. Bulletin 88.)
Hall, William L. and Maxwell, Hu. Uses
of commercial woods of the United
States: 1. Cedars, cypresses, and Sse-
quoias. 62 p. Wash., D. C., 1911. (U.
S.—Department of agriculture—Forest
service. Bulletin 95.)
Pearson, R. S. Note on the relative
strength of natural and plantation-
grown teak in Burma. 9 p. Calcutta,
1911. (India—Forest department.
Forest bulletin no. 3.)
Auxiliary Subjects
Conservation and natural resources
Gregory, Mary Huston. Checking the
waste; a study in conservation. 318 p.,
pl. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill Co.,
1911.
Laut, Agnes C. The freebooters of the
wilderness. 443 p. N. Y., Moffat, Yard
& Co., 1910.
“Weltnaturshutz”’; global
Sarasin, Paul.
20 p. Basle, E.
protection of nature.
Birkhauser, 1911.
Schweizerische naturschutzkommssion. Ja-
hresbericht, vol. 4, 1909-10. 108 p.
Basel, 1910.
Irrigation
Cone, Victor M. Irrigation in the San
Joaquin valley, Cal. 62 p., map.
Wash., D. C., 1911. (U. S.—Dept. of
agriculture—Office of experiment sta-
tions. Bulletin 239.)
Forbes, R. H. Irrigation in Arizona. 83 p.,
il., pl., maps. Wash., D. C., 1911. (U:
CURRENT LITERATURE
S.—Dept of agriculture—Office of ex-
periment stations. Bulletin 235.)
Periodical Articles
General
Agricultural journal of Union on South
Africa, May, 1911.—White ants in Na-
tal, by C. Fuller, p. 556-8.
American conservation, July, 1911.—On
the fire line; how the forest fires of
1910 tested the courage of Uncles Sam’s
forect rangers, by W. B. Greeley, Pp.
204-9.
Field and stream, July, 1911.—Care of the
camp fire, by Wm. T. Cox, p. 283-6.
Gardeners’ chronicle, March 4, 1911.—
Transplanting a large beech, p. 133.
Gardeners’ chronicle, April 15, 1911.—Acer
pennsylvanicum, by W. Dallimore, p.
233.
Philippine journal of science, Jan., 1911.—
Philippine firewood, by A. J. Cox, p.
1-22; The economic possibilities of the
mangrove swamps of the Philippines,
by R. R. Williams, p. 45-61.
Philippine journal of science, Feb., 1911.—
Borkenkafer der Philippinen, by H.
Strothmeyer, p. 17-29.
Review of reviews, July. 1911.—The pre-
vention of forest fires, by G. E. Mit-
chell, p. 64-8.
Yearbook of U.S. Dept. of agriculture, 1910.
—The management of second-growth
sprout forests, by H. S. Graves, p. 157-
68; Progress in saving forest waste, by
W. L. Hall, p. 255-64; Injuries to for-
ests and forest products by round-
headed borers, by J. L. Webb, p. 341-
58; Fire prevention and control on the
national forests, by F. A. Silcox, p.
413-24; Camphor cultivation in the
United States, by S. C. Hood and R.
H. True, p. 449-60.
Trade journels and consular reports
American lumberman, June 17, 1911.—For-
estry methods and practice in Ger-
many, by H. L. Sullivan, p. 42-4.
American lumberman, June 24, 1911.—
Chair of lumbering in the Yale forest
school, p. 37.
American lumberman, July 1, 1911.—Pa-
cific loggers confer, p. 43-53; Creosoted
wood-block paving; engineer’s report
of an investigation of the question of
paving streets in Loop district of Chi-
cago, p. 57.
American lumberman, July 8, 1911.—Hs-
sential qualities of a steel cable for
use in lumbering, p. 46.
Canada lumberman, June 15, 1911.—Life
of the shantyman in the bush, by H.
A. Bell, p. 30-31.
Canada lumberman, July 1, 1911.—Logging
in the interior of British Columbia, by
O. Lachmund, p. 26-7; Timber land
taxation in British Columbia, by W.
I. Paterson, p. 27-8; The cable loco-
489
motive on steep grades, by R. L.
Fraser, p. 28; Protection of forests
from fire, by W. C. Gladwin, p. 28.
Craftsman, June, 1911.—Our friends the
trees, p. 272-7.
Engineering news, May 25, 1911.—Forest
fires of 1910 in the northwest, by A.
A. Northrop, p. 635; The proper treat-
ment of creosoted wood blocks for pav-
ing, by F. D. Beal, p. 635-6.
Hardwood record, June 25, 1911.—The im-
portance of water gum, p. 33-4; The
manufacture of organs, p. 34-6; Some
facts about the manufacture and laying
of hardwood flooring, p. 36-7; Lumber
and timber industry of Dutch Guiana,
p. 41-3.
Hardwood record, July 10, 1911.—Sour
wood, p. 30; Physical characteristics
of Philippine woods, p. 34-5; Fancy
wood veneer and its source, p. 36-7.
Journal of electricity, power and gas, June
24, 1911.—Wood stave pipe, p. 546-8,
553.
Lumber trade journal, July 1, 1911.—Creo-
soted pine block is growing in popu-
larity, p. 18.
Municipal journal and engineer, July 12,
1911.—Wood stave pipe, by T. Chalk-
ley Hatton, p. 37-8.
National coopers’ journal, June, 1911.—Ex-
periments in the prevention of stain-
ing and moulding in lumber and other
wood products, by G. G. Hedgcock, p.
26 A-B.
Paper mill, June 24, 1911.—Log dam; the
invention of W. J. Griffith, of Tennes-
see; designed to catch and hold both
logs and water, p. 31.
Paper trade journal, June 15, 1911.—The
length of tracheids in the wood of cone
bearing trees, by C. D. Mell, p. 52.
Pulp and paper magazine, June, 1911.—
Pine, or paper yarn, fibre, p. 239-1.
St. Louis lumberman, June 15, 1911.—The
relation of track fastenings to creo-
soted ties, by H. von Schrenk, p. 26;
The uplands of Arkansas, by R. David-
son, p. 58-9.
St. Louis lumberman, July 1, 1911.—Wood-
block paving news, p. 66F; The dying
of pine timber in the southern states,
by A. D. Hopkins, p. 66G; Stain pre-
vention in baskets and boxes, p. 66H;
Charpitting methods of removing
stumps, by H. W. Sparks, p. 73-4.
Timber trade journal, June 10, 1911.—Fell-
ing trees by machinery, p. 795.
Timberman, June, 1911.—Wooden-block
payments growing in favor; more edu-
cation necessary, p. 53; Oregon board
of forestry to assist in checking tree
insects’ ravages, by F. A. Elliott, p. 54.
United States daily consular report, June
26, 1911—Method of producing wood
oil, by R. B. Mosher, p. 1351.
United States daily consular report, June
27, 1911.—Tanning materials in Ger-
49() AMERICAN FORESTRY
many, by R. P. Skinner, Pp. 1372-3; Sea-
soning wood by electricity, by A. Hal-
stead, p. 1373.
United States daily consular report, July
7. 1911.—Wood-block tires for motor
trucks, by F. H. Mason, Pp. 83.
Wood craft, July, 1911.—Character of China
wood oil or China nut oil, p. 105-6;
Spirits of turpentine; its source, sub-
stitutes and service, by A. A. Kelly,
p. 115-17; A woodworker’s visit to a
sawmill in the west, by C. Cloukey, p.
121-4.
Forest journals
American forestry, July, 1911.—Co-opera-
tion with states in fire patrol, by J.
G. Peters, p. 383-4; Present forest prob-
lems of Massachusetts, by A. Chamber-
lain, p. 389-95; A railway’s forest enter-
prise, by F. Roth, p. 395; Reproduction
of Engelmann spruce after fire, by S.
J. Young, p. 396-9; Forests and stream-
flow, p. 403-8; Mine timbers versus con-
crete and steel, p. 411-18; The case of
the state of Louisiana, p. 414-23.
Bulletin de la Société centrale forestiére
de Belgique, June, 1911.—Le Chéne et
sa culture en Roumanie, by P. Anton-
esco, p. 383-96; Le revenu imposable
des foréts, p. 396-405.
Centralblatt fiir das gesamte forstwesen,
May, 1911.— Vergleichende boden-
feuchtigkeitsbestimmungen in den
hseuversuchsflachen des grossen
fohrenwaldes bei Wr.-Neustadt, by R.
Wallenbéck, p. 197-209; Hortizontale
und vertikale verbreitung der rotbuche
in Ungarn, by T. Blattny, p. 209-21.
korest leaves, June, 1911.—Private and
municipal forests in Pennsylvania, by
J. A. Ferguson, p. 37-9; Mutual for-
est interests of Pennsylvania and
Maryland, by F. W. Besley, p. 39-41;
Pennsylvania’s problem in forestry, by
S. B. Elliott, p. 41-6.
Forestry quarterly, June, 1911.—Forestry
and the lumber business, by J. E.
Rhodes, p. 195-204; New view points
in silviculture; a review of H. Mayr’s
Waldbau auf naturgesetzlicher grund-
lage, by R. Zon, p. 205-18; The white
pines of Montana and Idaho; their dis-
tribution, quality and uses, by F. I.
Rockwell, p. 219-31; Seasonal variation
in the food reserves of trees, by J. F.
Preston and F. J. Phillips, p. 232-43;
Pith flecks or medullary spots in wood,
by S. J. Record, p. 244-52; Silvicultural
treatment of abandoned pastures in
southern New England, by P. T. Coo-
lidge, p. 253161; Multiple volume table,
by L. Crowell, p. 262; Supervisors’
meetings at Boise, Idaho and Ogden,
Utah, p. 263-7; An appreciation of
Dr. Heinrich Mayr, ordinary professor
of silviculture, University of Munich,
by H. P. Baker, p. 268-70; Consump-
tion of basket willows in the United
States for 1908, by C. D. Mell, p. 271-
8
Tevue des eaux et foréts, June 1, 1911.—
Le pin sylvestre dans le cantonnement
de Baccarat, by Lescaffette, p. 321-8;
Le revenu imposable des foréts, by de
Ligniéres, p. 343-6.
Schweizerische zeitschrift ftir forstwesen,
May, 1911.—Kunstgerechte holzerei, by
A. P., p. 137-42; Verteilung von weise
und wald im Jura, by Mollet, p. 144-
Fille
'eitschrift fiir forst- und jagdwesen, June,
1911.—Forstwirtschaftliche riickbliche
auf das jahr 1909, by Semper, p. 459-81.
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
President Taft Makes Changes in National
Forests
A number of changes in the national
forests of California, Oregon, Idaho, and
Wyoming, made in the interest of more con-
venient and economical administration and
especially of better protection against fire,
have just been announced. These changes
have been accomplished by President Taft
through a series of proclamations signed at
different times in June, but all becoming
effective July 1. The proclamations were
drawn so as to dovetail into one another,
with the result that taken all together they
substitute twenty-six national forests for
a former seventeen.
The only increase in area is in Califor-
nia, in which two small additions, involving
a total of a little over 17,000 acres, are
made. On the other hand the proclamations
eliminate a total of nearly 242,000 acres, as
follows: 85,000 acres in California, nearly
126,000 acres in Oregon, about 6,000 acres
in Idaho, and about 25,000 acres in Wyom-
ing. Thus the rearrangement which puts
twenty-six national forests in place of
seventeen is accomplished by a neat reduc-
tion in area of 225,000 acres. Itis explained
by officials of the U. S. Department of Agri-
culture that last summer’s fire experience
in the Northwest made it clear that many
of the forest supervisors were in charge of
units which were too large for efficient ad-
ministration. The changes are a part of a
general movement to develop, with the aid
of last year’s experience, the most efficient
system of fire protection possible at the
present time.
In Idaho the Clearwater, Coeur d’Alene,
and Nezperce National Forests were re-
duced by the establishment of two new
units, to be known as the Selway and St.
Joe National Forests, with headquarters at
Kooskia and St. Marie, Idaho. This was
brought about as follows: From the Coeur
d’Alene to the St. Joe there was trans-
ferred 810,200 acres; from the Clearwater
to the St. Joe, 223,300 acres; to the Selway,
1,684,860 acres; to the Nezperce, 16,640
acres, and from the Nezperce to the Selway,
117,140 acres. There was eliminated from
the Nezperce several small tracts aggregat-
ing 5,920 acres, which upon examination
were found to be non-forest land.
In Wyoming the Bonneville was divided
into three national forests. The former
Sweetwater Division, the southern portion
of the Bonneville, embracing 393,950 acres,
becomes the Washakie Forest, with head-
quarters at Lander; the Green River Divi-
sion, the central portion of the forest, em-
bracing 577,850 acres, becomes the Bridger,
with headquarters at Pinedale; and the
northern portion of the forest, embracing
631,270 retains the name of Bonneville, with
headquarters at Dubois. Eliminations ag-
gregating 24,936 acres were made from the
Bonneville; 2,564 acres from the southern
division; 14,175 acres from the central divi-
sion, and 8,197 acres from the northern
division. These areas consist of small
tracts lying along the borders of the forest
which upon examination were found to be
non-forest lands.
In California changes were made affect-
ing the Klamath National Forest, as fol-
lows: A total addition to the Klamath of
3,480 acres of forest land; an elimination
of 85,000 acres in various small tracts con-
sisting principally of alienated lands lying
along the eastern border of the forest; two
small transfers from the Siskiyou and the
Crater forests to the Klamath; and a trans-
fer of 352,000 acres of land from the Kla-
math to the Siskiyou, embracing all of the
Smith River drainage lying within the for-
est. In connection with the latter transfer,
13,755 acres of valuable timber land located
within the state of California were added
to the Siskiyou National Forest.
In Oregon changes were made in the Cas-
cade, Chelan, Crater, Deschutes, Fremont,
Malheur, Oregon, Siskiyou, Umpqua, Wal-
lowa, Whitman, and Umatilla forests and
the new Minam. Ochoco, Okanogan, Paulina
and Santiam forests were established from
transfers from the other forests mentioned.
Transfers occurred as follows: From the
Umpqua to the Cascade, 168,508 acres;
from the Cascade to the Santiam, 216,821
acres, to the Deschutes, 504,864 acres, and
to the Paulina, 147,720 acres; from the Che
lan to the Okanogan, 1,732,820 acres; from
the Crater, 9,200 acres to the Klamath, and
61,370 acres to the Paulina; to the Des-
chutes 174,130 acres from the Oregon,
504,864 acres from the Cascade, and from
the Deschutes 699,720 acres to the Ochoco
and 407,120 acres to the Paulina; from the
Fremont to the Paulina, 411,000 acres; to
the Malheur from the Umatilla 179,550
acres, from the Malheur to the Ochoco 119,-
310 acres; from the Oregon to the Santiam
493,349 acres, to the Deschutes 174,130
acres, from the Siskiyou to the Crater 12,400
491
492
acres, to the Siskiyou fromthe Klamath
352,000 acres in connection with which were
added 13,755 acres to the Siskiyou; from the
Umpqua to the Cascade 168,503 acres, to the
Paulina 306,149 acres; from the Wallowa to
the Minam 448,330 acres; from the Whit-
man to the Umatilla 276,170 acres; and
from the Umatilla to the Malheur 179,550
acres, to the Umatilla from the Whitman
276,170 acres. Eliminations from the for-
ests in Oregon occurred as follows: 320
acres of patented land from the Chelan,
27,931 acres from the Crater, 32,935 acres
from the Deschutes, 10,606 acres from the
Oregon, 9,610 acres from the Siskiyou, and
44.414 acres from the Umpqua. The lands
embraced within these eliminations consist
of many small bodies lying along the bor-
ders of the various forests which upon ex-
amination were found to be non-forest lands
or patented lands that could well be ex-
cluded from the forests.
Seed Collecting on the Kaibab
Since the coniferous trees growing on the
national forests do not as a rule reproduce
themselves from sprouts, all nursery work,
planting and sowing in this district, must
begin with the seed. Until there is seed
nothing can be done in the way of reforesta-
tion. A large quantity of seed economically
collected is therefore the foundation of all
subsequent work.
CONDITIONS FOR COLLECTIONS.
Ideal collecting aims at obtaining the
largest quantity of seed in the shortest pos-
sible time and at the least cost per pound,
using the funds available for the purpose.
It is evident, therefore, that the best col-
lecting can be accomplished only when
there is a full seed crop. It is possible to
find a few cones every year. At intervals
of two or three years, a species will produce
an unusually heavy crop. “Seed years”
and “off years’ and general and alternate
in case of Yellow Pine and Douglas Fir,
thus 1907 and 1909 were good years for
Douglas Fir while 1906 and 1908 were good
years for Yellow Pine. The seed crop from
the forester’s standpoint is not abundant
unless the supply of cones is sufficient to
make seed collecting profitable. Forest offi-
cers occasionally report good seed crops
when this is not the case. Frequently poor
crops are reported when collecting could
be well done with profit. A careful exam-
ination of extensive bodies of timber is
necessary to determine the abundance of
the seed crop and also to determine the
best localities for collecting. During “off
years” cones are much more liable to be
affected by insects than during good seed
years. It is, however, always necessary
to examine them before arrangements for
collecting have been completed. This can
readily be done by peeling off the scales
with a sharp knife, cutting toward the
AMERICAN FORESTRY
apex of the cone. The fertility of the seed
can also be determined in this way. If an
abundance of cones of good quality are
found in a given locality, collecting becomes
a question mainly of time, method and or-
ganization. Seed collecting consists in
gathering the cones as soon as the seed is
ripe, in drying them out so as to release the
seed, and in cleaning and storing the seed
for use.
TIME FOR COLLECTIONS.
Before proceeding with the details of col-
lecting, it is necessary to find out when the
seed is ripe. This is more difficult than
one would think. Cones of the same spe-
cies ripen first at the lower altitudes. The
external appearance of the cones seems to
indicate very little. It is necessary to open
them as above stated and to examine the
seed itself. As long as the seed is soft and
milky, it is still immature. It is consid-
ered safe to commence collecting as soon as
the squirrels begin to store the cones for
food, about September 1. Heavy frosts,
followed by warm days, materially hasten
the ripening of the cones and consequently
lessens the time during which collecting
from the trees can take place. It is read-
ily seen, if seed is ripe on September 1,
and the cones open by September 15, that
the period of collecting is mecessarily
short. For this reason it is imperative that
the equipment be obtained early in fall,
that the work be organized on a scale suf-
ficiently large and that it be expedited in
every way possible so that it will be com-
pleted before the cones open, and before dis-
agreeable weather makes drying difficult or
impossible.
METHODS OF COLLECTING.
There are three methods of collecting
cones (a) from felled trees, (b) from stand-
ing trees, (c) from squirrels’ caches. In
places where timber scales are in operation
and a species, the seed of which is desired,
is being logged at the right time, and a
sufficient number of trees are out, it may
be preferable to follow the cutters and to
pick out the cones from the felled trees or
from the ground after the brush has been
piled. Where no cutting is done and no
easier method of collecting can be found,
it will be necessary for the collectors to
climb trees. In that case the more limby
trees are generally selected and the cones
are picked and stripped off by hand. The
limbs may also be lopped off, and the
branches snapped off by means of hooks
fastened to poles. In several instances,
special trees have been cut down for the
sale of their cones supply. This, however,
is not desirable unless the trees bear an
unusually large quantity and unless they
can be spared and profitably disposed of.
Picking from standing trees at best is
difficult and expensive. Cones can easily
be obtained economically by robbing the
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
caches of the pine squirrels, since they
usually store large quantities. As would
be expected the better caches generally oc-
cur in the denser stands of timber. They
are found along small streams and springy
places, in water and muck. Dry caches are
frequently found under bushes, trees, tops,
and rotten logs. Caches are sometimes cov-
ered with humus and are so carefully con-
cealed that it is difficult for the inexpe-
rienced to locate them. The squirrels’
trails to and from the caches frequently
help in locating their stores.
When extensive collecting is undertaken,
it is often possible to use several or all of
the above methods of obtaining cones.
Collecting from squirrels’ caches, however,
has proven most satisfactory. It has this
important advantage, that it can be carried
on after the cones on the trees are open and
collecting from standing trees becomes im-
possible.
In the fall of 1907, 610 bushels of Lodge-
pole Pine cones were collected from squir-
rels’ caches on the Targhee National Forest
at an average cost of 18 cents a bushel, one
man picking 13% bushels a day. During
the fall of 1908, 1,137 bushels of Yellow
Pine cones were collected in the Boise Na-
tional Forest by the same method after the
cones on the trees had opened. In these
cases collecting by any other method would
have been considerably more expensive.
DRYING THE CONES.
During collecting the cones are usually
picked into buckets or baskets, sacked and
transported to a place convenient for dry-
ing. They are then spread thinly upon can-
vas sheets or wagon covers and allowed to
dry in the sun. If the drying is liable to
be continued until the soil becomes cold
and wet, it is advisable to prepare a raised
platform upon which to spread the canvas.
The cones should be spread out thinly upon
the sheets. After being exposed to the heat
of the sun for a few days, they generally
open and allow the seed to drop upon the
sheets. The rate of drying depends upon
the weather and upon the species. Yellow
Pine, Douglas Fir and Englemann Spruce
open readily while Lodgepole Pine opens
with the greatest difficulty. It is therefore
generally necessary to dry the latter species
by artificial heat inside a building, or, even
better, to collect the cones in quantity in
fall and to store them till the following
summer when they can readily be dried in
the sun.
If the other species mentioned are collect-
ed early and good drying weather prevails,
it is hardly necessary or advisable to dry
them by artificial heat, unless the work
is unduly delayed or the weather unusually
favorable. It then becomes necessary with
all species to resort to the slower and more
expensive artificial drying. If artificial
drying becomes necessary, a suitable build-
ing should be selected or constructed and
493
provided with tiers of trays arranged
around the inside of the room, 8” to 10”
apart. The trays should be constructed
with screen bottoms having a 4,” mesh
through which the seed can drop upon a
canvas sheet on the floor of the building.
After the trays are filled with cones, one
or more stoves are heated up so as to keep
the temperature of the room 120° to 140°
until the cones have opened up. Partial
ventilation of the room to carry off the
moisture-laden air is necessary to obtain
the best results. When the cones have
opened they are removed from the trays
and thrashed out, and another supply of
cones is then put into the trays.
Twelve square feet of drying space is
usually allowed to a bushel of cones. Some
of the cones usually open more readily
than others. An occasional stirring by
means of an iron rake will result in a more
even drying. Sorting opened from closed
cones is not advisable unless cones are
placed too thickly upon the sheets.
EXTRACTING THE SEED.
In case of Yellow Pine a thorough raking
of the open cones is generally sufficient to
dislodge all the seed. In Douglas Fir and sev-
eral other species all of the seed cannot be
removed without more violent jarring.
Severe jarring is usually accomplished
through a “cone shaker.” Such a device
may be constructed from a large, strong
dry goods box, about 4 by 3 by 83 feet. It
is provided at one end with a door made of
slats so spaced as to permit only the closed
cones to fall through. This door should
be fitted, also, with a removable wire screen
of such sized mesh as to permit only the
seed to escape. Any suitable size of cylin-
der or box may be used for this purpose. It
should be built on a pole as an axis and
swung between two trees, or mounted on a
windlass frame. A crank should be at-
tached to one end of the axis in order to
revolve the apparatus and jar the seed
loose. Slats may be nailed lengthwise in-
side the apparatus, or loose blocks of wood
included with the cones, to increase the
jarring effect. After the seed has escaped,
the screen should be removed and the
churning continued to separate the closed
cones from the larger sized open ones. The
closed cones can then be returned for fur-
ther drying. While jarring with most spe-
cies is necessary, trampling the cones is
considered too severe and liable to injure
the seed.
EXTRACTING THE SEED.
When the seed is separated from the
cones it usually contains light membranous
wings, broken cones, scales, twigs and other
foreign matter which may in part be re-
moved by a large meshed screen. The
wings can be broken from the seed by rub-
bing between the hands or placing it in
loosely tied sacks which are then kneeded
494
or rolled on the floor. The seed can be
cleaned by carefully pouring it from one
box to another in a current of air. A grain
fanning mill fitted with screens of different
size is preferable, however, and should be
used whenever available. In obtaining
clean seed of good quality, it is often meces-
sary to blow away what appears to be good
seed, but what is actually worthless. The
final process of cleaning can often be
greatly facilitated if the cones have been
screened before drying begins. In this way
needles and other foreign matter can be
removed at the start.
YIELD OF SEED.
The yield depends upon the quality of the
cones, upon the drying and upon the extrac-
tion and cleaning of the seed. Douglas Fir
should yield 1144 pounds of clean seed to
the bushel. Yellow Pine has frequently
yielded as high as 2 pounds to the bushel.
If a smaller yield is obtained, it is an
indication either that the cones are of in-
ferior quality or that extraction is incom-
plete. In the case of Lodgepole Pine and
Englemann Spruce a yield larger than 1
pound to the bushel can hardly be expected.
It is generally less.
SHIPPING AND STORING.
Seed is usually shipped by express. In
preparing it for shipment it is placed in
strong sacks enclosed in boxes or crates.
Labels with the following information
should be placed inside the sacks: Species,
name of forest, elevation, date and total
cost per pound. The boxes or crates should
be carefully marked with their destination.
Seed should not be kept in a heated room
for any length of time. A cool dry place
like an unheated cellar or basement is best.
To prevent loss by mice, it is usually
necessary to hang the sacks from a ceiling
by means of hooks or wires.
Past experience in collecting shows that
the work has most invariably been started
too late. The best results can only be ob-
tained by planning and arranging the work
early in the season, by organizing it on a
scale sufficiently large and by prosecuting
the work with all possible energy so as to
complete it while the weather is still good
and before the slow and expensive artificial
drying becomes necessary.
Fire Supervision on the Deerlodge
The scheme of using per diem guards
will be given a very thorough try-out this
season. Men recommended for such posi-
tions should, in every case, be reliable, re-
sponsible citizens of the community and
have, if possible, at their disposal and
under their direction a number of men who
can be used as the whole or nucleus of a
fire-fighting crew. Each ranger should
make it his immediate duty to secure the
consent of such men in his district to serve
AMERICAN FORESTRY
in the capacity of per diem guards and
should send into the Anaconda Office, as
soon as possible, the name of each man
recommended for the position, stating his
full name, postoffice address, business, the
number of men controlled by him who can
be put immediately in the field in case of
fire, how he can most quickly be notified
in case of fire, his location in or near the
forest, together with any other information
bearing on the question. As a rule, from
three to five such appointees on each dis-
trict appears to be a desirable number.
They should, of course, be distributed over
the district as advantageously as possible
under the circumstances. The authority
of such men will be limited to the hand-
ling of fire protection and no other admin-
istrative duties whatever will be assigned
to them.
The reconnaissance and permanent im-
provement crews will be used as protective
forces to be summoned at any time in case
of fire in the region in which they are
working, with a possibility that in case the
fire season becomes especially bad, the crews
will be disintegrated more or less to per-
mit sending individual members to dif-
ferent places to assist in handling or to
take charge of fires. The men in such
crews will be selected more or less with a
view to the possibility of their being used
in the capacity just mentioned and men in
charge of such crews will be expected to see
that the members of the crews understand
the principles of fire fighting and the rules
laid down in this circular.
Those district rangers who have not
already done so should immediately fur-
nish the office with a list of the places
where fire fighting tools should be cached
in their districts. For each cache the num-
ber and kind of tools should be specified.
The following rules should be followed
without variation except by special author-
ity from the Supervisor:
Rates:
1. The standard rate of pay shall be 25¢
per hour with board or 30c per hour if the
employee boards himself, as in the case of
a rancher or miner, living near the fire.
Foremen in charge of crews shall receive
30c per hour and board. This applies only
to men in charge of camps and not to so-
called “straw bosses” temporarily in charge
of a small gang.
Packers shall get $3 per day, cooks $3
per day and cookees $2.50 per day. Cooks
pay may be raised somewhat according to
the size of the crew and the amount of
help he has in the way of cookees, but
should in no case exceed $3.50 per day.
2. No fixed amount can be set for hire
of pack horses and teams but the standard
rate shall be $1 per day for pack horses,
the service providing their feed, and $6 per
day for man and team, the team to be fed
by owner.
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
Time:
1. When hired at points involving a trip
by rail or boat, fare and expenses while en
route to points of disembarkation from the
railroad will be met by the Service but no
time allowed.
To protect the Service, the cost of trans-
portation expenses en route should be de-
ducted on the time slip if the man fails to
work for a period of at least ten days, if
needed. This rule should apply in case of
discharge for inefficiency or other cause ex-
cept on account of not being needed. Con-
tracts will cover this point, but will not
stipulate that no time will be allowed un-
less service has been rendered for at least
10 days. The form to be used is as follows:
United States Department of Agriculture.
Forest Service.
Waiver.
L, —————————_,, having been employed
by the Forest Service, United States De-
partment of Agriculture, to fight fire on or
adjacent to the national forests, in consid-
eration of transportation furnished by the
said Forest Service, from the place of em-
ployment to the point where my services
may be required, and other valuable con-
sideration, do hereby agree to work at least
10 days at such points as I may be assigned,
and do hereby agree to have the cost of
transportation and expenses en route de-
ducted from the amount dne me should I
fail to complete 10 days’ work, unless said
employment be sooner terminated by the
officers of the Forest Service because not
longer needed.
2. When hired locally, time will be al-
lowed from point at which hired, time to
begin when start to fire is made; and
when not hired locally time allowed from
point of disembarkation on the railroad
when start to the fire is made.
3. If the crew walks to the fire, time shall
be allowed going in, the time to be fixed by
the forest officer in charge, provided, if a
man does not work at least two days if
needed, his time going in shall not be al-
lowed.
4. If wagon transportation is provided,
time going in shall not be allowed.
5. Time will be allowed during subse-
quent transfers between fires.
6. Men who voluntarily quit or are dis-
charged on account of inefficiency shall
have their time and expenses both cease
when they quit work.
7. All men who remain on the fire un-
til discharged on account of not being
needed will be allowed time walking back
from the fire line to the railroad or the
point at which hired.
8. Rail transportation shall not be al-
lowed to the point where men are paid off,
but the forest officer in charge may secure
a ticket for such men as have no money
495
on a Government transportation request
making a note of the deduction to be made
on the time slip and the number of the
transportation request.
9. When at work in the fire camp, time
shall be allowed for going to and return-
ing from the fire, provided that the ranger
or foreman in charge, sets a time limit for
the trip. As a general thing this should
be the time in which he himself would
make it.
10. Time should be turned in on the regu-
lar slips, form 874-15. All entries and sig-
natures should be in ink or indelible pen-
cil. No erasures of any character will be
allowed on time slips. Time books of the
ordinary type should be used in recording
time in the field. To make available a sup-
ply of such books by requisition from the
Ogden Supply Depot, the matter is now
being taken up.
11. All accounts for commissary articles
such as tobacco, blankets, shoes, etec., should
be entered on the time slip and the amount
deducted from the total amount due. The
cash receipt should in all cases be signed
for the full amount but payment should
be made for the actual amount due. It is
impossible to make deductions where pay-
ments are made by officials’ checks. Where
necessary to avoid mailing official check,
cash payments may be made and a form
4 A sub-voucher taken and submitted for
reimbursement on form 4. With the sys-
tem of payments already outlined to you
this should be necessary only in very ex-
ceptional cases. Where transportation re-
quest is used and a deduction is to be made,
the cash receipt, should be made out for
the amount on the time slip, minus the de-
duction, since the Government has already
covered the amount due the railroad com-
pany with the request as a voucher.
12. In working on fires, twelve hours
should be usually considered the maximum
time per day. Time should not be allowed
for over this amount unless it is impossible
to avoid it and then only for short periods.
Long shifts running up to 20 hours or more
should be held to the extreme minimum.
This should usually be not more than one
shift of 20 hours or more per week. No
hard and fast rule can be allowed in this
but the standard above should serve as a
guide to hold excessive time to the mini-
mum.
14. In all cases the addresses of the men
employed together with the names of the
person they wish notified in case of acci-
dent should be kept in the time book in
the space to be provided for this purpose.
The following list is given as a guide
when ordering food supplies for crews of
men. This list is a result of long field
experience of the U. S. Geological Survey.
A ration is the amount of food necessary
to subsist one man one day:
496
Ration List.
100
Article Unit Rations
Wresh meaty’ (a) 3... si: Seta pounds 100
Cured meat, canned meat,
or ‘cheese: (b) 20.0.5 822. pounds 50
Pare i Oe cess sabe ees pounds 15
Flour, bread or crackers. .pounds 80
Corn meal, cereals, maca-
roni, sago or corn
BEATEN 55%) ose le = aes pounds 15
Baking powder or yeast
BROS J SL Serene pees pounds 5
marie ce oc oc cit hneace pounds 40
INEQISHSERH Sai uicide sige een gallon a
Woe 74235 A a pee ee pounds 12
Tea, chocolate or cocoa....pounds 2
Milk condensed (c)....... cans 10
BULLET oe Resco ke nes pounds 10
Dried trite 0d) 33.28 ee pounds 20
Riee ‘or beans i523. 2. cece pounds 20
Potatoes or other fresh
yeeetables, (ey) acca pounds 100
Canned vegetables........ cans 30
SPICES pee cis cess eaten ounces 4
MPlaverine Extracts: i. ce ounces +
Pepper or mustard........ ounces §
PIGKICS Hea 5 ats ses TR quarts 3
WONCLAL oe cts O Sich coe eae quarts i
Salt Soc thagt oie atic tae pounds 4
(a) Eggs may be substituted for fresh
meat in the ration of 8 eggs for one pound
of meat.
(b) Fresh meat and cured meat may be
interchanged on the basis of 5 pounds of
fresh for 2 pounds of cured.
(c) Fresh milk may be substituted for
condensed milk in the ratio of quarts of
fresh milk for 1 ean of condensed.
The above ration list has been drawn up
to cover the supplies found necessary for a
crew of men permanently in the field. In
case of fire fighters, however, it will not
usually be necessary to maintain the crew
long in the field. Therefore, so far as pos-
sible, rations should be supplied which do
not require much cooking and which may
be carried easily on the fire line. With this
object in view, you will probably not, in
most cases, need to order any flour, substi-
tuting in place of it bread already baked;
while canned vegetables will probably be
used more largely than appears on the list.
You will also probably need more canned
milk than 1-10 of a can per ration.
The following list gives the equipment as
nearly as can be estimated which will be
needed to handle a crew of ten men at a
fire:
Equipment 10 Men.
No. of pieces and article.
2 5-gal. W. Bags.
2 216-gal. W. Bags..
2 Canvas buckets.
3 12” Files.
14 Knives.
14 Forks.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
14 Tea spoons.
16 Tin or granite plates.
16 Mush bowls.
18 Cups.
Milk pans.
Dish pan.
Fry pans.
Table spoons.
Stew kettles.
Meat fork.
Galv. water bucket.
Wash basin.
Wash towels.
Dish towels.
8-qt. coffee pot.
Ds Bsavarey
Tent, 7x9.
Butcher knives.
Can opener.
Granite stew pan.
Large stirring spoon.
a
BRED HH eH He ROR DD
As you will note, no means of baking,
such as a dutch oven reflector or stove is
covered on the list. In very exceptional
cases where a fire is burning for a long
time, it will probably be desirable to fur-
nish some means for baking.
The following is a list of tools for the use
of 10 men.
List of Tools for 10 Fire Fighters.
No. Article.
4 Axes.
4 Shovels.
6 Mattocks.
1 CC Saw.
For supplying fire crews of more than
10 men it will probably be well to adhere
fairly closely to the ratio here given be-
tween the different kinds of tools, although
it should of course be varied to meet the
needs of the situation in each particular
case.
In order to secure the best possible use
of fire patrol forces, a definite plan of
permanent improvement work should be
laid out in each district so that at times
when weather conditions permit, the rang-
or may utilize the time of such patrol-
men in doing this work.
Each district ranger should bear in mind
that he may be instructed at any time by
the Supervisor to put on an additional pa-
trolman. For this purpose you should have
in mind a number of good men in the
vicinity who can be secured for the pur-
pose at short notice. Furthermore, each
district ranger should get as many persons
as possible in his district to agree to re-
spond to calls to assist in putting out fire
and, still better, he should, whenever pos-
sible, get them to agree to go with tools
and food to put out fires without being
summoned.
Tentative arrangements should also be
made to secure pack horses, wagons, etc.,
for use in case of fire so that we may not
be forced into a position to be held up as
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
to prices when we have to take such means
of transportation as we can get at any
price. The success of the Service in hand-
ling the fire situation depends very largely
upon the thoroughness and _ intelligence
with which preparations are made in ad-
vance. Each district ranger will be held
strictly accountable for proper prepara-
tions.
Seed-Eating Animals on the Tahoe
A lengthy article dealing with seed-
eating animals appeared in the issue of
“The Tahoe,” the publication of the Tahoe
national forest, and it is in part as fol-
lows:
In the usual order of things, seed produc-
ers and seed consumers are, upon the
whole, in harmony. While land is cov-
ered with living timber there is a vast
amount of seed that cannot possibly de-
velop into mature plants. Such trees as
have seeds of any considerable size are thus
natural purveyors for seed-eating creatures
both in fur and feathers. Many of these
creatures have the habit of storing nuts
and other seeds, for future consumption,
which involves transportation, and it not
infrequently happens that, through acci-
dent or oversight, seeds are left where they
find suitable conditions in which to grow
and reproduce their kind. Indeed, trees
bearing seeds too heavy to be carried by
the wind are distributed mainly through
the provident labors of these animals.
There is, therefore, normally a kind of
interdependence between certain trees and
certain animals.
The moment natural conditions are up-
set, however, this harmony gives place to
antagonism. Let a fire reduce the forest
to embers and bare earth, and the seed-
eaters immediately become opposed to re-
forestration. Only the arboreal species are
banished for more than a few months by
a forest fire. The earth dwellers—ground
squirrels, chipmunks, and mice—soon re-
turn to their old haunts and flourish upon
the product of various herbs and deeply
rooted shrubs, which spring up and clothe
the ground in a single summer. But
though they thrive and multiply under new
conditions, their noses are ever keen for
the scent of nuts.
When it is proposed to reforest a burn
by seeding, an essential preliminary is to
ascertain what kinds of rodents are upon
it, how numerous they are and how they
are distributed, in order that adequate
steps may be taken for the protection of
the seed to be planted. The necessity for
this preliminary is made clear by the light
of experience.
On a plantation made in the Tahoe for-
est during the winter following a fire in
July, only 40 per cent of the seed spots pro-
duced seedlings. This loss was mainly due
to Beechy ground squirrels and white-
497
footed mice; yet careful observation and
trapping showed the average number of
ground squirrels per acre to be only two or
three per acre, and of mice to be about
six. Had this burn been older there would
undoubtedly have been a larger population
of rodents upon it.
On a 12-year-old burn in the Black Hills
forest 11 mice and 3 chipmunks were trap-
ped on a half acre containing 2,000 seed
sprouts. They had taken 70 per cent of the
pine seed planted there in six days. One
chipmunk was seen to visit 38 seed spots in
four minutes. The need of attending to
rodents prior to planting does not require
further demonstration.
Where rodents are present signs of them
can be discovered by scanning the ground,
but the species to which they belong and
their relative number can best be deter-
mined by the use of traps for a day or
two. The catapult traps to be had at any
hardware store serve every purpose, a
dozen mouse traps and as many rat traps
being sufficient. For bait, oatmeal or a
scrap of bacon rind or, better still, both
together, may be used. It is important to
note whether the animals are concentrated
in favorable situations or are generally
distributed, as upon this point hangs the
distribution of poisoned grain which is to
be employed in exterminating the pests
An excellent poison may be prepared as
follows:
Wheat (sate 2 asc % eieluletaleea arene 1 bushel
WAUBOT 1:52 0s) os Sala levee euslata s)e/etabe Weareea mies 1 quart
Starelisriacwn ee sew selene 2 tablespoonfuls
SACCHATING cia hic s stove oss sete hers 2 teaspoonfuls
Strychnine (pulverized)......... 2 ounces
Add the starch, saccharine and strych-
nine to the water, heat to boiling, and stir
constantly after the starch begins to thick-
en. When the starch is fully cooked stir it
into the wheat, every kernel of which
should be coated. A galvanized iron wash-
tub is an excellent mixing vessel, especial-
ly as it is easily cleaned. Wither the sul-
phate or the alkoloid of strychnine may be
used.
If rain is imminent and the poisoning
cannot be delayed, melted tallow should be
substituted for the starch solution as a
coating medium. In this case the wheat
should first be slightly warmed, the saccha-
rine and strychnine added, and then the
tallow applied, in the ratio of a quart toa
bushel of wheat.
The putting out of poisoned grain de
pends entirely upon the number and dis-
tribution of the animals for which it is
intended. In that part of the Tahoe Na-
tional Forest near Nevada City, seed-eating
rodents are not numerous relatively speak-
ing. The mice are living chiefly about logs
and stumps and in old gopher holes, and
the ground squirrels are easily located by
their burrows. Under such circumstances
as these, poison need be put only in places
498
likely to be frequented by the pests.
Wherever there is a general reforestration,
however, poison should be dropped every
three or four feet along parallel lines five
yards apart. For mice and chipmunks 20
kernels in a place are sufficient, but ground
squirrels should have a teaspoonful. Poison
put on grazing land should be lightly scat-
tered to prevent its being taken by domes-
tic animals.
In deciding on the proper time to lay
poison for the protection of seed there
are several points to be considered. One of
these is the date at which planting is to
begin. Another is the habits of the ani-
mals aimed at. Mice are active at all sea-
sons, but chipmunks and ground squirrels
in the Tahoe forest hibernate during the
winter. Again, in winter, quail and grouse
feed on buds and seeds, and are in danger
of taking bait intended for troublesome
mammals. In the warm season this danger
disappears. The writer, at different times,
has had under observation several hun-
dred acres of land thoroughly treated with
poisoned grain in May and June; yet he
never knew of one grouse or quail living
there to be killed by it.
Fall Work for the Ranger
ORDERS FOR COLLECTION OF SEED,
FALL OF 1911.
(Contingent on conditions.)
District 1 lbs. lbs.
Vellow DING 2... 2 oer eye 2,000
PIOUSIAS Lair stereo te 5,000
Western white pine..... 15,000
Lodgepole pine.......... 5,000 27,000
District 2
VYellow- pine. 200
eS ae
CENT
NIFI
MAG
OREGON'S
OF
ENEMY
ONLY
THE
IN OREGON
FIR
AS
DOUGL
u
FIR FORESTS IS FIRE
American Forestry
VOL. XVII OCTOBER, 1911 No. 10
FIRE PROTECTION IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS
By EARLE H. CLAPP.
Epiror’s Nore.—The conditions and methods of fire protective work in the national
forests are clearly set forth in Mr. Clapp’s article, which will be concluded next month
with consideration of the topics of equipment, organization, patrol, and fighting fires.
ROTECTION from fire is absolutely necessary to the successful prac-
Pp tice of forestry. On the national forests protection is exceedingly difli-
cult because of the long dry seasons which are almost invariably periods
of high winds, and because the national forests are stocked almost entirely with
coniferous species and in general are located in the mountainous, most inacces-
sible, and most sparsely settled parts of the west.
The first important work after the transfer of the national forests from
the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture in February,
1905, was the completion of the administrative organization begun in the
General Land Office. The number of men available for administration and
protection was at first comparatively small and each man had to cover an
immense area. Most of the men were comparatively inexperienced; for fire
fighting they were poorly equipped. Public sentiment regarding protection
from fire was often indifferent, and in many localities even hostile. Gradually,
however, the number of men available for administrative purposes has been
increased; they have become more thoroughly trained for their duties, and
have been better equipped. Public sentiment became more and more favorable.
It has been possible gradually without doing away with the feeling of indi-
vidual responsibility among the men, to give in more detail and to make
more directly applicable to local conditions instructions for fire protection
which necessarily at the beginning were confined to statements of broad
principles.
The basic principles for fire protection which are being adopted are simple
and provide that protection shall be given according to the value of the
material to be protected either for market purposes or watershed protection,
and the degree of risk. The degree of risk depends not only on the number of
fires, but the damage which will be done by fire. In addition the following
essentials from the standpoint of administration are recognized: First, to
prevent fires where this is possible; and second, if prevention is impossible
to discover fires promptly, to get to them in the shortest possible time with
enough trained men suitably equipped to extinguish them without appreciable
573
574 AMERICAN FORESTRY
damage and at reasonable cost. In order to protect the forest from fires in
accordance with these basie principles, and to attain these administrative
essentials, the need for systematic effort and for team work to replace indi-
vidual and disconnected efforts has become more and more apparent. It
is recognized that so far as possible, all needs and emergencies to the full
extent that men and money are available, must be foreseen and provided for.
In this way the greatest efficiency can be secured at the least cost.
FIRE PLANS.
The feeling is growing that systematic protection can be brought about
only by a fire plan for each administrative unit or national forest. Each
fire plan is now or will eventually become a part of the forest working plan
which covers all phases of administration and management.
Fire plans have already been prepared wholly or in part, and are now in
effect on a large number of national forests. In each case these plans are
based on a careful study which is still being continued and a local application
of the principles and essentials already outlined. In addition to the determina-
tion of the comparative value of the forest areas to be protected, such areas
are being located and mapped as fast as available funds will allow. Studies
are being made of the causes and location of all past fires on each forest.
Methods are being devised for the prevention of fires so far as this is possible,
and studies made to determine on the ground by the men concerned the
manner in which patrol should be conducted in order that fires may be dis-
covered quickly. The best form of co-operation between adjoining districts
and between adjoining national forests, both in patrol and in fighting fires,
is being investigated. Various schemes are being tried experimentally to
establish an exceedingly flexible force of forest patrolmen, and in case of
need, fire fighters. Various plans are also being tried for rapid transporta-
tion of men with equipment and supplies to fires. Plans for permanent
improvements, including the building of headquarters for officers; pastures in
order that horses may be obtained quickly and easily; telephones and signal
systems for prompt communication; roads and trails for easy transportation ;
lookout stations on prominent peaks which overlook large areas of forest
land; tool boxes for the storing of tools at strategic points, have been largely
completed and take into account the necessity, so far as the needs can be
foreseen, for intensive fire protection. The plans which are based on such
investigations and experiments must first of all provide for protection from
fire, but must also co-ordinate protection work with the administration work
which is to be carried on during the fire season. Experience has shown that
each plan must be adapted to the conditions on the ground; that it must be
exceedingly flexible to suit changed conditions and to cover all possible
emergencies. In order to be successful, it must establish definitely in as much
detail as possible the responsibility of all the men concerned without making
them feel that the initiative in many phases of the work is being taken from
them. The most successful plans will obviously be those which are most
complete, most simple and most usable. Finally, provision must be made
for constant improvement in prevention and actual fire fighting in accordance
with experience and the results of investigations.
Maps usually form a part of the plan and show the location of timber,
all permanent improvements which may be of value in fire protection, all
particularly dangerous zones, tool caches, ranches where supplies or men may
be obtained, roads, trails, telephone lines, ete., topography and any other
features which can be placed upon a map and which will be of value in fire
protection.
FIRE PROTECTION IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 575
While the following discussion includes questions which must be con-
sidered in the preparation of fire plans, it will be obvious that many of the
points mentioned can not be included.
VALUE OF MATERIAL AND RISK.
The practice in the Forest Service has not become very definite in regard
to the effect which the value of the material and the fire risk should have in
protection. In a district embracing in part Montana and northern Idaho an
attempt has been made to place the protection in the western part of the
district as compared with the eastern in the ratio of 3 to 1, because of the
dense stand of western white pine in the + est as compared with the lighter
open stand of western yellow pine in the east. On individual forests in general,
heavy stands of timber and those stands of timber which are in the greatest
danger from fire, receive much more protection and are considered first in the
location and building of permanent improvements, necessary for efficient fire
protection.
CAUSES AND PREVENTION.
The following table shows the number of fires which have occurred on
the national forests from 1906 to 1910 inclusive, and also the causes:
Number of Fires in 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909 and 1910, and Reported Causes; Also
Percentage of Causes to Total Number of Fires
Total for the
1906 1907 1908 1909 1910 years 1906 to
1910 inclusive
Per Per Per Per Per Per
Causes Number Cent Number Cent Number Cent Number Cent Number Cent Number Cent
Locomotives 303 26.7 273 20.1 GOSte224 Ee 186490-8) 15704) 3218 4069) 30:0
Lightning 261 23.0 176 13.0 555 20.3 294 9.4 724 14.0 2,010 14.8
Incendiary 24.4. 2:1 pI RS ee AOA So7, OT eot 302 =65.8 544 4.0
Brush Burning ye a bs! Se ee HS) w25 181 75:8 307 5.8 605 4.5
Campers dha ete 361 26.7 493 18.1 431 13.7 G8Sicilacd 2.260 2716:9
Sawmills and
donkey engines ___ —___ 65 4.8 5 2 B toe, bal wee ye) es) 159 1.2
Unknown 196 17.3 367 27.1 20m) wel 758 24.1 1,184 22.8 2,768 20.4
Miscellaneous Pda ts | 60 4.4 639 23.4 15S aso 2A Te 4: 6r Lt blo 8.2
Total iss 1,355 2,728 3,138 5,201 13,555
The area in national forests has increased from approximately 107,000,000
acres in 1906 to a little more than 190,600,000 acres at the present time.
During these five years a regular field force, which has increased from approxi-
mately 1,000 in 1906 to approximately 2,500 in 1910, and which has been
augmented by other labor when necessary, has extinguished a grand total of
13,533 fires.
With the exception of those started by lightning, which approximate about
15 per cent of the total, all these fires are preventable. In many parts of
the west electrical storms during certain parts of the year which are accom-
panied by little or no rain are very dangerous. For instance, one storm on
the Rainier Forest on July 14, 1911, started no less than twenty fires. For-
tunately, however, many of these fires went out and the others, with one
exception, were reached and put out by rangers before they attained serious
proportions. It has been found that in some forests the danger of fire from
electric storms is confined to more or less definite zones, and “the recognition
if this fact is of great value in protection. For instance, on the Payette
Forest in Idaho there is great danger from fires started by lightning on only
three peaks.
576 AMERICAN FORESTRY
Of the preventable fires the railroads are responsible for by far the largest
percentage. Although the mileage of railroad within the national forests is
comparatively small, during a period of five years 4,069 fires, or 30 per cent
of the total number on the national forests have been set by locomotives. Rail-
road companies building new lines are in general required to clear and keep
clear from all inflammable material their rights of way and an additional
strip of sufficient width to prevent the setting of fires under ordinary con-
ditions; to notify forest officers in case fires are set; to furnish section hands
for assistance in fighting fires along the right of way or for which the com-
pany is responsible; to use oil for fuel or equip locomotives with suitable
spark arresters. A number of railroad companies whose lines were con-
structed before the forests were created, are co-operating with the Forest
Service along much the same lines, and efforts are being made to secure
co-operative agreements with others.
It is estimated that more than 400,000 people visit the national forests
for recreation each year, and carelessness on the part of a small percentage
has been responsible for 2,285 fires in five years, or nearly 17 per cent of the
total.
The most effective method of checking these people and those who are
responsible for the brush burning, incendiary, and other preventable fires,
is by education.
EDUCATION.
The educational work of the Forest Service in regard to fires has included
chiefly attempts to show the extent of the damage caused, to encourage pre-
vention of fires where possible, and to encourage efforts to extinguish fires
which start. Local forest officers embrace every opportunity, especially just
before and during the fire season, to confer with forest users and residents
in the forest and secure their interest and co-operation in fire protection. In
addition patrolmen during the entire season try to see all campers, hunters
and other transients who may be on the forests, inform them tactfully of the
best methods for handling and the care necessary with camp fires, and if
necessary inform them of the federal and state laws for fire protection and
the penalties for their violation. In addition to personal conferences fire
warning notices of various kinds are posted in conspicuous places in the
forests, at post offices, stores, and public places. These notices, which are of
several forms, call attention to the fire laws, the penalties for violation of the
laws, the rewards which are offered for the arrest and conviction of offenders,
and give the names and addresses of forest officers who should be notified
if fires are discovered, and finally direct transients to good camping sites,
which in many cases are kept sufficiently clear of debris and inflammable
material, so that the danger from fire is slight.
Many district foresters and forest supervisors have adopted the plan of
writing each year to people who should be interested in fire protection, includ-
ing forest users and residents in or near the forests, asking their co-operation ;
to ministers, asking them to bring to the attention of their congregations the
importance of fire protection from the standpoint of the public welfare; to
editors asking for their influence in stimulating public interest, and to the
proprietors of summer resorts, asking them to assist in order to preserve the
scenic beauty of the forests. Editors or others whose influence is great, and
who question the value of fire protection, are sometimes urged to accompany
forest officers and to study fire damages on the ground. Public meetings for
the discussion of fire protection are valuable and have accomplished much.
Important results have been, and are being, secured by civil and criminal
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FIRE PROTECTION IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 581
prosecutions for violation of federal and state fire laws. The idea that forest
fires could not be extinguished has largely been dispelled and a vast amount
of good accomplished by the actual fire fighting in which forest users and
residents in and near the national forests have engaged, and many people
who in years past have been careless about fires, now realize the damage
caused by fires and from experience the hard work necessary to extinguish
them.
CO-OPERATION.
Before the creation of the national forests little or no effort was made
in the states in which there are now national forests, either to prevent or
extinguish fires. One result of the protection in the forests and the educa-
tional activities of the Forest Service has been to interest the states and
lumbermen’s associations, and indirectly to encourage the formation of asso-
ciations for fire protection. The Service has constantly endeavored to co-
operate with all such organizations. At the present time Washington, Oregon,
Idaho, and Montana are taking an active interest in fire protection, and are
co-operating with the Forest Service.
This cooperation usually provides for such an arrangement of patrol as
to prevent needless duplication, for mutual notification in case of fire, for
the division of the cost of fighting fires in accordance with the acreage burned
over under each jurisdiction, for the appointment of federal officers as state
wardens without salary in order that they may assist in the enforcement of
state laws, and the appointment of state officers as federal guards at a nominal
salary in order that they may have the authority of federal officers on lands
belonging to the United States.
A number of fire associations in the states named and composed largely
of lumbermen, are cooperating in a similar way. In a large number of cases
in addition, there is very helpful cooperation from the owners of timberlands,
frequently in the form outlined under cooperation with states. In the case
of small holdings it may not, however, go further than mutual notification of
fires, and assistance in case the holdings of either party to the agreement are
threatened.
The cooperation secured with railroads because they are responsible for
530 per cent of the fires on the forests has already been mentioned.
Further cooperation of great benefit is the assistance given by people
regardless of their own immediate interest in the national forests, from the
standpoint of the protection of public interests. This cooperation usually
takes the form of notification of fires to forest officers, and assistance in
fighting fires when help is needed. A more infrequent form of cooperation
is in effect during the present season on the Sierra National Forest. A stage
company which operates over fifty miles of road within the forest on every
day except Sunday, notifies forest officers of fires and provides an efficient
patrol through a dangerous country in addition to the regular patrol.
PERMANENT IMPROVEMENTS.
Protection from fire on the large areas included in the national forests
can never become thoroughly effective until suitable means of communication
and transportation have been constructed, and properly located headquarters
for forest officers have been provided. This system of improvements must
eventually include extensive fire lines similar to those which have such a
great value in the European forests. Practically every forest now has a
permanent improvement plan showing as far in advance as the needs can be
foreseen, improvements necessary for fire protection, and for every other
82 AMERICAN FORESTRY
Or
form of administration. For fire protection the means of communication and
transportation are probably of the greatest importance under present condi-
tions. For communication the telephone is most important and the time it
saves is easier to comprehend when it is realized that in some cases mail
service from New York to San Francisco is as quick as from a supervisor to a
ranger, and in many cases it is several days hard riding from the headquarters
to the more inaccessible parts of the forest. Up to June 30, 1910, something
over 6,600 miles of telephone lines had been constructed for the Forest Service,
at the rate of approximately 2,000 miles per year during the last three years.
During the year ending June 30, 1911, the amount of telephone construction
was considerably in excess of 2,000 miles. In the more accessible forests
there are available many miles of privately owned lines. In addition the
Forest Service has cooperated in the building of the new lines, exchanging
telephone poles and a free right of way for the free use of the line for official
business. The benefits of telephone lines in ordinary administration, and
particularly in protection from fire, are incalculable, and have already saved
many times over to the people of the United States the money expended in
their construction. As a temporary expedient other means of communication,
of which the heliograph is probably the most important, have been tried to
some extent. There are, however, grave objections to the heliograph. It
cannot be used at night or when the atmosphere is too smoky and the need
for it may be the greatest. It is often difficult to obtain men who are
familiar with the Morse code. It is reasonable to suppose, therefore, that it
will gradually be replaced by the telephone, except under unusual circum-
stances.
Since the mileage of railroad within the national forests is small, trans-
portation must be almost entirely over roads and trails. Thousands of miles
of roads constructed by individuals, counties, and corporations existed before
the forests. The Forest Service has cooperated with counties in road building
by allowing the free use of timber necessary for road construction and by
actual work. Many miles of roads have been constructed to market timber
purchased and in connection with other uses of the forests. In addition the
Service had before July 30, 1910, constructed in excess of 1,200 miles of roads
and 13,600 miles of trails. Trails were constructed during the three years
preceding June 30, 1910, at an annual rate of about 2,500 miles.
It has sometimes been found advisable in order to secure maximum present
benefits from comparatively small sums of money merely to locate, blaze and
post the trails, clear sufficiently for travel, and plan for their improvement
and completion at a later date. Large areas have thus without delay been
made comparatively accessible to patrolmen and fire fighting crews.
The rather diversified objects of trail making, and the same conditions
hold more or less true of roads also, are to allow forest officers to get from
one place to another by the easiest route and that which is shortest in time;
to make possible effective patrol, for which trails necessarily follow the high
ridges, extend to prominent peaks suitable for lookouts, and to openings from
which good views can be obtained; to so locate and construct trails that in
strategic places they may be valuable for fire lines; and to provide for ready
access to large bodies of valuable timber in remote and comparatively in-
accessible regions.
‘
THE SUMMER MEETING OF EASTERN FORESTERS
By HUGH P. BAKER.
held a successful meeting in northern New York with headquarters at
Saranac Lake. This is the first time that the organization has held a
meeting in which others than those connected immediately with state work
were included. Feeling that the society could not only broaden its sphere of
action and influence, but greatly strengthen and increase the usefulness of its
work, the state foresters decided to include practicing foresters in all other
lines in the eastern states. This brought in for the first time this year a
number of men from various forest schools and several foresters in the employ
of large corporations and in private work.
The day previous to the meeting the writer, with a member of the North-
eastern Forestry Company, had the good fortune to jog along slowly up the
western shore of Champlain, stopping at one or two small nurseries operated
by this company, and at Willsboro looked over their new seed houses built
last year. These houses are very complete indeed and probably the best of
their kind in America. The large house shown in the accompanying illus-
tration has a capacity of six thousand bushels of cones. These are spread
out on racks made of lath, which are light and easily adjustable, extending
in tiers from the floor to the ceiling. The small house is fifteen by thirty and
is occupied by the ovens in which the cones are heated after removal from
the larger dry house. The method used for the removal of wings from seed
is not an entirely practical one, because of the amount of hand work involved
and the problem of developing cheaper and quicker methods is a little difficult
to solve because of the size of the plant. The Appel concern in Darmstadt
having very much more extensive ovens has developed machinery which does
the work satisfactorily, though they figure on some loss from crushing and
mangling of the seed.
After leaving Willsboro we stopped for a few hours at Bluff Point, where -
Mr. H. 8. Bristol, forester for the Delaware & Hudson Railroad, is developing
an extensive forest nursery. This nursery is excellently laid out and has
an effective water system, but the extremely sandy nature of the soil rather
leads one to feel that we are sacrificing in this country certain important
conditions in the nursery to get a soil that is easily worked and warm.
When a season is as hot and dry as the past one, nurseries Located in such
situations are sure to suffer and the matter of supplying proper amounts of
plant food in the soil is an extremely important question which is probably
solved easier by the railroad than by others in nursery work in the east,
because of cheap and easy transportation.
At Plattsburg the party of three was increased by several from across
the lake, and the next morning a very interesting run was made into the thick
of the Adirondacks to a little station beyond Saranae Lake, where the entire
party of eighteen foresters began a series of unusually attractive excursions
under guidance of Mr. C. R. Pettis, superintendent of state forests, and his
(> July fourteenth and fifteenth, the Association of Eastern Foresters
605
606 AMERICAN FORESTRY
assistant, Mr. Howard, the hosts for the meeting. We went at once through
some excellent Scotch pine plantings four years old and also some white pine
and European larch, the average cost of planting of which was eight dollars per
acre. From Raybrook we drove on toward Lake Placid and took another very
instructive walk through more extensive plantings of Scotch pine made in
1905 in which there is almost a perfect stand. The growth of this species
has been so satisfactory that one is convinced almost that the Scotch pine has
a future in the United States. The accompanying illustration shows a portion
of this plantation with the tent of the forest guard.
After dinner at Lake Placid, we went back to Lake Clear Junction and
there visited what is probably the most extensive and oldest plantation of
Scotch pine in the United States. The view of the party together is taken
standing against this plantation. The planting was made in 1902, spacing six
by six feet, and many of the trees are now fifteen feet high. Mr. Pettis
explained that the Scotch pine does not do as well where duff covers the
sand; also that white pine had failed here as elsewhere in the immediate
region, because of the formation of a secondary root system, causing the entire
vitality of the tree to go into the formation of adventitious roots. Here a
considerable number of white pine had been removed and burned, because of
infection by blister rust. This plantation of Scotch pine with one or two planta-
tions of red pine and white pine, seen the next day at Paul Smith’s, are among
the finest examples of reforestation in the United States and compare very
favorably indeed with reforestation of similar lands in either Germany or
France.
Following the examination of plantations, several large nurseries at Lake
Clear Junction and at Saranac Inn were visited. One of the accompanying
illustrations shows the party in the nursery at Lake Clear Junction examining
this season’s seed beds. In a number of beds of white pine, it was estimated
that there were nine thousand seedlings in a space four by twelve feet. Ants
were causing some injury in spruce beds, but where they were not working
the average stand in four by twelve feet space was estimated at fifteen thou-
sand. The average for spruce seedlings in beds of similar size in 1910 was
given as fourteen thousand. Damping-off had started in the red pine and as
sulphur seemed to cause baking of the soil, dry sand was used with very
satisfactory results. After seedlings were well started, six pounds of bone
meal were used to the beds of pine, but no bone meal was put on the spruce.
Here and there in the pine slight injury had been caused by irregular scattering
of the bone meal and by too much lying upon or about the seedlings. The soil
Was a sandy loam and this spring a very heavy dressing of manure was given
previous to the working up of the beds. The treatment with manure and
subsequent use of bone meal has produced unusually strong seedlings, stocky
and of good color. In fact, the number of seedlings produced per square foot
exceeds, if anything, the number produced in the average forest nursery of
central and southern Germany. It is probable that a larger number of seed-
lings may be produced in limited situations where the ground has been worked
for a long period and is exceedingly rich, but there will be little reason for
increasing the production per square foot above that now obtained in these
nurseries in northern New York. It was stated that in 1910 the acre and
three-fourths at Lake Clear Junction produced six million seedlings. Fol-
lowing a visit to the seed beds a twelve-acre transplant nursery was looked
over in which there were standing one-fourth of a million seedlings to the
acre. It was estimated that the cost of the transplanted seedlings at the
end of the third year was two dollars to two dollars and fifty cents a thousand.
The evening was given up to a business meeting at Saranac Lake in which
THE SUMMER MEETING OF EASTERN FORESTER 607
plans for the future were discussed and a number of new members were
elected. It was decided that the membership of the association apart from
those in state service or connected with schools of forestry should be limited
to men who would be likely to be of value in the society. A day and evening
meeting will be held in New York city sometime in January for a thorough
discussion of topics of special interest in forest work in the eastern states.
A steady rain on the morning of the fifteenth dampened the ardor of a
number who left for the south and east during the forenoon. About noon a
run was made to Lake Clear Junction and thence to Paul Smith’s, where an
excursion was made to unusually extensive experiments in seed spot planting.
After lunch at the camp of the forest watch, these spot plantings were gone
over carefully and some interesting results seen. Scotch and white pine
had succeeded best in the seed spots and the loss with the other species in
most instances was complete. Adjoining the area upon which the spot plant-
ing had been done is a tract of twenty-five hundred acres planted to white
and Scotch pine. Considerable replanting was necessary here because of
loss of previous years due to poor planting and dryness. One very interesting
feature of the work in this vicinity was a side hill upon which white pine had
been broadcasted. The seeding was done in 1906 on a slope of about thirty
per cent with a southeastern and northwestern exposure. The results were
good, as can be seen in the accompanying photograph, which compares size
of seedlings with a hat. Upon the return to Paul Smith’s a three-acre planting
of bull pine seven years from seed was seen. While a growth of brakes was
exceedingly heavy, this pine seemed to be doing excellently and, no doubt,
has great promise for very dry situations throughout the eastern states. Of
all the plantations visited, a tract planted to red pine was the most inter-
esting and attractive. Twenty-five acres near the above-mentioned planting
of bull pine was put out seven years ago and there is to-day almost a complete
stand. The ground is a very gravelly drift soil well adapted to the red pine
and the heavy annual growth of brakes has not seemed to injure the develop-
ment of the plantation in any way. The pine, as shown in accompanying cut,
is now overtopping the brakes and within a short time there will be almost
perfect forest conditions. If those skeptical as to the future of planting in
the eastern states will visit this red pine plantation all doubt will be removed
and in its place will come enthusiasm and confidence as to the future of
forestry in this country. The plantation convinces one also that the red pine
should be used more where soils are right and that its growth during an
entire rotation will probably compare favorably with any conifer that can
be used in the eastern states. The meeting was closed at Paul Smith’s after
several strenuous athletic contests.
The next day three of the party ran in to Raquette Lake and looked over
some of the virgin forests along the west shore. The accompanying illustra-
tion is quite typical of present conditions of the forest in Township 40. There
is a great deal of mature timber and very light growth of saplings and seed-
lings to insure a satisfactory forest after the older trees are removed by
either natural or artificial means.
These meetings of the eastern foresters mark the beginning of a different
type of forestry meetings in this country. They are in reality conferences
between the men who are trying to solve definite problems, supplemented by
opportunities to observe and study what is going on in the various parts of
the east. Much of the success of this meeting was due to the energetic thought-
fulness of the host, Mr. Pettis.
The following men were present: Samuel N. Spring, state forester of Con-
608 AMERICAN FORESTRY
necticut; James W. Toumey, professor in the Yale Forest School; H. H. Chap-
man, professor in the Yale Forest School; Ralph C. Hawley, professor in the
Yale Forest School; F. W. Besley, state forester of Maryland; F. William
Rane, state forester of Massachusetts; R. T. Fisher, professor in the Harvard
Forest School; F. F. Moon, professor of forestry at Massachusetts Agricul-
tural College; C. R. Pettis, superintendent of state forests, New York; Hugh
P. Baker, professor of forestry in the Pennsylvania State College; Austin F.
Hawes, state forester of New Hampshire; Charles P. Wilber, state fire warden
of New Jersey; Alfred Gaskill, state forester of New Jersey; William G.
Howard, assistant superintendent of state forests of New York. And as
guests, the following: H. 8. Bristol, superintendent of woodlands, Delaware
& Hudson Railroad Company, New York; J. G. Peters, United States Forest
Service.
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STREET TREES
By J. J. LEVISON, B. A., M. F.
FORESTER IN CHARGE OF THE TREES IN THE PARKS OF BROOKLYN
neglected street trees are now gradually becoming his care and the people
are even more particular about them than they are about the parks,
because in the street tree the citizen takes a proprietary interest. It is his
tree; he sees it daily, is directly benefited by it and expects it to be thrifty and
sightly. The park superintendent must meet this problem and if he meets it
well, it is that much to his credit. What then are the fundamental principles of
street tree planting and care and how shall he go about the problem?
First of all the street trees as well as the park trees should be controlled
by the municipality and placed under the jurisdiction of a single head.
Municipal control is the only way of securing uniformity in planting—very
essential on streets—it is the only way of controlling insect and fungus inva-
sions over large areas and of doing anything systematically and at the right
time. Co-ordination of effort, that is, combining all city tree work into one
bureau is also the only way of insuring the absolute eradication of insect and
fungous pests, of securing uniformity and efficiency in methods, material and
apparatus and of getting the work done at the least possible cost. All city
tree problems both in the parks and on the streets are interdependent and
divided effort would mean loss of time, money and trees.
With the work co-ordinated, place the responsibility of all tree matters on
a professional forester, a man trained in the science of forestry and arbori-
culture and one of considerable experience in park work. His duties will be
to see to all planting, spraying, pruning and cultivating. He will establish a
municipal nursery, test the various insecticides and fungicides, install the best
apparatus and enforce the city tree ordinances. He will organize the office
work, plot the street trees on a map and advise citizens on their tree problems.
He will issue permits for tree removal and private tree pruning, study the local
tree problems, collect tree statistics and promote public interest through
lectures and writing.
The enactment of a good city tree ordinance is the next step. There are a
number of cities that now have such ordinances in force and the new one may
be modeled from those. Your tools to work with are then provided and if
your trained expert is a good one, you can leave the details of carrying out
the work to him. Oversee his work occasionally, give him the benefit of your
wider experience and back him when necessary because in the beginning of all
such work there frequently appear many cases of opposition from citizens who
either for selfish motives or otherwise try to force their own views in the matter
of handling technical tree problems.
The attention of the forester will first probably be directed to the care
of the existing trees rather than to the addition of new ones.
Spraying for leaf-eating insects may be his first work. Street trees growing
under less favorable conditions than park trees are naturally weaker and
611
Cys park superintendent of today is facing a new problem. Those old
612 AMERICAN FORESTRY
more susceptible to insect attack. Street elms without care very seldom escape
attack from the elm leaf beetle and such trees as the horsechestnut and linden
are titbits for leaf-eating caterpillars. Let all such spraying be done early,
while the insect is young and susceptible to the poison. It is also important
to look into the chemical and physical value of the insecticide you are using.
A few years ago I found one of the best known brands of arsenate of lead
to contain as little as 4 per cent of arsenic oxide, whereas it should have had
15 per cent or more to be the least effective. Since then, we have been purchas-
ing our spraying material subject to chemical and physical tests and have been
paying considerably less than we had been paying before.
Success in spraying will, moreover, depend not only on the value of the
insecticide and upon how early in its feeding stage the insect is attacked, but
also on the thoroughness with which the work is done. The kind of apparatus
used will also make an appreciable difference, for a barrel pump is too slow for
the amount of labor used to operate it and a very heavy wooden tank such
as is commonly used for woodland spraying would prove too sluggish and
cumbersome in going about the city streets.
In late summer and early fall, pruning will be in season. The men should
then be trained in the fundamental principles of the work and furnished with
printed hints on the necessary precautions in climbing trees and removing
branches. We have had little booklets published on such topics for our men
and find them very helpful. Close cuts and application of coal tar to the
wounds should always be insisted upon and above everything else, do not let
them prune more than is necessary. The tendency on street trees has gener-
ally been the other way to the great detriment of the trees.
Cavities caused by some old neglected horse-bitten wound or by an improp-
erly made cut, are more common in street trees than in park trees and the
present tendency is to indiscriminately fill them all with cement. This work is
expensive and in many cases unjustified. It is particularly true of trees on
the streets because there the trees are frequently of poor species and the
cavities so neglected that the absolute elimination of diseased wood is utterly
impossible. There the decay would keep on developing after treatment with
the same rapidity as before. Cavity filling is justifiable only where the tree
is a much valued specimen, where the filling can serve the practical purpose of
eliminating moisture and where every trace of diseased wood can be thoroughly
removed before the filling is inserted. In many cases the proper use of the
chisel or gouge alone without the filling will eliminate all disease and leave
the wound in a position where moisture will not collect. The absolute eradica-
tion of all infested wood from a neglected cavity is often impossible and in
many cases where this is true, the axe is by far the safest and most practicable
tool. Street trees especially should be cut down as soon as they become the
least dangerous or when their trunks become hollow or badly infested with
disease. For, as soon as the citizen notifies the authorities of the condition of
his tree, all responsibility is shifted on the city and law suits are sure to follow
in case of any subsequent damage.
Spring is the time for planting, but the preparations for planting should
be commenced in the fall. Fall is the time to purchase trees and leave them
standing labeled in the nursery for spring delivery. Holes in the sidewalk
about 5 feet long and 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep may be opened in the fall and
the ashes, tin cans and beer bottles frequently composing a street soil may be
changed for a cubie yard of rich black loam.
In selecting the trees for street planting consideration should be given not
only to the species but to the specimen as well. The specimen tree should be
about 2% inches in diameter, should possess a straight trunk, a definite leader
STREET TREES 613
and a symmetrical crown, commencing at 7 to 9 feet from the ground. It is
sometimes difficult to find trees that will in every respect meet these specifi-
cations and it might then be well to agree to a smaller diameter, but to insist
on well-formed specimens. Individual perfection, symmetry and uniformity
are fundamental principles in successful street planting. For this reason, it is
important to plant trees of the same species on the same street or at least on a
stretch of several blocks; to have all trees of uniform size and to set them out
at equal distances apart. Thirty feet apart is a suitable distance for most
street trees and a tree like the elm should be allowed 60 feet. It is in the
realization of just such points wherein lie the advantage in having a munici-
pality undertake such work. If left to the citizens to do this individually, the
trees will be planted either too close or too far apart. Many species will be
mixed on the same block and many blocks will have no trees at all.
As to the selection of the species that will, of course, vary with the local
conditions. In a general way, however, persons in the East will find the
Oriental sycamore the hardiest of all for street planting. The sycamore has
lately been slightly afflicted with a leaf blight (gloeosporeum nevisequum), but
the disease has not become general enough to do serious damage. The Norway
maple is another tree equally desirable. The oaks, though of slower growth
at first are by far the noblest and most long-lived trees. The red, pin and
scarlet oaks are the three best species for street purposes. The red oak is faster
growing and least fastidious in its soil and moisture requirements. The pin
oak is most beautiful when its low pendulous branches are disturbed as little
as possible and when its roots can get plenty of moisture. The tree is there-
fore best adapted for suburban sections. The scarlet oak is worth the trial
for its persistent and brilliant foliage. The ginkgo has demonstrated its
adaptability to poor soils, to unfavorable city conditions and its resistance to
insects and disease. It should be tried to a greater extent for street planting
than it generally is. The English elm is another tree doing well in many
large cities.
There are a number of trees that are planted for their admirable qualities
of either form, color or beauty of their flowers, but requiring special favorable
conditions and care, they should be chosen with a greater degree of hesitancy
than the above and planted preferably in the suburban sections rather than
in the heart of the city. The principal of these are the sugar and red maples,
European linden, horsechestnut, American elm and tulip tree.
The sugar maple has a symmetrical form and combines many shades of
color in the fall, but requires plenty of moisture. In the vicinity of New York
city, the trees of this species planted in the heart of the city are rapidly dying
off and there is no other cause attributable for this condition except the exces-
sive evaporation from the leaves against the meagre quantity of moisture taken
in by the roots from the impoverished street soil.
The red maple and the linden are both moisture-loving trees, and the
latter is a favorite food for insect pests. The Huropean linden is the better
tree for street planting. The American linden grows very straggly in the
vicinity of New York though it seems to do better further south. The horse-
chestnut prefers a rich soil and is subject to a fungus disease, which discolors
its leaves causing them to drop in midsummer. It is also a common victim
of “slime flux,” a disease that causes the flow of sap from crevices in the trunk.
The tree is used extensively abroad for street planting, but for reasons just
stated, should be used more sparingly in this country. The elm has the noblest
form of all our shade trees, but should be planted on wide avenues, in suburban
sections where it can find a deep, rich, moist soil and plenty of unvitiated air.
The tulip tree compares favorably with other species in form and attractive-
614 AMERICAN FORESTRY
ness but is so exacting in its soil and moisture requirements that only young
specimens should be used and its planting restricted to suburban sections.
The objectionable trees for street planting are all the poplars, the silver
and sycamore maples, the catalpa and male ailanthus. The poplars are very
short-lived trees. They are dangerous in windstorms and grow so fast as to
require constant cutting back. Ata certain age their roots upset the sidewalk
and their fine rootlets clog the neighboring water and sewer pipes. Their
leaves drop very early in the fall and if the species is of the pistillate kind, the
catkins falling on the sidewalk become a danger and a nuisance to pedestrians.
The silver maples are constantly full of dead wood, are subject to boring insects
and are short-lived. The sycamore maple is a favorite of boring insects in the
vicinity of New York though in other places it has escaped these pests. The
variety of ailanthus tree that bears the male or staminate flowers generates a
strong, rather oppressive odor, but if the pistillate form is chosen, the tree will
produce a beautiful head. and will grow in places where no other tree will
TOW.
‘ Such are the principal problems of those charged with the care of street
trees. I have not attempted to dilate on the details of the work because they
are too numerous and because, as in every thing else, their solution will often
depend more upon the judgment of the forester in charge and upon the local
conditions than upon any rules that may be laid down. But whatever the
problems do not let us forget that they can always best be solved by one
equipped with technical knowledge and experience and that the trees are
worth the effort since they are always valued by the citizen and ultimately
lead to a better appreciation of the parks themselves.
EDITORIAL
THE FOREST FIRE SEASON
For the next six months we may breathe a little easier and if we are
well advised we shall profit by experience and consider wherein our
defences have been found to be lacking and provide for greater safety next
year. With this thought in mind, we are publishing this month several prac-
tical articles dealing with systems of fire protection, especially in the national
forests. We in the United States are not doing a fraction of what we ought
to do to prevent and control forest fires. But we are doing much and doing
it well, and we shall doubtless improve both the quality and quantity of our
work each year now that we have really taken the problem into serious
consideration.
Fortunately, not every year do we have such terrible spectacular con-
flagrations as aroused the whole country in 1910. But the loss each year, and
especially during such dry seasons as we have been having for several years
past, is heavy; the liability to outbreaks like that of last year is always
present; and the time to provide for them is before they happen. That there
have always been forest fires is shown by the testimony of the ancient forests,
but it is unavoidable that the increase of population, the spread of human
activities into the forests, should increase the danger far beyond natural con-
ditions. And the loss becomes more serious as the forest area decreases and
the size and value of our timber trees becomes less.
As was pointed out by Dr. Deckert, the German observer, in an article,
the translation of which was published in this magazine a few months ago,
the forest fire problem in the United States presents peculiar difficulties and
will probably always remain with us as a present danger. Nevertheless, we
cannot admit that American skill, energy and ingenuity are not equal to the
task of reducing the danger and the loss to a comfortable minimum. The
problems of organization, method and equipment have been taken up on a
tremendous scale by the United States Forest Service on the national forests,
and by many of the states in their own territory. Large timberland owners
in the northwest and northeast are co-operating with the government officials
in a way most promising of results. When we have developed a sufficient
leadership of capable fire chiefs, supported by a body of trained men, with an
ample equipment of the best tools, machinery and vehicles for reaching and
fighting forest fires; when all our forest regions are so laced with roads and
trails that fires can be reached promptly and with the smallest expenditure
of energy; when lookouts with range finders and telephone connections are
generally installed and experienced patrols maintained, so that fires may be
detected in their incipiency; when finally—though it may well stand first in
importance—the people as a whole have been educated to a sense of indi-
vidual responsibility for preventing the start or spread of damaging fires,
we may expect the holding of forest property to be a much less anxious owner-
OR: season of greatest danger from forest fires is drawing to a close.
615
616 AMERICAN FORESTRY
ship than it now is, and forest conservation will receive one of the greatest
encouragements that can be given it.
This is not a Utopian program. All of its elements are now in hand,
and steady and persistent efforts will accomplish the complete result, even in
the face of national carelessness and individual irresponsibility.
NEW ENGLAND'S HOPE DEFERRED
[ Yiv. ENGLAND is deeply and unpleasantly stirred by the failure of the
Weeks law to accomplish any immediate results in the protection of the
White Mountain forests, and especially by the possibility which has
assumed alarming proportions that relief may be impossible under the law as
it now stands. The state of feeling will surely become visible and audible when
the people of that section generally become aware of the facts which are now
known to comparatively few. A common impression still is that a law has
been passed and anxiety may now be laid aside. That is a customary American
attitude.
It is generally known that the first direct proposal to purchase forests
in the northern and southern Appalachians was sidetracked by an opinion
of the judiciary committee of the House of Representatives that such a pur-
chase would be unconstitutional, but that forests might be purchased on the
watersheds of navigable streams if it could be shown that the maintenance
of these forests was necessary to protect or promote the navigability of such
streams. It is needless here to discuss the merits of this opinion. Its validity
as a final judgment is very doubtful. On this point constitutional lawyers
differ widely. It was maintained by some strict constructionist lawyers on
the committee and outside of it with entire sincerity. It also furnished a
good instrument to use with less sincerity in the sharp political game which
was played in the House to kill the measure.
The Weeks bill was constructed to meet this view, for so close was the
fight in the House that it was useless to go against the judiciary committee.
In order to further meet the views of many members who did not know just
where they stood, it was provided in the bill that the Geological Survey should
pass upon lands, the purchase of which was proposed, reporting as to their
relation to the navigability of the streams upon whose watersheds they lie.
It may easily be understood that the Survey did not care to be drawn into
a matter which had already involved the foresters, the engineers, and the
Weather Bureau in endless warfare, but the task was reluctantly assumed in
obedience to the will of Congress.
The practical result is that while the experts of the Survey admit the
serious menace of the destruction that is being done in the White Mountains
and that this ought to be checked, they could not, according to the last
information available, by the method of investigation which they have adopted,
connect it with the navigability of the streams heading in those mountains,
and there is at present reason to expect a report unfavorable, or only partially
favorable on the White Mountain watersheds. The position taken by the
Survey is understood to be that the relation of each watershed must be
determined by direct examination of that watershed—that no other factors are
of scientific value and that what has happened on other watersheds in other
parts of the world cannot be used to forecast what will happen here. On this
ground it must be admitted that the White Mountains stand small chance.
The ultimate results of progressive denudation and of the cutting of hard-
EDITORIAL 617
wood are only beginning to show themselves, for the lumbering of the past
will cut a small figure compared with that of the next twenty-five years, and
the final consequences must, we hold, be judged with this in mind and by
comparison with the ultimate effect of similar causes on other watersheds the
world over.
Certain fundamental facts are regarded by the best expert opinion in New
England as having a direct bearing upon the case, quite as significant as
anything that can be determined from local examination of soil and topog-
raphy. The first of these is the general agreement, both in Europe and
America, that forests protect the run-off of streams and that on steep mountain
slopes this protection is greater than elsewhere. Furthermore, it may be
accepted as an axiom that the destructive agencies of nature, frost, moisture
and wind, combined with gravitation, are at work in the White Mountains
as in all other mountains of the world. It is further well known to local
students of the question that the danger of denudation in the White Moun-
tains is greater than in many other mountain regions because of the extra-
ordinary growth of the paper and pulp industries that consume its principal
species, spruce and fir. These grow in nearly pure stands on the high slopes.
Added to this is the fact that owing to the exhaustion of the hardwood supply
in some other parts of the country, the cutting of hardwood on an extensive
scale has begun in the White Mountains. Hitherto many of the slopes have
been protected by the hardwoods.
Fire, following cutting, has a serious effect upon the thin soil of the
White Mountain country. It has rendered large areas in the White Mounta.as
permanently barren and has set back for years the productivity of others.
It is common observation among woodsmen in the White Mountains that
the spring run-off is earlier and more rapid from cut-over and burned over
areas than from those not cut over. Many small streams once running free
the year around have become permanently dry or mere courses for spring
freshets, this being noticeable in areas that have been cut-over.
In view of these facts it seems inconceivable that the consequences which
have followed such conditions in other mountain countries should not follow
them in the White Mountains. And if this is true, the protection which the
White Mountain forests afford to the rivers of New England is plain, and
their preservation would certainly come within the scope of the Weeks law.
If the experience of other countries, France, Spain, China and Syria, for
example, does not furnish an analogy by which we may profit, it seems to us
that it is incumbent upon those who deny that analogy to show the reason
why. Thus far no proof has been offered—only denials.
It seems necessary to again emphasize the fact that whatever protection
can be afforded to these New England forests must be afforded soon. Other-
wise the combination of natural and human forces to which we have referred
will place these hills beyond successful maintenance except as stone quarries.
From the beginning of the agitation for the Southern Appalachian forests in
1899, the first support of which came from New England, New England has
loyally supported the interests of the whole Appalachian region in this long
struggle. To the people of this section the great human interests involved
far transcend questions of bare scientific fact or abstract legal considerations.
The passage of the Weeks law was hailed as the accomplishment of a great
result. Its failure will be regarded with a disappointment which can hardly
be described. The country has expressed its will that the mountain forests
of the east should be preserved and maintained in perpetuity. That will must
not be nullified.
618 AMERICAN FORESTRY
FEDERAL TROOPS AND FOREST FIRES
C) ix advantages accr uing from the use of federal troops in fighting forest
fires in the national forests are very ably brought out by Mr. Cornwall
in his article which appears in this issue of AMuRIcAN Forestry. In a
time of extreme danger and national disaster, such as existed in the forests of
the west last year, the troops were a great help, and the War Department
would no doubt be glad to help the Forest Service again if similar emer-
gencies arise. The use of troops in times of emergency has occurred on several
occasions, as during the San Francisco fire, and a precedent may be said to
have been established.
While these extraordinary situations justify the use of national troops,
there is ground for diversity of opinion regarding the regular assignment of
troops to assist the Forest Service. It is pointed out that such a course
would tend to hamper the development of the national forest organization and
build up a system similar to that in the national parks. Such a result would
obviously hinder the best use of the forest. The Forest Service already has
a strong organization which combines fire protection and control with various
other duties which are essential to the best management of the forest. The
ranger force is inadequate in numbers, but it is trained to great efficiency.
In times of fire danger, the resources of the Forest Service are augmented
by men and tools from local residents, lumber camps, etec., and gradually
a strong reserve is being built up with the regular forest force as a nucleus.
It will soon be only in times of great fire danger such as last year that inex-
perienced men not on the reserve list will need to be recruited, or the regular
troops called out.
A system under which the Army regularly helps the Forest Service pro-
tect the forests in Secretary Stimson’s opinion would be bad. It is conceded
that our army needs centralizing to permit of manoeuvers by large bodies
of troops. To this end it is the aim of the department to abandon small isolated
posts, but this would be impossible if the troops were distributed over the
national forests. Another point is that fire prevention rather than fire fighting
is the essential feature of an effective system and to assign privates in the
regular army to patrol work would largely deprive them of true military
training and not make for army efficiency.
The German forests are protected without the help of the large German
standing army and we should consider well before breaking up our small army
for regular forest fire duty. When emergencies arise, the troops can be called
on and their services will be most helpful, but it will be a radical and perhaps
dangerous policy to put even a small proportion of our army permanently into
the national forests.
MAINE’S EXHAUSTED FIRE FUND
AINE has for some time been held up as an example among the eastern
states for its system of forest fire prevention and control. Its expendi-
tures have been considerable and it easily secured the maximum allow-
ance of ten thousand dollars from the national co-operative fund provided
by the Weeks law. It was, therefore, something of a shock as well as a sur-
prise to learn on or about the 10th of August that the $68,000 protection fund
of the Maine forestry district and the national appropriation of $10,000 were
EDITORIAL 619
exhausted, and that two hundred patrolmen guarding lands assessed at
$45,000,000 had been laid off.
In a letter calling attention to existing conditions one paper manufacturer
who had eleven thousand acres of timber growing which he had been handling
conservatively is quoted as saying that he did not propose to hold timber land
just to have the timber burned from lack of protection.
It is apparent that the exhaustion so early in the season of so large a
fund, larger than has hitherto been available, calls for explanation. If the
national government is to assist in this work it must know that the money
is wisely and economically expended and that it is not wasted in a futile effort
that will be practically suspended at a critical time.
Commissioner Mace issued a statement on the 19th of August in which he
said that the situation was kept well in hand until the third and fourth of
July, when the extraordinary conditions produced by and following the hot
wave brought disaster. The statement continues:
“Realizing the danger the patrol force was increased and the already efficient
patrol was, in some case, doubled. Nothing in the line of prevention was lacking and
notwithstanding the department had retained the best men who had followed the work
in former years, the worst fires occurred in the sections controlled and looked after by
the men who had been connected with the State’s forest service since 1903 when the
first law was put into effect.
“The disaster was no fault, however, of the men, as the best service cannot cope
against the elements which were decidedly against all that was peing done, the cause
assigned to some of the worst fires being lightning. It is hard to make many believe
that forest fires are caused from such a source but there is plenty of evidence in the
recent fires that lightning was the cause.
“The extremely hot weather, and the winds on some of the days the fires were at
their height, drove the flames and sparks in all directions, causing many fires at the
same time. Hundreds of men were called on and responded making an expense ot
from $2,000 to $3,000 a day continuing at this rate from 10 to 15 days.
“Tt was this immense expense covering the cost of fighting the fire added already
to the unusually large force of patrolmen that so quickly exhausted the funds.”
It is further stated that the expenses up to July 1 were unusually large,
but “that with any kind of average weather and conditions the forest pro-
tection work could be carried on until the end of the season.” In view of
the statements quoted we are surprised to find the commissioner estimating
the damage caused by the fires at only $200,000, a much lower figure than others
have estimated and one hardly consistent with his description of the magni-
tude of the fires.
Two points are suggested by consideration of the situation in Maine. The
first is that Maine has not yet placed its forest commissionership outside of
politics, a thing which must be done to secure a permanently capable adminis-
tration. The second is that with this vast forest interest to protect the state,
if it can be shown that the present expenditure has been well administered
and the fund was really inadequate, should provide an emergency fund that
could be drawn upon whenever extraordinary conditions, such as are claimed
by Commissioner Mace to have arisen this year, occur, to the end that vigilance
need not be relaxed during the whole period of fire danger. This is a vital
matter in which no state can afford to be niggardly.
EDUCATION
Yale’s New Professorship of Lumbering
R. C. Bryant, professor of lumbering in
the Yale Forest School (this is the new pro-
fessorship endowed by the lumbermen of
the country at the instance of the National
Lumber Manufacturers’ Association) has
issued a statement describing with much
detail the course in his department. He
says:
The instruction in lumbering proper is
conducted by a lecture course for senior
students given in New Haven from October
1 to March 1, and by practical field work in
the South from March to the middle of
June.
INSTRUCTION IN NEW HAVEN
The lecture course in New Haven is de-
signed to give the student a clear idea of
the general principles underlying the con-
duct of the lumber industry in the United
States and a general understanding of
economic subjects related to it. This lecture
course is given four times a week during
the fall and winter terms. The following
subjects are among those covered:
1. Importance of ..se industry in the
United States, brief historical review of its
development, statistics of the industry, the
future of the industry.
2. Planning a logging operation, methods
employed, data required, and methods of
obtaining it.
3. A comparative study of the methods
of, and equipment required for, logging
operations in the various forest regions.
This covers all sorts of tools, vehicles, and
machinery used in handling logs from the
stump to the railroad or water.
4. Transportation of timber and other
forest products by land and water. Methods,
equipment required, value of each system.
5. Detailed study of logging methods in
specific regions.
6. Log scales, scaling practice, and log
grades used in different regions.
7. Types of manufacturing plants and
equipment used.
8. Methods of manufacture.
9. Theory and methods of seasoning lum-
ber.
10. Preparation of lumber for market in
planing mills.
11. Methods of sale—trade customs.
12. Lumber grades and grading methods.
13. Lumber’ associations—objects and
work.
620
14. Foreign and domestic markets.
15. Timber bonds.
16. Insurance for sawmill plants and tim-
17. Lumber tariff.
18. Cost-keeping methods.
19. A brief course treating of shingle,
lath, clapboard, veneer, cooperage, vehicle
stock, boxboard, excelsior, and charcoal
manufacture, and the harvesting of tan-
barks and turpentine orcharding follows.
The lecture work is supplemented and
illustrated whenever possible with models,
drawings, lantern slides, photographs, and
other material that will more clearly illus-
trate the subject matter.
Professor Bryant’s statement then calls
attention to the close relation to training
in lumbering of the instruction given by
other members of the faculty, describing
briefly the courses in land surveys and map
making, forest law, wood technology, forest
management, forest mensuration, construc-
tion engineering, silviculture, entomology,
and diseases of trees.
The field work of the spring term of the
senior year, which has since 1906 been
spent on some large lumber operation is
described at length. The camp and field
work are in charge of Professors Chapman
and Bryant. The statement continues:
The instruction given consists very large-
ly of field work, supplemented by the few
lectures necessary to properly explain the
work in hand. The instruction covers the
following points:
LOGGING METHODS
A detailed study of all phases of the log-
ging operation of the company is made.
This includes:
1. The methods of planning the logging
operation.
2. The organization of the woods, labor
and wages paid.
3. Railroad location and construction.
Practice is given in laying out logging rail-
roads and spurs on lands where the com-
pany will soon operate. The method and
cost of railroad construction are studied
first hand with the logging company’s crew.
4. Felling methods and tools—Saw filing
and care of tools. Daily output per crew
and cost.
5. Skidding and hauling methods—where
more than one system is used a compara-
tive study of the efficiency of each is made
NEAR VIEW OF GENERAL
ASSEMBLY AND SMALLER
TENTS
INTERIOR OF INDIV-
IDUAL TENTS,
EACH 10x12
AND COMFORTABLY
EQUIPPED
GENERAL VIEW OF CAMP
FROM THE EAST.
BEHIND STOOD A
HEAVY FOREST OF
BEECH, BIRCH,
SUGAR MAPEF,
AND WHITE PINE
MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
CAMP
STUDENTS IN ASSEMBLY
TENT EXAMINING
ENTOMOLOGICAL
MATERIAL
STUDENTS OF THE
SUMMER SCHOOL.
THEY HAVE COM-
PLETED THEIR
SOPHOMORE
YEAR. TWO
OCCUPY A TENT
AND EACH TENT
MAKES A
WORKING CREW
WITH OUTFIT
THE EVENING HOUR OF
RELAXATION
BEFORE THE
CAMP FIRE
MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
CAMP
EDUCATION
and tables prepared showing the amount of
work performed in a given time under
given conditions. A knowledge of the abil-
ity of men and animals under specified con-
ditions furnishes a basis for the determina-
tion of their efficiency under other condi-
tions. Costs per unit.
6. Railroad operation, log loading, train
operation, unloading at mill pond, etc.;
methods and cost.
7. Study of waste in logging incident to
careless felling, high stumps, improperly
cut log lengths, ete. How to determine ac-
tual waste and financial loss to the lumber-
man.
8. Efficiency in management.
9. Log scales and practice in log scaling.
10. Relocation of old land lines. Each
student is given several days’ work, under
a skilled surveyor, in the relocation of
old land lines to bring out difficulties at-
tending this class of work and the necessity
of great accuracy.
11. Topographic mapping. Considerable
practice is given in the collection of data
for and the preparation of a topographic
map of a tract of 25,000 to 30,000 acres
for logging purposes. The training aims
at securing speed in the collection of data
combined with sufficient accuracy for log-
ging purposes.
12. Extensive practice is given in the
various methods of estimating timber by
ocular methods, and the principles under-
lying them.
13. Practice in marking timber for a sec-
ond cut.
14. Studies of the rate of growth and
preparation of a plan of management for
yellow pine and other forests.
MANUFACTURE OF LUMBER
The students are divided into three
groups and each group spends two weeks at
the sawmill plant becoming familiar with
the manufacture of lumber. Among the
points covered are the following:
1. Character and equipment of the manu-
facturing plant.
2. Methods of manufacture.
3. Methods of seasoning lumber.
4. Planing mill equipment and dressing
of lumber.
5. Practice in grading rough and finished
lumber.
6. Study of defects in logs and their in-
fluence on the quantity and quality of lum-
ber produced.
7. Labor organization of plant.
8. Organization and management of ship-
ping department.
9. Markets and prices.
10. Waste in manufacture and possible
remedies.
11. General efficiency of operation, im-
provements possible.
The results of the study of logging and
manufacturing methods are embodied in
623
a report which forms the basis of criticism
for the student’s work and corrects any
erroneous impressions that may have been
formed during the study.
The object of the spring work is to bring
the student into close contact with opera-
tions in the field, give him training in the
performance of forest work, and to permit
him to put into practice the knowledge
gained during his attendance at the Forest
School. He gains confidence in his ability
to do things correctly and it provides an
excellent foundation on which to build his
future practical career.
A Forest School, and any other technical
school, cannot turn out graduates fitted on
graduation to assume responsible positions
unless they have had previous practical
training. The latter is a most essential
factor in any technical profession. A tech-
nical training, however, does give a founda-
tion on which a man may build to good
advantage and which will enable him to be-
come a more proficient practical man in a
much shorter time than would be possible
had he not had his technical training.
The lumber industry in the past has de-
manded a man skilled in many different
lines, especially in engineering. The indus-
try in the future will demand still more of
the man who will be successful because
he will be called upon to handle his product
very closely, find new uses for his present
waste products, plan for future crops of
timber, and to practice forestry of a more
or less intensive nature. In this work the
technically trained forester will be inval-
uable to the lumberman.
Michigan Agricultural College Forestry
Department Summer Term
The third session of the summer term of
forestry given by the forestry department
of the Michigan Agricultural College, was
held on the estate of David Ward, Deward,
Crawford county, Michigan, from June 21st
to August 10th, 1911.
There were twenty-four students in at-
tendance and four courses were given—one
in civil engineering, which took up land
plotting and rapid topographical mapping;
one in entomology which consisted in the
identification of forestry insects and a
study of their life history; one in field
methods which treated of the necessary
equipment and maintenance supplies for
n and horses in the field. In the last of
se students were given practical work
py being fully equipped for field expeditions
and being sent out with their entire equip-
ment packed on their backs, making camp
and cooking for themselves. There was
also a course in forest mensuration which
consisted of making volume tables, height
diameter tables, form factor tables for
white pine, hemlock, sugar maple, and
beech, laying out a plot of ten acres, cruis-
624
ing the same after handing in estimates,
carefully going over the plot and measur-
ing each tree on the plot and calculating
the volume by different methods. As soon
as this work was completed choppers felled
the timber on the area and timber was
measured and checks made on estimates
and calculations. Practice was also given
in cruising forty acre plots and 160 acre
plots by the different methods, Much prac-
tice was also obtained in locating witness
trees and boundary lines. Students had the
opportunity to appreciate the extent of an
area of 640 acres of heavily timbered stand.
The camp was located on the shores of
Sand Lake, adjacent to the estate logging
camp No. 18 which is operating in white
pine with 110 men and 15 teams.
The students were housed in tents about
five minutes’ walk from the cook shanty
of the main logging camp. There were ten
tents 10x12, set at an angle of fifty degrees
with the main assembly tent which was
231% by 41 feet. All of these tents were
equipped with a board floor. The individ-
ual tents, housing two students, were all
equipped with board floors, two cots, study
table, two chairs, lantern and lamp. Oil
and matches were furnished. A yard man
was employed to sweep the tents, fill the
lanterns and lamps, fill the water pails each
day, pick up about the camp and accumu-
late wood for the evening’s bon-fire.
The hours kept by the students were the
same as those kept by the logging crew,
beginning with breakfast at five o’clock.
Boats, guns and ammunition were fur-
nished for the use of the students. A tar-
get range was laid out and records kept
of the practice.
Dr. R. C. Allen, State Geologist of Mich-
igan, was in camp and gave a series of lec-
tures on topographical maps and mapping.
Mr. R. S. Kellogg gave a series of lectures
on general forestry topics.
The pictures reproduced on other pages
give a good idea of the life of the school
in camp.
University of Vermont
The University of Vermont is to be
added to the list of those institutions giving
instruction in forestry. A course in for-
estry is one of the regular courses in the
Department of Agriculture. The plan com-
mon to many schools of agriculture of mak-
ing the work of all courses identical for
the first two years is followed here. In the
last two years these courses are differ-
entiated and the specialized subjects taken
up. In the two years in which time is
AMERICAN FORESTRY
given to forestry studies it is intended to
train students for Vermont forestry in
connection with and not apart from agri-
culture and to prepare for the graduate
forest schools those who may intend to
enter professional forestry. The special
forestry training covers such subjects as
dendrology, mensuration, technology, silvi-
culture, and management; certain phases
of botany are taught with a strong slant
towards forestry; special engineering
courses having forestry adaptations are
offered; and two summer schools, one in
forest engineering and one in forest man-
agement, wherein forest students spend a
month each summer are held.
Iowa State College
Mr. Nelson C. Brown, deputy supervisor
on the Kaniksu National Forest, in Idaho,
has accepted the position of assistant pro-
fessor of forestry at the Iowa State Col-
lege, at Ames. Mr. Brown received his col-
legiate training at Yale, graduating in
1906. He immediately took up graduate
work in the Yale Forest School and in 1908
received the degree of master of forestry.
Since that time Mr. Brown has had wide
experience in forestry work both in the
east and in the west. His training and
experience together with his instructional
work in the Yale Summer Forest School,
make him amply fitted for the work in his
new field.
New York State Forest School
New York is again to have a State forest
school. This time it is to be established in
connection with Syracuse University. Resi-
dents of New York state for one year prior
to matriculation will receive free tuition.
The earlier New York forest school at
Cornell, under Dr. B. E. Fernow’s able
direction achieved a high standard and
graduated many good men. The regret-
table discussion over the management. of
state forest lands is fast passing into an-
cient history, yet it is only a few years
since it made a very stirring and angry
note in the forestry world. It involved
the school in the meshes of politics and
the state withdrew its support, compelling
Cornell to discontinue the school. Every
honest and fair-minded man who knew the
circumstances deplored the result, which
ultimately lost to this country one of its
ablest teachers of forestry in Dr. Fernow.
It is much to be hoped that the new school
will escape such pit-falls and work out a
eareer of great usefulness.
NATIONAL FOREST WORK
An Official Account of the San Bernardino
Fire
In view of the many conflicting news-
paper reports on the recent San Bernardino
fire, District Forester Coert DuBois, who is
in general charge of the national forests in
California, has issued the following authen-
tic account:
The fire started about noon on Tuesday,
July 25, from an unknown cause, on the
west side of the road up Waterman Canyon.
Within an hour and a half, three forest
rangers and seven citizens had reached
the ground and brought the original fire
under control with less than two and a half
acres burned over. A separate fire, starting
from a brand, blown from the main fire,
had also been detected and extinguished.
Another spark had evidently jumped across
the road from the original fire when it was
burning its hardest. This spark smoldered
but did not show up in flame or smoke
until some fifteen minutes after the first
two fires had been brought under perfect
control. The ten men on the ground at-
tacked this third fire promptly and except
for the high wind then blowing, they would
have had no difficulty in conquering it.
Cases are very rare where fires escape
from control after being reached by the
rangers as promptly as this San Bernardino
fire. When the rangers and fire fighters
had this third fire almost under control, a
furious gust of wind came up the canyon,
scattered fire all over the hillside from the
one-half acre, then burning, and forced the
men to run for their lives. Except for this
extraordinary wind, which eye witnesses say
was a small hurricane, the fire would never
have escaped and would have represented
little more than a figure in annual fire re-
ports and other statistics.
After the fire escaped, it burned with un-
trollable force during the remainder of the
afternoon and covered over 500 acres by
6 o’clock Tuesday evening. Realizing that
help was needed immediately, the ranger
in charge when the fire escaped promptly
telephoned to San Bernardino for men.
Right here the protecti>’ system broke
down. Naturally no forest officer was in
San Bernardino and no arrangements had
been made in advance for the immediate
dispatch of volunteer fire fighters or or-
ganized bodies of men in case of fire. The
men telephoned for by the ranger were not
sent. The small force of men on the ground
fought without help twenty-one hours, or
until 11 o’clock on Wednesday, July 26.
Recognizing the hopelessness of the situa-
tion, two rangers then left the fire line and
went to San Bernardino for men. The
opportunity to conquer the fire had, how-
ever, been lost for lack of help during the
first twenty-four hours. During the second
and third days of the fire rangers and fire
fighters labored unceasingly to control the
blaze. They succeeded except in the head
of a fork of Cold Water Canyon where the
fire was burning fiercely on very steep
ground covered with a dense growth of
manzanita and thorn brush and where
there was very little dirt to use in fighting
the flames. Forest officers and fire fight-
ers who have been over this ground report
that the difficulties confronting the fire
fighters at this point cannot be understood
by anyone who has not actually been over
the ground. Friday night, when the fire
had been burning for a trifle over three
days, a fire line was almost completed
around the lower end and sides of the fire.
Before the circle could be closed, a high
north wind started to blow and scattered
fire in new directions, undoing much that
had been gained during the previous day’s
fight. The north wind blew for only two
hours, but in this time fire was so scattered
that when the normal southwest wind again
started up, the fire was able to spread rap-
idly, despite the desperate efforts of the
hundreds of men then on the line. North
winds blew again at intervals during Sat-
urday night, Sunday and Sunday night.
Each time the north wind blew, the fire
was blown backward into positions from
which, when the southwest winds returned,
it could make uncontrollable rushes up the
steep front of the San Bernardino range.
By Sunday night the fire had spread to
such size that the task of working the
enormous length of the fire line was not
completed until Monday, August 7, almost
two weeks after the fire started.
When the fire started, Mr. R. H. Charlton,
the supervisor of the Angeles National For-
est, was on one of his regular trips of in-
spection and field supervision. He prompt-
ly got in touch with his subordinates who
were in charge of the fight, but since they
repeatedly reported that they expected no
difficulty in conquering the fire, Mr. Charl-
ton did not leave his regular work for
625
626
several days. Deputy Supervisor Long was
in Los Angeles in charge of the supervisor’s
office when the fire occurred. When the fire
had been burning twenty-eight hours he
realized that the situation was grave
enough to demand his personal attention
and immediately started for San Bernar-
dino to take personal charge of the work.
The organization of the fight at this fire
was about the same as usually effected
when large stubborn fires are being fought.
On occasions of this kind, red tape is never
a bar to prompt and effective action. At
this fire men were employed, supplies pur-
chased, and every sort of transportation
arranged for both men and supplies with-
out the delay of any system of requisitions
or approval of higher officers of the serv-
ice. The standing instructions to supervi-
sors and rangers are to incur any liabilities
necessary for the controlling of any fire on
national forest lands. At no time in the
history of the San Bernardino fire was
there any hesitation in securing men or
supplies because of the expense or lack of
authority of men on the ground to incur it.
A peculiar feature of this fire was the
opportunity to use automobiles in trans-
porting men and equipment. This very suc-
cessful mode of transportation was used
wherever necessary. The camps were kept
well supplied with provisions and men went
hungry only when they were unable to get
to the camps.
Although no preparations had been made
for the employment of such large bodies of
men, numerous ingenious systems of or-
ganizing small crews, issuing and dispatch-
ing orders and handling men at camps
were devised and adopted, notwithstanding
the strain of the fight.
Men were employed at the standard rate
of pay for this part of the country. Twenty-
five cents per hour was allowed for time
consumed going from San Bernardino to
the fire, for all time spent on the fire line
or in traveling between the fire camps and
the fire line, and also for returning from
the fire to San Bernardino. The statement
that straight time was allowed at 25 cents
per hour from the start from San Ber-
nardino until the return was unauthorized
and did not originate with any forest offi-
cer. It is obvious that the standard forest
service system of paying fire fighters by the
hour would be nonsensical if payment were
to be made for twenty-four hours a day.
Back-firing, when possible to practice it,
is one of the most effective methods for
fighting forest fires. This system was used
whenever conditions of wind and slope
made it safe, and miles of back-fires were
set under the instructions of forest officers.
Back-fires are exceedingly dangerous weap-
ons, however, and when indiscriminately or
unintelligently used, are certain to spread
the fire instead of aiding in its control. One
of the most serious handicaps the forest offi-
AMERICAN FORESTRY
cers had to contend with was the setting
of unauthorized back-fires by settlers who
wanted to protect their own property but
failed to take precautions against spread of
the fires they had set.
Instructions against back-firing were
usually respected by settlers and threats to
use fire arms were not necessary and were
not at any time resorted to. Some disas-
trous back-fires were set when no forest
officers were near to prevent it. One saw-
mill man back-fired around his property
although he was not in the path of the
main fire. He then started up his mill in
disregard of possible damage his back-fire
might do to others. Forest officers and fire
fighters had to leave their work on the
main fire to fight this back-fire but before
they succeeded in bringing it under control
it had, on account of the high wind prevail-
ing at that time, run over two miles and
joined the main fire.
On August 3, while the San Bernardino
fire was still at its height, a disbursing
agent was sent from San Francisco with a
large sum of money to his credit in the
United States subtreasury. He arrived in
San Bernardino on the morning of August
4. Only straggling fire fighters were then
in town awaiting payment and it was not
until the night of August 5 that a forest
officer could be spared from the line to come
into town and approve the time checks of
the fighters. The disbursing agent started
writing checks on the morning of August
6 and kept it up until August 13, at which
time he had paid all of the labor accounts
except a few odd bills that had not been
presented. Settlements of fire accounts in
this case, as in all otuers, take precedence
over all other bills.
The total cost of controlling the fire was
in the neighborhood of $25,000, practically
all of which was paid by the forest service.
The total area burned over is a trifle under
19,000 acres. Two-thirds of this area is
devoid of timber but was covered with a
growth of brush of very great value to the
water-using industries of the San Ber-
nardino Valley. The damage to timber is
less than would be expected—not over five
per cent of the mature timber and only
half of the young timber between ten years
of age and maturity being killed. Seed-
lings under ten years of age were, of course,
consumed.
An investigation will be made to deter-
mine the best method of repairing the dam-
age to the watersheds burned over, but as
yet no plans have been made for planting
the denuded hillsides.
At several different times, officers in
charge of the fight, as well as mountaineers
who have had life-long experience at the
fire-fighting game, believed they were near-
ing the end of the figut. That their expec-
tations of success were not realized was
due to the freakish winds. The judgment
—S
NATIONAL FOREST WORK 627
of forest officers is only human and all
experienced fire fighters recognize the diffi-
culty of contending with high winds or
forecasting the outcome of efforts to con-
trol a fire when a strong wind is blowing.
Every specific charge against the men in
charge of the fight has been carefully inves-
tigated by an officer from the San Fran-
cisco headquarters, and they have been en-
tirely cleared of any suspicion of inef-
ficiency.
Supervisor Charlton and Deputy Super-
visor Long have had years of experience in
fighting brush fires. They have been par-
ticularly successful in keeping fires out of
the forest under their charge. Last year
the Angeles’ record for prevention and
prompt control of fire was the best in Dis-
trict 5, comprising California and Western
Nevada.
Causes beyond the control of these men
or the rangers who assisted them were
alone responsible for the failure to extin-
guish this fire in its early stages.
As soon as it was found that there was
no possibility of ordering out troops (the
authority for which was requested by the
district office), emergency bodies of fire
fighters, each 20 to 25 strong, were assem-
bled at Bakersfield and at Bishop and held
“under arms” for two days. Luckily these
were not needed, but if the need had arisen
at least 100 men under the leadership of
six experienced fire-fighting rangers could
have been rushed to the scene from nearby
forests.
The people and commercial organizations
of San Bernardino, Redlands, and Riverside
gave splendid cooperation in bringing this
fire under control. They are entitled to the
sincere thanks of the department and the
people of Southern California who are bene-
fited by the protection of the San Bernar-
dino mountain range.
A number of valuable lessons can be
learned from this fire. A study of its his-
tory indicates the need, first of all, of closer
cooperation between the people of southern
California and the Forest Service. If citi-
zens and employers of labor will organize
themselves into protective associations and
agree in advance to send help immediately
on receipt of notice that help is needed on
a fire, assurance can be given that the his-
tory of the San Bernardino conflagration
will not be repeated. The construction of
trails, fire lines, the purchase and storing
of tools and other equipment at strategic
points, the employment of additional patrol-
men—all these measures will help, but the
appropriations made by Congress are not
large enough to do everything at once that
should be done. The people of southern
California must cooperate even more liber-
ally than they have in the past if fire is to
be kept out of the mountain ranges.
August 26, 1911.
A Government Timber Sale and Its
Conditions
The Department of Agriculture and the
Department of the Interior have just con-
cluded arrangements that will probably
lead to the largest timber sale ever under-
taken by the Government. The tract to be
lumbered is in the eastern part of Arizona
and comprises a large portion of the Sit-
greaves and Apache National Forests and
a part of the Fort Apache Indian Reserva-
tion. The total area to be lumbered is
about 200,000 acres, and contains approxi-
mately 600,000,000 board feet of merchant-
able timber.
Application for this stumpage has been
made by the Navajo Development Company,
a corporation chartered under the laws of
Arizona, and a careful examination of the
area has been completed by representatives
of the company and of the Forest Service
and the Indian Office. This does not mean
that the development company will secure
the stumpage unless its bid is the highest,
because, under government regulations, the
timber will be sold to the highest bidder.
But the fact that the company has made
application warrants the placing of the ma-
terial upon the market.
Nine-tenths of the timber, or approxi-
mately 575,000,000 board feet, is western
yellow pine, which possesses many of the
excellent qualities of the white pine of the
Northwestern and Lake States. The lum-
ber manufactured from it combines light-
ness with strength and easy-working quali-
ties; the best grades are made into finish-
ing stock, flooring and ceiling, and sashes
and doors. The clear material is highly
prized by pattern makers, and one manu-
facturer of this wood sells his entire output
to a transcontinental railway line for use
in making patterns in its shops.
The timber next in importance on this
area is Douglas fir, of which there are
15,000,000 board feet. This wood is excel-
lent for mine and other timbers, and some
railroads pay a higher price for Douglas
fir ties than for those made from other
kinds of trees, because they last much
longer when in contact with the ground.
The rest of the merchantable material is
made up of white fir, Engelmann spruce,
Mexican white pine, blue spruce, and cork-
bark fir.
The timber is located about 60 miles
south of Holbrook, Arizona, the county seat
of Navajo county, which is on the main line
of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Rail-
road. From Holbrook a railroad can be
built south to the timber, and will pass
through a region where there are several
small towns and much agricultural land
which can be irrigated. The full cost of
railroad construction will not have to come
out of the investment for developing the
628
timber, because the road can be made a
common carrier and many thousand tons
of freight now handled by slow and cumber-
some freight wagons could be hauled each
year on the new line; also large quantities
of hay, grain, and other supplies are used at
Fort Apache, an important military post
about twenty miles south of the tract. In
addition to this, some revenue should be
derived from passenger traffic, not only from
civilian travel but from the movement of
troops to and from Fort Apache, and there
should also be a good income from mail
contracts.
Deposits of coal said to be of excellent
coking quality are within thirty miles of
the timber, and the development of these
deposits only awaits railroad transporta-
tion.
In order to secure immediate develop-
ment of this timber resource and at the
same time to protect the purchasers of the
stumpage in their investment and give
them sufficient time to make the cutting,
the government has set a limit of ten years
from the completion of the logging plant
in which the whole 600,000,000 feet of lum-
ber must be harvested. Two years will be
allowed for the preliminary work, such as
building sawmills, quarters for the lumber
crews, logging railroads, and spurs.
While the Navajo Development Company
makes the application for this timber, it
will be advertised in the open market for
120 days, and the timber will be sold to
the highest bidder in accordance with the
regulations prescribed for the sale. No
price will be considered less than $2.50 per
thousand board feet for the timber cut dur-
ing the first five years of the contracts and
$3 for that cut during the last five years.
During the first two years of the contracts,
which will be separate for the national for-
est timber, under jurisdiction of the Forest
Service of the Department of Agriculture,
and the Indian Reservation timber, under
the Indian Office of the Department of the
Interior, the successful bidder will be re-
quired to cut 35,000,000 board feet under
each contract. Each year after this, how-
ever, he will be required to cut not less
than 25,000,000 board feet under each con-
tract.
There are several special provisions of in-
terest which provide for full utilization of
all the available material: The sale in-
cludes two-thirds of the live timber and the
merchantable dead timber; no unnecessary
damage shall be done to the young growth
nor to trees left standing for seed; stumps
must be cut low and trees utilized well into
the tops; brush will be disposed of by the
purchaser; all felling and cutting into log
lengths will be done with a saw instead of
an ax, to avoid the waste in ax chips. Strict
AMERICAN FORESTRY
precautions will be observed for protection
against fire, and railroads and logging en-
gines will have to use oil or electricity.
The use of oil is thoroughly practicable, as
it can be obtained cheaply and conveniently.
The main line of the Santa Fe, only a few
miles away, uses this fuel, and it is used
also in lumbering operations on the neigh-
boring national] forest, the Coconino.
Altogether, this timber sale should prove
an attractive proposition, since the tract
contains what is probably the largest body
of good timber now remaining in the South-
west. It is not in rough country, but on an
extensive plateau where the ground is
either smooth and level or gently undulat-
ing. The region is well watered and pre-
sents almost ideal logging conditions. Not
only should it be attractive from the point
of view of the lumberman but from that of
persons who are interested in opening up
and developing a comparatively new region.
The country has needed only the railroad
facilities which will be offered by the road
from Holbrook south to make rapid strides.
Even at the present time tens of thousands
of cattle, sheep, and horses graze in the
region, yet all beef and mutton must be
driven on the hoof to Holbrook and wool
has to be freighted by wagon from distances
varying from 30 to 100 miles. In addition
to the timber directly involved in this sale,
other large bodies aggregating about 1,500,-
000,000 board feet will be made accessible
by the proposed railroad.
District Forester Silcox at Missoula, Mon-
tana, has just sold a total of 125,000,000 feet
of fire-killed timber, presumably a part of
the timber killed in the great fires of 1910.
The Forest Service has been making ener-
getic efforts to dispose of this fire-killed
timber before it should become a total loss,
and has made a number of sales but none
of equal magnitude with those now an-
nounced. The sales are of 50,000,000 feet to
the McGoldrick Lumber Company of Spok-
ane, and 75,000,000 feet to the Roselake
Lumber Company of Roselake, Idaho.
Ordinarily such large sales are made from
Washington, with full reports on file, but
in this case special authority was given to
the district forester to close contracts at
once. There is still a great deal of fire-
killed timber in the northwest which is
for sale on very reasonable terms, and as
a result of field studies of its amount and
the natural conditions the Forest Service
is prepared to furnish full information to
prospective purchasers concerning the loca-
tion of bodies of timber and the logging
methods which will be necessary in each
ease.
CURRENT LITERATURE
The Use of Odd Lengths
The investigation carried on last year by
the United States Forest Service, cooperat-
ing with lumber manufacturers in the
south, to determine the saving that can be
effected by using odd lengths of lumber as
well as even, has begun to bear fruit. That
investigation showed that a material saving
was practicable, and at a recent meeting of
a southern lumber manufacturers’ associa-
tion the fact was brought out that a begin-
ning has been made in putting the new plan
into practice, and that an increase in the
sale of odd lengths is anticipated for the
near future.
It was formerly the custom, and gener-
ally is so still, to sei: lumber in even
lengths only. Waste resulted from cutting
off the ends of odd lengths to make them
even. A considerable percentage of the
boards in a sawmill’s output have knots,
decayed spots, or split ends, and the defec-
tive parts are cut out. To make an even
629
length of what remains, it is often neces-
sary to cut off a foot of good wood with the
bad, and it is wasted. The practice of
marketing odd lengths as well as even is
meant to lessen this waste. The sale of odd
lengths of lumber will frequently lessen
waste in the woods also; for example, a log
may be cut fifteen feet long which, follow-
ing the old custom, would be cut only four-
teen and the extra foot left in the woods.
The introduction of odd lengths meets
with opposition from many builders who
are prejudiced in favor of even lengths sim-
ply because they have never used any other
kind. Nevertheless, there are many places
in which odd lengths are more economical
than even ones—for instance, where nine-
foot studding is used. Following former
custom, the ends must be cut from even
lengths to make the timbers fit. Some
manufacturers of flooring successfully sell
odd and even lengths, thus lessening waste
in the woods, at the mill, and in the con-
struction of buildings.
CURRENT LITERATURE
REVIEWS
The Principles of Scientific Management.
By Frederick Winslow Taylor, M. E.,
Se. D., past president of the American
Society of Mechanical Engineers. New
York and London: Harper and Broth-
ers, 1911. Pp. 144. Price $1.50 net.
For thirty years Mr. Taylor has been
developing the theory and practice of more
perfect utilization of human effort. This
book sets forth the underlying principles at
which he has arrived. We do not need to
go into the controversy in which some of
the labor unions have enrolled themselves
in opposition to something which they have
apparently taken too little pains to under-
stand. Nor do we need to accept the ex-
travagant claim, resting upon a misuse of
terms, that here is the birth of a new
science. What is worth noting is whether
the author has any valuable ideas for the
promotion of human efficiency and for do-
ing away with much of the wasted energy
and lost motion that every intelligent per-
son knows there is in both the physical and
intellectual activities of most of us. Look-
ing at it thus, Mr. Taylor’s thesis is worth
careful study. It is intended presumably
for the organizer and director of industry,
but it may be suggestive to every worker.
Scientific management will now be much
in evidence before the country, in theory at
least, and it behooves every one to under-
stand its real significance. It certainly
does not mean, as some have hastily as-
sumed, making men work harder. It does
mean, we take it, making men work better
and hence more easily. If anything will
lead to shorter hours and better pay, look-
ing at it from the labor side, this should
be the touchstone. In any aspect of the
case, the leader of the new movement is
entitled to his demonstration.
The Better Country. By Dana W. Bartlett.
Boston: The C. M. Clark Publishing
Company, 1911. Pp. 555. Price $1.50 net.
The chief value of this book is as encour-
agement to optimists. It is a rapid fire
summary, reading almost like a catalogue,
of the many things that are being done for
the physical, mental and moral benefit of
the people. As such it is a good antidote
to the disheartening destructive criticism
with which various publications have
teemed for a few years. It treats of social
service, raising the standard, nations at
work in social uplift, wealth for all the
people, conservation of the nation’s re-
sources, agriculture’s opportunity, home
building, enrichment of life, life saving,
education, immigration, serving others, the
peace movement, and the broadening of
democracy. This is a wide field, covering
all the great progressive activities of the
people and it is almost unavoidable that
such a summary should be too much of a
catalogue and contain too little of the sig-
nificant and useful facts about the move-
ments to which it refers. It is a book of
temporary interest and will serve to give
630
the reader a conspectus of the intensely
active period in which we live, but it is
not of permanent value and will add very
little to the information of the man or
woman who reads much and follows closely
the course of events.
MONTHLY LIST FOR SEPTEMBER, 1911
(Books and periodicals indexed in the Library
of the United States Forest Service)
Forestry as a Whole
Proceedings of associations
Canadian forestry convention. Report of
the Canadian forestry convention held
at the city of Quebec, Jan. 18-20, 1911.
157 p. pl., map. Kingston, British Whig
publishing co., 1911.
Forest Aesthetics
Street and park trees
McFarland, J. Horace. New life in old
trees. 16 p. il. Kent, O., The Davey
tree expert co., 1910.
Forest Education
Arbor Day
Patterson, Virginia Sharp. The lady of the
green scarf; an entertainment exercise
for schools embodying the need for con-
serving our country’s natural resources,
suitable for weekly rhetoricals, class
exercises and arbor day. 34 p. il.
Chicago, A. Flanagan co., 1910.
Forest schools
Colorado school of forestry. Announcement,
1911. 29 p. il. Colorado Springs, Colo.,
1911.
Guyot, Charles. L’enseignement forestier
en France; l’Ecole de Nancy. 398 p.
il., pl. Nancy, Crépin-Lebiond, 1898.
University of Idaho—Dept. of forestry. An-
nouncements, 1911-12. 15 p. il. Mos-
cow, Id., 1911.
Forest Botany
Baker, Richard T., and Smith, Henry G.
Technological museum, New South
Wales; a research on the pines of Au-
stralia. 458 p. il., pl., maps. Sydney,
1910. (N. S. W.—Dept. of public in-
struction. Technical education series
no. 16.)
Wood structure
Record, Samuel J. Pith flecks or medullary
spots in wood. 8 p. Cambridge, Mass.,
Forestry quarterly, 1911.
Arboretums
Arnold arboretum. Bulletin of popular in-
formation no. 4. 4 p. Jamaica Plain,
Mass., 1911.
AMERICAN FORESTRY
Forest Protection
Diseases
Spaulding, Perley. The blister rust of white
pine: 88 p; Alp) Washi) DGr 191
(U. S.—Dept. of agriculture—Bureau
of plant industry. Bulletin 206.)
Forest Management
Graves, Henry S. The management of sec-
ond growth sprout forests. 12 p. pl.
Wash. D. C., 1911. (U. S—Dept. of
agriculture. Yearbook separate 525.)
Forest Administration
New York—Forest, fish and game commis-
sion. Annual reports for 1907-1908-
1909. 407 p. “pl: Albany; N. Y., 1910.
United States—Dept. of agriculture—Forest
service. The national forest manual;
trespass. 23 p. Wash., D. C., 1911.
United States—General land office. Ceded
Chippewa pine lands, Minn.; sale of
timber on lands both inside and out-
side of the Minnesota national forest
at Cass Lake, Minn., on Oct. 21, 1911.
37 p. Wash... Dy GC. Dod1t
Wheeler, Francis Holt. The boy with the
U. S. foresters. 317 p. pl. Boston, Loth-
rop, Lee and Shepard co., 1910.
Forest Utilization
Hall, William L. Progress in saving forest
waste. 10 yp. pl. Wash., D. C., 1911. (U.
S.—Dept. of agriculture. Year-book
separate 534.)
Maxwell, Hu. Utilization of osage orange.
14 p. Wash., D. C., Forest service, 1911.
Forests by-products
Herty, Charles H. Relation of light chip-
ping to the commercial yield of naval
stores. 36 p. il., pL. -Wash:, D.C: 1911.
(U. S—Dept. of agriculture—Forest
service. Bulletin 90.)
Wood technology
Krais, Paul. Gewerbliche materialkunde.
v. 1: Die holzer. 782 p. il. Stuttgart,
F. Krais, 1910.
Mann, James. Australian timber; its
strength, durability, and identification.
148 p. il. Melbourne, Walker, May and
co., 1900.
Auxiliary Subjects
Reclamation of land
Cobb, Collier. The Landes and dunes of
Gascony. 11 p. pl., map. Chapel Hill,
Ne C1510;
Grazing
Hunter, Byron and Thompson, Harry. The
utilization of logged-off land for pas-
ture in western Oregon and western
Washington. 20 p. Wash., D. C., 1911.
CURRENT LITERATURE
(U. S.—Dept. of agriculture. Farmers’
bulletin 462.)
Periodical Articles
General
American conservation, August, 1911.—
Conservation in Hawaii, by R. S. Hos-
mer, p. 231-8.
Breeder’s gazette, August 30, 1911.—Graz-
ing in its relation to national forests,
by J. H. Hatton, p. 328-9.
Field and stream, Sept. 1911.—Forest work-
ing plans, by W. K. Wildes, p. 478-84.
Independent, August 8, 1911.—Beautiful
streets, p. 273-5.
Independent, August 10, 1911.—Our timber
property, p. 328-9. ;
Philippine journal of science, C., botany,
July, 1911.—Philippine gymnosperms,
by F. W. Foxworthy, p. 149-78; Bedaru
and billian, twoimportant Borneo timber
trees, by F. W. Foxworthy, p. 179-80;
Sapindaceae novae Philippinarum insu-
lae Polillo, by L. Radlkofer, p. 181-3;
Botanical notes upon the island of
Polillo, by C. B. Robinson, p. 185-228.
Scientific American, July 1, 1911.—Stone
forest of California, p. 11.
Scientific American, August 12, 1911.—The
conservation of the forests; a national
duty to protect the 80 per cent of stand-
ing timber now in private hands, by G.
Pinchot, p. 185, 137.
Sunset, Sept., 1911.—How forestry uses fire,
by F. E. Olmsted, p. 276-81; A sixteen-
million-dollar timber cruiser, by F. A.
Groff, p. 301-4; The world’s greatest
sugar pine forest, by D. H. Stovall, p.
336-7.
Western empire, Sept. 1911.—Wattle cul-
ture; details about acacia planting, by
J. M. Grant, p. 17.
Trade journals and consular reports
American lumberman, August 12, 1911.—
Minnesota forest school, p. 42-3; Treat-
ed wood block paving; the future pave-
ment for city streets, by C. P. Lindsley,
p. 52-3.
American lumberman, August 19, 1911.—
Tulip-tree, combining beauty and util-
ity, p. 1, 57; Studying forestry in for-
ests; practical work in the timber by
students of two great forestry schools,
p. 43.
American lumberman, Sept. 2, 1911.—
Truths about eucalyptus culture, p. 28;
Wood block preservative controversy,
p. 49; A tree of versatility; the birch,
To dian
American lumberman, Sept. 9, 1911—A
tamarack pest; destruction wrought by
the sawfly, p. 40; Sale of American
lumber in Europe by C. A. Tupper, p.
42-3; Steam skidding in rough country,
p. 48.
Barrel and box, August, 1911.—Piano boxes
feature of box trade, p. 56-7.
631
Canada lumberman, Sept. 1, 1911.—Camp
operations in northern Ontario, p. 66-
70; Logging by steam in Ontario for-
ests, p. 76-7; The value of Canadian for-
est products, by H. R. McMillan, p. 78-
80; Protection of timber against fire; by
W. C. Gladwin, p. 81; Forest surveys;
wherein they serve, by C. A. Lyford, p.
86; British Columbia’s supply of tim-
ber, by R. D. Craig, p. 92-3; Mining
timbers used in Canada, 1910, p. 99-101;
Log driving upon the St. John river, p.
102.
Carriage monthly, Sept. 1911.—Kiln drying
vs. air drying, by C. Dorrough, p. 30-1.
Engineering news, July 20, 1911.—Forest
fire prevention in Oregon, by E. T.
Abbott, p. 76.
Hardwood record, August 25, 1911.—Silver-
bell tree, p. 26-7; The hardwood door,
Dives
Hardwood record, Sept. 10, 1911.—Sweet
birch, p. 26-7.
Lumber world, Sept. 1, 1911.—Applied for-
estry and practical lumbering; outline
of the course of study and practical
examples used by the Yale forest
school, by R. C. Bryant, p. 29.
Paper trade journal, August 17, 1911.—
Paper trade in Russia, by J. H. Snod-
grass, p. 52,56; Why spruce for news
print, by E. Stewart, p. 56.
Pioneer western lumberman, Sept. 1, 1911.
—Biltmore forester students touring
the coast, by C. T. McCaskie, p. 17-19;
Relation of forestry to human progress,
by C. H. Shinn, p. 25-7.
St. Louis lumberman, August 15, 1911.—The
utilization of wood waste, by W. B.
Harper, p. 56-7.
Timber trades journal, August 5, 1911.—
Wood preservation, by A. L. Kuehn, p.
177.
Timber trade journal, August 26, 1911.—
Prolonging the life of wood blocks, p.
215.
United States daily consular report, August
24, 1911.—The Canadian forest reserve,
by F. S. S. Johnson, p. 863.
United States daily consular report, Sept.
13, 1911.—Hardwood paving invention,
by J. L. Griffiths, p. 1191; Poles and fix-
tures for transmission lines, by H. L.
Washington, p. 1198-9.
Wood craft, Sept., 1911.—Formulas and
recipes in wood-finishing, by A. A.
Kelly p. 167-9; Interiors; their decora-
tive treatment and construction, by J.
Bovingdon, p. ./0-2; Giimpses at a
traveling school of forestry, p. 188-9;
Wood and worms, p. 193-4.
Wooden and willow-ware trade review, Au-
gust 10, 1911.—\/ooden toothpicks in
America, p. 81-2, 88.
Forest journals
Allgemeine forst- und jagd-zeitung, July,
1911.—Forsteinrichtung auf reiner-
632
Allg
AMERICAN FORESTRY
tragsgrundlage, by Trebeljahr, p. 221-
30; Ueber die inhaltsermittlung ver-
kaufsmissig zugerichteter stamme aus
lange und einem durchmesser, by T.
Glaser, p. 230-7; Pflanzen und bestandes-
geschichtliche betrachtungen, by Faudi,
p. 238-42.
emeine forst- und jagd-zeitung, August
1911.—Ein neues verfahren, die mas-
senzuwachsprozente fiir noch anstehen-
de biume und bestaénde zu ermitteln,
by Gerlach, p. 266-74; “Hie Welf—hie
Waiblingen,” by Heck, p. 274-85.
American forestry, Sept., 1911.—The place
Bull
of forestry in the schools, by D. C.
Ellis, p. 509-15; A forest school in the
Philippines, by W. F. Sherfesee, p. 516-
21: College of forestry, University of
Minnesota, by E. G. Cheyney, p. 522-4;
Public aspects of forestry, by H. S.
Graves, p. 525-30; The Sihlwald, an ex-
ample, by B. Moore, p. 531-6; Univer-
sity of Nebraska forest school, by O. L.
Sponsler, p. 537-41; Colorado school of
forestry, by P. T. Coolidge, p. 542-5;
Teaching forestry by pictures, p. 546-8;
Forestry at the Iowa state college of
agriculture and mechanical arts, by
G. B. MacDonald, p. 549-54; Institu-
tions giving instruction in forestry;
list by U. S. Forest service, p. 559-62.
etin de la Société centrale forestiére de
Belgique, August, 1911——L’emploi des
engrais chimiques en sylviculture; ré-
sultat des expériences, by N. I. Crahay,
p. 491-502; Quelques pages d’un ancien
brigadier forestier, by A. Delacharlerie,
p. 503-10; Le saule blanc, by N. I. Cra-
hay. p. 536-8; Le lophyre du pin dans le
Brabant, by C. Bossu, p. 538-41; Les
foréts de la Roumanie, p. 542-4; Le
chataignier du Japon, by Prunet, p.
545-50.
Forstwissenschaftliches centralblatt, July,
1911.—Ueber die beziehungen der mass-
en- und geldverzinsung in hochwald-
betriebsklassen mit besonderer bertck
sichtigung der badischen doméanen-
waldungen, by Eberbach, p.357-77; Neue
Indian forester, July,
anregungen aus der forstlichen praxis
zur bekampfung der nonne, by Kloeck,
p. 877-94; Hochwasserschaden in den am
Rheine belegenen staats-und gemein-
dewaldungen der Pfalz wahrend des
sommers 1910, by Esslinger, p. 394-400.
Forstwissenschaftliches centralblatt, Aug.—
Sept., 1911.—Die versteigerung des
holzes im wege des mitindlichen abge-
bots, by K. E. Ney, p. 421-9; Ueber be-
standesmassenberechnung nach massen-
tafeln und schlagergebnisse der praxis,
by Gayer, p. 430-42; Privatwaldwirt-
schaft und _ giiterzertrimmerung in
Niederbayern, p. 442-56; Anbauversuche
mit der eibe, by A. Burckhardt, p. 457-
68; Die walder der grossen Syrte, p.
471-6.
1911.—Influence of
forests on soil moisture, p. 354-64.
Mitteilungen aus dem forstlichen versuchs-
wesen Osterreichs, 1911.—Hin din-
gungsversuch an schwarzkiefernstan-
genholz des grossen fohrenwaldes bei
Wiener-Neustadt, by N. Lorenz von Li-
burnau, p. 1-11; Versuche zur bekamp-
fung der nonne mittelst leimringen, by
W. Sedlaczek, p. 18-50; Klima und mas-
senvermehrung der nonne und anderer
forstschadlinge, by Zederbauer, p. 51-
69.
Schweizerische zeitschrift fiir forstwesen,
July-Aug., 1911—Wald und stadte, by
P. Hefti, p. 193-205; Aufforstung des
staates Waadt am Mont-Chaubert, by
J. J. de Luze, p. 205-13.
Zeitschrift fiir forst- und jagdwesen, July,
1911.—Ostdeutscher kiefernwald, seine
erneuerung und erhaltung, by Wie-
becke, p. 523-45; Der Grunewald, by
Guse, p. 563-67; Unbeabsichtigte um-
triebserh6hungen, by Trebeljahr, p.
568-75.
Zeitschrift fiir forst- und jagdwesen, Au-
gust, 1911.—Die weitere entwicklung
der versuche mit fremdlandischen hol-
zarten in Preussen, by A. Schwappach,
p. 591-611; Ueber den gegensatz zwisch-
en tauschwert, kostenwert und erwar-
tungswert, by Frey, p. 637-43.
NEWS AND NOTES.
Lost River in New Hampshire
The Society for the Protection of New
Hampshire Forests, having aided in the
preservation of the top of Sunapee Moun-
tain in that state, of which it is to receive
the title from the public-spirited purchas-
ers, is now endeavoring to preserve an-
other of the scenic treasures of New Hamp-
shire, the gorge of Lost River, lying in
the wildly picturesque country between
Mounts Moosilauke and Kinsman.
Lost River, rising on the slopes of Mount
Moosilauke, runs for a mile and a half over
steep cascades, then plunges underground
for nearly a mile before emerging to the
surface again. In its subterranean course
are many large caverns and cascades. Kins-
man Notch, through which the river runs,
is notable for its steep wooded cliffs, the
beaver meadows at the summit of the
notch, and its numerous streams.
The society has voted to apply to this
purpose a recent legacy of $5,000 and is
trying to raise by subscription the re-
maining $2,000 for the purchase and $1,000
additional to be used to clear up the slash
and waste timber left by lumbermen in pre-
vious years.
The Publishers’ Paper Company, which
owns the property, has agreed to give the
society title to 148 acres, including the
whole underground route of the Lost River,
provided the society will pay $7,000 for the
standing timber.
The Southern Pine Beetle
Professor A. D. Hopkins, of the Bureau
of Entomology, has made a report upon the
dying of pine timber in parts of Georgia,
South Carolina, and North Carolina. He
finds this due to the work of the southern
pine beetle, which was found to be thriv-
ing in the bark of all the infested trees,
the indications being that the beetle exists
in enormous numbers. The report con-
tinues:
It has been known for more than forty
years that this particular beetle has ex-
isted in the southern states, and our exten-
Sive studies of it within recent years indi-
cate that it has occupied the region since
time immemorial. It appears, however,
that only at long intervals does it increase
to such numbers as to cause widespread
depredations, such as, for example, the
great invasion of 1890-1893 in the Virginias.
Under the normal conditions of its life and
habits, a few scattering trees are killed
by it each year in nearly every county
throughout the southern states where the
pine is common. If, however, there are
from any cause favorable conditions for
the multiplication of the insect, it is thus
able to kill groups of trees, and if these
groups increase in number and size the
following year, they constitute the danger
signal of an outbreak with resulting wide-
spread depredations. These are just the
conditions found in the localities observed,
and from the reports received from differ-
ent sections of the South ranging from
Texas to Virginia, it is evident that they
prevail throughout the greater part of at
least the short-leaf pine belt. Therefore,
there is every reason to believe that unless
prompt and properly directed action is
taken by owners of pine timber throughout
the region during the coming winter, a
large percentage of the best old as well as
middle aged and young pine will be killed
within the next two or three years.
Published information, as well as special
instructions on practical methods of con-
trol, have been sent to all of our corre-
spondents who have requested advice on
the subject during the past year. Doubt-
less in some cases the advice as to proper
methods of combating the pest has been
followed, but in every case examined where
some attempt had been made by the owner
towards control, little or nothing had been
accomplished from the fact that some of
the essential details had been neglected.
In most cases the dead trees had been cut
after the beetles had left them and in other
cases the bark from the dying infested
trees had not been destroyed in time to pre-
vent the escape of the broods of beetles.
Therefore, it is evident that in order to
Lring about the proper general understand-
ing and application of the most economical
and effective methods of control and pro-
tection, it is necessary for the experts of
this bureau to conduct some _ practical
demonstrations in different sections of the
South. With this object in view, the bu-
reau will establish a forest insect field sta-
tion at some central point in the South,
where instructions can be given and where
633
634
agents and experts will be available for
demonstration work.
In the meantime, every one who is inter-
ested in the protection of the pine timber
land, and the prevention of the widespread
destruction of the pine throughout the
country should report to this bureau the
location of every large patch of dying
or red-topped dead timber observed be-
tween now and the first of next February.
The time to conduct the real work of
control will be between the 1st of Novem-
ber, 1911, and the 1st of March, 1912, and
coneerted action in carrying out the most
economical and effective methods in the
affected areas in each county of the sev-
eral states involved is essential to success.
The methods of control will vary some-
what in different localities and sections of
the region, but briefly they are as follows:
a. The location of dying trees actually in-
AMERICAN FORESTRY
fested with the broods of the destructive
insects.
b. The destruction of the broods in the
vark of the main trunks of the trees. This
is accomplished in many different ways,
and whenever the wood can be utilized for
cordwood, lumber, or other commercial pur-
poses, the value of the product will balance
the costs of treatment, and in some cases
yield a profit, but to avoid serious mistakes
one must know how and be sure he is right
before he makes the attempt.
The advice of the experts of the bureau
of entomology, United States Department
of Agriculture, can be had for the asking,
and personal instructions will be given and
demonstrations made in sections of the
several states where the greatest interest
is manifested and where the best facili-
ties are offered for rendering the service to
a large number of owners.
Lducation
Cooperation
Organization
FIRE GUARD’S HOUSE, GANLEY RIVER HEAD-
QUARTERS
BEST PART OF TIMBER DESTROYED BY RE-
PEATED GROUND FIRES
FIRE PROTECTION IN SOUTHERN
APPALACHIANS
American Forestry
VOL. XVII NOVEMBER, 1911 No. 11
A FIRE PROTECTION PLAN IN THE SOUTHERN
APPALACHIANS
By W. H. WEBER.
50,000 acres of timberland in West Virginia. This tract is located
in Webster, Pocahontas and Greenbriar Counties and includes the en-
tire watersheds of the Cherry, Cranberry and Williams Rivers and the head-
waters of the Gauley.
This region is very mountainous, the only level country being narrow flats
found occasionally along the river bottoms. To describe it more graphically
it is, so to speak, all up and down, since ridge after ridge rises abruptly from
the narrow stream valleys to. terminate in narrow rocky crests over 4,000 feet
above sea level. Thus the country is naturally divided into districts bounded
by water courses and high ridges which are natural fire lines.
These mountains and valleys are covered with a rich virgin forest which
changes in its character according to the elevation. At 1,800 and 2,000 feet
in the valleys we find mixed hardwoods, such as the oaks, maples, beech,
cherry, yellow poplar, ash, etc., growing luxuriai tly. Farther up on the
ridges hemlock appears in mixture with them. At the 3,500 foot line red
spruce is occasionally found which increases in numbers as we go upward,
until at 3,800 feet it becomes the dominant or most frequent tree, topping the
ridges as a rule with a heavy spruce forest.
Again, the climate is excellent as the mountain ranges are strong factors in
precipitating moisture from passing cloud banks so that showers are fre-
quent, especially in summer, and there are rarely any long periods of drought.
The exception to this occurs in the spring and fall. At these seasons the
leaves are off the trees, allowing the sunlight to reach the forest floor. This
condition tends to dry up the leaf litter rapidly, so that after two or three
days of fair weather the fallen leaves become very inflammable and form a
real fire danger.
It is at these two seasons of the year that practically all of the forest fires
occur, hence the opinion that these seasons are particularly dry, although in
reality they may not be remarkably so. An indication of this lies in the fact
that in certain instances small fires are extinguished by rain before they have
been able to do any wide damage.
Or Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company is the owner of some
637
AMERICAN FORESTRY
3
Co
(4)
This brief introduction enables us to understand better what is said in the
following pages, since the character of the forest, ruggedness of the country,
and climatic conditions determine the methods of fire protection.
It is gratifying to mention at this point that this company is desirous,
for many reasons, of conserving its forest resources. In the summer of 1909
the writer made a report upon the forest conditions of the company’s lands.
He found upon the cut-over lands that most species of trees, and particularly
the more valuable spruce returned very rapidly, and that spruce, even before
the present operation was completed, would undoubtedly be of sufficient size
and in large enough quantities to be of commercial value.
The question then arose as to the best method of securing this second
cutting. There were minor considerations which go beyond the scope of this
article, but it was pointed out that the principal factor in securing any future
return of timber would be a thorough plan of fire protection. Unless the
young growth was to be protected, nothing could be produced at all. This
applied to the cut-over lands, but beyond these lands there was a certain
amount of damage created by surface or ground fires each year on the timber-
land not yet reached by the lumbermen. In the spring and fall fires were
frequent throughout the hills, running for days through the undergrowth and
around the bases of the timber trees until finally extinguished by rain. It
was easily seen that although no one fire of this kind would kill the larger
trees outright, the frequent burning charred and hollowed out the bases of
the trees, eventually resulting in a high percentage of damage to the butt logs
and also formed a good place of entrance for fungous diseases and for timber
damaging insects. Hunters, fishermen and others were usually responsible
for these fires, and they did further damage by peeling the bark from hemlock
and spruce for use in making rude roofs and siding for temporary camps.
For these reasons a plan of fire protection to cover the uncut forest as
well as the cut-over territory was determined upon. The work of perfecting
this plan was gradual, one feature after another being put in operation until
in the fall of 1910 the system was undertaken as a unit.
It is a difficult thing to place before a reader even though he be interested
in the subject, a readable statement of the machinery of a plan of this sort.
There are numerous details of equipment, of duties, and routes of patrol, that
must necessarily be changed for each district. We will in this paper, merci-
fully omit these details, following the general subject along its main lines of
procedure, in the hope that they may contain features of interest. Like the
darky preacher who stated to his congregation that his sermon was divided
into three parts, “de world, de flesh and de debbil, but de subjec am so large,
bredderen, dat for de start off we will omit the world and de fiesh an’ go
straight to de debbil.”
Briefly stated then, the territory was divided into three divisions:
(1) The cut-over areas and the timbered lands.
(2) The railroads.
(3) The areas where contractors are cutting timber.
These three divisions were put in charge of a fire chief, who was respon-
sible for all fire damage in the entire region. The woods-foreman was selected
for the position since he had charge of most matters pertaining to the wood-
land. When the methods to be used were explained to him, he expressed him-
self as heartily in favor of them, and has proven well fitted to the position.
The fire chief was provided with an assistant whose duty it is to keep the
chief informed constantly as to the efficiency of the men and equipment. He
delivers orders from the chief and supplements him in many ways.
A FIRE PROTECTION PLAN 639
THE CUT-OVER AREAS AND THE TIMBERED LANDS.
It was considered best to protect these areas by establishing a patrol.
The patrol men or fire guards, as they are called, were selected for their fidel-
ity, and their knowledge of the region over which they were given charge.
Their duty required them to watch over a definite area of land, and to do this,
each man was given a route over which he was required to travel, making a
complete circuit to his starting point every four days. The patrol continued
during the dry seasons of spring and fall and in hunting and fishing seasons.
The routes also changed from the ridges to the stream beds at different sea-
sons. The ridges being more carefully watched in the hunting season, and the
streams while the fishing season was open. In conjunction with this the com-
pany continued a custom originated many years ago, of requiring each fisher-
man or hunter to secure a permit to hunt and fish, agreeing therein to assist
in every way possible to prevent fire and to report any persons peeling or
otherwise destroying timber. The patrols, upon meeting a hunter or fisher-
man requested him to show his permit and impressed upon him the necessity
of careful tending of his own camp fires. Often a patrol was allowed to se-
cure a permit for persons found trespassing without one, and in this way es-
tablished friendly relations with all campers, and secured their co-operation.
Unfortunately the state legislature of West Virginia passed a law in the
spring of 1911 allowing all persons the right to trespass at will upon all un-
fenced lands within the state. This law vitiates the permits and likewise
makes it impossible for the company to inform itself as to how many campers
are on the land or where they may be located.
In addition to watching the fishermen and hunters the fire guards co-
operate with any settlers in their district and arrange to be present when
brush is to be burned or a clearing of any sort made. They also post notices
along trails and in conspicuous places to warn all against starting fire.
Along the routes of the patrolmen there are shelters at different points where
they may stay when storms overtake them or pass the night while making
their rounds. At the three forks of the Williams River the company has
built a house where one guard and his assistant are located permanently the
year round.
At the headquarters of the Gauley another patrol has his house, and
on the Cranberry River the patrol uses three or four different hunters’ cabins
and has his home beyond the company land. A telephone line is being con-
structed to the house on the Williams, which in case of fire will save much
time in summoning aid, since this line will reach most of the settlers in the
region. Another line may be carried up the Gauley in the same manner.
The patrol system has been in operation for over a year and has proven
very efficient thus far, there having been no damage to timber in any
district, with the exception of two small brush fires on the Williams and one
on the Gauley. These were all located within a short time and extinguished
before any damage had been done to standing timber.
The manner in which these fires were fought illustrates fully the fire
guard system. On the eleventh of May, 1911, the guard on the Williams saw
smoke rising above the trees two miles or so below his house. He imme-
diately sent out his boy to get a couple of settlers further up the valley and
set out for the fire himself. Within a couple of hours he had been reinforced
by these men, and they surrounded the edge of the fire with a narrow fire line
made by hacking out the undergrowth down to the rocks and then beating
out the fire with shovels and throwing dirt on it when it reached the line.
They had just controlled the fire when over the ridge came the fire guard
from the Gauley district with eleven men. They had seen the smoke and
640 AMERICAN FORESTRY
came to help. With this large force the fire was promptly extinguished and
a man left for the night to see that it did not break out afresh.
A forester inspects the patrols at intervals during the season to suggest
methods of gradually increasing their efficiency. It was on one of these trips
of inspection that the writer remarked to the patrol, “Say, Jim, didn’t you
ever got lost in these mountains? Of course, I know that you understand
them mighty well, following up the fishers and hunters, but it seems to me
that even the best of men would get lost once in a while in this tangle of hills
and valleys.” He paused for a second, “No,” he said at last, “I ain’t never
been what you might call lost, but wonst about five year ago, up thar on the
headwaters of Cranberry, I was plumb confounded for as much as three days.”
THE RAILROADS.
Coming to the second division, that of the railroads, we should first state
that the company has over 75 miles of standard gauge railway lines upon the
property and operates sixteen engines to haul its log, bark and pulp trains.
The division of railroads is in charge of the railroad boss. It is his duty to
see that the fire protection equipment is provided and operating, to inform the
fire chief of any fires reported to the central office, and to send out special
crews to fight fire whenever necessary. Under the railroad boss are the en-
gineers and trainmen whose duties require them to stop and extinguish any
small fires along the right of way, or to cut off and go to the nearest company
camp to bring men to fight fire, at the same time notifying the fire chief
through the central office.
Beyond the operating department is the track department, or section
crews. They keep the track clear of inflammable material for twenty feet on
either side of the right of way. They fight fire wherever found in their sec-
tion, and in very dry weather patrol the track after every train, one man go-
ing to the end of his section and relaying another man from the section crew
beyond.
As to equipment, every engine has a spark arrester which is regularly
inspected and kept in good condition. Also fifty feet of hose with a nozzle
is kept in a box on the tender. Hoes and pails are located in the section
houses, and every patrol carries a pail. This fall a hand pump will be added
to the equipment to make fighting fire with buckets more effective.
Along the right of way, wherever it departs from streams that have a
constant flow through dry weather, water barrels are placed. The intervals
between these barrels vary with the grade, and they are kept constantly full
for use in emergency. There are also tank cars, which can be hauled to a fire
to supply the hose line on the engine.
It is undoubtedly a fact that the railroad engines are the greatest fire
menace. First, because they are constantly in every part of the timber oper-
ation, and second, because of the difficulty of preventing the throwing of
sparks when on heavy grades. The spark arresters frequently get out of or-
der and an engine will often travel a whole day before a broken arrester is
discovered.
On a steep grade with a heavy load a fireman can easily imagine that the
engine groans piteously to be released from its muzzle, and occasionally upon
inspecting a bad break in the wire mesh of the arrester a clean hole will be
found very similar to one which might be made by a vigorous thrust of the
fireman’s poker handle.
The organization has been in effect on the railroad during the last nine
months, and in that time one large fire, covering almost a thousand acres, was
set by an engine with a defective arrester. Fortunately the area burned had
-
FIRE STARTED BY FISHERMAN’S CAMP UNDER AN CUT OVER AREA BURNED IN SPRING OF 1911,
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A FIRE TRAP—BRUSH AND SLASH ALONG RAIL-
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FIRE PROTECTION IN SOUTHERN
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FOREST RANGERS SOWING YELLOW PINE SEED
FROM HORSEBACK NEAR PUMA CITY, COLO-
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REFORESTATION ON PIKE NATIONAL
FOREST
A FIRE PROTECTION PLAN 645
been recently cut over and no damage to merchantable timber resulted. As it
was, aS many as ninety men were engaged some time in fighting it, and if it
had not been discovered promptly by a patrolman and fought vigorously, a
heavy loss of merchantable timber would have resulted.
The section crews were of valuable assistance during the dry period, and
many minor blazes, only a few yards in diameter, were extinguished by the
prompt arrival of some track walker—usually the section foreman himself—
who followed up the passing trains.
The fire chief has been so vigilant that at one particular dry period of
two weeks he suspended the running of log trains except in the early morning
and at night—times of the day when fires are least likely to be started.
THE AREAS WHERE CONTRACTORS ARE CUTTING TIMBER.
The intermediate district not covered by the railroad or patrol is that
area in process of being lumbered. The contractor or boss of the company
camps is responsible for this area. There is a clause written into his con-
tract fixing on him the responsibility for any fire damage in the district un-
der his care, and a notice is tacked to his shanty so that all his men may see
it. This informs him that for any logs burned he will not only lose the scale
or tally of the logs, but in addition, he will be charged with the value of the
logs thus destroyed.
At different seasons of the year there is a real danger where contractors
are burning brush along the railroad to get an open place for what they call
a “landing” or place to stack up the logs. A careless man will sometimes
leave a brush fire while he goes off to his dinner, or trust to luck that all will
be well if he allows it to burn all night. More or less fixed habits of this sort
are not easily overcome, but during the nine months that the regulations
have been in force no fires have resulted. This has undoubtedly been due to
increased vigilance upon their part and to suggestions from passing fire
guards or the assistant fire chief who inspects their cuttings from time to
time.
To increase the efficiency of the three divisions described above, a forester
visits the property at intervals. Written reports are turned in to the fire
chief from the patrols once each month and these are kept on file for the use
of the forester who goes over them carefully to note the results of each dis-
trict.
The forester receives verbal reports from the railroad department and
traces to its cause any fire that may be reported to the office, and wherever
possible extra preventive measures are taken that a similar fire may be
handled to better advantage. To illustrate this, it has been found that small
hand pumps are of great assistance to track walkers in fighting small fires,
and these will, in future, be added to the pails which the men now carry.
It can also be seen that as more timber is cut and new railway lines pro-
jected into the uncut forest, slight changes must be made in the different
patrol districts. The forester provides for these as the operation progresses
so that each division is protected. It is also planned to make minor changes
from time to time in all the divisions as quickly as the men become most effi-
cient in the duties now assigned to them. This is in accord with the plan of
gradually making the plan more intensive in its efficiency.
To sum up the results of a year’s trial of the plan we must take into con-
sideration the region as a whole. It has been everywhere a season of unusual
drought, and large fire losses have been sustained by neighboring lumber
companies. One company has lost much standing timber as well as logs, log
cars, and a railroad bridge. Another company had fire sweep through its
646 AMERICAN FORESTRY
standing timber and through a part of the lumber town, burning several
houses. In fact, the month of May was so very dry that wherever there were
railroads, fires were sure to occur, and would spread with remarkable speed
through the dry underbrush becoming almost at once dangerous top fires.
On the Cherry River property there have been three small brush fires of some
thirty acres apiece, one large fire in recently cut over lands along the rail-
road, and in addition a fire not previously mentioned which started from a
farmer’s clearing and burned into the region of the so-called railroad fire,
joining it and making the total area about one thousand acres, but none of it
standing timber.
In an ordinary season such fire damage would be considered large, but
under the circumstances the company, so far as they have expressed them-
selves, consider the results obtained a success, and their losses low.
REFORESTATION ON THE PIKE NATIONAL FOREST
By C. W. FITZGERALD
FOREST SUPERVISOR
work of reforesting the vast areas denuded by fire and wasteful cutting
been so vigorously pushed as in the past two years. There are many
reasons for this; the chief one being that before this the work of reforestation
was largely experimental; and it might be said that much is still to be learned.
However, sufficient progress has been made with the experimental work to
enable the officer of the Forest Service to accomplish beneficial results in this
all-important work.
Although reforestation is being largely practiced on the greater number of
national forests, the writer will deal only with the work on the forest with
which he is best acquainted, the Pike National Forest of Colorado. The lands
within this forest should be covered with a “protection forest,” valuable
primarily as a conserver of water rather than for lumber.
The location of the Pike National Forest makes it of considerable importance
to the citizens of Denver, Colorado Springs, Boulder, Manitou, and the
numerous other settlements in the immediate vicinity, since the watersheds that
supply these communities are located within the boundaries of this forest.
Realizing this fact, the forest officers, whose duty it is to administer this area,
are using their utmost endeavors to better the unfortunate conditions which
exist on this important area by reforesting the watersheds of these growing
cities. A large proportion of the watershed has been stripped of its timber by
fire or cutting, or both. Generally speaking, two methods of accomplishing the
desired results have been adopted, by transplanting seedlings which are
raised at the nurseries maintained by the Forest Service in the vicinity and by
sowing the seed of the trees common to the area which it is desired to reforest.
After a number of localities within the Pike National Forest had been
experimented with, to determine the most suitable location for a nursery, in
which to raise seedlings for field planting, a small area was selected about two
miles west of the town of Monument. Monument is a small settlement on
the railroad between Denver and Colorado Springs, about 55 miles south of
FL’ NO previous time since the creation of the national forests has the
REFORESTATION ON THE PIKE NATIONAL FOREST 647
Denver and twenty miles north of Colorado Springs. After the seedlings
which are raised at the Monument nursery have attained a suitable age and
degree of hardiness, they are shipped to various localities within the forest.
These localities are known as plantations. The most important of these
plantations are as follows: The Bear Creek Plantation (1906); the Bear
Creek Plantation (1910); the Pike’s Peak Plantation (1910); the Bear Creek
Plantation (1911), and the Cascade Plantation (1911).
The Bear Creek Plantation, 1906, 1910, 1911, consists of some 54 acres
of land, located six and one-quarter miles south and west from the city of
Colorado Springs, in Bear Creek Valley, and one-quarter of a mile above the
point where the famous “High Drive” enters this valley from the south.
Plantings were made by the Forest Service in 1906, 1910, and 1911. In 1906,
some 4,000 Douglas fir seedlings, three years old, which had been raised at
the Forest Service nursery located at Halsey, Nebraska, were planted on the
western end of this area. This work demonstrated very clearly that in order
to get good results on these slopes great care should be exercised in placing the
plant in such a position that the slide caused by wind, rain, and snow would
not bury the small seedlings, which in this case protruded only four inches
above the surface of the ground. Notwithstanding the fact that some of these
small plants were almost entirely covered by sand and gravel, it is interesting
to note that upon being uncovered, they show a growth for each year since
the date of planting in 1906.
In the spring of 1910, some 27,000 yellow pine seedlings, and 3,200 Douglas
fir seedlings were planted on an adjacent area. All of this latter stock of
seedlings was raised at the Monument nursery, and was planted on steep,
gravelly slopes, similar to the large areas on which it is intended to continue
this work. The seedlings were set out about five feet apart, where possible.
Nearly all of these plants were set in a hole grubbed out with a mattock. It
was aimed to set the plant as near as possible to the outer edge of the small
shelf caused by this excavation in order to protect it from the slide of earth
and gravel.
The results of this work were very gratifying, for a recent examination
found at least seventy per cent of the plants in good condition. The yellow
pine seedlings did remarkably well, having made a growth during the past year
of at least six inches in every case noted. The thirty per cent loss was due
to various causes, the principal ones being failure on the part of the laborers
to spread the delicate root system of the seedlings into a natural position, and
the work of deer or rodents which destroyed the young seedlings by cutting
them off close to the ground.
Work was again taken up on this plantation during the spring of 1911,
when 35,000 yellow pine transplants were set out. These plants were raised
at the Monument Nursery; they were four years old, and averaged, including
the roots, twenty-six inches, of which fifteen inches were above the ground.
During the fall of 1910, some 5,000 plants were set out on the Pike’s Peak
plantation, which is located on the northeastern slope of Pike’s Peak, about
one mile west of the Halfway House, a station on the Pike’s Peak cog road.
The elevation of this plantation is 9,500 feet. Six species of coniferous trees,
common to this elevation and its rigorous conditions, were included in the
5,000 plants, which were set out October 18, and an examination of the area
on November 12 showed that the yellow pine had made a growth of one inch.
Since the six different species in this plantation were planted at the same
time, it can readily be seen that very good reasons can be had as to which of the
six is best adapted to this particular locality.
Work is now in progress on the Cascade Plantation (1911), the latest
648 AMERICAN FORESTRY
established within this forest. When experiments were being conducted to
determine a suitable locality for a nursery, a small area was selected in Jones
Park, about three miles above the Bear Creek plantation, in Bear Creek Valley
All of the stock raised in this nursery had been removed to the Monument
Nursery and to other localities except about 20,000 three-year-old Douglas fir
seedlings of which 15,000 were recently removed from this abandoned nursery
to the Cascade plantation, which is on the north fork of Cascade Creek, three
miles west of Cascade, a summer resort, ten miles west of Colorado Springs
on the Colorado Midland Railway. This plantation is located at an elevation
of 9,000 feet, with an average slope of about thirty degrees and a north and
northeast exposure. The 15,000 Douglas fir seedlings should do well on this
area, as the stand of timber which formerly covered these slopes was of
this species. In addition to the plants which were raised in the abandoned
nursery formerly located in Jones Park, 15,000 four-year-old Douglas fir
seedlings from the Monument nursery are being planted on this important
watershed. These plants are particularly fine-looking and sturdy, and it is
believed they will make a rapid and successful growth.
The old Pike’s Peak State Road from Cascade to the summit of Pike’s
Peak, forms the northern boundary of this plantation. The land to the
westward of this road having an easy slope with a southern exposure is well
adapted to the planting of yellow pine. This slope has been selected as a
suitable area to determine whether it will not be practical to plant two-year-old
yellow pines from the nursery instead of three or four-year-old plants. Five
hundred of these plants will be set out before May 10. If this experiment
proves that this plan is feasible, it can be readily seen that a considerable
expense will be saved in the production of these seedlings. Altogether 104,700
plants of different species have been planted on the Pike National Forest,
covering an area of approximately 78 acres.
In addition to this, areas aggregating 46 acres have been planted in the
vicinity of Clyde and Palmer Lake, 108,000 plants having been set out during
1905, 1907, 1908, and 1909. The larger part of these areas is located in
Limbaugh Canyon, a short distance south of Palmer Lake. This work was
largely experimental and served as a means of perfecting the system of raising
and transplanting seedlings.
The yearly output of the Monument nursery is 500,000 plants, and as
many as this should be set out each year upon the watersheds within the Pike
National Forest. Great progress has been made in nursery practice during the
past two years and the efficiency in handling the plants in the nursery, as well
as in the field, has been increased one hundred per cent. Only last year it
was considered that a field planter did a good eight-hour day’s work if he
planted 250 seedlings. During the month of April, 1911, a gang of six planters,
working on the Cascade plantation, averaged five hundred plants per day per
man.
While the men of the Pike National Forest are very well pleased with the
results of their efforts toward reforestation through field planting during the
past two years, they have tried another method, that of sowing the seed of
the coniferous trees adapted to the locality which it is desired to reforest.
A large number of experiments along this line have been made during the
past few years. Most of these experiments were conducted on a small scale,
until the spring of 1910, when some 275 acres of denuded lands on the Denver
watersheds were sown with 507 pounds of Douglas fir seed. This area is
located on Trail Creek, just west of the old settlement of Pemberton, which is
some twenty-five miles south of South Platte station. Trail Creek is a
FOREST RANGERS SOWING SEED ON THE SNOW
NEAR PUMA CITY, COLORADO
FOREST RANGERS SOWING YELLOW PINE SEED ON
DENVER WATERSHED DURING A SNOW STORM
REFORESTATION ON PIKE
NATIONAL
FOREST
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AN EXPERT PLANTING A _ FOUR-
YEAR-OLD YELLOW PINE ON THE
BEAR CREEK PLANTATION, TEN
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PLANTING FOUR-YEAR-OLD YELLOW PINE ON
BEAR CREEK PLANTATION, 1911
REFORESTATION ON THE PIKE NATIONAL FOREST 651
tributary of the South Fork of the South Platte River, and the lands adjacent
thereto are necessarily a part of the watershed of the city of Denver.
The seed used in this work was gathered by the men on several national
forests in the state of Colorado. While results cannot be fully reported as
yet, it is believed that they will be fairly good.
Of the various methods used in sowing the seed on this area, what is
known as the drill or furrow method has given the best results. A furrow is
made along the contour of the slope with a hoe-like instrument specially
constructed for this purpose. By dragging it along the ground, a furrow is
made several inches deep. A planter with a bag of seed and a rake follows
the man with the furrow maker, and drops seed into the furrow at intervals
of about one inch and then rakes the soil over the seed.
During the fall of 1910, an area comprising some 144 acres on the north-
eastern slope of Pike’s Peak, near the Halfway House, on the Pike’s Peak cog
road, was sown to Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, and yellow pine seed,
various methods being employed. Owing to the lateness of the season when
this work was done, results cannot be accurately given as yet.
During the winter of 1910-1911, the officers of this forest were informed
that it was the desire of the district forester that extensive experimental work
be done along the line of sowing yellow pine seed on the snow, especially on
the watersheds. Some 3,600 pounds of yellow pine seed, which had been
gathered by the men of the national forests in Colorado, Wyoming, and South
Dakota, were allotted for this work, and an expert was sent out to make a
reconnaissance and select suitable acres on which to do the sowing. During
the month of February, 1,150 acres of land were sown to this yellow pine seed
in different parts of the forest. About 900 acres of the total area are located
on the watersheds of the North and South Forks of the South Platte River,
from which the city of Denver obtains its water supply. The remainder of
the sowing area is located on the watershed of Fountain Creek, from which a
part of the domestic and municipal supply of Colorado Springs is obtained.
It was considered that the most favorable time to sow this seed was during
a snow storm, and consequently the forest rangers in charge of the different
districts in which the sowing was to be done awaited the time when the ideal
conditions existed, when they took up the work of sowing the two to three
hundred acres on their districts. It was no easy task to sow on steep, rocky
slopes with the thermometer registering from ten to twenty degrees below
zero and with the snow falling. Some of the rangers were fortunate enough
to have areas which permitted of their sowing the seed from horseback. This
method is believed to be really more effective than sowing on foot, because the
seed, being thrown from a considerable height, sink deeper in the snow.
The method of sowing seed by broadcasting in the snow and on unprepared
ground, appeals very strongly to the forest oflicers who realize the magnitude
of the task before them, by coming in daily contact with the vast areas which it
is their duty to clothe with a good stand of timber. These men realize that
they will not see their efforts result in a merchantable stand of timber, but they
do know that if they can get a six to eight-inch growth yearly, on the plants
which they are now setting out, they will have the satisfaction of seeing this
Same young growth holding the snow and thereby conserving the water
supply. It is this knowledge that encourages the men to put forth their best
efforts to successfully accomplish the important task before them.
FIRE PROTECTION IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS
By EARLE H. CLAPP.
Concluded from the October number.
EQUIPMENT.
JR efficient fire protection it must be decided in advance what equip-
al ment is necessary, and this must be obtained and so distributed as to
cause the least possible delay in case of fire. It is of the utmost im-
portance that so far as possible everything be made ready in advance.
The construction of tool boxes at strategic points throughout the forests,
for instance, at the crossing of important trails, ranch houses, at section
houses in railroad patrol, ete., has already been discussed.
During the past two years the equipment of tools on practically all the
forests has been materially increased for distribution to these tool boxes.
Standard sets for specified numbers of men have been worked out depending
upon the peculiar needs of each case. As everywhere in fire fighting, the
tools ordinarily used consist of shovels, rakes, hoes, saws, axes, mattocks,
picks, potato hooks, gunny sacks, squares of canvas, small Navajo blankets, and
files for sharpening tools. In addition cant hooks, lanterns, cooking outfits
and tents are furnished. Canteens and water bags must always be available.
Attempts have been made to improve the tools ordinarily on the market, but
so far except in the case of shoulder and saddle bags, with hose attachments
for direct application of water on the fire, and chemical apparatus, designed
by Supervisor Adams on the Arkansas National Forest, little progress has
been made. Considerable progress, however, has been made in the better
selection of the tools available in the markets. In addition to purchases, ar-
rangements are sometimes made in advance in emergency. Field glasses are
ordinarily supplied to lookouts and patrolmen who need them.
Pack trains have sometimes been secured where there is valuable timber,
the danger from fires is great, and no other means of transportation is avail-
able. In several instances such pack trains have more than paid for them-
selves in fire protection and permanent improvement work during one season.
In some cases where it is easily possible to secure pack animals, it has been
necessary to purchase pack saddles, etc., and locate them at convenient places.
On many forests it has been found desirable to make arrangements in ad-
vance for pack animals when there is any possibility that they will be needed.
The effectiveness of a fire fighting force is greatly increased by proper
food supplies. Aside from the question of transportation various plans de-
pending upon local conditions have been devised for getting supplies to the
men quickly and cheaply. Very often arrangements are made in advance
with stockmen for the purchase of either beef or mutton on the range. During
the fire season rangers frequently purchase a larger amount of supplies than
usual for emergency use. Wherever advisable special arrangements are made
in advance at ranch houses, or at stores in order to make sure that suitable
supplies in sufficient quantities can be obtained. It has been found helpful to
prepare for immediate use, lists of supplies which will be needed to furnish
652
FIRE PROTECTION IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 653
a specified number of men for definite periods. Officers are instructed to fur-
nish a well balanced ration of substantial food.
On many forests fire guards are being appointed at a reduced salary and
are furnished with subsistence. Food supplies are then purchased under com-
petition in order to get reasonable rates, and suitable quantities of the sup-
plies so purchased and taken to the field headquarters are available for pa-
trolmen or in ease of fire for fire fighters.
ORGANIZATION.
Since the organization for fire protection upon the forests is of the ut-
most importance, a great deal of attention is being given to this phase of the
work. The regular and permanent force on each forest consists of a super-
visor, a deputy supervisor if one is needed, clerks, and rangers who may be
assisted by forest guards during the season of heavy administrative work and
the fire season. The supervisor with the assistance of his deputy, has charge
of the work on the forest and is directly responsible for efficiency and results.
Use may often be made of clerks in handling the commissary department in
emergencies. Rangers with their assistants constitute the field force proper.
Depending upon the need, there may be one or more in each district. The
field force act as patrolmen, fire fighters if need be, and so far as possible with-
out detriment to fire protection, carry on the administrative work.
Experience has shown, however, that this regular force is not sufficiently
flexible for the best results. It may be necessary because of unusual menace
or bad fires to increase greatly the number of patrolmen, and also the number
of fire fighters. Accordingly, practically all of the permits for the use or
occupancy of the forest require assistance where needed in case of fire. The
liability for work depends upon the size and the nature of the permit and
upon the responsibility for the fire. Payment is made to permittees for as-
sistance rendered beyond the requirements of the permit. The general char-
acter of such requirements is indicated by the following clause from a timber
sale contract.
“During the time that this agreement remains in force I will, independ-
ently, do all in my power to prevent and suppress forest fires on the sale
area and its vicinity, and will require my employees and contractors to do
likewise. I hereby agree, unless prevented by circumstances over which I
have no control, to place myself and my employees at the disposal of any
authorized forest officer for the purpose of fighting forest fires, with the
understanding that if the fire does not threaten my property or the area
embraced in this agreement, I shall be paid for services so rendered at the
rate or rates to be determined by the forest officer in charge, which rate or
rates shall correspond to the rate or rates of pay prevailing in the........
the services are rendered, provided, however, that if I or my employees, sub-
contractors, or employees of subcontractors are directly or indirectly re-
sponsible for the origin of the fire, I shall not be paid for services so ren-
dered.”
While having no connection with the organization, it may be well to
mention that all permits where necessary include further provisions to pre-
vent fire: In timber sales for brush disposal and the cutting of dead stubs;
in grazing permits to prevent the leaving of burning camp or branding fires;
in power permits for the clearing of a right of way for transmission lines; in
railroad stipulations for the clearing of the right of way, the use of spark
arresters, or the use of oil or electricity for motive power, ete.
In order to extend still further the reserve force for patrol and fighting,
654 AMERICAN FORESTRY
it has been found necessary under some conditions, to appoint selected men
at a per diem paid only when work is actually done. Such men are usually
public spirited citizens who are glad to assist in the work of fire protection.
On the Deerlodge National Forest in Montana during the present year it has
been found that this plan increases materially the flexibility and efficiency
of the force; in fact, the employment of one guard under this plan makes it
possible on the average to secure the services of twenty additional men as
laborers.
On many of the forests where it does not seem necessary to appoint men
on a per diem basis, definite arrangements have been made in advance with
experienced men to act as foremen of fire crews or as ordinary laborers. The
arrangement which usually consists of a promise of assistance when called
upon is as far as possible made to include foremen in mines, lumbering camps,
ete. Foremen of fire crews are frequently paid higher wages than the men.
In addition to the classes of assistance already indicated, it is usually
possible to secure the services of large numbers of other men if needed. This,
however, may cause delay, and it may be necessary to take unsatisfactory
workmen, or be impossible to get sufficient numbers. On some of the national
forests special conditions obtain so that it is possible to secure comparatively
large bodies of good men from one place on short notice. Such, for instance,
are those forests which are adjacent to Indian reservations and in some few
cases forests which are adjacent to forts.
In very great emergencies where property of great value is at stake and
there is danger of the loss of human life, it is always possible to call for as-
sistance from the United States Army. It is planned, however, to make this
call a last resort because of the great expense of getting men to the scene of
action, and because the centralization policy of the War Department makes it
impossible under ordinary circumstances to have small forces of soldiers
scattered through the forests.
Provision for the regular forest force to be supplemented in case of need
by various reserves as discussed, does not emphasize sufficiently the occasional
and urgent need for transfers of men between forests. During the serious
fires of the summer of 1910 it was found that the need for laborers was not
so great as the need for experienced men to take charge of fire fighting crews
or to carry on patrol work. To some extent this situation was remedied by
the transfer of rangers. Such action may, however, be dangerous or impos-
sible because the regular force is comparatively small. Gradually, however,
as the number of men with some training increases, this problem may solve
itself and it may easily be possible to secure the services on one forest for
transfer to another, of good men outside of the regular force.
PATROL.
The arrangement of patrol for a forest while apparently very simple, is
actually difficult, and this is more apparent when one realizes the many adverse
conditions under which it is frequently necessary to work and the necessity
in spite of these conditions for getting good results. All of the forest must
be covered, it must be covered frequently enough to prevent disastrous fires,
and not more frequently than necessary, thus reducing the funds available
and the patrol needed in other places.
Patrol on the national forests is of two general kinds: (1) that from
lookout points; and (2) that by men who walk or ride or depend upon some
other means of transportation. ‘The lookouts are either stationed on more
or less commanding peaks and remain there constantly during dangerous
periods, or visit the peaks at specified hours and in addition, after electrical
storms. It has been found that the highest peaks may not under some con-
FIRE PROTECTION IN THE NATIONAL FORESTS 655
ditions answer so well the purposes of intensive patrol as lower peaks from
which it is impossible to get a nearer view of a smaller area. On some forests it
has been found advisable to use the higher peaks when this is possible, and
to abandon them for the lower peaks and the closer patrol if the atmosphere
becomes smoky. The chief advantage of lookout patrol is the comparatively
large area which it is possible to keep constantly in view. Lookout points are
much more effective when in direct communication by telephone, heliograph,
or otherwise with the headquarters of the forest. The great disadvantages
of lookout patrol are that it gives little or no opportunity for administrative
work, and it does not enable the patrolman to keep in close touch with forest
users, residents and transients.
The topography of some districts is such that lookout patrol is impossible,
and it is necessary to depend entirely upon men who ride or travel through
the country. In many ranger districts it has been found absolutely necessary
to keep in close touch with forest users, residents, freighters, campers and
hunters, and also other classes of transients.
For efficient riding patrol where contact with any class of people is not
the principal object, it is necessary to follow the high ridges and to get on to
peaks or into open places from which the surrounding country can be seen.
Riding patrol may be coordinated to a greater or less extent with the admin-
istrative work which is necessary during the fire season. In ranger districts
where there is only one man it is obviously necessary that he perform both
duties.
On forests which are traversed by railroads using coal-burning locomotives,
it is frequently necessary to detail special patrolmen to follow all heavy trains,
and in some cases to follow every train. Launches are useful upon the larger
lakes where a good view can be obtained of the surrounding country. In
districts with good roads much might be gained by the use of motorcycles.
In addition to the regular patrol it has sometimes been found advisable
to secure the services of ranchmen or others, who with little or no riding are
able to see a considerable part of a forest. These men in many cases do no
more than report the fires discovered to the nearest forest officer. Fires are
frequently reported as already indicated by patrolmen employed by the state,
associations, companies, or individuals cooperating with the Forest Service.
On very few of the forests has it been found possible to adopt entirely any
one form of patrol. The best results are obtained by a combination of lookout
and riding patrol depending upon the conditions in each case. In Montana
and northern Idaho the lookouts are used on the higher peaks and cover most
effectively the country immediately surrounding these stations, while patrolmen
ride through the lower valleys or along the ridges which overlook them. The
fact that administrative work must be carried on during the fire season prevents
the use of lookout patrol alone.
The area which can be covered by a patrolman depends upon a number
of varying conditions which include: (1) The value of material to be protected
and the degree of risk; (2) the frequency with which patrol is necessary ;
(3) topography; (4) whether patrol is from lookout points or by riding; (5)
upon available means of travel and communication; (6) the clearness of the
atmosphere; (7) the experience of the patrolman and his knowledge of the
country; (8) the cooperation received from adjoining ranger or patrol districts
or from adjoining forests; (9) the cooperation which may be received from
other sources; (10) the necessity for administrative work; (11) means of
subsistence.
There are a number of other points which must also be considered in
providing for patrol on any forest. The force must be exceedingly flexible. At
times during the fire season after light rainfalls, it may be possible for a few
656 AMERICAN FORESTRY
days to use lookouts and patrolmen on other work, and on the other hand, the
situation may become exceedingly dangerous, and it may be necessary to
increase materially the number of men employed. During a bad season the
atmosphere may become very smoky, and it may be necessary to abandon all
lookouts and to depend entirely upon other patrol. For instance, during the
bad fires of 1910 in the northwest it was impossible for the patrolmen to see
fires until almost on them. During different parts of the fire season variation
in patrol may be necessary because of the locations at which fires may start.
At the beginning of the season, for instance, all the fires may be in the lower
valleys, while the snow is still melting in the higher mountains or the
movement of transients may also have a very material effect upon the possible
location of fires.
While there is any fire danger the patrol must be regular. Patrolmen
and lookouts must be on duty every day, including Sundays and holidays.
Men who are incapacitated must be replaced immediately. When fires are
discovered provision must ordinarily be made for a continuation of patrol
while the fire is being extinguished, otherwise it may be possible for others
to obtain a serious start before discovery. To insure regularity, it is necessary
in many cases to make arrangements for the transportation of mail and
supplies to lookouts and patrolmen.
On practically all of the national forests it is necessary each year to
break in a number of green men, and some provision must ordinarily be
made for their instruction and training. Much depends during the fire season
upon keeping open existing lines of communication. It is therefore necessary
to provide for frequent testing of all telephone lines, and frequently upon
the more important telephone lines a special daily or periodic patrol is
advisable. Where tools are stored at various points on the forest, it may be
well also to require patrolmen to make sure at frequent intervals that they
have not been removed, and that they are returned promptly after use at
fires. Lookouts are usually required to communicate daily or at regular
intervals with the supervisor’s headquarters, and on some forests provision
also is made for checking occasionally the work of the more inexperienced
patrolmen who may not be well known to the supervisor. On many of the
forests the supervisors require patrolmen to carry with them constantly
certain tools, and in parts of the northwest the men are also required to carry
certain amounts of supplies.
FIGHTING FIRES
Everything should be in readiness for immediate action when fires are
discovered. The patrolman or ranger should know just where to go or to send
for his men in order that he may secure a sufficient number of the right kind
of men at short notice. In practice it has been found exceedingly difficult to
judge the number of men needed, and to keep the right number until all danger
is past. Care must be taken that the force is not too large in order that the
expense of fire fighting may not be increased unnecessarily. It must be certain
that the proper equipment is sent and that the force will be promptly and
continuously supplied with suitable food. Upon arrival at the fire, camp
sites must be selected; the officer in charge must at once size up the situation
and organize his crews. In the attack on the fire advantage must be taken of
all conditions which will be of any help, such, for instance, as variations in a
stand of timber, topography, open areas, ete. No two fires are alike, and each
one to be handled to the best advantage must be attacked in a different way.
General directions in regard to fighting fires are helpful to the men in charge,
but experience is better. Finally, fires must not be left before they are
extinguished. This mistake has been made repeatedly because there seemed
THE MINNESOTA FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION 657
to be no possibility that the fire would escape. In some cases such apparently
trifling things as a failure to leave enough supplies for the men left to guard
an old fire has been responsible for its breaking out a second time.
Manuals of directions for fighting fire are being prepared, and when they
are completed will be helpful in increasing the efficiency of the work.
The question of fire protection is now being studied more intensively in
the Forest Service than ever before, and as a result greater progress is being
made. Investigations, some of which have already been indicated, are being
conducted along many important lines. The completion of fire plans for all
the forests with provisions for their improvement in the light of experience
and the results obtained through investigation, insures continued progress
in the future. .
THE MINNESOTA FOREST EXPERIMENT STATION
By DILLON P. TIERNEY
i¢ THE development of the resources of a timber region there are many
problems which come within the province of the forester to solve. The
fundamental principle is that the soil should be put to the use for
which it is best suited. In addition to land whose worthlessness for farming
purposes is self-evident, there are lands, which it is possible to cultivate, but
which are so poor that their most profitable use is forestry and not agriculture.
Agriculturists are usually unwilling to admit or specify that certain classes
of soils are unprofitable from their point of view. In order that the forester
may not be forced to confine his activities to reforesting bare rocks and
mountain peaks, he must show the agricultural propagandist what are forest
lands and how they can be used. Since the northern part of Minnesota is
blessed with a fair proportion of purely forest land, it behooves the state to
see to it that it is kept in the most profitable timber growth, just as it is
now working to get the good agricultural lands under cultivation.
The importance of securing accurate data from forestry experiments
conducted under favorable conditions and competent direction was realized by
a number of public-spirited men of the state, and it was through their efforts
that Minnesota established the first forest experiment station. By an act
of the legislature, approved March 31, 1909, the state received title by gift and
purchase to approximately 2,700 acres of forest land near Cloquet. This tract
is to be under the direction of the university board of regents, “to be used as
a practice ground, demonstration forest and experiment station for the
students of the forestry department of the University of Minnesota.”
Most students of forestry have undoubtedly been confronted with the
problem of getting owners of large tracts of forest lands to follow certain
forestry methods. Several reasons for these difficulties may exist. One of the
chief reasons is a lack of knowledge as to just how any particular silvicultural
method will work out under local conditions. Exact knowledge is necessary.
It is not enough to assume as a basis for calculation the results that are
obtained with foreign forests or with forests of some other part of the United
States, although this may be very satisfying to the forester. If, for example,
the forester argues that it is best to improve a heavy stand of middle-aged
Norway pine by making two cuttings separated by fifteen to twenty years, the
658 AMERICAN FORESTRY
most convineing proof he can call to his aid will be an actual and local
illustration of such a system. If this proves practical and financially profitable,
and if the first cut is enough to make a fair logging chance, and the remaining
trees do not blow down but grow at an increasing rate, and if a number of
other things turn out as they should then the forester can use this example
as a reasonably safe argument. Numerous problems of this kind present
themselves, and actual illustrations of their solutions are always the best
arguments.
Aside from the questions of fire protection and taxation, there are many
which are peculiar to the forests typical of northern Minnesota. The owners
of large areas of timber lands are willing and anxious to know how their
non-agricultural lands may be handled profitably; but the seemingly
unimportant details and possible results of periodic cutting, planting, ete., are
too hazy to carry conviction to their minds. With the hope of gaining
enlightenment on these various points, the forest experiment station was
provided near Cloquet, Minn., where the lumbering industry of the state is
now centered.
Active work in developing this experimental tract began in April, 1910.
As preliminary work it was necessary to obtain a land survey and an inventory
of the timber resources. The fire danger was very great at all times, and a
constant patrol was required. A system of firebreaks was planned which will
include the whole area and utilize the various roads. Several miles of these
“breaks” were cleared out. When completed, the firebreaks will furnish
adequate protection for any experimental plots or plantings that may be made.
The larger part of the Cloquet Forest is a sand plain or “pine barrens,”
according to the original survey notes, on which the red pine and jack pine
thrive equally well. There are also several hundred acres of light clay loam
supporting a hardwood and white pine growth. This soil when cleared proves
adaptable for cultivation. In the swamps are found all the plant zone
gradations,—ranging from aquatic plants in the stagnant pools through
sedges, cat-tails, wire-grass, Sphagnum, sheep laurel, cranberry, scrub spruce,
and finally into stands of merchantable tamarack and spruce.
The variation in soils on this tract makes it possible to carry on a
comparatively wide range of experiments. There is also an additional
advantage in having considerable growing and mature timber with which to
work. Aside from the many jack pine stands, there is in one body 500,000 feet
of Norway pine in a pure and practically normal stand. In another body of
350,000 feet, white and Norway pine form about equal proportions of a dense
stand.
Altogether there is approximately 2,000,000 feet of white and Norway pine
in several compact, even-aged stands. Plans are made to select and mark out
a large number of permanent sample plots. On the plots in the mature stands,
several methods of thinning will be tried, and a record kept to ascertain the
relative increase in rate of growth, the effects on reproduction, young growth,
and ground cover. On some plots, both under standards and on cut-over areas,
broadcast sowing of several species will be tried, to determine what conditions
and season of the year may prove adaptable to this method of regeneration.
Under contract with the federal government, all the timber on the Cloquet
Forest, with the exception of the above-mentioned selected bunches of pine, was
removed last summer. Seed trees were reserved on two areas of forty acres
each. Consequently, the ground which has been so recently logged over is in
excellent condition to receive the attention of the experimenter.
Particular attention will be given to the work of planting the various
sites to commercial timber species. About four acres of ground has been
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THE WATER OAK AS A SHADE TREE 663
cleared for a nursery, and already a beginning has been made in starting the
seed beds. There is ample room for growing garden truck, small fruit and an
orchard, which, in addition to supplying the workmen with fresh and wholesome
food, will also keep up public interest until the slower and less striking
silvicultural experiments are well under way. The prospective agriculturist
in this locality is anxious to know what crops may be raised, and it is quite
likely that what little garden and field crops are raised will show how
unprofitable it is to farm on most of the jack pine sand lands. That typical
jack pine lands are unsuited to agricultural purposes has often been shown by
the starving out of settlers on them, but careful experiments here are expected
to give more exact information on the reasons for these failures.
In a beautiful grove of large Norway pine a two-story log building has
been erected for the accommodation of the foreman of the forest. An additional
log dwelling will be constructed for the technical superintendent, who in the
summer time will be on the ground in charge of the experimental work. The
place is about three miles from the.city of Cloquet, on a good and well-traveled
road. It would be hard indeed for one to find a more favorable and interesting
place for free and uninterrupted research and study.
THE WATER OAK AS A SHADE TREE
By C. D. MELL.
REES in every respect desirable as shade trees in towns and cities are
'o) rare. Unfavorable soil and atmospheric conditions, insect and fungous
enemies and other injurious factors characteristic of the city street,
limit the number of shade tree species to a very few; but when one does find
a good tree for street purposes and a hardy oak at that, it becomes a matter
of no little interest. The water or spotted oak of southeastern United States
is that kind of a tree. It is undoubtedly one of i 1e best street trees of the
southeast, and as such it is used in practically every town in the states of
Georgia and Florida, and is now rapidly replacing a good many other less
desirable species in towns as far north as North Carolina. When young the
tree stands transplanting very well, grows quite rapidly, and has beautiful
foliage which is never too heavy to allow free circulation of air. It loves soil
moisture, but, nevertheless, stands seasons of drought better than any other
oak suitable for shade. It usually attains its most magnificent proportions
as a street or park tree and seldom needs trimming. The water oak is free
from injurious insects.
In the southeast it is the most commonly distributed of all the oaks, and
is found as far north as Delaware and extends westward through the Gulf
states to the valley of the Colorado River in Texas. This oak obtains its
common name from the fact that it is generally found growing on the borders
of swamps and streams and on rich bottomlands of rivers. Old trees of this
species are often hollow at the center, forming hiding places for opossums, and
for this reason the tree is also known as possum oak in Alabama and Texas.
The scientific name is Quercus nigra Linn. (Q. aquatica Walt.). The
technical name of oak, Quercus, is taken from the Latin, but is derived from
the Celtic words quer, meaning “fine,” and cues, “tree,” in reference to the
664 AMERICAN FORESTRY
highly esteemed qualities of these trees. The specific name, which is the Latin
name for black, was given to this tree on account of the very dark green leaves
and the small dark brown colored acorns. The genus quercus belongs to the
family of trees which produce inconspicuous flowers, the sterile being in
slender green catkins and the fertile or fruiting ones solitary or clustered,
appearing in the spring. The species nigra is of the class known as black
or red oaks, which mature their fruit regularly every two years. This is con-
trary to what takes place with the members of the white oak group, which
mature their fruit annually. The twigs are slender, light or dull red during
the first winter, becoming light brown the following year. The leaves are us-
ually oblong-obovate, gradually narrowed and wedge-shaped at the base. The
apex is generally rounded or entire or less often three-lobed; the lobes are
seldom sharp or bristle pointed, which is a character of the leaves of black or
red oaks.
Water oak usually varies from 50 to 75 feet in height, and has a trunk
from 2 to 4 feet through. The branches spread gradually from the stem and
form a symmetrical round-topped head, especially good for a shade tree. Any-
one familiar with the water oak will concede that it is one of the handsomest
and most useful oaks of southeastern United States. Large specimens which
are sometimes 100 feet high, develop a head of unusual regularity and beauty.
In the moist soil near the border of a lake or along a stream, the favorite sit-
uation of this tree, it is forced upward in search of light and then forms a
more or less spire-like top. In open situations with a sufficient light and
growing space, the branches spread out horizontally and form the broad head
which make some individuals of this tree as handsome and symmetrical al-
most as it is possible for an oak to become. South of central Georgia the
leaves of this tree are persistent throughout the year. They remain lustrous
green until they are gradually shed in the spring of the year after the new
leaves have come out; in its most northern habitat, however, the leaves grad-
ually fall off during the winter.
COOPERATION IN FOREST PROTECTION
By E. T. ALLEN.
Eprror’s Note.—In this article Mr. Allen further develops the cooperative protective
idea of which his association is the most striking example, an idea previously set forth
by him for AMERICAN Forestry readers in June of this year.
and individuals of protecting life and property in this country from
forest fires runs into millions of dollars. In bad years like 1910, it
amounts to many millions. This is the cost of the work itself, not including
damage by destruction. Toa very great extent these expenditures are wasted
and the destruction is increased by lack of cooperation; by duplicated effort
and duplicated neglect in the field work itself, by inharmonious policies, and
by failure to unite in propaganda and law-making forces strong and numerous
enough to be irresistible if united and directed.
An invaded country meeting the enemy’s army with many independent
forces, fighting without knowledge of each other’s strength and policies and
even without attempt at conference and communication, would be regarded
with astonishment by the world. It is hard to conceive of a city in which ex-
pensive fire-fighting equipment would be maintained at stations established
without reference to each other’s location, with the firemen scattered and un-
organized, and without means of cooperation in emergencies. To the modern
mind even pastimes, such as base ball and foot ball, imply team work and
constant study of ideas contributed by every member of the organization.
These are but a few familiar illustrations of a principle recognized in almost
every line of human endeavor—that intelligent cooperation is immensely
more effective than independent inharmonious action by individuals or dis-
connected units. No story is more familiar than that of the bundle of fagots
which could not be broken until separated; no motto than “in unity there is
strength.”
In nothing more than in fire prevention is concerted harmonious effort
essential to bring the best results. Nevertheless, with a few notable local ex-
ceptions, our several agencies most keenly interested in the subject are still
facing its problems pretty much independently. Chief among these agencies
are the federal forest service, the progressive element among timber owners,
state forest administrations, and factions of public-spirited laymen interested
only in community good. In some states only one may be active, in others all
may be, but seldom do they act in thorough concert. The stage of mutual
distrust and deprecation seems about past, but communion is still mostly
confined to occasional conferences where papers are read and resolutions are
passed. There is little systematized working provision for enabling each
agency to profit fully by the interest of the others.
Leaders of field work experiment with organization systems, equipment
and methods, sometimes at frightful cost, because no means exists for learn-
ing and applying the experiences of others. Independent patrolmen and fight-
ing forces duplicate or conflict in one locality while another goes unguarded.
Police authority is exerted with varying interpretation of the law. The most
important work of all—teaching all classes not to start fires—is prosecuted
Qian in normal years, the cost to government, states, counties, towns
665
666 AMERICAN FORESTRY
spasmodically and unsystematically at greater cost than would be required
to do it intelligently. The writing of laws is often done by one element with
an unfamiliarity with others’ problems that brings minimum efficiency if not
actual conflict. Particularly is it done without the knowledge of fundamental
principles in state forest administration which can be learned only by study
of results in other states. Good bills fail of passage, or bad ones pass, be-
cause of failure to work together effectively in making and directing public
pressure upon legislatures. Underlying these difficulties of detail is the great
task upon which complete success in any of them depends—establishing in
American citizenship a universal and sound grasp of forest economies, includ-
ing not only the relation of forest preservation to public welfare, but also
those governing conditions of production and market, loss and profit, practi-
cability of method, and division of private and public responsibility, igno-
rance of which now creates suspicion and prejudice between forest owner and
forest user. This task calls for closer and more constant relations between
all elements concerned than now generally exist.
That lack of mutual understanding and its inevitable attendants, divided
effort and conflict, are the most powerful deterrents of progress and yet un-
necessary has been clearly taught by the experience of the Western Forestry
and Conservation Association. This organization, now well known to every-
one acquainted with American forestry, was originally formed for the inter-
change of ideas and experiences by the several cooperative patrol associations
maintained by Idaho and Washington timber owners. Quick realization that
quite as important as actual fire fighting is persistent honest education, both
without and within the timber industry, led to the employment of a forester
and the joint financing of educational work at once more economical and more
consistent than could be carried on independently.
Immediately, however, the function of the alliance as a clearing house
for ideas and experience appealed to all others engaged in forest work, and it
was enlarged to admit state and federal forest officials, conservation associa-
tions, and new fire organizations of timber owners in adjoining states. This
broadening not only placed it securely on a footing of unselfish reliable au-
thority recognized by the public and already extremely effective in improving
laws and sentiment, but also brought about a marked change in the relation
of its constituent elements. The conservation enthusiast, the federal officer,
the representative of state administration, the practical lumberman—each
learned that the others were good citizens and could teach him about as much
as he could them. Above all, they learned each others’ problems and that
none could succeed without respecting all. They began to work together,
with results gratifying beyond expectation, and this was accomplished not
by changing human nature, but solely by providing a means by which they
could get acquainted and work together.
3ut the Western Forestry and Conservation Association is an interstate
institution extending from Montana to California and, while ready to help
locally where wanted, is equally scrupulous not to force interference or con-
flict with the individual policy of its constituents in any particular state.
This has allowed a clear view of progress by states which teaches an illuminat-
ing lesson—that progress is in exactly the measure that the states themselves
have applied the principle of cooperation locally. Where timber owners have
carried cooperative patrol to the fullest degree and abandoned independent
duplicating systems, better protection is had for less money, and public and
lumberman alike are more careful in the use of fire. Where there are the
fullest and most constantly employed facilities for actual cooperation in work
and finances by private owner, government and state, there is the greatest
TIMBERLAND PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 667
efficiency at least expense and particularly is there the greatest advance in
law-making, law-enforcing, and public sentiment generally.
It is an up-hill task at best to prevent the appalling mistreatment of
American forests. Friction among those who are trying to prevent it is ex-
pensive folly and it comes from misunderstanding. Misunderstanding comes
from lack of acquaintance. The real desire of public, lumberman, state and
government is the same. The forest fire problem will be quickest solved where
law and policy are for associating in organization and expenditure the gov-
ernment, the state and the forest owner.
TIMBERLAND PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATIONS
By E. A. STERLING.
ourselves by aimless guesses as to the property loss, take a few pictures
of the blackened landscape, and wonder if it will be wet enough next
year to prevent the destruction which our own feeble, human efforts seem pow-
erless to stay. About this time of the year the autumn forest fire season will
be on in the East; while in the West the summing up of the year’s achieve-
ments and the stock taking of the damage done will be under way.
Sweeping back the sea with a broom would be child’s play compared to
controlling forest fires during a bad season with the pitifully inadequate fa-
cilities which have been available. States with forest property assessed at a
hundred million dollars have in their munificence appropriated as much as
$10,000 a year for fire protection, and then wondered why their burning
wealth cast a pall of smoke over the country for weeks. With an insurance
rate of one-hundredth of a cent on the dollar, some of the worst-burned states
have gotten just about their money’s worth. Some of the states are now more
liberal, and with their awakening comes renewed hope; but the states are not
alone responsible for the fire havoc which has been permitted to be wrought.
To try to tell of the various reasons why our forest fire losses have aver-
aged the value of a battleship a month for many years would make a long, sad
story. Like many sad stories, however, it promises to have a happy ending,
and in this we will find pleasure.
This year, next year, and for many years, climatic conditions will largely
determine whether the fire season has been a disastrous one. Each year, how-
ever, with the progress now being made, the weather will become a less potent
factor, and in the exact proportion in which the human agencies triumph over
the natural can be reckoned our control of forest fires.
Forest fire protection is now the chief end and aim of three active forces:
the Forest Service, the states, and the fire protective associations of the tim-
berland owners. Another less definite influence is that of public sentiment,
which is slowly assuming an attitude of antagonism toward forest fires. Each
of these agencies is becoming efficient in itself, and all are working together
when co-operation furthers their mutual interests.
The timberland owners were the last to organize, although their need
was perhaps greatest. Now that they have found the way, remarkable prog-
ress is being made, and it is this work that will be briefly outlined here.
CT) ov the smoke of each forest fire season has blown away, we amuse
668 AMERICAN FORESTRY
Three years ago the Western Forestry and Conservation Association was
formed, and for the first time in the history of the lumber industry mutual
interests were organized for the suppression of the common evil—forest fire.
This association has grown until it embraces the five states of Montana,
Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California, and is now prepared to do what
the states have failed to provide for: the protection of private timberlands
and the capital invested in the lumber industry.
As an association it has no individual members, but is an alliance of
local organizations in the five western states. At present eight active fire
associations, with about four hundred timberland owners, are included in the
parent organization. Originally, there were fifteen local associations rep-
resented, but five in Oregon have turned their work over to the Oregon Forest
Fire Association, and of the ten remaining, two are the Washington and Ore-
gon Associations, which have a large membership but do no field work.
The Western Forestry and Conservation Association is the clearing
house, as it were, of the affiliated associations, and as such does not spend
money for direct protection. The field work is handled by the constituent or-
ganizations, and while the general plan is the same, the details vary in ac-
cordance with the local conditions.