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Vowel. NO. 3d; 4 PRICE $4.00 4 YRaR.

I
Government Forestry Abroad,

By GIFFORD PINCHOT.

ae
The Present Condition of the Forests
on the Public Lands,

By EDWARD A. BOWERS,

Secretary of the American Forestry Association.
(Formerly Inspector of Public Lands.)

jae
Practicability of an American Forest
Administration,

By B. E. FERNOW,
Chief of Forestry Division, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION, A

May, 1891.

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COPYRIGHT, 1891, BY AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION.

BALTIMORE:
FROM THE PRESS OF GUGGENHEIMER, WEIL & Co.
1831.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE.
I. GOVERNMENT Forestry Asproap. By Girrorp PINCHOT... 5
GEMINI A Tee Soe yeti eyste tee ee Are ota wi No encites fe: afalais Ate -aratst sles ars 9
EARNINGS errr rer een coed ee ost cacao as ciate ce epee ae 24
ShnwiiAa e Chie alee Ca OOM Oe Coe tare ne ye Omens 32
PANU SUT eV aceon RMR ePehe ete lesa) SRN ne wees sales FA Siete age 2)
S56 WIC Viste Bot A, ss Rr ORS ga are ei Re 45
Souithie Attala cen cheisie oe aiere evel otc eens a re are eicic) o<Rerasiens Ran ea 50
@flrernzG Oumtrtedac ms saree eee eee ae Scie ercn lara eas crave He

II. Tur Present CoNnpDITION or THE FOREST ON THE PUBLIC
. IANDS.. By, EDWARD An IBOWERS«.. «orci «Get cee <ieeer eee 5d

III. PracTicaABILITy OF AN AMERICAN FoREST ADMINISTRATION.
IAs ld UNDO weno nb eb oniGee Gono ac Sy ees aca eines 7d
Iie APPRENDI PROPOSED BD UL. accross soc ses wie eteleee ercrersi sisic er a.e shah 93

The three papers on Forest Administration here
printed together were read at the joint session of the
American Economic Association and the American
Forestry Association, at Washington, D. C., Decem-
ber 30, 1890.

Government Forestry Abroad.

BY

GIFFORD PINCHOT.

Government Forestry Abroad.

BY GIFFORD PINCHOT.

The following article has been rather hastily pre-
pared from such materials and experience as the
writer was able to command, and while from the
nature of the case it cannot claim to be a compre-
hensive treatment of the subject, it is believed that
the statements and statistics which it contains are
accurate.

Germany, France and Switzerland have been dwelt
upon more at length, both because forestry has
reached a wider development there, and because the
writer can speak concerning them from personal
observation.

The history of the forest has developed itself along
_ similar lines in all the countries of Europe. Its course
in the central part of the Continent, which may be
taken as fairly representative of what it was else-
where, is thus briefly summarized.

At first the forest held the same relation to man
as to the game upon which he lived. His demand
upon it was insignificant, but, as he advanced in the
scale of civilization, he began to call upon the forest
for greater supplies of timber, and especially for the
pasturage of his herds. Until comparatively recent
times this was the chief service which gave the wood

8 Government Forestry Abroad. [192

lands value. The increasing density of population
and the more complicated needs of life then gave
gradual rise to more vigorous attacks upon the forest.
For a time the demand was small and the areas cut
over easily covered themselves with young growth.
The forest renewed itself and maintained its pro-
ductive power. But, as the demand increased, the
areas cut over increased with it. and the actual re-
growth no longer kept pace with the quantity of
timber which it was called upon to yield. At the
same time the land needed for agriculture was being
taken from the timbered area, and the wood lands,
attacked along two lines, were beginning to suffer
seriously.

“Tt is true,’ says Dr. Gayer,! “‘that the forest belonged at that time
chiefly to the herdsmen and the game, but the steadily increasing
tendency to destruction of a growing population made the general
cultivation of the chase an undoubted adyantage to the forest.
Indeed the hunter has been at all times one of its best friends. For
numerous acts of violence may be referred to, extending over the
whole of medieval times, as a result of which much free land
belonging to the early communities, or the rights to its enjoyment,
passed in course of time into the hands of the rulers. From a legal
standpoint these are indeed events to be deplored, and from them
the oppressive burden of actual prescriptive rights takes its rise, but

the present extensive State forest holdings in Germany haye chiefly
to thank this universal love of venerie for their existence.

“Tt is unquestionably true that the forests have been at no time in
a more deplorable condition than in the second half of the Middle
Ages, and thence on to the middle of the last century. The results
which must follow this condition of affairs were evident, and led
to the most serious fears of a widespread timber famine. And
although this foreboding, as it filled the minds of men toward the
end of the Medieval period, and as it was brought to the attention
of the people through numerous publications, may have been exag-
gerated, nevertheless, in view of the commercial relations of the

Der Wald im Wechsel der Zeiten. Inaugural address as Rector
of the University of Munich, November, 1889.

193] Government Forestry Abroad. 9
s

time and the narrow boundaries of supply, it was on the whole by
no means unjustified. It gave, at least, the first impulse to economy.
Under the influence of this universal sentiment, but perhaps caused
even more by the interest in hunting and in the security of the
rights of property, a gradual change for the better appeared in the
destiny of the forest. Its importance as a national treasure had at
alleyents penetrated the minds of the more intelligent classes.

‘‘There begins nowa time of restless work in the forest, a time
of struggle for its preservation and rehabilitation, the results of
which no other nation has realized so fully as the German.

“Apart from the measures which were demanded by the security
of property and the economical ordering of forest utilization, the
efforts of the forester were chiefly directed to the regeneration of
the forest. This was accomplished in those regions which had
partially escaped destruction by the assistance of the free regenera-
tive power of nature, in the totally devastated areas by artificial
means. The rational treatment of the wood lands had begun.”’

All forest management may be said to rest on two
closely related facts which are so self-evident that
they might almost be called axioms of forestry, but
which, hike other axioms, lead to conclusions of far-
reaching application. These are, first, that trees
require many years to reach merchantable size; and,
secondly, that a forest crop cannot be taken every
year from the same land. From the last statement
it follows that a definite, far-seeing plan is necessary
for the rational management of any forest, from the
first: that forest property is safest under the super-
vision of some imperishable guardian; or, in other
words, of the State.

(GERMANY.

It is natural in treating the subject of State for-
estry to begin with Germany, since it is here that it
has reached its furthest development and most stable
condition. In Germany, then, the forests cover an

10 Government Forestry Abroad. [194

area of 13,908,398 hectares, or 26 per cent. of the total
surface of the country. It is extremely significant,
in view of the popular talk about the «+ inexhausti-
ble’’ forest resources of the United States, to note
that the latest available data put the percentage of
wooded land in our country also at 26 per cent. It*
is true that the relative density of population in
the two countries is a factor which enters largely
into such a comparison, but it is equally true as
regards the relative economy in the use of wood, and
the fact that Germany is very far from supplying
her own demand for timber. Further, the contrast
between the permanent productive powers of the
German and American wood lands, as they stand at
present, adds another somber tint to the picture of
our condition. In Germany, the State either owns
or controls about two-thirds of the forest area, and
for these lands the point of lowest production has
been past. It is coming for us at a time when the
need of timber is at its highest.

It is necessary when dealing with forest policy in
the German Empire to treat independently the differ-
ent States of which it is composed. Differences in
forest organization and management have arisen
through differences in politics and geography, even
a superficial examination of which would exceed
both the space and the scope of the present paper.
and it is fortunately the less needful to go into so
extended a discussion, because one common principle
lies at the root of forest policy in each of them, and
may be fully illustrated by reference to any one.
This principle, special to no country or form of gov-
ernment, holds that «« the State is the guardian of all
public interests.”’ It is in its interpretation that, for

195] Government Forestry Abroad, 11

the purposes of this paper, its chief interest les.
From this point of view ‘public interests ’’ must be
taken to mean all interests other than private ones.
So understood, this maxim may be said to sum up
the forest policy of nearly all the nations of Europe,
as well under republican as under governments of a
distinctly paternal character.

The Kingdom of Prussia, both as the head of the
German Bund and as the State which has developed
the forest organization most worthy to be taken as
an example, will furnish the completest illustration,

Covering an area of some 8,153,946 hectares, the
forests of Prussia occupy 23.4 per cent. of the total
surface of the country. Of this wood land it may
be said roughly that one-third is stocked with decidu-
ous trees, and two-thirds with the less demanding
conifers, a reversal of the old conditions, which is
largely due to the deterioration of the soil and to the
fact that the richer ground has been rightly claimed
for agricultural uses. The ownership, a point of
capital importance in relation to our subject, is di-
vided as follows: To the State belong nearly 2,718,-
256 hectares, or 29 per cent.; to towns, village com-
munities and other public bodies, 1,302,508 hectares,
or 16 per cent., and to private owners 4,382,251
hectares, or 55 per cent.

The relation of the State to the forests which it
owns is simple and rational, based as it is on the idea
that its ownership will be permanent.

Holding it as a duty to preserve the wood lands
for the present share which they take in the economy
of the nation, the State has recognized as well the
obligation to hand down its forest wealth unimpaired
to future generations. It has recognized and re-

12 Government Forestry Abroad. [196

spected equally the place which the forest holds in
relation to agriculture and in the economy of nature,
and hence feels itself doubly bound to protect its
wood lands.

In a word, it has seen that in its direct and indirect
influence, the forest plays a most important part in
the story of human progress, and that the advance
of civilization only serves to make it more indis-
pensable. It has, therefore, steadily refused to
deliver its forests to more or less speedy destruction,
by allowing them to pass into the hands of shorter
lived and less provident owners. Even in the times
of greatest financial difficulty, when Prussia was
overrun and nearly annihilated by the French, the
idea of selling the State forests was never seriously
entertained.

But the government of Prussia has not stopped
here. Protection standing alone is irrational and
incomplete. The cases where a forest reaches its
highest usefulness by simply existing are rare. The
immense capital which the State wood lands repre:
sent is not permitted to lie idle, and the forest, as a
timber producer, has taken its place among the per-
manent features of the land. The government. has
done the only wise thing by managing its own forests
through its own forest officers.

The organization of the Forest Service is briefly as
follows: At its head stands the Department, or more
correctly, the Ministry of Agriculture, State lands
and forests, which exercises general supervision over
forest affairs through the medium of the (Oberland-
forstmeister) chief of Forest Service. A part of
this central office is the Bureau of Forest Surveys
and Working Plans, a factor of very great impor-

cya Government Forestry Abroad. 13

tance in the general organization. A working plan
is the scheme according to which the technical busi-
ness of a forest range is carried out. ‘Its object,”’
says Dr. Judeich,' “is so to order the management of
a forest in time and space as to fulfill to the utmost
the objects of this management.”’ The following sub-
division of the general subject of working plans is
taken from his admirable work, ‘‘ Die Forsteinrich-
tung.’’ The first section is entitled ‘Preliminary
Work,’’ under which are included: forest surveys,
forest or timber estimating (which includes ‘the in-
vestigation of all conditions inherent in the forest
which have an influence on its present yield, or which
are of importance for the calculation of its yield in
the future:’’ that is, the very thorough study and
description of both soil and timber), a study of the
general and external conditions by which it is affected
(its topography, history, ownership. nature of the
surrounding land and people, and any other consid-
erations which may influence its management), and,
lastly, maps and records.

The second section, which may be called Forest
Division for want of a better English name, con-
siders the formation of ranges, each of which is in
charge of an executive officer, then the division of
the range into units of management called blocks,
each of which is treated to a certain extent inde-
pendently of the others, and into compartments,
which are generally well over a hundred acres in
extent, and are marked on the ground by open lanes
and boundary stones. This second section contains
also less important matters which cannot be touched
on here.

1 Die Forsteinrichtung. 4th Ed. Dresden, 1885.

14 Government Forestry Abroad. [198

The third section, Determination of the Yield,
explains the various methods of calculating and
fixing the amount of timber which a given forest
may be safely called upon to yield.

The next section treats of the construction of the
working plans proper: that is, ‘‘of that document
in which the essential results of the preliminary
work, the determination of the yield and the regu-
lation of the management are so put together that
they may serve asa guide... . . to the execu-
tive officer of the range.”

The final section relates to the posting and con-
tinuation of the working plans, especially as regards
the periodic revisions, which take place in general at
intervals of five and ten years.

Next in authority te the department just mentioned
is the Bezirksregierung, a council in charge of one
of the thirty-five minor divisions of the Prussian
State, which has full control over forest business
within its sphere of action. The members of the
controlling staff, the OberfOrstmeister and Forst-
meister, are also members of this council. Their
duties lie in the inspection of the officers of the
executive staff, of whom there are 681 in Prussia.
These officers, styled Oberf6rster, are charged with
the actual management of the public forest lands, and
it is on them that the security of public interest in
the forests chiefly rests. Upon their selection and
education the utmost care and forethought are ex-
pended.

Their course of training, one which has produced
perhaps the most efficient forest staff of the present
day. is briefly as follows: It begins, after graduation
from a gymnasium, with a year of practical work

pat
ol

199 | Government Forestry Abroad.

under some experienced Oberforster, to enter which
the candidate is required to show, besides his certifi-
cate of graduation, that he is under twenty-two
years of age; that he has certain moral and physical
qualities, and that his financial resources are suffi-
cient to carry him through his whole forest educa-
tion. The object of this preparatory year is to intro-
duce the beginner to the forest and its management;
to enable him to become acquainted with the more
important forest trees: to take part in planting and
felling and the protection of the forest: to do a little
surveying, and last, but by no means least, to learn
to hunt. It may be said in passing that the love
of hunting, which the Prussian forest service is
careful to encourage, has very much to do with the
faithfulness and efficiency of its individual members.
Great stress is rightly laid on this year of prepara-
tory work, chiefly because of the vastly greater force
and reality which it gives to the subsequent theo-
retical teaching. As one who has suffered from
the lack of it, | may perhaps be permitted to bear
my testimony .to the value of a custom which is
unfortunately less widely extended than its merits
deserve: but which I hope to see one day established
in the forest schools of our land.

The young Prussian forester who has had the good
fortune to pass through this preliminary year next
spends two years at a forest school, presumably either
Miinden or Neustadt Eberswalde, both of which are
in Prussia, and like all other similar German schools,
are supported by the State. The candidate may, if
he chooses, attend any of the other forest schools, of
which Germany numbers six (Aschaffenburg and the
Forest School of the Munich University, which

16 Government Forestry Abroad. [200

together form one complete institution: Tharand.
Tiibingen, Karlsruhe, Giesen and Eisenach). but he
must cover the same ground as at the institutions
which are standard. The technical school is fol-
lowed by a year of jurisprudence and _ political econ-
omy at some university, and the young forester then
comes up for the first State examination. He must
present with his credentials the maps and field notes
of a plot surveyed and a level run, as well as a tim-
ber map covering at least 1,235 acres, all his own
work. The examination itself bears first on forestry,
in which it requires a thorough knowledge of the
general theory as to silviculture, working plans, cal-
culation of the volume and yield of standing timber,
its capital and selling value, the utilization of forest
produce, forest technology, protection and _ police,
and forest history and literature. In mathematics
it demands about what is included up to the second
year of one of our colleges. and in surveying the
requirements are somewhat larger. Zoology, botany
and mineralogy, especially the second, are strongly
insisted on, while chemistry, physics and law com-
mand a smaller share of attention.

The examination is followed by at least two years
of travel and work. during which the candidate, now
promoted to the title of referendar, must perfect
himself in the field and office management of a for-
est range. For this purpose he is required to spend
five months in the practical administration of a
range, under the responsibility of an Oberforster.
and four months in the preparation of working plans.
Half a year, including the months from December to
May, is to be passed in the discharge of all the duties
of an ordinary forest guard. During this time the

201] Government Forestry Abroad. i

referendar is personally responsible for all that goes
on in his beat, which must be the same for the whole
period. At the end of this rather lengthy preparation
comes the much-dreaded final examination, which,
like the first, is held partly in doors and partly in the
forest. This second test dwells more especially, apart
from forestry proper. on law, political economy,
finance, forest policy, and the organization of the
forest service, but without slighting the laws and
lore of hunting.

The referendar now becomes forest assessor, and
is at length eligible for serious paid employment.
The actual career of the forester can hardly be said
to begin, however, until the appointment as Ober-
forster, for which the assessor has no sort of guar-
antee, and which may delay its coming for from six
to twelve years. That once obtained, the list of
promotion lies open, and includes every grade up to
the highest. Still, it must be said that, as a rule. the
Prussian Oberférster is wholly satisfied with his
position, and very often unwilling to exchange it for
one of greater honor and profit.

That it should be so is scarcely to be wondered at.
The Oberforster, with almost independent control of
a range of some 10,000 acres, and, what is of first
importance to him, with an exclusive right to the
excellent shooting which it usually offers, lives a
healthy, active life, about equally divided between the
woods, his office and his friends. His pay, which may
reach 6,400 marks, including a consolidated allow-
ance for horses and the incidentals of his office work,
is ridiculously low from our standpoint, but entirely
sufficient from his. Promotion means a change from

the moderate activity of overseeing the planting and
2

18 Government Forestry Abroad. [202

felling of his forest, and the quiet of home life, to
the constant activity of travel. The stimulus which
ambition fails to give is supplied by the admirable
esprit de corps which pervades the whole body of
forest officers, and forms here, as elsewhere, the best
security for the efficiency and healthy tone of the
service. ;

Immediately subordinate to the members of the
executive staff are the various grades of forest
guards, upon whom the protection of the forest
directly and exclusively rests. In general, each guard
is in charge of one of the five beats into which the
average range is divided. ‘The forester (I quote
from the Service Instructions) must protect the beat
entrusted to him against unlawful utilization, theft
and injury, and see to it that the forest and game
laws are observed. Heis charged with the execution
of the felling, planting and other forest work under
the orders of the OberfGrster, and he alone delivers
all forest produce, on receipt of written instructions,
to the persons qualified to receive it.”’

The training of the protective staff is provided for
with a care which in any other land might be thought
more suitable for officers of a higher grade, and a
period of preparation only less long than that for
Oberférster stands before the beginner.

But lest the necessity for so long a course of pre-
paratory work should seem unduly to enhance the
difficulties of forest management, it should be noted
here that in countries whose grade of excellence in
forest matters is closely second to that of Germany
the schooling of forest officers is very considerably
shorter. There will be occasion to refer to this
matter further on.

203 | Government Forestry Abroad. 19

Such is in outline the organization of the Prussian
forest service. The principles upon which it rests
are thus stated by Donner, now Oberlandforstmeister,
in a work which carries all the weight of an official
document.’ He says:

“The fundamental rules for the management of State forests are
these: First, to keep rigidly within the bounds of conservative
treatment; and secondly, toattain, consistently with such treatment,
the greatest output of most useful products in the shorest time.”

And again:

‘“The State believes itself bound, in the administration of its
forests, to keep in view the common good of the people, and that
as well with respect to the lasting satisfaction of the demand for
timber and other forest produce, as to the numerous other purposes
which the forest serves. It holds fast the duty to treat the Govern-
ment wood lands as a trust held for the nation as a whole, to the
end that it may enjoy for the present the highest satisfaction of its
needs for forest produce and the protection which the forest gives,
and for all future time, at least an equal share of equal blessings.”’

The same authority elsewhere formulates the gen-
eral status of the forest, as follows:

‘The forest is a trust handed down from former times, whose
value lies not only in its immediate production of wood, but also
essentially in the benefit to agriculture of its immediate influence
on climate, weather protection in various ways, the conservation of
the soil, ete. The forest has significance not only for the present
nor for its owner alone; it has significance as well for the future
and for the whole of the people.”

With respect to the second class of forest property,
that belonging to towns, villages and other public
bodies, it is again impossible to speak for the whole
of Germany except upon the broadest lines. The
State every where exercises oversight and a degree of
control over the management of these forests, but the
sphere of its action varies within very wide limits.
Even within the individual states it does not remain

' Die Forstliche Verhiiltnisse Preussens, 2d ed., Berlin, 1885.

¢

20 Government Forestry Abroad. ]204

the same. Thus far, however, the action of the Gov-
ernment is alike not only throughout Prussia but in
all parts of Germany. It prevents absolutely the
treatment of any forest of this class under improvi-
dent or wasteful methods; nor does it allow any
measure to be carried into effect which may deprive
posterity of the enjoyment which it has a right to
expect. How far the details vary may be gathered
from the fact that while in the Prussian provinces of
Rhineland and Westphalia the village communities
appoint their own forest officers and manage their
own forests, subject only to a tolerably close over-
sight on the part of the controlling staff, in the for-
mer Duchy of Nassau, now Prussian territory, their
share in the management does not extend beyond the
right to sell the timber cut under the direction of the
Government Oberforster, the right and obligation to
pay for all the planting and other improvements
which may be deemed necessary, and the rather hol-
low privilege of expressing their opinion. But how-
ever galling so extensive an interference with the
rights of property may appear, it is none the less
unquestionably true that in France, as well as in
Germany, the State management of communal for-
ests hes at the root of the prosperity of a very large
proportion of the peasant population, and the evils
which have attended its withdrawal in individual
cases are notorious. While on the one hand villages
whose taxes are wholly paid by their forests are by
no means rare, on the otuer the sale of communal
forest property in certain parts of Germany in 1848
has been followed with deplorable regularity by the
impoverishment of the villages which were unwise
enough to allow it.

205 Government Forestry Abroad. Dil
y

The relations of the State to the third class of for-
ests, those belonging to private proprietors, are of a
much less intimate nature. The basis of these rela-
tions is, however, the same. To quote again from
Donner, ‘The duty of the State to sustain and further
the well being of its citizens regarded as an imperish-
able whole, implies for the Government the right and
the duty to subject the management of all forests to
its inspection and control.” This intervention is to
be carried, however, ‘“‘only so far as may be neces-
sary to obviate the dangers which an unrestrained
utilization of the forest by its owners threatens to
excite, and the rights of property are to be respected
to the utmost consistently with such a result.’” Prus-
sia, of all the German countries, has respected these
rights most highly, and the Government exerts prac-
tically no restraining influence except where the evi-
dent results of deforestation would be seriously dan-
gerous. Here it may and does guard most jealously
the wood lands, whose presence is a necessary safe-
guard against certain of the more destructive phe-
nomena of nature, and which have been called in
general protection forests. Of their many sided
influence so much has been said and written of late
in America—both truly and falsely—that no farther
reference to the subject seems needful.

The State leaves open a way of escape for the pri-
vate proprietor who finds himself unwilling to suffer
such restriction of his rights for the public good, and
shows itself willing to buy up areas not only of pro-
tection forest but also of less vitally important wood
lands. On the other hand, it is ready, with a broad-
ness of view which the zeal of forest authorities
sometimes unfortunately excludes, to give up to pri-

’
ras)

Government Forestry Abroad. [206

vate ownership lands which, by reason of their soil
and situation. will contribute better to the common- -
wealth under cultivation than as forest. In this way
the forests whose preservation is most important are
gradually passing into the hands of the State: yet
the total area of its wood lands is increasing but
slowly.

The policy of State aid in the afforestation of waste
lands important through their situation on high
ground or otherwise is fully recognized (a notable
example exists upon the Hohe Venn near Aix-la-
Chapelle), but the absence of considerable mountain
chains has given to this branch of Government influ-
ence very much less prominence than in the Alps of
Austria, Switzerland and France, where its advan-
tages appear on a larger and more striking scale.

In closing this brief sketch of forest policy in
Prussia, you will perhaps allow me to refer for a mo-
ment to the erroneous ideas of German forest man-
agement which have crept into our literature. They
have done so, I believe, partly through a desire of
the advocates of forestry to prove too much, and
they injure the cause of forestry, because they tend to
make forest management ridiculous in the eyes of our
citizens. The idea has arisen that German methods
are exaggeratedly artificial and complicated, and not
unaturally the inference has been made that forestry
in itself is a thing for older and more densely popu-
lated countries. and that forest management is inap-
plicable and incapable of adaptation to the conditions
under which we live. It is true, on the contrary,
that the treatment of German forests is distinguished
above all things by an elastic adaptability to circum-
stances.which is totally at variance with the iron-clad

oo
nes)

207 | Government Forestry Abroad.
*

formality which a superficial observation may believe
it sees. It is equally true that its methods could not
be transported unchanged into our forests without
entailing discouragement and failure, just as our
methods of lumbering would be disastrous there; but
the principles which underlie not only German, but
all rational forest management, are true all the world
over. It was in accordance with them that the for-
ests of British India were taken in hand and are now
being successfully managed, but the methods into
which the same principles have developed are as
widely dissimilar as the countries in which they are
being applied. So forest management in America
must be worked out along lines which the conditions
of our life will prescribe. It never can be a techni-
cal imitation of that of any other country, and a
knowledge of forestry abroad will be useful and
necessary rather as matter for comparison than asa
guide to be blindly obeyed.

It must be suited not only to the peculiarities of
our national character, but also to the climate, soil
and timber of each locality, to the facilities for trans-
portation, the relations of supply and demand, and
the hundred other factors which go to make up the
natural character of a hillside, a county, or a State.
Its details cannot be laid down ex cathedra, but must
spring from a thorough acquaintance with the theory
of forestry, combined with exhaustive knowledge of
local conditions. It will necessarily lose the for-
mality and minuteness which it has acquired in coun-
tries of older and denser settlement, and will take on
the character of largeness and efficiency, which has
placed the methods of American lumbermen, in their
own sphere, far beyond all competitors.

24 Government Forestry Abroad. [208

All forest management, as contrasted with our
present hand-to-mouth system of lumbering, must
mean the exchange of larger temporary profits for
returns which are indeed smaller, but which, under
favorable circumstances, will continue and increase
indefinitely.

Under these conditions I do not believe that forest
management in the United States will present even
serious technical difficulties. It only asks the oppor-
tunity to prove itself sound, practical and altogether
good.

FRANCE.

In France, which stands with Germany at the head
of the nations as regards thoroughness of forest
policy, the large extent of government and other
public forests is in excellent condition. The struggle
for their care and preservation, the necessary ante-
cedent of their present favorable situation, has a
history which reaches back far beyond the time when
the United States became a nation. Says M. Boppe,
in the introduction of his Traité de Sylviculture;'

‘“‘In early times, during the Middle Ages, and until the begin-
ning of modern times, the knowledge of the specialists was summed
up in certain practices of lumbering put together in a way to satisfy
needs which were purely local. The wood was cut methodically,
but without much care as to the manner in which it would grow
again; that was the business of Dame Nature. Speaking of France
alone, it is known that towards the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury, in spite of the fact that lumbering was restricted by limited
demand (since, in the absence of the more powerful means. of
transportation, the wood must be put in use almost where it was
felled); in spite of the repeated intervention of royal authority, the
lack of foresight and abuses of all sorts resulted in the notable

1Paris, 1889.

oo
t

209 | Government Forestry Abroad.

impoverishment of our forest domain. It was then that a man of
genius, Bernard de Palissy, called the carelessness of his times in
respect to the foresis ‘not a mistake, but a calamity and a curse for
France.’

‘““ Henry IV made every effort to put an end to the destruction,
but it was reserved for Louis XVI, or rather for his minister,
Colbert, to reconstruct on a solid basis the foundation of forest
ownership. The law of August, 1669, which is in itself a whole
forest code, will remain a legislative monument from which we
cannot too much draw our inspiration.”

The history of forestry in France continued to be
associated with illustrious men in more recent times,
among whom Recamier, Duhamel and Buffon were
the first to «define the first principles of a rational
forest management, based on the knowledge which
had been gained of vegetable physiology.”

France differs from Germany in the unity of her
forest law. The Forest Code,! which closed in 1827
the series of forest enactments since the time of Col-
bert, is still in force. Its provisions. altered but little
by the political changes which have passed over them,
are valid for the whole of France.

In accordance with them certain classes of forest
property are to be administered directly by the State
forest service, along the lines which it marks out.
These are the woods and forests which formed part
of the domain of the State, those of communes and
sections of communes, those of corporations and
public institutions, and finally those in which the
State, the communes or the public institutions have
joint rights of property with individuals.

The area of forest owned by the French govern-
ment reaches a total of 2,657,944 acres, or about one-
ninth of the whole wooded area, which itself covers
17 per cent. of the country. Considerably more than

*Consult Code de la Legislation Forestiere. per A. Puton, Paris, 1883.

26 Government Forestry Abroad. [210

half of the Government forests stand on hilly or
mountainous land. The forest administration to
which their care is entrusted is attached to the
Department of Agriculture, and the Minister of Agri-
culture is president of the Forest Council. This body
includes the Director of the Forests and three admin-
istrators, the first of whom is at the head of the
Bureau for Legal Matters, Forest Instruction, Records
and Acquisitions: the second of the Bureau of Work-
ing Plans and Utilization, and the third of that for
Reforesting the Mountains, Public Works, Replanting
and Clearing.

The personnel under the general direction of this
council consists of 36 conservators, who are the
higher inspecting and controlling officers; 225 inspec-
tors. who are in administrative charge of divisions
called inspections; 242 assistant inspectors, the
executive officers, each of whom personally directs
the work in his cantonment, and 328 officers of lower
rank, called gardes généraux, whose work, in many
cases similar to that of the grade above them, is
difficult to define. Besides the 834 members of this
superior branch of the service, there were in 1885
some 3,532 forest guards of various grades. It is
safe to assume that the force of the protective staff
has remained substantially the same.

The system of training for the service of the supe-
rior staff differs widely from that which we have
seen in Germany. There is but one higher forest
school, that at Nancy, in place of the numerous in-
stitutions of the Germans, and until very recently
the whole course of preparation required of candi-
dates for the government service consisted in the two
years of study which it offered. At present entrance

eo
ft

211] Government Forestry Abroad.

to the forest school is open only to graduates of an
agricultural institute in Paris, but this innovation
had its rise rather in political than in educational
grounds. Thefact remains that the French forester,
with a course of training only from a fourth to a
third as long as that of his German colleague, has
produced results whose admirable educational and
intrinsic value stands unquestioned.

All French government forest officers must pass
through the school, and the demands of the vast ter-
ritory under their care are supplied by an annual list
of graduates, which does not in general exceed ten
or twelve.

Such facts make the task of national forest admin-
istration seem lighter as we look forward to the time
when it must be begun.

There is a professional school at the Domaine des
Barres for men of the higher grade of forest guards
who have shown the ability and the ambition to rise
to the lower rank of the superior staff. There were
last vear twelve students in attendance.

The management of the wood lands of communes
and public institutions, which cover together an area
of 4,715,124 acres, has been already shown to rest
with the State forest service. These facts are made
the subject of special provisions in the Forest Code,
of which the following are the most important:

The communes, corporations and other public
bodies may make no ciearing in their forests without
an express and special permit from the President.

Communal forests can never be divided among the
inhabitants.

A quarter of the forests belonging to communes
and other public bodies shall always be placed in

Cans)
o)

Government Forestry Abroad. [212

reserve when these communes or public bodies shall
possess at least ten hectares (24.7 acres) of forest.

The choice of forest guards, made by the class of
proprietors in question, must be approved by the
Government forest service, which issues their com-
missions to the guards. These last stand in all
respects on the same footing as the guards of the
State forests.

The sale of wood is made under the direction of
the State forest officers, and in the same way as for
the State forests. The amount of wood needed for
actual use by the members of the community is
reserved at the time of sale, and the distribution is
made among them with the family as the unit.

In return for a fixed tax all the operations of con-
servation and management in the woods of com-
munes and public bodies are carried out by the mem-
bers of the State forest service without further
charge.

The object of the reserved quarter (quart en
réserve) of the forests of communes and public insti-
tutions, mentioned above, is to provide for emergen-
cies and special demands upon the treasury of their
proprietors, such as damage by fire or flood, the build-
ing of a church, a school-house ora public fountain.

Except when sylvicultural reasons may require it
to be cut, such extraordinary necessities alone justify
a draught on this simple kind of reserve fund.

The great majority of the forests owned by the
class of proprietors just mentioned are managed
under the system of ‘‘coppice under standards,”’ a
name which literally reproduces the French tazllis
sous futate. This method of handling a forest im-
plies an upper and a lower store of growth. The basis

213] Government Forestry Abroad. 29
- .

of the treatment is a cutting over of the coppice
shoots or sprouts which spring up from the old
stumps at regular intervals of from fifteen to forty-
five years. In order to make the return annual
and fairly uniform it is only necessary to divide the
whole forest, if it be small, or each of its units of
management, if it be large, into as many compart-
ments of equal productive power as there are years
in the rotation of the coppice, and to cut over one
such compartment each year.

At each cutting the best of the young seedlings
which may have grown up among the coppice, or of
the coppice shoots themselves if the seedlings are
wanting, are left to grow on for two, three, four or
even five rotations of the underwood. Being thus
comparatively isolated these standards produce wood
very rapidly, while, at the same time, their number
is so restricted that they do not seriously interfere
with the growth of the coppice by their shade. The
disadvantages of the treatment are the large propor-
tion of low-priced firewood which it yields, and the
severe demands which it makes upon the soil. But
this «*national French treatment,’’ as it has been
called, has very many qualities which recommend it.
It is the form of treatment which yields the highest
per cent. of return on the capital invested, as well
as the highest absolute volume of wood (if we except
the high forest of coniferous trees). According to
the forest statistics of 1878, the most recent source
of information, the average yield of coppice under
standards in France, under State management, was
fifty-nine cubic feet of wood per acre per annum,
about one-fourth of which was lumber and the rest
fuel, hoop-poles. ete. A net annual return of 5 per

30 Government Forestry Abroad. [214

cent. may be set as the upper limit of production of
this class of forest, and therefore far beyond that of
other forms of treatment.

In 1878 the average net revenue of all the State
forests was 32.00 francs per hectare per annum, or
about $2.50 per acre. The return on the capital which
they represented was stated at 2} per cent. As
an illustration of the general financial situation of
forestry in France, the budget of the forest service
for 1891 may be cited. It provides for expenses in
the round sum of fifteen and a half million of francs,
and anticipates a gross revenue of twenty-five mil-
lion. If we subtract the cost of re-foresting the
mountains, managing the Algerian forests. which,
as yet. cost more than twice as much as they bring
in, and similar items which are not directly connected
with the current expenses of forest management, we
reach a total of ten million francs in round numbers.
Subtracting similarly the Algerian income we find
that the net revenue is expected to reach the sum of
fourteen million francs. Forest management on this
basis is very far removed from sentimentalism and
the philanthropic forest protection whose watchword
is’ Hands of? 7

The provisions of the code concerning private
wood lands are substantially as follows:

No private owner may root up or clear his wood
lands without having made a declaration of his
intention at least four months in advance. The for-
est service may forbid this clearing in case of the
maintenance of the forest is deemed necessary upon
any of the following grounds:

1. To maintain the soil upon mountains or slopes.

we
—y

215] Government Forestry Abroad,
a .

2. To defend the soil against erosion and flooding
by rivers, streams or torrents.

3. To insure the existence of springs and water-
courses.

4. To protect the dunes and seashore against the
erosion of the sea and the encroachment of moving
sands,

5. For purposes of military defense.

6. For the public health.

A proprietor who has cleared his forest without
permission is subject to a heavy fine, and may be
forced in addition to replant the area which he has
cleared.

The area of forest in France has certainly passed
its lowest point. The following figures, compiled in
1889, will serve to illustrate this statement:

No government forests have been sold since 1870,
while their area since 1872 has been increased by
190,462 acres. Private owners have been allowed to
clear an area amounting to 960,849 acres since 1828,
or 10,225 within the last five years, while the clear-
ing of communal forests since 1855 and 1885, respect-
ively, has been 24,826 acres and 598 acres. It should
be added that an unknown quantity of land has been
cleared without leave, and that on the other hand
private owners have been in the habit of getting
permits to clear their land as a means of enhancing
its selling value and then leaving it still under forest.

Perhaps the most brilliant work of the French for-
esters has been accomplished in the correction of the
torrents in the Alps, Pyrenees and Cevennes, in the
course of which over 350,000 acres have been re-
wooded under difficulties which seem almost insur-
mountable. Its picturesque character, its thorough

(Se)
Cae)

Government Forestry Abroad. [216

success and the sharpness of the moral which it
serves to point have rightly made this branch of for-
estry in France a favorite subject for writers and
speakers on forest reform. There is, then, the less
need to do more than add that of the total cost to the
French government, some 50,000,000 of francs. about
one-half was consumed in engineering works whose
direct object was to make the replanting of the drain-
age areas of torrents possible. «The forest thus re-
stored to its natural place is alone able,”’ says M.
Demontzey, the eminent French authority, ‘‘to main-
tain the good, but precarious, results of the works of
correction in the water-ways themselves.’’ The dis-
appearance of this forest in the first place may be
traced in most cases directly to mountain pasturage,
and the whole story of reboisement in France is ful]
of the deepest interest in comparison with the present
state and probable future of our mountain forests.

The planting of the dunes and the Landes, the first
of which especially was an achievement of which any
nation might well be proud, remain to be mentioned.
but the information available to the writer at the
moment is neither recent nor complete, and these
matters must be left untouched in the present paper.

SWITZERLAND.

I pass now to Switzerland, a country where the
development as well as the actual condition of for-
est policy may well claim our attention. The history
of forestry in the Swiss republic is of peculiar inter-
est to the people of the United States, because in its
oveginnings may be traced many of the charateristics
of the situation here and now, and because the Swiss,

217] Government Forestry Abroad. 33

like the Americans, were confronted by the problem
of a concrete forest policy extending over the various
states of acommon union. The problem has been
brilliantly solved, and not the least result of its solu-
tion is the fact that the people of Switzerland have
recognized the vast significance of the forests in so
mountainous a country, and a full and hearty appre-
ciation and support of the forest policy of the Con-
federation fills every nook and corner of the land.

The history of the forest movement in Switzer-
land has not yet been fully written, but you will
allow me to quote from an unpublished sketch of it
by Professor Landolt, who, more than any other man,
has contributed to make that history of which he
writes. Asan example set bya republic to a republic,
as the brilliant result of the work of a few devoted
men, crowned by a public opinion which they created.
and rewarded by the great and lasting blessing which
they have brought to their country, I believe that
the advocates of forest reform in America can set
before themselves no better model and take encour-
agement from no worthier source.

“Soon after the middle of the last century,’ begins Professor
Landolt, ‘certain intelligent, public spirited men of Zurich and
the canton of Bern (which then included Waadt and a great part of
Aargau), turned their attention to the situation of agriculture and
forestry in Aargau. Their object was to gain a knowledge of the
conditions involved and their surroundings, and to remove the
most pressing evils.

‘“‘In the years between 1780 and 1790 the cantons, following the
lead of Bern, succeeded in appointing forest officers, whose first task
was to become conversant with the actual management of the State
and large communal forests, and to make suggestions for their future
treatment. Partly at this time, partly earlier, a large proportion of
the State and a few communal forests were surveyed and a few of
them were marked off into compartments on the ground, a measure
of vital importance to conservative management.

3

34 Government Forestry Abroad. [218

‘““The appointment of State forest officers is to be regarded as the
beginning of regular forest management. Great numbers of forest
regulations bearing on the most various subjects—tree planting
among others—had been promulgated in former centuries. They
had been often renewed, but without forest officers they could not
be enforced.

“Forest regulations were now made by Bern, Zurich, and for the
Jura by the bishop of Basel, who also had appointed forest officers.

“The treatment of the State and of a few of the larger communal
forests made very satisfactory progress until 1798. Then came the
revolution, and with it war and times of great disturbance and
political excitement. It is true that even then forestry was never
wholly neglected; but the progress made, where it existed at all,
was of very minor importance. But as times grew quieter and the
condition of the government more orderly, the interest in forest
matters revived; the cantons Neuenburg, Freiburg, Solothurn and
Aargau passed forest laws of more or less comprehensive scope,
appointed forest officers, and in general sought to promote the
cause of forestry.

“ Until about 1830 forestry in the less mountainous parts of
Switzerland developed slowly, but still in a satisfactory manner.
New laws appeared, the number of forest officers increased, the
wood lands of communes and public institutions attracted more
attention, and the future reforesting of the country became gradu-
ally the centre of greater effort. In public forests other than those
of the State, progress was in general slow, although a considerable
number of forest surveys were carried out.

‘*The mountain forests, however, with few exceptions, were in
complete disorder. But the following years brought new life not
oniy into politics, but also into national economies and the status of
the forest, which last was materially improved by the floods which
spread in 1834 over the greater part of the Alps. The damage which
they caused was so severe that the philanthropic and scientific soci-
eties set themselves the task of searching out the cause of inunda-
tions, which became more frequent as time went on. They concluded
that it was to be found largely in the improvident destruction of the
mountain forests. Tothe fear of a wood famine, which had hitherto
been the chief incentive to the advancement of forestry, there was
now added another, which, if not wholly new, still had been for-
merly little insisted on. It was the influence of forests on rainfall
and the phenomena of nature ingeneral. The societies did not fail
to direct attention to this question, and with excellent result. The
less mountainous cantons with imperfect legislation made new laws
or amended and completed the old ones, saw to the appointment of

WY
or

219] Government Forestry Alxoad.

foresters, and took the organization of the felling, planting and care
of their timber seriously in hand. But the chief gain lay in the fact
that the mountain cantons applied themselves to the work. St.
Gallen, Luzern and Freiburg had already begun, and now went
vigorously forward. Graubunden, Tessin and Wallis passed forest
laws and appointed forest officers, partly at once, partly later; but
still the progress made was slow. The cities everywhere made
important contributions toward a better system by the introduction
of a wiser treatment and by the appointment of foresters of their
own, and so set a good example to the cantons and priyate forest
proprietors. Those cantons of the plains also which had formerly
given scant attention to their communal forests, as was here and
there the case, now supervised and managed them better.

‘Taken as a whole, Forestry has made satisfactory progress as
regards legislation, the improvement of forest management and the
increased number of forest officers, from the beginning of the 40’s
on. In 1865 the Swiss Forest School was established (as a fifth
department of the Polytechnicum at Zurich), and provision was
thus made,” says Prof. Landolt, ‘‘for a forest staff of our own,
educated with special reference to our own conditions.

‘“The Swiss Forestry Association was founded in 1843. Through
frequent agitation, and by setting forth what action was necessary,
it has rendered great service to the cause of forest protection. It
has moved successfully, among other things, for the foundation of
a forest school, the examination of the higher mountain forests,
the passage of a new forest law, and the correction of the torrents.

‘In 1854,’’ continues Prof. Landolt, ‘‘I called the attention of
the Association to the investigation of the mountain forests. In
1855 I was entrusted with the preparation of a memorial to the
Federal Assembly, which was approved and presented in the
following year. In 1858 the Federal Assembly appointed a commis-
sion of three men with authority to study and report upon the Swiss
Alps and the Jura in regard to geology, forestry and police regula-
tions, bearing on water supply. From the appearance of the final
report of this commission in 1861, the improvement of Swiss for-
estry has been kept steadily before the Confederation. In 1875 a
tederal forest inspector was appointed, and a year later the first Swiss
forest law was passed. This law does not extend to the whole of
Switzerland, but only to the Alps and the steeper foot-hills. More
recently attempts have been made by the cantonal government and
the Forestry Association to extend its influence to the Jura or to
the whole of Switzerland, but the need of such action is not yet
clearly apparent.”

36 Government Forestry Abroad. [220

The passage of the federal forest law was followed
almost everywhere immediately by the appointment
of trained forest officers, and all the cantons whose
forest legislation was defective amended or completed
it. Atthe same time federal. and cantonal regula-
tions bearing on watercourses were being revised.

‘Our forest laws,’’ Prof. Landolt goes on, ‘‘are intended to work
more through instruction, good example and encouragement than
by severe regulations. This method is somewhat slower than one
which should involve more drastic measures, but the results achieved
are the more useful and lasting. When forest proprietors do some-
thing because they are convinced of its utility, it is done well and
with an eye to the future; but what they do under compulsion is
done carelessly and neglected at the first opportunity. What they
have come to learn in this way, and have recognized as good, will
be carried out, and that better and better from year to year.

‘‘ All our laws require the same treatment for the forests of the
State, the communes and public institutions. Still, progress in the
treatment of State forests and those of the larger communes is more
rapid than in those of corporations and the smaller villages. Inthe
first more money is available, the forest officers are better trained,
and there is a more intelligent grasp of the situation. But still the
condition of the smaller forests is now satisfactory.

““The oversight of private forests is less strict. Their owners may
not reduce the area of their wood lands without the consent of the
cantonal government, must plant up the land cut over which is
without natural growth, and are bound to take proper care of the
growing stock, but they are not held to a conservative management.

“The regulations which bear upon the protection of wood lands,
and the harmful external influences to which they are exposed, are
equally binding upon them; but in return they enjoy the protection
which the law provides for the forest.

‘‘In protection forests, on the other hand, the timber that may
be cut by private owners is marked by government officers, so that
reckless lumbering may be prevented. The regulations which look
to the formation of new protection forests must also be conformed
to by private proprietors, or they must allow themselves to be
expropriated. In these matters the Confederation and the cantons
work in unison. The consent of the Federal Assembly is necessary

to the clearing of private land in protection forests.’’

~>

221] Government Forestry Abroad. 3

The Federal forest law, of which Prof. Landolt
writes, is binding over nearly two-thirds of all
Switzerland. Its chief provisions are the following:

The supervision of the Confederation is exercised,
within the forest area over which it has special juris-
diction, upon all protection forests, and furthermore
upon all State, communal and corporation wood
lands, even when they do not fall under that head.

The cantons must appoint and pay the number of
suitably educated foresters necessary for the execu-
tion and fulfillment of the forest law.

All forests which fall under Federal supervision
must be demarcated on the ground within five years
from the passage of the law.

The burdening of the wood lands with new pre-
scriptive rights of certain kinds is forbidden.

The State, communal and corporation forests are
to be surveyed, their management regulated, and
working plans for them must be drawn up.

The federal machinery for.the enforcement of this
law is contained in the office of the Inspector-General
of Forests, whose sphere of action extends over all
the wood lands in question. Each canton has its
own forest organization,. The Federat Forest School,
of which Prof. Landolt was founder, and in which
he still teaches the forest sciences, remains in Zurich.

After what has been said it need hardly be added
that the forests of Switzerland are for the most part
in admirable condition. Systematic forest manage-
ment has probably been known there as long as any-
where in Europe, and nowhere can: finer individual
examples be found. I have seen nothing, even in
Germany, which seemed to me to be so workmanlike
as the management of the Sihlwald, a forest belong-

38 Government Forestry Abroad. [222

ing to the city of Zurich; and I am the bolder in my
opinion because the Sihlwald has been called the most
instructive forest of Europe by one who is perhaps
the most experienced forester of the present day. It
may not be out of place to quote certain details of
its history and management from a paper of the
writer’s which appeared in Garden and Forest in
July and August, 1890.

The ownership of the city of Zurich in its forest
is of very old date. Evidences of the care which
the burghers bestowed upon it are found in a series
of ordinances which, beginning in 1309 with a rule
that no forester might cut wood in the Sihlwald—
clear proof that a forest police existed at that early
date—continued in unbroken succession to that of
1417, under which the foundation of the present
organization was laid, and finally, in 1697, reached
the first technical working plan. It is curious to
note, as an evidence of the view of the nature of its
interest held by the city, that the policy of adding
to the public forest property by purchase, recently
inaugurated by the Legislature of the State of New
York, was begun by the free city of Zurich nearly
two centuries before the discovery of America..

‘Tn the organization of a normally stocked forest the object of
first importance is the cutting each year of an amount of timber
equal to the total annual increase over the whole area, and no more.
It is further desirable in any long settled community that the for-
ests be so managed as to yield a measurably constant return in
material. Otherwise difficulties in the supply of labor and the dis-
posal of the produce make themselves felt, and the value of the
forest to its owner tends to decrease.

‘Tn order to attain this steadiness of yield it is obviously neces-
sary that a certain number of trees become fit to cut each year.
The Sihlwald has accordingly been so “ regulated’”’ that areas of
equal productive capacity are covered by stocks of every age, from

223 | Government Forestry Abroad. 39

last year’s seedling to the mature tree. These age-gradations suc-
ceed each other in aseries so regular that in an hour’s walk one
may pass from the area just cut over through a forest of steadily
increasing age to the trees which have reached the limit of the
rotation of ninety years. Three such units of management are
present inthe Sihlwald, but . . . . it will be necessary to
speak of only one of them. The working plan for the Lower Sihl-
wald, then, prescribes for the forest which it controls the operations
of what Dr. Schlich has called in his Manual of Forestry ‘The
Shelter-wood Compartment System.’ It may not be without inter-
est to follow the life history of a compartment in which this system
is carried out.

“After the mature trees had been felled and removed from the
area which furnished the yield of the Lower Sihlwald last year the
thick cropof seedlings which had grown up under their shelter was
finally exposed to the fullinfiuence of the light and air. The fell-
ing and rough shaping of the timber, the piling of logs and cord-
wood and the.trampling of the men had combined with the crisis
of exposure to destroy the new crop in places and create a few small
blanks. Here, as soon as the disappearance of the snow had made
it possible, groups of the kinds of seedlings necessary to preserve
the mixture or destined to increase the proportion of the more
valuable species were planted. The operation, necessarily an ex-
pensive one, is justified by the greater resistance of a mixed forest
to nearly all the calamities which may befall standing timber.
Simultaneously with the planting the willows, hazels and other
worthless species were destroyed, as well as the ‘ pre-existing seed-
lings,’ whose larger growth, according to the disputed theory held
at the Sihlwald, would damage their younger neighbors more by
their shade than their greater volume would increase the final yield
of timber. The incipient forest, then, practically uniform in age
and size and broken by no blanks which the growth of a year or
two will not conceal, is fairly started on the course of healthy de-
velopment which it is to continue undisturbed until it reaches the
age of fifteen years.

‘‘At this point occurs the first of a series of thinnings (or more
exactly, ‘clearing’ at first and thinning later), which follow each
other at intervals of seven or eight years, until the trees have
entered the last third of their existence. There is, perhaps, no
silvicultural question more in dispute than this of the time and
degree of thinning which will yield the best results in quality and
quantity of timber. The method pursued at the Sihlwald, conse-
crated by habit and success, gives ample space for the healthy de-
velopment of the crown from a very early age without admitting

40 Government Forestry Abroad. [224

light enough through the leaf-canopy to sustain an undergrowth
until the trees are nearly ready to give place to their descendants.
Such shrubs or seedlings as still appear, thanks to a shade-bearing
temperament, are systematically cut out. It may be strongly doubted
whether such a policy might safely be applied on soil less moist
than that of the Sihlwald; but here, at least, the trees reach the age
of sixty years, tall, straight, clean-boled, and in condition to make
the best of the last part of the period of maximum growth, which
a large number of measurements have shown to occur in general
between the ages of seventy and ninety years. A heavy thinning
now comes to the assistance of the best specimens of growth, and
they are left to profit by it until seven years before the date fixed
for their fall. Then begin the regeneration cuttings, whose object
is to admit through the leaf-canopy an amount of light, varying
with the temperament of each species, whose mission is to give
vitality to the seedlings which the trees, stimulated themselves by
their more favorable situation, now begin to produce in consider-
able quantities. To this end the light which falls from above has
a powerful auxiliary in that which the system of felling each year
in a long, narrow strip admits from the side, and so admirable is
this double method that the time which elapses between the begin-
ning and the end of a regeneration is but half the average for less
favored localities. This applies only to the deciduous trees. The
time required by the conifers is much longer, and the incomplete
regeneration which they furnish is supplemented by planting inthe
blanks already mentioned. But for the self-sown seedlings of both
classes the amount of light is gradually increased, the trees which
sheltered them are at length wholly removed, and the cycle of
growth repeats itself.

‘With an average stand of timber of 2,800 cubic feet per acre,
the annual yield of wood, almost half of which is from thinnings
alone, reached last year 377,023 cubic' feet, an amount which may
be taken as slightly above the average.

““ Under the management of Forstmeister Meister the 2,400 acres
of the Sihlwald gave last year (1889) a net return of something over
$8 per acre, or a total contribution to the treasury of the city of
about $20,000. This sum, large as it is in relation to the area of
forest which produced it, promises to be materially increased.

‘But with the climate of northern Europe indicated by a mean
temperature of forty-eight degrees Fahrenheit, and with the condi-
tions of soil and moisture which it enjoys, the exceptional produc-
tiveness of the Sihlwald would still remain partly unexplained were
it not possible to add that the land which it covers has been unin-
terruptedly under forest for something over athousand years. That

225 | (rovernment Forestry Abroad. 41

precious condition of the surface which the French and Germans
unite in describing as ‘ forest-soil,’ so slow in forming and so quick
to disappear wherever the full sunlight is allowed to reach the
ground, has here been produced in perfection by centuries of forest
growth. It is perhaps to this factor, next to the abundance of
humidity, that the high annual yield of wood in the Sihlwald is due.”’

It has been remarked already that there are rea-
sons which give the study of forestry in Switzerland
peculiar value—a value which, in the opinion of the
writer, far surpasses that of the more refined German
forest organization. For the fundamental difference
of political training in the German and Swiss forester
works itself out in the character of forest manage-
ment with perfect clearness. <The first,’’ says Forst-
meister Meister, one of the most eminent of Swiss or
of European forest officers, in summing up the matter
to the writer, ‘‘has always before his eyes a forest
organization regulated down to the minutest detail.
It is with this organization that he is to deal as best
he may. The Swiss (or the republican) standpoint,
on the other hand, requires the forester to reach the
best result which is possible at the moment by an
intelligent application of the general principles of
forestry through the medium of forest organization,
‘‘which is imperfect and incomplete.’ It seems
hardly necessary to point out along which of these
lines the work of the American forester must be
shaped, or from which point of view he must approach
it. It isan admirable training to become thoroughly
at home in the details of the most complete forest
organization, but it is a far more practically useful
thing in the United States to be able to do without it.

42 Government Forestry Abroad. [226

AUSTRALIA.

Before touching on the matter of forest manage-
ment in certain of the English colonies, it is of inter-
est to note the relations of timber import and export
throughout the British Empire. These are given by
Dr. Schlich'! for the average of the five years from
1884-88 as follows:

Imports—United Kingdom............ £15,000,000
British Colonitess....— 22>. +. 1,466,000

DObal ge eeveretaee osc «oaks £16,466,000
Exports—Dominion of Canada.. ..... £ 4,025,000
OthenmColomestee) ces see 713,000

ANGEL —=8 «cece aeRO Ie 4,738,000

Excess of imports over exports £11,728,000, or $56,800,000.

It should be noted that this table is not quite com-
plete, but it will answer all the purposes of illustra-
tion, and the light which it throws on the general
timber supply of the world is exceedingly interesting,
even if it be not alarming.

Forest legislation in Australia is still in a transi-
tion state. It has already had time to correct some
of its earlier mistakes, and the course which it is
following will certainly lead to a satisfactory forest
policy in the end.

In the colony of South Australia an act was passed
in 1873 dealing, as such preliminary legislation gen-
erally has dealt in recent times, with the encourage-
ment of tree planting. A forest board was estab-
lished in 1875 and a conservator of forests in 1877;
and in 1882 «*«The Woods and Forest Act’? became

‘Lecture before the Royal Colonial Institute on March 11, 1890.
My information on the forest policy of the Australian colonies is
derived from the same source.

227] Government Forestry Abroad. 43
law. It entrusts the charge of all forest estates to
the Commissioner of Forest Lands, and gives him
power to grant licenses and make regulations for cut-
ting timber, bark, or other forest produce, and he
may levy fees upon stock pasturing in forest reserves.
It provides also that all forest reserves heretofore
declared such shall remain so, and empowers the
governor to add to their area; makes provision for
encouraging tree-planting, and for the leasing of
forest lands under certain conditions. The appoint-
ment of conservators is authorized, and the issuance
of regulations for the management of the forest, the
disposal of the timber, and the prevention of fires.
The financial result of this policy during the thirteen
years ending with 1889 was a net surplus of over
$40,000.

In the colony of New South Wales the forest law
dates from 1884, and makes provisions which are
partially similar in character to those of the act just
mentioned. In accordance with them an area of five
and a-half million acres had been declared State for-
ests and timber reserves in 1887.

Victoria, the smallest of the Australian colonies,
is perhaps the most interesting from the forester’s
point of view. From certain reports made to the
Secretary of State for the colonies it appears that in
the year 1875 Victoria was suffering from a condition
of affairs strongly suggestive of our own at present.
‘«*The amount of timber is diminishing owing to clear-
ings for settlement, ordinary home consumption and
bush (ice forest fires): .. . . “As early as 1866
attention was called . . . tothe wastefulness
and improvidence of the prevailing system.”

44 Government Forestry Abroad. [228

Only the prime parts of trees were utilized. Im-
mense numbers of standing trees were killed, owing
to the practice of stripping from them large sheets
of bark to cover, perhaps, a mere temporary hut.
The committee called attention to the growing
scarcity of timber for props for mining purposes and
the necessity of measures to secure a permanent
supply.

‘“‘In 1876 an act was passed, called the State Forest Act, which
provided, first, for the appointment of local forest boards, which
were to have the care of reserves and other Crown lands; secondly,
for the appointment of foresters by local forest boards; and thirdly,
for the promulgation by the Governor in Council of regulations
prescribing the duties of these boards. In 1884 this act was super-
seded by a new one, which deals with the formation of State forests
and timber reserves and their management, and with the manage-
ment and disposal of timber and other forest produce not included
in the State forests and timber reserves.

““The forests generally are worked under the license system,
regulated by rules made under the act. There are licenses for
felling, splitting, clearing undergrowth, the erection of saw-mills,
grazing, the removal of bark, etc.”’

Unfortunately, this law, which has much to recom-
mend it, has not resulted as well as was hoped, and
the reasons for its failure have been defined as follows:

“The immediate causes of this failure are the bad license system,
the ill-arranged classification of State forests, timber reserves and
Crown lands, the absence of professional foresters to direct opera-
tions, and the neglect to reserve the best natural forests.”’

Dr. Schlich has formulated the requirements of the
situation, as follows: First, the engagement of a thor-
oughly competent forest expert to be the head of the
Victorian Forest Department; secondly, the selection,
demarcation and legal formation of a sufficient area
of reserved State forest, suitably distributed over the
country, systematically managed, and efficiently pro-
tected; thirdly, the protection and disposal of forest

wo

29 | Government Forestry Abroad. 45
»

produce on Crown lands not included in the reserved
State forests.

INDIA.

Perhaps the closest analogy to our own conditions
in the magnitude of the area to be treated, the diffi-.
culties presented by the character of the country and
the prevalence of fire, and the nature of the opposition
which it encountered, is to be found in the forest
administration of India, and that in spite of the trop-
ical climate with which it has to deal. The history
of the movement is comparatively fresh, and the fact
that many problems remain as yet unsolved will
scarcely detract from the interest and sympathy with
which we may be led to regard it.

Systematic forest management was begun in India
about thirty-five years ago, under difficulties not
unlike those which confront us now. An insufficient
or a wrong conception of the interests involved, the
personal bias of lumbermen, the alternating support
and opposition of the men in power, were the chief
obstacles with which it had to contend; and against
them were pitted the splendid perseverance and mag-
nificent administrative powers of one man. The Vic-
tory was brilliant, conclusive and lasting, and India
has to thank Sir Dietrich Brandis for benefits whose
value will go on increasing from age to age.

It is extremely interesting, in view of the begin-
ning of State forest management, which must eventu-
ally and ought at once be made in the United States,
to note that its success in India, in its early stages,
was very largely due to the fact ‘that it furnished a
net revenue from the very start.

46 Government Forestry Abroad. [230

It is also instructive to recall that a large share of
the prosperity of Rangoon, whose merchants pro-
tested in 1856 that to restrict the teak lumbering
was to destroy the growth of their city, is due to-day
to the steady business in this very timber which a
conservative forest policy has secured.

‘* History has proved,” says Dr. Schlich,? ‘‘ that the preservation
of an appropriate percentage of the area as forests cannot be left to
private enterprise in India, so that forest conservancy in that
country has for some time past been regarded asa duty of the State.

‘Of the total area of government forests, which may perhaps
amount to some 70,000,000 of acres, 55,000,000 have been brought
under the control of the Forest Department. Of this area 33,000,000
are so-called reserved State forests, that is to say, areas which, under
the existing forest law, have been set aside as permanent forest
estates, while the remaining 23,000,000 are either protected or
so-called unclassed State forests. These areas together comprise
about 11 per cent. of the total area of the provinces in which they
are situated. Rather more than half the area, or about 6 per cent.,
are strictly preserved and systematically managed forests.’’

The formation of these reserved State forests was
the first step in systematic forest management, and
it was carried out along lines which are typical. The
forest areas were first selected, following standards
which cannot be enumerated here, then surveyed and
demarcated on the ground, and finally established as
reserved State forests by an act which provided,
first, for the presentation within a certain time of all
claims against the State forests as demarcated; sec-
ondly, for their hearing and definite settlement;
thirdly, that no prescriptive rights could accrue in
reserved State forests after their declaration as such
under the act; and fourthly, for the special treatment
of forest offences.

These forests have been gradually brought under
simple but systematic methods of management, which

“1 Manual of Forestry, Vol. 1, London, 1889.

Rol Government Forestry Abroad. any
y

aim at effective protection, an efficient system of
regeneration, and cheap transportation, the whole
under well-considered and methodical working plans.

The forest staff charged with carrying these plans
into effect draws its controlling officers from England.

Until quite recently it had been the custom to send
the young men selected for the Indian forest service
to be educated on the continent of Europe, at first in
France and Germany, but more lately altogether at
the French school in Nancy. The arrangement was
not satisfactory, however, and in 1885 the school at
Cooper’s Hill, near Windsor, was established as part
of the Royal Indian Engineering College. It is an
institution whose excellence is directly due to the
admirable management of Dr. Schlich, formerly
Inspector-General of Forests in India, and now its
principal professor of forestry. The course, which
in its general features resembles that of other forest
schools of similar excellence, has recently been
enlarged to cover three years, and includes as its
final work an excursion of three months in the forests
of the continent of Europe under the guidance of Sir
Dietrich Brandis. The writer was fortunate enough
to accompany the English students during the last
one of these excursions, and can testify to its admir-
able educational value.

For the executive and protective work it is neces-
sary to employ natives, since they alone are equal to
the physical labor in so warm a climate. Their tech-
nical education is provided for by the Indian forest
school, at Dehra Dun, in connection with which is
the Dehra Dun State forest. Quite recently its first
working plan has been completed for this forest, and
while the management of no one forest can be taken

48 Government Forestry Abroad. [232

as a type of Indian forestry, it may not be without
interest to sketch briefly its chief points. Each of
the six ranges which the forest contains is divided
into twenty compartments, or, in the Indian termi-
nology, coupes, among which the fellings follow a
regular sequence, so that each coupe is cut over once
in twenty years. The period of work in each coupe
really embraces three years, so that different stages
of the operations are going on in three of them
at the same time. During the first year the tropi-
cal creepers which interfere with the lumbering are
cut through, and the trees which are to be taken out
are selected, marked with the government hammer
and girdled. The trees selected are sal (shorea
robusta) Which are unsound, or which would not im-
prove during the next twenty years, trees of inferior
species which will still furnish timber, and trees of
other inferior kinds which are injuring by their shade
the young sal seedlings. The timber trees which
have been marked are sold by auction to a contractor,
the unit of sale being the square mile, and are re-
moved during the second year. In the third year
‘the less valuable and the injured trees are cut out,
hauled to the roads and sold as firewood. . This
method of lumbering has rightly been called ‘im-
provement felling,” since their object is to raise the
general condition of the forest rather than to draw
from it a large annual revenue at present. For
minor forest produce a system of sale by tickets is
in force, it is said, with admirable result.

The difficulty of coping with forest fires in India
would be notably greater than in the United States
were it not for the greater density of the Indian pop-
ulation. The method consists in cutting fire paths

233 | Government Forestry Abyoad., 49

through the forest of a width varying up to four
hundred feet, removing all combustible matter from
them, except the larger trees, and patroling them
through the medium of a regular fire organization.
All holders of prescriptive rights are bound to assist
in the event of fire. At Dehra Dun, for instance, a
force of five hundred men is available, and a fire is
never allowed to burn for more thana couple of days.
Smoking in the forest is strictly forbidden, and the
building of fires by camping parties and others is
very severely regulated.

The results of this thorough and far-sighted for-
est policy are conspicuous not only in the great fact
that the forests yield, and will permanently yield,
the supply of timber and forest produce which the
population requires, but also in the beginning which
has been made toward regulating the water supply
in the mountains, and in the increasing capital value
and annual net revenue of the State forests.

“So far,’ says Dr. Schlich,! “‘the government has good reason
to be satisfied with the financial results of its forest administration.
The net revenue, after meeting all expenses of the department, has

been as follows since 1864, the year in which the department was
first established as a general State department:

1864 to 1867. Average annual net revenue.... £106,615

1867 to 1872. ae a i Sees, ldd5929
1872 to 1877. o i sense eZ.
1877 to 1882. : “¢ S Sates) 24 Ose
1882 to 1887. a <s Herern ROO OS

F ‘There is little doubt, if any, that 25 years hence the
net surplus will be four times the present amount if the govern-
ment of India perseveres in its forest policy as developed in the
past. Indeed it would not be going too far to say that the increasing
forest revenue bids fair to become a substantial off-set against the
expected loss of the opium revenue.”’

; Loe. cit.

4

50 Government Forestry Abroad. [234

There are two other facts resulting from the for-
eign policy of India which are of special significance
to us as citizens of a country where any interfer-
ence by the government with private rights would
be so vigorously resented, and where private enter-
prise must consequently play so conspicuous a part.
First, a body of efficient and experienced officers of
all grades has gradually been formed in the State
forests whose services are available for the manage-
ment of private forests, and of communal forests
when the time shall come to form them. Secondly,
the example set by the well managed State forests
and the steadily increasing revenue which they yield,
has induced native and other forest proprietors to
imitate the State.

The trained foresters, without whom so laudable a
purpose must fail, are at hand, and the whole situa-
tion argues most favorably for the future prosperity
of the country.

SoutH AFRICA.

The organization of the Forest Service at the Cape
of Good Hope is of comparatively recent date. It
consists of one superintendent, three conservators,
four assistant conservators, and the necessary staff
of forest guards. Practically nothing had been done
in the eastern half of the colony when Mr. Hutchins,
the present conservator in charge of the Eastern con-
servancy, was called from India to the Cape. The
method which he followed and its results are of
interest both from the principles which they em-
body and from the success of his wise and energetic
effort for the protection of the forest in the face of

235 | Government Forestry Abroad. 51

popular and legislative neglect. The system of in-
discriminate depredation which is so familiar to us
in the United States was in full vogue when he
arrived. His first work was to survey the boundary
lines of the forest. He then succeeded in getting a
bill through the Colonial Parliament, claims against
the government forest area as he had surveyed it
were heard and decided, and the lines of the State
reserve were definitely fixed. He was now ready to
regulate the management, which was accomplished
on the following basis: The whole area, 150 square
miles, was divided into a number of units called
series (from a French forest term), and each
series was again cut up into forty coupes, in
one of which the cutting is localized each year. The
system may be called, from a partial translation of
its French -name, «localized selection.’’ It is a
modification of what Dr. Schlich has called «the
shelter-wood selection System.’* The beat of a
guard is coextensive with a series, and within this
area the felling passes over the same ground once
in forty years. The faults of the present selection
system are that the per cent. of the valuable tim-
ber trees is rapidly diminishing in a country where
fire-wood is not saleable, and that it exposes the for-
est unduly to the attacks of fire, its chief enemy
there as here. For these reasons the present treat-
ment is to be gradually converted into regular high
forest.

The volume and character of the trees marked to
fall in each year are entered in a book, and from it
the purchases are made. The buyer presents his
felling license to the guard of the coupe in ques-
tion, and cuts and removes the timber himself.

52 Government Forestry Abroad. [236

Excellent results are said to have followed a system
of temporary permits to «forest cultivators,’” who are
allowed to take up a certain area of land at the edge
of the forest for agricultural purposes. In return,
they are responsible for the police of the forest in
their vicinity, and any unreported depredations mean
to them the loss of their permit. Very often their
contract demands the planting of a certain area with
oak in lieu of a cash payment of rent.

The English oak and American cottonwood and the
Eucalyptus globulus are extensively planted through-
out the Cape and South Africa generally.

OTHER COUNTRIES.

It has been impossible more than to glance at the
chief points of forest policy, in a few of the many
lands which teem with interest in this respect. I
would gladly have called attention to Austria, where
an excellent forest service upholds the general prin-
ciples which we have seen exemplified elsewhere, and
to Italy, where the sale of government forests, forced
on the State by the pressure of financial necessity, is
beginning to bear evil fruit. A circle of lands around
the Mediterranean might have been cited to instance
the calamitous results of deforestation, and from
some of them still further proof might have been
adduced to show at what a cost such errors must be
repaired. But the countries which have distanced us
on the road toward a rational forest policy might
better have claimed our attention.

Without passing out of the limits of Europe, it
would have been worth while to glance at Sweden,
whose government has recognized its obligations as

237] Government Forestry Aproad. 53

a forest proprietor, and to Russia, which has recently
turned its attention to forest matters, and has passed
a law (in 1888), of which the following are the more
notable features: Clearing is forbidden in protection
forests, and is only permitted in others when its
effects ‘will not be to disturb the suitable relations
which should exist between forest and agricultural
lands.”’ In standing timber all working which tends
**to exhaust the standing crop, prevent the natural
regeneration of the forest, and change the areas cut
over into wastes”? are forbidden. The government
prepares working plans of protection forests without
cost to their owners, and together with areas which
have been replanted, these forests are free from taxes.
Finally, private owners are forced to replant areas
cut over which are without natural regrowth, and on
their failure to do so, the work is carried out by the
government foresters at their expense. All this in a
country which has still 36 per cent. of wood land left.

Nor is it European nations and white colonists
alone who have shown a far more intelligent compre-
hension of the significance of the forest than the
United States. Japan has done so most conspicu-
ously. To quote from Heinrich Semler:

‘‘ Japan,' whose total area includes in round numbers 94,900,000
acres, possesses forests of 28,700,000 acres in extent. This people
furnishes a shining example inthe matter of forestry. Even the
old feudal lords were penetrated with the value of the wood lands,
as they showed by the enactment of vigorous protective laws.
When in the recent civil war the government of the Mikado de-
stroyed the feudal system, it declared the forests, as far as they had
belonged to the feudal lords, to be the property of the State, and
promulgated a forest law which was valid for the whole kingdom.
Accordingly the forests of Japan are about equally divided between

‘Semler, Tropische und Nordamerikanische Waldwirtschaft und
Holzkunde. Berlin, 1888.

54 Government Forestry Abroad. [238

the State and private owners. The former manages its wood lands
through a forest service with headquarters at Tokio, where is also
the forest school. Founded within the last ten years, the school
has an average attendance of about 150, and has quite recently been
under the charge of Dr. Mayr, whose work on The Forests of North
America has made his name familiar to the advocates of forestry in
the United States. Only a part of the pupils expect to enter the
government service.

‘“The forest service does not rest satisfied with the present pro-
portion of wood land, but busies itself actively with planting, in
connection with which the introduction of foreign species has been
attempted.

‘« There is a notable export of wood from Japan to China, and, on
the other hand, an import from North America to Japan; which
last, however, the Japanese soon expect to be able to do without.”

Dr. Schlich’s statement of the destructive tenden-
cies of private forest ownership in India might with
equal truth have been made as a general proposition.
It is the salient fact which the history of the forests
of the earth seems to teach; but nowhere have the
proofs of its truth taken such gigantic proportions
as in the United States to-day. We are surrounded
by the calamitous results of the course that we are
now pursuing. In fact, it seems as though there
were almost no civilized or semi-civilized country in
either hemisphere which cannot stand to us as an
example or a warning. To this great truth they bear
witness with united voice: The care of the forests

is the duty of the nation.

The Present Condition

OF THE

Forests on the Public Lands.

BY

EDWARD A. BOWERS.

The Present Condition of the Forests on the
Public Lands.

BY EDWARD A. BOWERS,
Secretary of the American Forestry Association,
(Formerly Inspector of the Public Land Service. )

I shall try to outline what the legal and physical
condition of this great and necessary element of our
national wealth is at the present time, touching only
incidentally upon remedies, as you will hear another
upon that subject.

The American Forestry Association must recognize
at the outset that little improvement need be expected
either in the legal protection or the physical condition
of the public forests until there is a radical change
in the theory held with respect to public forest lands
and a complete revision of existing laws relating to
them. On the contrary, we must expect, year by
year, to see these forests steadily destroyed and in-
jured to such an extent that their renewal and pre-
servation will become less possible, even with our
best efforts, and it may be that over large sections
no forest covering can be made to take the place of
that which is now being destroyed.

I shall take as my text, therefore, this: The laws
provide neither an adequate method for the protection
of the public timber, nor for its disposition in those
regions where its proper use is imperative.

58 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [242

First, what are our existing laws; second, what
are the general characteristics of the timber region
to which these laws apply; and, third, what is their
effect upon the forests?

The foundation of our protective system rests upon
an act passed March 1, 1817, which authorized the
Secretary of the Navy to reserve lands producing
live-oak and red cedar «for the sole purpose of sup-
plying timber for the navy of the United States,”
and, an extension of this law, made by the pas-
sage of the act of March 2, 1831, which provided
that if any person should cut live-oak or red cedar
trees, or other timber from the lands of the United
States, for any other purpose than the construction of
the navy, such person shall pay a fine not less than
triple the value of the timber cut, and be imprisoned
for a period not exceeding twelve months. Upon
this old law, having the construction of a wooden
navy in view, the government of the United States
has to-day chiefly to rely in protecting its timber
throughout the arid regions of the West, where none
of the naval timber, which the law had in contem-
plation, is to be found. Can it be wondered that this
act does not meet present conditions? :

By the act of June 3, 1878 (20 Stats., 88), timber
can be taken from public lands, not subject to entry
under any existing laws except for mineral entry, by
bona fide residents of the Rocky Mountain States and
Territories and the two Dakotas. The Land Office
regulations in reference to this act provide that such
timber cannot be exported, that none less than eight
inches in diameter may be cut, and that in cutting
the timber must not be wantonly wasted or destroyed.

The timber and stone act, passed the same date,

243] Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. 59

applies only to the Pacific States and Nevada. Under
this act land chiefly valuable for timber and unfit for
cultivation if the timber is removed, can be pur-
chased for $2.50 per acre under certain restrictions.

The act of June 15, 1880, permitted timber tres-
passers to purchase the land on which they had com-
mitted their depredations, at the usual price, but as
that applies only to trespasses committed prior to
March 1, 1879, it is of little importance now.

By the act of March 3, 1875, all land grant and
right-of-way railroads are authorized to take timber
from the public lands adjacent to their lines, for
construction purposes only; in addition to which the
Denver and Rio Grande railroad has the right to cut
also for repairs.

The various appropriation bills, authorizing the
employment of special timber agents, by implication
recognize their authority to protect the public timber.

The settlement laws, under which a settler may
enter lands valuable for timber as well as for agri-
culture, furnish another means of obtaining title to
public timber. None of our timber-bearing lands
should be subject to such entry, for reasons that will
appear later in this address.

With the exception of the timber culture act, de-
signed to stimulate the planting of small areas of
trees upon the treeless plains, the above is the only
legislation of consequence affecting the public tim-
ber lands, or aiming to promote or preserve forests.
In no other way than under some one of the above
laws can a citizen of the United States use the public
timber.

Of the results of the timber culture act it may be
well to point out that of the 38,000,000 acres of

60 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [244

public lands entered under it, less than 1,000,000
acres have been patented to the entry-men for com-
pliance with the law. That is, not over 50,000 acres
have been successfully covered with young tree plan-
tations.

Before considering the effect of these laws, it may
lead to a better comprehension of the subject to out-
line the general location, character and condition of
the public timber lands.

Of all those magnificent forests that covered the
fertile lands of the middle West and surrounded the
Great Lakes, which were originally the property of
the government, almost none belong to it now. For
this priceless forest treasure the government received
nothing, the land alone being regarded as valuable.
These forests were attacked with fire and axe, as
obstacles to civilization to be disposed of as rapidly
as possible, and the government did not interpose the
slightest objection to prevent this destruction.

Here and there in the Southern States there are
still considerable timber areas belonging to the Uni-
ted States, but these are relatively unimportant, both
in extent and for climatic and other reasons. At
present the forest bearing lands of the United States
are situated either high up on the sides of the great
mountain chains that form the back-bone of the con-
tinent, or along the slopes of the northern half of
our Pacific Coast. These forests are generally re-
mote from settlement, but are becoming less so every
year, as the tide of population sweeps over the west
and absorbs vast quantities of the more desirable
portions of the public domain.

In their natural conditions these regions differ
widely. The central mountain region is arid, con-

245] Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. 61

taining unknown quantities of mineral wealth, with
an inferior quality of forest for lumbering, but abso-
lutely necessary for use locally in the absence of
better timber. Owing to the general aridity of this
region these forests are invaluable as a cover to the
mountains from which the water supply is drawn for
the extensive irrigation that now exists on the lower
lands. These forests are in much greater danger
from fire than are those on the Pacific Slope, where
the enormous rainfall protects, and has protected
during the centuries of their growth, those wonder-
ful forests. In the Rockies the removal of the forest
by cutting or by fire means its destruction in very
many cases, as there is not sufficient moisture in the
soil and air to induce reforestation by natural meth-
ods. On the contrary, along the Pacific Slope, a
renewal of the forest cover may be reasonably ex-
pected. Thus we see that where our public forests
are most needed, both for the actual forest product
as well as for climatic and agricultural reasons, they
are most likely to be destroyed and most difficult to
renew.

The great rainfall of our northwestern Pacific
Coast is well known, and the unrivalled timber grow-
ing there is world-renowned.

A single tree of the immense fir and cedar varieties
in that region is often worth a hundred to a hundred
and fifty dollars, and many tracts of a square mile
are estimated to contain 100,000,000 feet board meas-
ure, worth, in the form of lumber, a million and a
half of dollars. The United States must still own
many hundreds of square miles, worth for the timber
alone $20,000 per square mile. Yet the government
sells this land for $2.50 an acre, or at $1,600 per

62 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [246

square mile. These lands contain little mineral
wealth, but are in some cases valuable for agri-
culture.

One of the most serious obstacles to be overcome
in the arid region is fire. It has been stated that
more timber is annually burned in the Rocky Moun-
tain region, where every tree is precious, than is used
in five years. I have been told, over and over, by
men familiar with the region, that it is useless to try
to prevent forest fires there. With this I do not
agree. To be sure, the population through those
regions is sparse, and cannot be collected so readily
to extinguish a forest fire as in more settled localities,
but this also is an element of protection, in that there
are fewer people to fire the forests. In many places
the Rocky Mountains are cleft by steep rocky gorges,
which in themselves would form fire-breaks, and a
series of safety-lanes could be cut through the moun-
tains, separating the timber into comparatively small
bodies, so that the fire in one body could not reach
that in any adjacent one. The timber thus cut out
to form the safety-lanes might not unreasonably be
expected to pay all the costs of carrying out this plan.
The lumbermen, of course, in stealing timber, take
only the best, and leave large quantities of brush and
the poorer portions of the tree to furnish food for the
first fire which comes along. The Indians still prac-
tice their ancient custom of firing the forests to drive
out the game on their hunting expeditions. Before
the days of the mill-men, these annual or frequent
burnings apparently did not produce serious confla-
grations in the forest area; but now, by this combi-
nation of wasteful millman and hunting Indian, fires
rage every year through large tracts of timber in the

247] Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. 63
Rocky Mountains, and it is no one’s business or
interest to prevent and stop these conflagrations
when once started.

I recollect one August being in the vicinity of the
Bighorn Mountains of Northern Wyoming for several
weeks, and as I first approached them nothing could
be seen at a great distance but a vast cloud of smoke.
During the whole period of my stay there this cloud
of smoke hung over the mountains, gradually work-
ing its way northward, and thus marking the move-
ment of the fire. No one of the many settlers or
inhabitants of the towns in the vicinity of these
mountains paid the slightest attention to this fire
which was destroying millions of property, and
changing the future condition of their water supply,
on which the whole region depended for irrigation.
Apparently it was a matter of such common occur-
rence that they took no interest in it.

Then there is no more effective way of concealing
the cutting of the better portion of a forest than by
firing what is left after the timber depredator has
carried off his material.

In 1887 I made as careful an estimate of the loss
by fire in the destruction of public timber as the
insufficient data obtainable permitted, and placed the
annual loss to the government at $8,000,000, in the
value of wood-material destroyed. This made no
account of the secondary and resultant loss from the
destruction of the forest protection by floods, drouth,
the ruin of the soil and young forest growth, which,
though very great, is immeasurable.

Large areas of the finest pine lands have been
disposed of by the government in Minnesota and
elsewhere, under the settlement laws. There was no

64 Condition of Forests on the Public Lancs. [248

other way by which the timber could be acquired,
and so lumbermen hired hundreds of choppers who,
in addition to their regular work, were required to
enter a tract of 160 acres under the pre-emption or
homestead laws, and after a nominal compliance with
the law, to deed the land to their employers. After
stripping the timber from the land it was abandoned,
and over great areas once located for homes one can
pass now without finding an occupant, the dead
trees and barren stumps or an occasional cabin alone
attesting the former occupancy of man. Settlements
upon timber lands are rarely made in good faith—
that is, to establish a home—because the public lands
upon which timber is now growing are almost entirely
unfit for agriculture, and the system puts a premium
upon perjury and wastefulness. For what desire has
such a settler to husband the resources of his land ?
He wants to cut and sell the best portions of his
timber, and be off before his fraud is discovered. Or
if he sells, the lamberman who buys pays an entirely
inadequate price, so that neither the government nor
the settler gets the benefit. This great profit goes
into the pockets of the wealthy lumberman, who can
afford to waste the poorer portions of the timber, as
he has paid a price much below the real value of the
timber. If he had to pay the approximate value of
the timber, this waste would be materially reduced,
and the forest thus far preserved. Even when the
land is valuable for agriculture, the pioneer who
settles upon it to make a home is eager to remove as
soon as possible the forest which for him only cum-
bers the ground. He wastes thoughtlessly the prod-
ucts.of centuries, and rejoices in the fall of every

249] Condition of Forests on the Public Lunds. 65

forest monarch. Occasionally it happens that after
he has profusely supplied his own needs, he can sell
the surplus to some lumberman, and thus prevent its
complete waste. .

For all of these reasons no timber bearing lands,
now the property of the United States, should be sub-
ject to entry under settlement laws.

Let us now consider how the laws which I have
previously mentioned operate. Under the act of
June 3, 1878, applying to Colorado and the Territo-
ries, settlers and others were permitted to cut timber
for mining and agricultural purposes from mineral
land. Before cutting timber for local use the settler
can hardly be expected to sink a shaft or hire a chem-
ist to determine whether the land is in fact mineral
or not. He cuts where most convenient for him,
without knowing what the character of the land is,
and takes the chance of being prosecuted. Not one
acre in thousands throughout the region to which
this act applies is known to contain minerals, but it
is the only act under which timber may be taken by
settlers and miners in this great region. Conse-
quently this whole population is forced to steal one
of the necessaries of life. The community has become
demoralized with reference to this question. The
paramount and absolute necessity to obtain timber
for use overrides all considerations of right. To the
miner and settler of that region the use of timber
from local supplies is as absolutely necessary as the
use of the water that flows by him, or of the air that
surrounds him, and no plan of management which
fails to recognize this necessity can ever hope to be
successful. In reference to this the Commissioner of

66 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [250

the General Land Office, in his last annual report,
says:

‘‘Tt is useless to enact laws to prohibit the use of an article of
absolute necessity, upon a judicious use of which the growth and
prosperity of our country largely depend. If the exportation of .
timber and the destruction of trees and undergrowth upon the
mountain slopes can be prevented, and other public timber left free
and open to all subject to proper restriction, there will, in my
opinion, be far less destruction and waste than is now going on
through unlawful appropriation and forest fires.

‘‘The laws now in force are discriminating and unjust. Under
them the owner of a mine in Arizona, from which he may be re-
ceiving an income of $100 aday, can procure all of the timber nec-
essary in developing and operating said mine from the public min-
eral lands without cost, except for the felling and removing, while
the owner of a farm in Minnesota, upon whose labors we are de-
pending for our daily bread, cannot procure a stick of timber from
any public land ‘with intent to use or employ the same in any
manner whatsoever ’—not even to build a fire with which to keep
the warmth of life in his body if he be freezing—without violating’
the law.

‘““The necessity for a general law to remedy this evil cannot be
too strongly urged upon Congress.’’

The settler, after taking a piece of government
land in the vicinity of the mountains, finds imme-
diate use for timber for the construction of his build-
ings and fences, and he naturally helps himself to
whatever he desires. The prospector and miner and
the great mining companies have the right to cut
timber growing on the mineral lands about them; the
railroad supplies itself from the adjacent timber, and
the settler can hardly be blamed for doing the same.
Oftentimes, as a community of settlers becomes
sufficiently large to support it, a small saw-mill
springs into being, and the wants of this little com-
munity are supplied by the local mill, drawing its
timber from the government land without any au-
thority whatever. Both of these classes, the settler

251 | Condition of Forests on the Pybdlic Lands. 67

and the local mill man, are then criminals under the
law, and are also liable in a civil action for damages.
The special agents employed by the General Land
Office to protect the public domain from timber dep-
redations are supposed to collect such testimony as
is necessary to sustain a prosecution, and to superin-
tend this prosecution in behalf of the government,
the government being represented by the United
States district attorneys. Do J need to tell you
that before a local jury such prosecutions almost
invariably fail.

The sympathies of the entire community are
always with these depredators of the public timber,
and quite often the jurors themselves have been
freely using such timber. Indeed it is a matter of
the greatest difficulty to induce a grand jury to indict
persons who have confessedly been cutting govern-
ment timber for years to supply their saw-mills, the
product of which is used quite likely by the very
members of the grand jury. In the rare cases where
a verdict for damages is rendered for the govern-
ment it will be for merely nominal damages.

“In nearly every public land State and Territory, poor hard-
working laboring men, who have been compelled to cut timber to
procure the means of a bare subsistence for themselves and fami-
lies, have been arrested, convicted, fined and imprisoned for cut-
ting and removing timber from vacant, unappropriated and unre-
served non-mineral public land in violation of section 2461, U.S.
Revised Statutes.”’

“Tt is true that in some localities the sympathies of the people
are so strong and in other localities the timber is an article of such
public necessity, that it is impossible to convict a man for violation
of said section, even if caught in the very act and the proof is over-

whelming; so that to some minds the retention of that law upon

our statutes is deemed quite immaterial.’? (Commissioner’s Report,
G. L. Q., 1890.)

68 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [252

As conclusive of the futility of the present system,
I need only to tell you that during the seven years
from 1881 to 1887, inclusive, the value of the timber
reported stolen from the government land was
$36,719,935, and the amount recovered was $478,073.

The cost of this service for the special agents alone
was $455,000. To this expense must be added all of
the costs of the trial, such as the District Attorney’s
and witnesses’ fees.

In the Annual Report of 1890, the Commissioner
of the General Land Office says:

“A careful examination has been recently made of the annual
reports of this office, covering the years from July Ist, 1881, to June
30th, 1889, inclusive, for the purpose of ascertaining what has been
accomplished during that time, through legal proceedings, in the
way of enforcing the laws for the protection of public timber. The
result of that examination is conclusive upon two points:

“First. That the most valuable timber on the public lands is
being rapidly exhausted.

‘“Second. That the several laws relating to public timber now in
force are utterly inadequate to properly protect either the public
forests from unlawful appropriation or the interests of the settlers
engaged in developing the country, to whom the use, to a certain
extent, of public timber is essential.”’

During the past year, in the protection of public
timber, fifty-five timber agents were employed, whose
services were of such irregular and brief periods as
to equal only the employment of twenty-nine agents
for one year. These special agents reported 310 cases
of timber trespass, involving public tamber and its
products valued at something over $3,000,000. The
government recovered only, from settlements of suits,
through legal proceedings and by sales of timber and
lumber, $100,940.32. On July Ist, 1890, there were
282 civil suits pending for the recovery of approxi-
mately $14,800,000, for timber reported to have been

253 | Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. 69

unlawfully cut from the public land, and 306 criminal
prosecutions for violation of the timber laws were
also pending. The effect of this system has been to
place almost the entire population in opposition to the
government in its efforts to protect the public timber,
and it is all the more difficult now to gain their coop-
eration. It will be necessary to educate the people up
to the belief that this legislation for the protection of
public timber is for their benefit, and for their chil-
dren’s, that it is to preserve their country, and to pre-
vent its becoming an arid waste. To attempt a harsh
and stringent punishment of unintentional offenders
will be to arouse the hostility of all the inhabitants,
and probably lead to acts of revenge in firing the
forests that would do incalculable harm.

The railroads have cut timber right and left to
meet their requirements, and many of them under
their charter rights had such privileges in the matter
of cutting timber for the construction of the line that
it is difficult to determine whether their cutting has
been lawfully or unlawfully done. Along those lines
of road which had alternate sections of government
land granted them, where these lands are unsur-
veyed, it is, of course, impossible to say whether the
land on which the railroad employés are cutting is
a section granted to the railroad or a section reserved
by the government. The Supreme Court has held
that these grants of land are grants in present; and
that the title to lands so granted vests at once in
the railroad upon its fulfilling the conditions of the
grant—that is, when it is constructed. That these
lands are unsurveyed is not the fault of the rail-
roads—they could not survey them, in any event—
consequently the government cannot complainif they

70 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [254

continue their cutting in unsurveyed regions. For
this reason a large amount of cutting is done at the
present time, which may or may not be legal; it is
impossible to say.

One of the difficulties in effecting the conviction of
timber thieves is the difficulty of placing the respon-
sibility upon the right man. Oftentimes a band of
irresponsible foreigners, who scarcely speak the lan-
guage, will go into the mountains to cut ties for a
railroad, for which the railroad is to pay when deliv-
ered at certain points on its line. The ties are cut
and perhaps are in condition to be floated down to the
railroad. Information comes to some government
timber agent of this cutting, and he goes to the scene
of it. Upon his arrival he finds that the men who —
cut it are mere employes, and that the responsible
parties have decamped, in anticipation of his presence.
There are no written contracts, and it is not possible
to show the connection between the cutting and the
railroad. The railroad has not yet received or paid
for the ties. All the agent can do is to seize them,
which he does, to find that his only customer is the
same railroad that is really responsible for the cut-
ting, and the chances are that he gets a much less
price for them than the men who cut them had con-
tracted for, so that his action inures to the benefit of
the railroad that ought to be punished. The poor tie-
cutters, who have been hard at work in the woods,
perhaps for weeks, are the sufferers, losing all their
wages: oftentimes without knowing that they had
not a perfect right to cut the timber which they were
engaged to do by the agent of the railroad. It is
manifest from what has been said before, that no

255 | Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. (al

local jury would convict these men criminally, or
bring a verdict against them for damages.

That this condition of affairs is not the fault of
the General Land Office, which has charge of the
public timber lands, is evident from the fact that
ever since 1879 the Public Land Commissioners and
the Secretaries of the Interior have, in annual re-
port after annual report, called attention to their im-
potence in the matter of protecting government tim-
ber, and asked Congress repeatedly for such legisla-
tion as would remove this stain upon their admin-
istration. Notwithstanding these earnest appeals
Congress fails to take any action. The annual
appropriation for protective service has been hardly
sufficient to keep an average of twenty-five timber
agents in the field, and they were supposed to cover
and protect 70,000,000 acres of public timber lands.
These figures show the utter absurdity of the pre-
vailing system. The officers in charge of the work
seemed to have despaired of accomplhshing any
really beneficial results, and so these places have
come to be regarded as political spoils to be distrib-
uted among faithful party workers, who, in accept-
ing them, do so with the idea that they are to have
a sinecure. The character of the men appointed in
this way you can readily imagine. I have seen men
sent from cities to superintend the protection of the
public forests who probably had never before seen a
forest, who were totally unfamilar with methods of
lumbering or estimating the damage done by the
cutting of an area of timber, who were not lawyers,
and who had no ability whatever to collect testimony
on which the district attorney could successfully
prosecute.

72 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [256

Many of the honest timber agents find themselves
unfit for the work, but have not the frankness to
admit it, or the wisdom to resign. Of the dishonest
ones, of whom there are too many, I need only say
that their position offers them many chances for
blackmail, to which the mill-men will submit rather
than undergo the cost and anxiety of prosecutions,
although they may feel that the prosecutions will
be fruitless. A mill-man complained to me on one
occasion, that he had no objection to there being a
timber agent in the country, as he had found it a
cheap way of securing protection, but that recently
there had been so many changes made in timber
agents that he began to find it too expensive.

The call for some legislation by which timber can
be honestly cut from the public lands and paid for is
earnest among the mill-men supplying the local
demands for lumber in the arid region.

On the Pacific Coast the conditions are entirely dif-
ferent. There the timber is cut principally for export,
and not for local use. Unquestionably the finest body
of timber anywhere now existing in the United States
hes between the Coast Range and the Pacific Ocean,
and there milling is pursued on such a large scale. that
the comparatively small methods of the Rocky Moun-
tain region would not meet their requirements. So,
in 1878, what is known as the timber and stone act
was passed. By means of this any citizen of the
United States, or head of a family, can take up 160
acres of timber land, and by paying $2.50 for it
obtain title to the land. There was some attempt in
the act to limit its operations by requiring that the
would-be purchaser should make affidavit that the
land was entered exclusively for his own use and

257 | Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. 73

benefit, and by not allowing any association of indi-
viduals to enter more than 160 acres, nor could any
member of such association make an individual
entry. But under this act a very large percentage
of the entries made have been made by laborers in
the employ of mill companies for those companies,
and in one case which came under my observation
it was the practice of a lumber company to hire the
entire. crew of any vessel which might happen to
touch at any port to enter pieces of timber land and
deed them to the company at once, the company pay-
ing all expenses and giving the entryman $50 for
his trouble. By such methods have our unequalled
red-wood forests been absorbed by foreign and resi-
dent capitalists.

From this statement of the condition of the public
timber lands of the United States but one conclusion
can be drawn; that is, a new departure in the man-
agement by the government of its forest property
is imperative. The time now seems ripe for the
introduction of some intelligent policy in the
management of our public timber lands. Some
of the very men who have been the devastators of
our finest forests begin to see the folly of their
course, and fear that soon there will be no material
for the lumber trade. They are ready and willing to
pay the government a reasonable price for timber
which can be properly sold, and aver that some sys-
tem by which they can cut under authority of law is
a necessity, being desirous of doing away with the
subterfuges of the past. The more intelligent pioneers
of the arid regions realize that the regular flow of the
streams throughout the whole season, furnishing
the water for irrigation through the summer drouth,

74 Condition of Forests on the Public Lands. [258

is changing into torrents of a few weeks’ duration
in the spring, which carry destruction by their flood
and wash away the more fertile soils, and then sub-
side and disappear when most needed. When set-
tlers, luambermen and miners alike call out for reform,
what opposition need we expect? What is to be
overcome but the vis inertie that stands in the way
of all reform? One or two cannot accomplish the
result which we all desire. Of one thing be assured,
only by constant agitation can there be effected a
more thorough appreciation by the people of the
whole country of the perilous condition of our forests
and what their destruction means to our national
prosperity. From this alone will remedial legislation
spring.

Practicability

American Forest Administration.

BY

B: EB: FERNOW.

Practicability of an American Forest Administration.

' BY B. E. FERNOW,-
Chief of Forestry Division, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.

The title of the paper assigned to me should have
been made, by preference, to read: ‘‘The difficulties
attending the introduction of forest management in
the United States,’’ for the negative elements in the
problem are still so numerous as to make a positive
result, at first sight, at least, doubtful.

If we can understand the reasons for the absence
of forest management in the United States, we shall
at once understand some of the difficulties retarding
its introduction and be able to weigh the possibilities
of overcoming them.

In Europe, thanks to a certain feudal conservative
system, large forest areas were preserved, more or
less intact, in strong, controlling hands, until the
territory was gradually covered by a dense, stable
population which necessitated conservative utiliza-
tion of all resources and careful adjustment of pri-
vate and communal interests.

In this country, on the other hand, a small but
energetic and progressive population took possession
of and spread itself over an immense territory,
boundless in resources, with no clreck, borne by his-
torical and economic development, which would

78 An American Forest Administration. [262

restrict expansive and favor intensive management
of resources.

As is natural under such conditions, individualism
has developed itself in proportion to opportunities
for its expansion—individual interests and rights are
considered foremost, while, with a more or less
unstable population, communal interests are but im-
perfectly recognized and considered. and communal
spirit hardly awakened because less necessary.

It is relative density of population, then, which
accounts largely for the many differences, social and
economical, between the Old and New Worlds, and
most certainly for the difference in the use of all
resources, the forest resource included.

Private interest in natural resources is concen-
trated upon present gain, and where this gain can be
secured by utilizing only the best of the natural
growth, then abandoning the old and opening up a
new field, the incentive to management of the re-
source for continuity is absent.

We may then say that in the United States the
absence of forest management from considerations
of private interest is due to the fact that there is still
a large area of virgin timber left, which can be
worked advantageously for present gain by simply
utilizing the best natural growth without the neces-
sity of economical management.

That this state of affairs may change in a few
decades is no consideration for the present workers
of the resource. Their interest lies only in the imme-
diate present, while forest management means cur-
tailment of present revenue for the sake of continued
future returns or benefits.

263] An American Forest Adininistration. as)

There are some localities in the United States, and
some conditions where even now forest management
from private considerations is practicable, 7. e., pro-
fitable, namely, such as are situated with reference
to the markets favorably enough to be able, in spite
of the increased cost of management, to compete
with the virgin supplies shipped from more distant
resources, and where density of population permits
a fuller profitable utilization of inferior material.

For instance in the Adirondack region, with large,
compact holdings, tolerably well stocked and easily
made accessible to market, it could be shown that
increased profits would result from rational forest
management.

Some minor difficulties which would have to be
overcome in introducing private forest management,
among which the momentum of habit is perhaps the
greatest, | may not discuss here.

While, then, the introduction of private forest
management, which is based upon considerations of
profit, depends almost entirely upon the progress of
general development, which we cannot control, there
are communal interests involved in the management
of certain parts, at least, of the forest areas which
make it necessary to weigh considerations of present
as against future and continued advantages; to weigh
direct value as against indirect value, of the forest
resources.

It has been shown, over and over again, that one
incontrovertible influence of forest cover exists,
namely, upon the regularity of water-flow and soil
conditions of mountainous territory; that, therefore,
in such territory utilization of existing forest re-
sources must be carried on in such a manner that the

80 An American Forest Administration. [264

forest cover be not interrupted and be reproduced as
part of it is removed, if we regard the interests
which are dependent upon the existence of the forest
cover.

Under such conditions it is quite evident that the
community must step in to guard against a destruc-
tion of the forest cover. This can be done either by
controlling private owners in. the use of their prop-
erty or by placing such areas under a government
administration.

The first method is not only unsatisfactory and
distasteful, but as it means reduction of private gain,
unjust; and, hence, except in special cases, the object
would be only partially attained.

We are then driven to consider the second alterna-
tive, namely, communal ownership and administra-
tion of such areas, which alone insures permanency.

Insuch an administration the primary consideration,
it stands to reason, is not the direct profitableness of
the management, but the most economical attain-
ment of the object for which the administration was
undertaken, namely, to insure a continuous forest
cover.

The consideration of the practicability of such
forest management then may be confined to a dis-
cussion of the administrative features and the possi-
bility of securing the object in view, while yet
satisfying other demands upon the forest cover.

There are, in every State in the Union almost,
forest areas which an intelligent communal policy
would place under communal administration; but
there is, perhaps, no part of the country more in
need of immediate government action than those

265] An American Forest Administration. 81

*

western mountain States in which the larger part is
still in the hands of the United States Government.

What the present conditions of this government
property are has been fully explained by Mr. Bow-
ers, who speaks from intimate knowledge, and may
be found more detailed in various reports of the
Departments of the Interior and of Agriculture.

Considered merely as a piece of property, without
more than ordinary value, the manner in which it is
needlessly wasted without benefit to any one, would
stamp its present administration as the most imprac-
tical of which thinking man is capable, if ‘practi-
cal’? means that which can be done with good rea-
son and to some useful end, that which a practical
man would do with his property. It is inconceiva-
ble how any management could be more puerile,
more devoid of good sense, more absolutely in defi-
ance of all reason and demands of statesmanship,
than the present management of the public timber
lands.

For not only is this property not protected against
theft and fire, but by incongruous, shortsighted and
unjust regulations, these two destructive agencies
are especially invited and the resident population is
forced to resort to theft and fraud in order to supply
their present wants, at the same time endangering
their future needs and interests.

Any. practical and practicable administration of
these lands must keep in view not only the peculiar
natural condition of these forests, but also the pecu-
har social conditions of the communities adjoining
them. The problem to be solved by such an admin-
istration is, while insuring protection against fire
and illegitimate use, to provide for the satisfaction

6

32 An American Forest Administration. [266

fe

of the legitimate wants of different classes of popu-
lation in the simplest manner without impairing the
continuity of forest cover and of reforestation.

In the Fiftieth Congress a bill (H. R. 6045) was
introduced, which proposed and outlined in full de-
tail the working of a forest administration for the
United States Government timber lands. To see
whether and how far such an administration is
practicable, it might be best to scrutinize the provi-
sions of this bill. These are briefly as follows:

1. The temporary withdrawal of all timbered land
from private entry, and the reservation, after examl-
nation, of the areas which are not agriculturally
useful, and which ought to be kept in forest growth.

2. The districting of the reserved area and the
organization of a force for its administration, which
comprises—

(a) A central directive office consisting of a com-
missioner and four assistant commissioners, in either
the Department of the Interior or of Agriculture.

(b) As many local resident managers or inspectors
as there are districts.

(c) A force of guards or rangers to protect the
property against fire and theft, and to supervise the
cutting of timber.

3. Regulations under which wood supplies are to
be obtained, under licenses, which take due regard
of the different needs of the resident population.

4. Such penal provisions as will make the execu-
tion of the administration effective. These will have
to be altered to suit the new conditions, due to the
creation of new States, by which the United States
have lost the right of penal legislation on most of
this territory.

ro)
=P)
-~2
(Ly)

An American Forest Administration. 83
.

The objections made against such legislation may
be divided into those which flow from private inter-
est, and those which concern themselves with the
principles involved and the practicability of the pro-
posed plan.

The first class of objectors we may dismiss by
merely mentioning them; they are those who carry
on a nefarious trade without legal status, which
would be stopped by a proper surveillance. Un-
fortunately their cries «‘that the rights of the
pioneers would be curtailed and the development of
the country impeded by such a system as that pro-
posed, and that nothing practical could be done to
preserve the forest areas,” are sufficiently boisterous
to influence legislators against change of existing
conditions; and while we may neglect them in this
discussion, they are an important factor not to be
underrated when the passage of such legislation is
attempted. ;

All fair-minded citizens of the West will be found
of one opinion, namely, that existing conditions are
not desirable and ought to be remedied.

The first objection, based upon principle, comes
from the believers in unrestricted individualism.
They object to the holding of the land by the goy-
ernment. They contend that such timber lands are
in better hands, and will be taken care of more easily
and efficiently by private holders, and should be dis-
posed of to them, While this position may be cor-
rect as regards other classes of lands and under
stable conditions of society, experience has proven
it wrong under our conditions, and especially with
timber lands.

84 An American Forest Administration. [268

It is well known that agriculture is carried on in
the United States without system or regard to con-
tinued fertility in those parts of the country where a
thin population permits easy territorial expansion of
the individual; that is to say, the ground is worked
for what it will yield in the natural state and then
abandoned for new fields. But agricultural soils are
easily recuperated, while impairing the forest cover
on steep mountain sides, especially in such dry
regions as we have in the West, which are not read-
ily reforested by nature, imperils far-reaching inter-
ests forever, as Europeans have learned to their cost.

Furthermore, timber lands have been and are being
disposed of to private individuals on the Pacific
Coast, and the consequences are as disastrous and
unsatisfactory as they have been elsewhere.

It is also well known that in all parts of the coun-
try where timber land and non-agricultural soil is
sold to individuals it relapses to the State for non-
payment of taxes; for with the valuable timber taken
from the tracts the interest of the individual is gone
in this kind of property.

But the interest which the community has in the
forest cover, especially in mountain regions, is trans-
cendant, for the protection of the forest cover is of
importance to the continued welfare of the commu-
nity, and hence the State, which is not only the
representative of communal interests as against indi-
vidual interests, but also of future interests as against
present, can alone be trusted with the ownership of
such lands.

The objection to government holding is good only
as long as the government does not take proper care

269] An American Forest Administration. 85

of its holdings, as at present; but this is the very
thing to be remedied by the proposed legislation.

It might still be asked what part of the community
had best be intrusted with the care of these lands,
whether it should be the county, the individual, State
or the general government.

It may be argued that the community making up
the county has necessarily the most interest in the
preservation of favorable conditions and can best
guard its own interests. Yet there are often con-
flicts of interests arising which can be better ad-
justed under State ownership, and before a well
settled county administration exists State ownership
would be preferable.

But even State ownership, while perhaps desirable
at a certain stage of development would not be expe-
dient now, and ownership by the general govern-
ment for the present is preferable.

My reasons for this preference are:

First. The general government does own the lands,
and the difficulties and complications attendant upon
wholesale transfer of the property can as well be
avoided. If such transfer were to be effected it
would necessitate almost a revolutionary change of
the existing land policy of the government, which
at present seems neither necessary nor advisable.

Second. The States with a scanty population as
yet, and with all parts of their economy still to build
up, had better not burden themselves with this addi-
tional duty of forest conservation, except so far as
they can aid it without cost to them.

Other political considerations, which need not be
elaborated here, lead to the same conclusions; so that
altogether the expediency of retaining the public

86 An American Forest Adininistration. [270

timber lands in the hands of the general govern-
ment for the present is conceded by the unbiased
students of the question, provided the general gov-
ernment will do what is necessary to preserve and
keep in permanent forest condition this property.

If we agree that the administration of these lands
is best left to the present owner of them, namely,
the United States Government, the next question
concerns practicable methods in their administration.

The first need is a proper classification of the
remaining public lands, and the withdrawal from
entry and permanent reservation of the forest
lands.

The withdrawal of these lands might be done by
gradual reservations of single parks, of which we
have several—based, however, upon other considera-
tions, than those of a rational forest policy—but if the
withdrawal is deemed necessary at all it would be
wiser to reserve all that is necessary and desirable to
reserve at once, while still in the hands of the gov-
ernment and not entirely devastated.

The practical method of withdrawing the lands to
be reserved is one of gradual exclusion, requiring
those entering public lands for occupancy under
homestead and other laws, to make affidavit to the
effect that the lands so entered are chiefly valuable
for agricultural pursuits, and not for the timber
mainiy. Meanwhile examination of all entries so
made as well as of unentered sections, will gradually
make known the character of the land and furnish
a basis for the determination of the extent of
the reserve. The final survey of these lands also
can be made gradually and without much extra
expense.

(6
-2

271] An American Forest Administration.

There is next to be provided:

1. Protection against fire over a large mountainous
territory, with a scattered population, more difficult
because of the coniferous growth and dry climate.

2. Means of supplying wood material for the
various needs of the population in a legal manner
and in such a way as not to destroy the forest cover.

3. Reforestation, if possible, by natural seeding
and recuperation of the areas which have been de-
spoiled so far.

Fire is the great bane of American forests. These
conflagrations are due largely to bad habits and loose
morals; hence it will not be possible to stop them
altogether and at once. But it is practicable to
reduce them in frequency and extent. This cannot,
however, be done by paper legislation, but only by
proper policing. For this it is necessary to divide
the territory into districts of suitable sizes, differing
according to local, social and topographical condi-
tions: to have officers each in charge of one district and
responsible for its protection; to have these officers
clothed with sheriffs’ power, and in every way
capacitated to enforce regulations, apprehend and at
once bring to court offenders, and shorten the pro-
cesses of legal procedure in cases where prima facie
evidence is at hand.

As we do not expect to have every thief prevented
or caught, we cannot expect to have every fire pre-
vented or picendiary apprehended.

But with a responsible guard for a given district,
always on the alert, fires will be discovered early
after they are started, and be confined, and put out.

To assist in confining fires, it is also proposed to
burn over safety strips at the proper season, so that

88 An American Forest Administration. [272

any running fires will be checked and a chance given
to fight the fires from these safety strips as a basis.

In regard to the methods of supplying wood mate-
ria., it is to be kept in view that, in a country which
is as yet partially settled and developed, require-
ments are of a different nature from those of the
more densely populated Eastern States. This has
been recognized by devising different classes of
licenses under which timber supplies may be obtained,
namely, one for the settler and one for the prospector,
each to supply his immediate wants on a designated
area upon payment of a small annual fee, and a
further license to the local lumberman, who supplies
the smaller communities, upon payment of additional
acreage and stumpage fees.

To satisfy the requirements of the lumber business,
a business which must exist in every developed
community, special licenses are provided, to cover
larger areas, with a longer time for cutting, with
higher acreage and stumpage fees, and other neces-
sary restrictions and regulations.

It may be stated in passing, that this system of
selling stumpage and allowing the cutting by the
purchaser, under control, is not the most desirable,
and is one to be gradually changed as changing
conditions permit, but it seems to be the only practi-
cable one under present conditions.

The third object to be attained by the proposed
administration, namely, natural reforestation, and
continuity of forest cover, is the only one in which
forestry as a science is involved.

To discuss what should or should not be done in
this direction, would mean a discussion of the prin-

273 | An American Forest Administration. 89

ciples upon which technical forest management is
carried on. This would lead too far.

I can only say that this object is attained mainly
by the manner in which the cutting is done, but it
cannot be accomplished by following the simple
popular direction to cut the ripe timber.

This is a matter which cannot be determined either
by the legislator or the professor ex cathedra, a
matter that requires a different answer for different
conditions, which cannot be given from intuition,
but must be evolved from experience. And since the
cutting is to be done by licensees, who must be con-
trolled in the manner of cutting, in order to insure
proper reforestation, we see at once that here we
have reached the real difficulty of the problem,
namely, the difficulty of finding the men who com-
bine with the needful organizing and administra-
tive faculties sufficient knowledge of forestry matters
to undertake the direction of a forest administration.
In fact, the whole difficulty is one of men, rather than
of measures, and, if it were expected to create all at
once a fully developed forest administration, this
difficulty would appear almost insurmountable.

Such expectations can rarely be realized in human
affairs, and in the proposed forest administration
we will also have to be satisfied to find our way
through mistakes and partial failure to improved
methods, at least, in the technical part of the admin-
istration.

So little knowledge of forestry matters exists in
this country that it will be utterly impossible to
expect such from the many forest guards to be
employed. Nor will it be possible to command district
officers, with more than the teachings of woodcraft

90 An American Forest Administration. [274

from the lumber camp, yet capable of learning for-
estry principles. But the directive administration
should command experts capable of preventing, from
the start, misdirection in technical detail, and of
evolving in time a suitable system of forest manage-
ment, gradually educating the whole force to its
teachings. Such expert advisers, if they cannot be
found in this country, can be had abroad, and some
will be found among us here by the time they are
needed.

There is one other objection to the practicability
of the proposed administration urged on the score,
not of measures, but of men.

Here, again, we can discern between the real and
the imagined difficulty.

To do efficient service—and none other is desir-
able—I estimate that for, say, 50,000,000 acres of
government timber lands, from one to two thousand
active, reliable guards, and 500 resident managers,
all men of special capacity and sound judgment, are
necessary. Can they be found? I believe that, if
paid in proportion to the service rendered, and not,
as is the rule with government service in general,
expected to be satisfied with eking out their income
by outside work and incidental favors, they can be
found.

The imagined difficulty, and the objection raised
upon it, comes from those who imagine the govern-
ment as something outside and inimical to them-
selves, and every government officer a leech upon the
public treasury, an obstacle between themselves and
their individual happiness, an element of friction.
For a self-governing American, such objection, while
containing an element of truth, seems rather morbid

275 | An American Forest Admintstration. oh:

and puerile, and is really directed, not against a
possible forest administration, but against existing
methods of filling offices.

As long as offices are filled for political favors,
held as temporary make-shifts, bringing neither
honor, adequate pay nor assurance of continuity, this
objection may not be without foundation, but it is
hoped that the spirit of reform may have gathered
strength enough to change conditions by the time
this administration is to be organized.

To meet any objections against the practicability
of such an administration on the score of expense, a
rough consideration of this question, based, to be
sure, on slender facts, may be in place: Allowing
50,000,000 acres of timber land reserved, I find that
a tolerably efficient administration may be provided
for a round $2,500,000, or five cents per acre.

It would be satisfactory, of course, if only this
expense be covered by the revenue. While the annual
growth of wood per acre on the reserved area would
exceed in value the assumed cost of administration,
the consumption is restricted. But when we con-
sider that the present saw-mill capacity of the region
affected is over three billion feet B. M., and the resi-
dent population three million, requiring at least fifty
cubic feet of wood material per capita, sufficient
margin is assured even if only half of these amounts
are furnished from the government timber lands.

While, then, from a business point of view a national
forest administration is entirely practicable, from a
governmental and legislative point of view such diffi-
culties exist as withdraw themselves from the discus-
sion of the uninitiated. Personal considerations and
considerations of expediency offer such obstacles to

92 An American Forest Administration. [276

the enactment of thorough legislation as that pro-
posed, that there is but little hope for it.

It takes a giant, or rather two giants combined,
strengthened by the courage of conviction that this
is an urgent matter to be acted upon, to carry through
the flood of legislative streams any measure involv-
ing radical changes in the existing land policy. It
is the tremendous momentum of bad habits, unfair
usage, and personal politics, that must be overcome,
to make a rational forest policy possible.

APPENDIX.

PROPOSED BILL

For the Protection and Administration of Forests on the Public
Domain.

DESIGNATION OF FOREST. LANDS.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America im Congress assembled, That all lands
now owned or controlled, or which may be hereafter owned or
controlled by the United States, and which are now or shall here
after be devoted to forest uses, are, for the purposes of this act, de-
clared to be public forest lands.

WiItHDRAWAL OF Forest LANDS FROM ENTRY.

Src. 2. That the unsurveyed public lands of the United States,
embracing natural forests, or which are less valuable for agricultural
than for forest purposes, and all public lands returned by the public
surveys as timber lands, shall be, and the same are hereby, with.
drawn from survey, sale, entry or disposal under existing laws, and
shall be disposed of only as provided in this act, and as Congress
may hereafter prescribe.

PREVENTING Entries Upon Forest LAnps.

Src. 3. That every person applying to make an entry or filing of
public lands under any law of the United States before the classifi-
cation and survey of the public forest lands, as provided in this act,
shall be made, shall file with his application an affidavit, under
oath, corroborated by witnesses, stating that the land applied for is
not exclusively or mainly forest land, is not situated near the head-
waters of any stream, and is more valuable for agricultural or mining
purposes than for the timber growing thereon, and each such appli-
cant shall state particularly his means of information and his per-
sonal knowledge of the facts to which he testifies, and upon a
certificate from the Commissioner of Forests constituted by this act
the lands so entered may be disposed of under existing laws; and
every person swearing falsely to any such affidavit shall be deemed

94 Appendiz. [278

guilty of perjury and liable to the penalties thereof; and all illegal
entries of timber lands shall be absolutely void, and, upon satisfac-
tory proof, shall be subject to summary cancellation by the Commis-
sioner of the General Land Office.

INSTITUTING A COMMISSIONER OF FORESTS.

Src. 4. That there shall be in the Department of the Interior (or
Agriculture) a Commissioner of Forests, who shall be appointed by
the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate;
and shall have the care, management and control of all the forest
lands owned or controlled by the United States. He shall be a
suitable person, versed in matters of forestry, and shall be entitled
to a salary of five thousand dollars a year, with such allowances for
assistance and expenses as will insure a proper execution of the
provisions of this act, and as Congress may from year to year
provide. Before entering upon his duties he shall give bonds with
sureties to the Treasurer of the United States in the sum of fifty
thousand dollars, conditioned to render a true and faithful account
to the Treasurer, quarterly, of all moneys which shall be received
or expended by him by virtue of the said office.

APPOINTMENT OF Four AssIsSTANT COMMISSIONERS.

Sec. 5. That the President shall also appoint four Assistant Com-
missioners. The Assistant Commissioners shall act as a forestry
board or council to the Commissioner of Forests in all matters
pertaining to the administration of public forest lands, as provided
for by this act,and each shall have special charge of one division of
the forest reserves, which he shall personally inspect at least once
every year. Each of the Assistant Commissioners shall receive a
salary of three thousand dollars.

CLASSIFICATION OF Forest LANDs.

Sec. 6. That the forest lands on the public domain shall be
arranged in three general classes, namely: First, lands distant from
the headwaters of important streams, covered by timber of com-
mercial value, more valuable for forest purposes than for cultivation;
second, lands partially or wholly covered by timber, but suitable
for homesteads and more valuable for agricultural purposes than
for timber; third, mountainous and other wood lands, which, for
climatic, economic, or public reasons, should be held permanently
as forest reserves.

EsTABLISHMENT OF ForEsT RESERVES.

Sec. 7. That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Forests
to examine and classify, with the advice and assistance of the

279 | Appendix. 95
.

forestry board, the forests and public timber lands of the United
States, and to determine, subject to the approval of the Secretary
of the Interior, what portions of such forests and timber lands
should be permanently retained in reservations for climatic or other
economic or public reasons, and what portions may be disposed of
without disadvantage to the public interests. He shall cause to be
prepared connected maps or diagrams showing the approximate
situation and areas of public timber lands in each State and Terri-
tory, and the President shall, by proclamation, designate the per-
manent forest reserves as the same shall be selected and approved
as herein provided; and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the
Interior to cause exterior boundary lines thereof to be run and
marked by durable monuments; and no further survey of any timber
lands of the United States shall be made until the permanent reser-
vations herein provided for are established.

RestToRING Forest LAnps.

Sec. 8. That lands of the second class, when reported to the Sec-
retary of the Interior by the Commissioner of Forests, shall be
restored to homestead entry or sale; but a special appraised price of
the timber thereon shall be paid by the person entering such lands
in addition to the usual price and fees for the land, provided that
the timber of five acres shall be allowed to the applicant free of
further charge, on the payment of the settler’s license fee of two
dollars, as hereinafter set forth, and provided also that at least five
acres of land shall be cleared and put into crops within one year
from the time when a grant shall be made to the applicant, and that
a habitable dwelling be erected thereon within one year.

Disposal OF TIMBER.

Sec. 9. That the timber on the lands of the first and third classes
shall be disposed of according to the regulations of this act as
hereinafter provided.

Domestic LICENSES.

Sec. 10. That the disposal of timber for domestic purposes shall
be made by means of licenses as follows, namely: First, a pros-
pector’s license shall be granted to any applicant by the local
(district) inspector upon the payment of two dollars. Such license
shall confer the right to prospect for minerals upon land falling
under the provisions of this act, and also the right to cut without
waste and under the general regulations of the forestry board and
the supervision of the rangers, timber for the first construction
of shanties, prospecting shafts and other necessary structures,

96 Appendix. + [280

from the territories nearest to the prospector’s claim or claims.
Such license shall be good only for the district. in which it is taken
out, and shall end at the expiration of one year from the time of its
issue, or whenever, sooner than that, the claim is perfected or the
prospecting is abandoned. Second, a settler’s license shall be
granted to any bona fide settler having no timber on his claim, by
the local (district) inspector upon the payment of two dollars.
Such license shall confer the right, for one year, to cut, for the
licensee’s own use only and for domestic purposes, timber, fuel
and fence material, without waste and under the general regula-
tions of the ferestry board, upon an area of five acres, which the
licensee may desigate near his settlement. Third, a timber license
shall be granted to any bona fide settler or mine operator or man-
ufacturer, for the purpose of allowing him to supply himself or
others with timber, fence material or fuel upon the payment of a
license fee of five dollars and the further payment, before begin-
ning to cut any timber, of a sum equal to one dollar for each and
every acre embraced in his license, and, in addition, a stumpage of
not less than one cent per stump, actual count, before the removal
of the timber. Such license shall be granted for one year and shall
confer the right to cut the timber on not less than forty nor more
than eighty acres, the same to be selected by the applicant and the
selection to be approved by the local officer.

Sec. 11. That all licenses provided for in section ten shall be in
printed forms, and shall be issued, upon an order from the district
inspector, by the receivers of public money upon the payment of
the license fee. Licenses shall be numbered in succession, as
applications for them are made, and priority of application shall
determine the order in which they are granted. The district
inspectors shall receive applications for license on certain days of
each week, to be published and made known by them. They shall
keep open books, in which shall be recorded in proper order appli-
cations for license and the action taken upon them, with the names
and residence or post office address of the applicants. The inspec-
tors shall also notify the rangers of each license granted in their
ranges, and the rangers shall be required to aid licensees in locating
their claims. No unused ‘‘settler’s license’’ or ‘‘ timber license’
shall be renewed unless good cause is shown for its not having been
previously used, nor shall any license be granted to any person who
in the use of a previous license has not complied with the regula-
tions of the forestry board. No licenses of any kind shall be trans-
ferred from one company to another and continue to be valid
unless the transfer of the same is authorized by the forestry board.

281] Appendi«, °

LUMBERMEN’S LICENSE.

Src. 12. That timber on lands of the first-class, which is not
needed for mining or agricultural development in the neighbor-
hood, shall be disposed of to lumbermen or others, as it may be
applied for under a ‘‘lumbermen’s license,”’ in quantities not less
in amount than that standing or being on one section nor more than
that standing or being on twenty-five contiguous sections. Such
license shall be granted upon the payment of a fee of twenty-five
dollars, by the Commissioner of Forests with the approval of the
Secretary of the Interior, under the conditions set forth in section
thirteen of this act, and shall confer the right to cut timber and
sell the same from as many sections or acres as have been located
and paid for. The licensee shall also pay one dollar per acre for
the whole number of acres covered by this license, before he may
begin operations and not later than six months after the granting
of said license. And a further charge of not less than one cent per
cubic foot shall be paid by the licensee after the timber has ‘been
cut and before the same is renewed. Such license shall be good for
two years, and in all cases in which not more than ten sections of
timber are embraced in the license it shall not be renewed unless
reasons satisfactory to the forestry board are shown why the same
could not have been used and its privileges exhausted during the
period for which it was first given, nor in any case shall such license
be renewed more ‘than once or for a longer term than two years.
Where the license embraces more than ten sections of timber the
same rule shall apply’in regard to its renewal as in the case of
licenses for a less amount of timber, except that for every five
above ten embraced in the license there may be a renewal of the
license for one additional year. No licensee shall be authorized to
apply for or take out a second ‘‘lumberman’s license’’ until he
shall have cut and disposed of three-fourths of the timber to which
he is entitled by the license previously given.

Sec. 13. That all applications for ‘‘lumberman’s license ”’
are to be made to the Commissioner of Forests and must be
accompanied by a statement of the location and approximate
amount of the timber sought by the applicant, together with a cer-
tificate of the local forest inspector to the effect that the lands on
which such timber is situated are of the first-class and not covered
by any of the local licenses as provided in section ten, nor pre-
sumably needed for such within a reasonable time. Such applica-
tions shall be considered in the months of August and September
only, and no license shall be granted before at least three months
have expired from the date of application and the same has been
advertised three times in three local papers, if there be so many,

Y

‘

98 Appendix. [282

of the district in which the licensee intends to locate. If the same
location is sought by more than one applicant priority of applica-
tion shall not rule as to applications made in the same month, but
the application for the smallest location shall, in such case, receive
first consideration. And wherever a survey of the location is nec-
essary the applicant shall pay half of the expense of such survey,
and whenever the licensee begins operations upon his location he
must notify the local forest inspector, and all cutting and disposal
of the timber and other forest products shall be done under the
supervision of the local inspector and in accordance with such reg-
ulations as the Commissioner of Forests shail prescribe.

Duties or Forest ComMMISSIONER.

Sec. 14. That the Commissioner of Forests shall properly sub-
divide and arrange into divisions and districts of proper size, such
forest lands as shall constitute the forest reserves and forest lands
remaining under his control, shall organize a forest service, and
appoint inspectors and rangers for the protection and proper admin-
istration of said forests, and establish a practicable system of for-
estry. Heshall make reasonable rules and regulations for the pre-
vention of trespass on said lands and for their protection from fire
or injury from other causes, and for the conservation of the forest
growth, and he shall be empowered, if necessary, on account of
any threatened detriment to the forestry interest, and, if the local
demand warrants, to have cut and to dispose of any timber which
is not taken under the licenses herein provided. The Commis-
sioner of Forests shall have the power to regulate pasturage and
any occupancy whatsoever upon the forest lands, and he shall make
such other regulations, with the approval of the Secretary of the
Interior, as may appear necessary to carry into effect the purposes
of this act. He shall make to Congress annually a full and detailed
report of his proceedings and those of the assistant commissioners,
and all moneys received from the sale of timber or any other
privileges he shall pay into the Treasury of the United States.

Co-OPERATION WITH OTHER OFFICERS.

Sec. 15. That the Commissioner of the General Land Office, sur-
veyors-general, registers and receivers, and other federal officers
connected with the public lands, are directed to co-operate with
and assist the Commissioner of Forests to the extent of theiz
power in the selection, classification and management of the public
forest lands.

Co-OPERATION WITH STATE Boarps.

Sec. 16. That whenever any of the States in which public forest

lands are situated shall have instituted and provided for a forest

283 | Appendix. -* 99
commission or other forest management of the forest lands belong-
ing to the State, it shall be in the discretion of the Commissioner
of Forests, with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, to
co-operate with such forest commission and to allow the same to
act as agents for the United States, under his direction, for the pur-
poses of this act.

Provisions AGAtnst UNLAWFUL CUTTING.
[To be amended by reference to State laws. |

Sec. 17. That it shall be unlawful to cut, remove, or destroy, or
cause or procure to be cut, removed, or destroyed, or aid, counsel,
or assist in cutting, removing, or destroying any timber on lands of
the United States, except as provided for and permitted by this act»
or to wantonly burn, injure, tap, or girdle such timber, or to export,
transport, purchase, or dispose of the same, or any lumber, char-
coal, pitch, turpentine, or other product manufactured therefrom ;
and every person violating the provisions of this section shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be liable toa fine of not less
than one hundred dollars and not more than one thousand dollars
for every such offense, and imprisonment for not more than one
year ; and every person engaged in such depredation upon timber
or timber lands of the United States, whether as principal, agent,
employee, carrier, mill owner, manufacturer, vendor or vendee,
shall moreover be liable in an action of trespass for the full value of
the timber or timber product at the place of delivery ; but nothing
contained in this section shall prevent any agriculturist or miner
from taking from his claim the timber necessary for domestic pur-
poses or the support of his improvements. And whenever there
exists aright, previously established by law to cut timber on the
public lands, every person or corporation exercising such right
must comply with the rules and regulations prescribed by the Com-
missioner of Forests and approved by the Secretary of the Interior.
And all persons acquiring rights to cut timber or any rights of use
and occupancy of the forests under the provisions of this act,
whether at public sale, by license, or in any other way, are to have
and to hold such rights on condition of compliance with the rules
and regulations of this act and of the Commissioner of Forests.
And a failure to comply with all the rules and regulations so pre-
scribed and approved in regard to the manner of using and occupy-
ing the public forest lands shall constitute a misdemeanor punish-
able as provided in this section.

Occupancy OF Forest Lanps,
Sec. 18. That it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corpora-
tion knowingly to erect, establish or maintain upon public lands of

100 Appendix. ' [284

the United States, without authority from the Commissioner of
Forests, any saw-mill or manufactory of lumber or other timber
products, or to be engaged or be employed in the manufacture of
lumber, charcoal, pitch or turpentine upon public lands, or to use at
any such mill, manufactory, or works any timber cut or removed
from public lands; and any person violating this section shall be
liable to a fine of not less than five hundred and not more than five
thousand dollars, in addition to the penalties hereinbefore pre-
scribed; and all mills, manufactories and works so erected and
maintained upon public lands shall be absolutely forfeited to the
United States.

PENALTIES FOR TRANSPORTING AND HANDLING ILLEGALLY Cur
TIMBER.

Sec. 19. That if any master, owner or consignee of any vessel, or
any officer or agent of any railroad company, shall knowingly re-
ceive for shipment any timber, lumber, or timber product taken
without authority from timber lands of the United States, with
intent to transport the same to any port or place within the United
States, or to export the same to any foreign country, every such
master, owner, consignee, officer, agent or railroad company shall
be liable to the penalties prescribed in the seventeenth section of
this act; and the vessel on board of which any such timber, lumber
or timber product shall be taken, transported or seized, shall be
wholly forfeited to the United States.

RESTRICTING QUALITY OF FoREST OFFICERS.

Sec. 20. That no person who is directly or indirectly engaged in
the manufacture of lumber or timber products, or who is conduct-
ing any business which requires a large consumption of timber or
wood, shall be qualified to serve as Commissioner of Forests under
this act, or to serve in any Official capacity in connection with the
public forest lands.

REPEALING CLAUSE.

Sec. 21. That the acts of June third,eighteen hundred and seventy-
eight, chapters one hundred and fifty and one hundred and fifty-
one, and the first and second sections of the act of June fifteenth,
eighteen hundred and eighty, entitled ‘‘An act relating to the publie
lands of the United States,’’ and all acts and parts of acts incon-
sistent with this act, be, and the same are, hereby repealed.

285 | Appendix. : 101

ENACTING CLAUSE.

Sec. 22. That this act shall take effect on the first day of July
next, but the President may appoint the Commissioner of Forests
prior to that date, with his duties and salary to commence at that
date.

APPROPRIATION CLAUSE.

Src. 23. That for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of
this act, for the payment of salaries, traveling and other expenses,
the sum of five hundred thousand dollars is hereby appropriated.

Awe pis

Wrerene
Saryy Or

*

=as

OD

BROCGEEDINGS

OF RHE

American Forestry Association

AT THE

Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Annual Meetings,
Washington, December, 1891, 1892, and 1893,

AND AT THE

World’s Fair Congress, Chicago, October 18 and 19, 1893.

VOLUME X,

WASHINGTON, D. C.: ie
1894. \

PO Pe re

The Proceedings of the American Forestry Association have hitherto been
published irregularly, the volumes not being numbered. With the improved
financial condition of the association, and its greatly increased membership,
a regular issue of the annual proceedings in future appears warranted, and it
seems desirable to designate, by numbers, not only the coming volumes but
also those previously issued. The present volume is, therefore, numbered X.
The series of previous volumes includes the following publications :

Vol. I.—Proceedings of the special meeting at Montreal, August, 1882.
Papers read before the meeting printed separately by the Cana-
dian Government in the Ontario Fruit Growers’ Report. (The
proceedings of the first annual meeting, that held at Cincinnati,
April 25-29, 1882, were not published in pamphlet form.)

Vol. Il.—Proceedings of the second annual meeting, at St. Paul, August,
1883. Also, Forestry Bulletins No. 1 (May, 1884); No. 2 (Sep-
tember, 1884); No. 3 (January, 1885).

Vol. I1I.—Proceedings of the special meeting at Washington, D. C., May,
1884, and third annual meeting, at Saratoga, New York, Sep-
tember, 1884.

Vol. 1V.—Proceedings of the fourth annual meeting, held at Boston, Sep-
tember, 1885.

Vol. V.—Proceedings of the fifth annual meeting, held at Denver, Colorado,
September, 1886. (Newspaper report. )

Vol. VI.—Proceedings of the sixth annual meeting, held in Springfield, Ili-
nois, September, 1887.

Vol. VII.—Proceedings of the seventh annual meeting, held at Atlanta, Ga.,
December, 1888, and of the eighth annual meeting, held at
Philadelphia, Pa., October, 1889. ‘

Vol. VIII.—Proceedings of the summer meeting, held in Quebec, September,
1890, and of the ninth annual meeting, held in Washington, D.
C., December, 1890.

Vol. IX.—Papers read at joint session of the American Economic Association
and the American Forestry Association, held at Washington, D.
C., December, 1890.

The present volume, X, will contain the proceedings at the tenth, eleventh,
and twelfth annual meetings, held in 1891, 1892, and 1893, and those of the
special meeting at the World’s Fair Congress in Chicago in 1893. In order to
expedite the long-delayed issue of this publication, it will be printed in sepa-
rate parts or brochures, with continuous paging, so that the parts can finally
be bound into one volume. Copies of former volumes, as far as on hand, can
be had at current prices by application to the Secretary. Members receive,
besides the publications of the association, the bi-monthly periodical known
as ‘* Forest Leaves.”

.

@PEICERS FOR 1893-16924.

Hon. J. STERLING MORTON, Washington, D. C., . : : President.
Hon. H. G. JOLY, Quebec, Canada, ; lst Vice-President.
Hon. EDWIN WILLITS, . . Vice-President for the District of Columbia.
J.D. W. FRENCH, Boston, Mass., 5 ; . Corresponding Secretary.
N: H. EGLESTON, Washington, D. C., ; : P Recording Secretary.
HENRY M. FISHER, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa., . : : Treasurer.

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

The executive committee consists of the president, vice-president for the
District of Columbia, the secretaries, the treasurer, and the following members ;

B. E. Fernow, Chairman. Epw. A. Bowers. J. D. Jones.
CLEVELAND ABBE. F. H. Newer... CHARLES C. BINNEY.

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

Hon. H. G. Jory, Ropert W. Furnas,

Pointe Platon, Quebec. Brownville, Neb.
Dr. CHartes Mour, Hon. Wn. E. CHanpieEr,

Mobile, Ala. Concord, N. H.
D. M. Rrorpan, W. A. STILEs,

Flagstaff, Ariz. Deckertown, N. J.
AxBpor KINNEY, Hon. WaRREN HIGuLey,

Lamanda Park, Cal. New York, N. Y.
GerorGe H. Parsons, Hon. W. W. Barrett,

Colorado Springs, Col. Church’s Ferry, N. D.
Dr. B. G. NortHRop, Prof. W. R. Lazensy,

Clinton, Conn. Columbus, O.
A. V. CLUBBS, E. W. Hammonp,

Pensacola, Fla. Wimer, Ore.
Hon. C. R. Princip, Prof. J. T. RorHrock,

Sandersville, Ga. Westchester, Pa.
GrorceE. W. MINIER, H. 8. Russewu,

Minier, Ill. EK. Greenwich, R. I.
Prof. JamMEs TRoop, Prof. H. A. GrEeEn,

Lafayette, Ind. Chester, S. C.
C. L. Warrous, Dr. A. L. McLours,

Des Moines, Iowa. Brookings, 8. D.
Prof. E. A. PopENoz, Hon. ALBERT RoBeERrts,

Manhattan, Kan. Nashville, Tenn.
Hon. A. M. Brown, W. GoopricH JONES,

Elizabethtown, Ky. Temple, Texas.
Joun E. Hosss, Hon. REDFIELD Proctor,

North Berwick, Me. Proctor, Vt.
F. H. APPLETON, H. C. Putnam,

Boston, Mass. Eau Claire, Wis.
Prof. W. J. Brat, Hon. Epwin WI11.ITs,

Lansing, Mich. Washington, D. C.
Hon. J. O. Barrer, Hon. G. W. Awan,

Minneapolis, Minn. Toronto, Ont.
Prof. WitL1amM TRELEASE, Wo. Litre,

St. Louis, Mo. Montreal, Quebec.

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MEMBERS.

*Life Members,

ALABAMA.

Cullman, John G., Cullman.
Mohr, Dr. Chas., Mobile.

ARIZONA.

Riordan, D. M., Flagstaff.

CALIFORNIA.

* Alvord, Wm., Bank of California,
San Francisco.

* Alvord, Mrs. Wm., 2200 Broadway,
San Francisco.

* Alvord, Hon. Henry B., Park Com-
missioner, San Jose.

Anderson, Prof. F. M., Stanford Uni-
versity.

Balcom, 8. F., Eureka.

* Blanchard, Nathan, Santa Rosa.

Brown, Thos., 1019 Bush St., San
Francisco.

Brown, F. E., Redlands.

Fernald, Hon. Chas., Santa Barbara.

Forbes, A. B., 401 California St., San
Francisco.

*Freeborn, James, 420 Montgomery
St., San Francisco.

Kinney, Abbot, Lamanda Park.

McLaren, John, Supt. Golden Gate
Park, San Francisco.

* Parrott, Mrs. A. M. Baywood, San
Mateo.

Rock, John, Niles, Alameda County.

*Sutro, Adolph, 30 Montgomery
Block, San Francisco.

Wood, Adolph, San Bernardino.

CoLoRaApo.

Berthoud, Edw. L., Golden.
Crandall, Prof. C. 8., Ft. Collins.
Ehrich, Louis R., Colorado Springs.
Ensign, Edgar T., Colorado Springs.
Grimes, D. 8., Box 450, Denver.
Land, Frank A., Nathrop, Chaffee Co.
Parsons, Geo. H., Colorado Springs.
Robinson, Thomas D., Denver.
Titcomb, John S., Denver.

*Van Diest, P. H., Denver.

ConNECTICUT.

*Gold, T. S., West Cornwall.

Keyser, Mrs. W. J., East Norwalk.

Northrop, Hon. B. G., Clinton.

Williams, Frederick Wells, New
Haven.

DELAWARE.

Canby, Wm. M., 1101 Del. Ave., Wil-
mington.

District oF COLUMBIA.

* Abbe, Prof. Cleveland, Weather Bu-
reau, Washington.

Binney, Charles C., Dept. of Justice,
Washington.

Bowers, Edward A., Assistant Com-
missioner, General Land Office,
Washington.

Bowler, R. B., 1730 K St., Washing-
ton.

Dabney, Chas. W., Jr., Assistant Sec-
retary of Agriculture, Washington.

Egleston, Dr. N. H., Department of
Agriculture, Washington.

* Fernow, B. E., Department of Agri-
culture, Washington.

Glover, Charles C., care Riggs & Co.,
15th and Penna. Ave., Washington.

Goodfellow, Mrs. Edward, U. 8. Coast
and Geodetic Survey, Washington.

Harrington, Prof. Mark W., Chief of
Weather Bureau, Washington.

Hornblower, J. C.,1402 M St., Wash-
ington.

Howard, Geo. H., Metropolitan Club,

- Washington.

Hubbard, Gardiner G., Twin Oaks.

Hutchinson, W. J., 1707 Massachu-
setts Ave., Washington.

Hyde, Thomas, 1537 28th St. N.W.,
Washington.

Jones, Dr. John D.,1737 NSt., Wash-
ington.

Jones, Hiram H., General Land Office,
Washington.

Jones, Mrs. John D., 1737 N St.,
Washington.

Luebkert, Otto J. J., Department of
Agriculture, Washington.

Maddox, Samuel, 462 Louisiana Ave.,
Washington.

Mann, Parker, Tanglebank, Kalorama
Ave., Washington.

Mann, Mrs. Parker, Tanglebank, Kal-
orama Ave., Washington.

McGee, W J, Bureau of Ethnology,
Washington.

McLanahan, George, 1601 21st St.,
Washington.

District oF CotumB1sa—Continued.

McRae, Hon. Thomas, House of Rep-
resentatives, Washington.

Newell, F. H., U. S. Geological Sur-
vey, Washington.

*Pellew, H. E., 1637 Mass. Ave.,
Washington.

Phillips, Wm. H., 603 La. Ave N.W.,
Washington.

Pilling, J. W., 1301 Mass. Ave.,
Washington.

Proctor, Hon. Redfield, U. S. Senate,
Washington.

Riley, Prof. C. V. Sunbury, Wyoming
Ave., Washington.

Robbins, Mrs. M. A., 1708 15th St.,
Washington.

Storer, Hon. Bellamy, House of Rep-
resentatives, Washington.

Walsh, Ralph, 1504 H St., Washing-
ton.

*Warder, Prof. Kobt. B., Howard
University, Washington.

Whittlesey, Geo. R., 1430 Stoughton
St., Washington.

Willits, Hon. Edwin, Loan and Trust
Building, Washington.

Wilson, Nathaniel, 624 F St. N.W.
Washington.

Witten, J. W., General Land Office,
Washington.

FLoripa.

Clubbs, A. V., Corner of Garden and
Alcaniz Sts., Pensacola.
Vankirk, N. J., Pensacola.

GEORGIA.

McLendon, S. G., Thomasville.

Pringle, Hon. C. R., Sandersville.

Reppard, R. B., Savannah, P. O. Box
160.

ILLINOIS.

Bowers, Lloyd W., Chicago & N.
Western R.R. (Law Dept. ) Chicago.

Brown, Samuel, 409 Chicago Opera
House Building, Chicago.

Crawford, O. W., Masonic Temple,
Chicago.

Deering, Chas. W., Deering & Co., 16
Fullerton Ave., Chicago.

Deering, William, Deering & Co., 16
Fullerton Ave., Chicago.

Haines, James, Pekin.

Hill, E. J., 7100 Egleston Ave., Engle-
wood.

Minier, George W., Minier.

Nash, Rev. C., Box 473, Olney.

*Peterson, P. S., Chicago.

Porter, W. D., 16 Fullerton Ave.,
Chicago.

|

|
|
|
|
|

Intino1is— Continued.

Sidway, L. B., 59 Dearborn St.,
Chicago.
INDIANA.

Coulter, Prof. John M., University of
Indiana, Blomington.

. Troop, Prof. James, La Fayette. _
Towa.

Leverett, Frank, Geological Survey,
Denmark, Iowa.

Sage, J. R., Des Moines.

Watrous, C. L., Des Moines.

KANSAS.

Adams, F. G., Sec. Historical Society,
Topeka.

Georgeson, C. C., State Agricultural
College, Manhattan.

Kessler, G. E., Merriam.

Marlatt, Fred. A., Manhattan.

Mason, S. C., Kansas State Agricul-
tural College, Manhattan.

Plank, E. N., Kansas City.

Popenoe, E. A., Kansas State Agri-
cultural College, Manhattan.

Thoburn, J. B., Peabody.

| Marne.

Adams, Charles E., Bangor.

Coe, E. S., Bangor.

Eastman, Theodore J., South Ber-
wick.

Hammond, G. W., Yarmouthyille.

*Hobbs, John E., North Berwick.

*Jackson, Thomas, Portland.

Jewett, Miss Sarah O., South Ber-
wick.

Talbot, Hon. G. F., Portland.

MARYLAND.

Gordon-Cumming, A. P., Freedom,
P. O., Carroll Co.

Lanahan, Mrs. T. M., 717 Washington
Place, Baltimore.

MASSACHUSETTS.

Adams, Hon. Chas. Francis, 23 Court
St., Boston.

Appleton, Francis H., 251 Marl-
borough St., Boston.

Beebe, J. Arthur, 36 Temple Place,
Boston.

*Beebe, E. Pierson, 36 Temple Place,
P. O. 1743, Boston.

*Bowditch, James H., 60 Devonshire
St., Boston.

Brewer, Francis W.,
wealth Ave., Boston.

Brooks, J. Henry, Milton.

Brooks, Henry, care of Edward
Brooks, Room 37, Equitable Build-
ing, Boston.

72 Common-

Massacuuserrs—Continued.

Brooks, P. C.,7 Arlington St., Boston.

Burnett, Jos., 27 Central St., Boston.

Carter, John W., 172 Columbus Ave.,
Boston.

*Chase, George B., 234 Beacon St.,
Boston.

Closson, Charles C., Jr., 57 Thayer
Hall, Cambridge.

Codman, Philip, Brookline.

*Doan, Thomas, Charlestown.

Emmons, N. H., 40 Water Street,
Boston.

Estabrooks, John A., 256 Ashmont
St., Dorchester.

*Fay, Miss Sarah B., Woods Holl.

*Fay, Jos. S., Woods Holl.

Flagg, Augustus, care of Little, Brown
& Co., Boston.

Fields, Mrs. James T., 148 Charles
St., Boston.

Forbes, W. H., 614 Sears Building,
Bostén.

French,J.D. W.,160 State St.,Boston.

French, Jonathan, 160 State St.,
Boston.

‘*Gardner, John L., 22 Congress St.,
Boston.

*Ginn, Edw., Ginn Bros., Boston.

Graves, H. S., Andover.

*Hemenway, Augustus, 10 Tremont
St., Boston.

Hunnewell, H. H., 87 Milk St., P. O.
Box 5153, Boston.

Jackson, Robt. T., 33 Gloucester St.,
Boston.

James, G. B., P. O. Box 2402, Boston.

Johnson, Arthur, Topsfield.

Kidder, Nathl. T., Milton.

Knapp, F. B., Duxbury.

Lawrence, A. A., 68 Chancey St.,
Boston.

Lawrence, James, Groton.

*Leeson, J. R., Box 2441, Boston.

Lodge, Miss Mary E., Swampscott.

Lodge, Richard W., P. O. Box 3663,
Boston.

*Loring, Wm. Caleb, 50 State St.,
Boston.

*Low, John, Chelsea.

Mass. Hist. Society, Tremont St.,
Boston.

Mason, Miss E. F., 1 Walnut St.,
Boston.

*May, John J., Box 2348, Boston.

Olmsted, J. C., Brookline.

Olmsted, Frederick Law, Brookline.

Paine, R. T., 6 Joy St., Boston.

Parsons, Miss Katharine, 54 Garden
Street, Cambridge.

i

.
Massacnuserrs—Continued.

Peabody, Oliver W., Kidder, Peabody
& Co., Boston.

Pingree, David, Salem.

Rivers, G.°*R. R., Milton.

*Rollins, W. Herbert, 252 Marlbor-
ough St., Boston.

Russell, H. 8., Milton.

*Saltonstall, H., 126 Commonwealth
Ave., Boston.

Shaw, Francis,
Ave., Boston.

Shaler, Prof. N. S., Cambridge.

*Smith, B. G., Cambridge.

Stevens, Mrs. Moses T., North An-
dover.

Strong, Wm. C., Waban.

Upton, Geo. B., Milton.

Valentine, James J., South Framing-
ham.

*Waters, Edwin F., Boston.

*Wheildon, Wm. W., Concord.

White, Chas. T., 213 Commonwealth
Ave., Boston.

White, Dr. James C., 259 Marlbor-
ough St.. Boston.

Whitney, Miss Anne, Charles Gate,
Beacon St., Boston.

Whitney, Henry M., Brookline.

Williams, John D., 160 State St.,
Boston.

Woods, John M., 86 Canal St., Boston.

23 Commonwealth

MICHIGAN.

Beal, Prof. W. J., Agricultural Col-
lege, Lansing.

*Mathieu, Jean A., 372 Trumbull
Ave., Detroit.

MINNESOTA.

* Andrews, H. C. C., St. Paul.

Barrett, J. O., care of Progressive
Age, Minneapolis.

Chute, Richard, Minneapolis.

Gale, Edward C., New York Life
Building, Minneapolis.

Green, Samuel B., St. Anthony Park.

Harris, J. S., State Horticultural So-
ciety, La Crescent.

Hosmer, Dr. J. K., Public Library,
Minneapolis.

*Jewell Nursery Co.,S. M. Emery,
Secretary, Lake City.

Keel, R. C., Rochester.

Mayer, L. R., Montevideo.

Nind, J. Newton, Minneapolis.

Public Library of Minneapolis, Min-
neapolis.

*Sewall, Jos. S., St. Paul.

Missouri.

Broadhead, Prof. G. C., Missouri State
University, Columbia.

MassacuHusetTts—Continued.

Jordan, J. M., 706 Olive St., St. Louis.

Trelease, Prof. Wm., Missouri Botan-
ical Garden, St. Louis.

Whitten, J. C., Missouri Botanical
Garden, St. Louis.

NEBRASEA.
Barnes, E. A., Grand Island.
Bennet, J. M., Hebron.
Canfield, Jas. H., Lincoln.
*Furnas, Kobert W., Brownsville.
*Morton, Hon. J. Sterling, Nebraska
City.
Morse, L., Benkelman.
Reed, D. U., Blue Springs.
Stewart, E. A., Blair.

New HampsHIReE.
Chandler, Hon. Wm. E., Concord.
Colby, Prof. James F., Hanover.
Dinsmore, Miss Mary B., Keene.
Harrison, J. B., Franklin Falls.
Moses, George H., Concord.
Twitchell, Dr. George B., Keene.

New JERSEY.
*Ayres, H. B., Allamuchy.
* Davis, Sam. D., Lakewood.
Dawes, Lewis C., Englewood.
Girtanner, Jules, Linden.
Owens, James, Montclair.
Peters, Rev. John E., Pleasantville.
Platt, Dr. Isaac Hull, Lakewood.
Smock, Prof. John C., Trenton.
Watson, J. Madison, Elizabeth.
Ward, L. B., Taylor’s Hotel, Jersey

City.

New Mexico.
Hobart, Edw. 8., U.S. Surveyor Gen-
eral’s Office, Santa Fé.

New YorE.

Adams, Chas. K., Ithaca.

Armstrong, Seymour C., Riparius,
Warren County.

Bellows, Russell N., 247 5th Avenue,
New York City.

Bennett, Dr. J. A., 4 Irving Place,
New York City.

*Bishop, Heber R., 993 5th Avenue,
New York City.

Boorum, Wm. B., 458 Clinton Ave.,
New York City.

Bryce, Miss Edith, 40 W. 54th St.,
New York City.

Burden, Henry, 2d, Cazenovia.

Butler, Miss Rosalie, 31 E. 69th St.,
New York City.

Chichester, Charles F., Century Co.,
33 E. 17th St., New York.

Child, Addison, Childwood.

New Yorx—Continus) __

Choate, Miss Josephine, 50 W. 47th
St., New York.

Claflin, John, H. B. Claflin Co., New
York.

Cogswell, W. B., Syracuse.

Coxe, Macgrane, 51 Wall St., New
York City.

Crary, J. D., Editor Lumber Trade
Journal, 72 Wall St., New York City.

Cutting, Wm. Bayard, Room 516, 32
Nassau St., New York City.

De Camp, Wm. S., 35 Mt. Morris Ave.,
New York City.

Dodge, George E., 45 Broadway, New
York City.

*Dolge, Alfred, Dolgeville.

*Dudley, P. H., 665 Pine St., New
York City.

Foot, James D., 102 Reade St., New
York City.

Fox, Col. Wm. F., State Forest Com-
mission, Albany.

Hamilton, Arthur 8., Rochester.

Higley, Hon. Warren, Equitable
Building, New York City.

Higley, Mrs. Warren, Equitable Build-
ing, New York City.

Hildenbrand, Wilhelm, 1 Broadway,
New York City.

*Hicks, John §8., Roslyn, Long Is-
land.

Hubbard, R. J., Cazenovia.

James, Dr. Walter B., 32 W. 39th St.,
New York City.

*Jesup, Morris K., 52 William St.,
New York City.

Johnson, R. U., Century Magazine,
New York City. -

*Kelsey, Frederick W., 145 Broadway,
New York City.

Kenyon, W. W., 368 Union St., Brook-
lyn.

Kern, W. M., 840 E. 166th St., New
York City.

Kilduff, Thomas H., 115 Broadway,
New York City.

King, John §., 100 Reade St., New
York City.

King, John A., Great Neck, L. I.

Ledyard, L. W., Cazenovia.

Ludlow, Miss Anna D., Oswego.

Marié, Peter, 48 W. 19th St., New
York City.

Marston, E. 8., 217 Clinton Avenue,
Brooklyn.

*Martin, Edmund P., care of Messrs.
George F. Nesbitt & Co., corner
Pearl & Pine Sts., New York City.

New Yorx—Continued.

Mead, E. N., 649 N. Division St., Buf-
falo.

Meredith, Eugene, Cazenovia.

Mills, W. S., Principal Public School
75, Brooklyn.

Mills, D. O., Mills Building, New
York City.

McCreedy, C. O., Ballston Spa.

Nash, Francis Philip, Jr., Geneva.

*Palmer, Genl. W. J., 32 Nassau St.,
New York City.

Pinchot, Gifford, United Charities
Building, 22d St. & 4th Ave., New
York City.

Pittinger, Jas. H., Carroll St. (on
Gowanus Canal), Brooklyn.

Prentiss, Prof. Albert N., Ithaca.

Preston, George R., Cazenovia.

Raymond, Rossiter W., 13 Burling
Slip, New York City.

Rose, A. D., Geneva.

Schofield, Peter F., P. O. Box 2951,
New York City.

Sisson, Rufus L., W. Sherman Lum-
ber Co., Potsdam.

See, Mrs. Horace, 48 W. 20th St.,
New York City.

Starr, Walter D., corner 14th & 10th
Ave., New York City.

*Stephens, W. Hudson, Lowville.

Stiles, W. A., Garden & Forest Co.,
Tribune Building, New York City.

Stimson, Henry L., 18 E. 32d St.,
New York City.

Tratman, E. E. Russell, 144 Remsen
St., Brooklyn.

*Thayer, W. A., M. D., Cooperstown.

*Thomson, Lemon, Albany.

*Vanderbilt, George W., 640 5th Ave.,
New York City.

‘Weed, W. R., Potsdam.

Weed, Frederick A., Potsdam.

Wilson, Gen. James Grant, 98 Bible
House, New York City.

Norru Daxora.

Barrett, W. W., Church’s Ferry.

OHIO.

*Bambach, George, Ripley.

Brown, Miss A. F., North Bloomfield.

Brown, Fayette, 863 Euclid Avenue,
Cleveland.

Canfield, P. B., Cleveland.

*Fisher, Wm. Hubbell, Cincinnati.

Gamble, James N., Cincinnati.

Gano, John A., Cincinnati.

Garrard, Jeptha, 44 Johnson Build-
ing, Cincinnati.

Ingalls, M. E., Pres. C. C.C. & St. L.
R.R., Cincinnati.

Oxnro—Continued. |

*Lazenby, Prof. W. R., Columbus.

Poindexter, Rey. J., Columbus.

*Read, M. C., Hudson.

Roelker, F. G., Allen Building, Cin-
cinnati.

Schmidlapp, J. G., Cincinnati.

Springer, Dr. Alfred, Cincinnati.

*Steele, Robert W., Dayton.

Stein, Arthur, Cincinnati.

*Townshend, N.8., Ohio State Uni-
versity, Agricultural Department,
Columbus.

*Warder, Reuben H., North Bend.

OREGON.

Applegate, O. C., Olene, Klamath Co.

Applegate, Elmer I., Klamath Falls.

Hammond, E. W., Wimer, Jackson
County.

Lloyd, Francis G., Forest Grove.

Scheydecker, M., 515 Hancock St.,
Portland.

PENNSYLVANIA.

Adams, Hon. Robert H., Philadelphia.

Anders, Dr. J. M., 1673 N. Broad
St., Philadelphia,

Beale, Edw. F., Jr., 231 8. Front St.,
Philadelphia.

Beaver, Hon. James A., Bellefonte.

Cadwalader, John, 505 Chestnut St.,
Philadelphia.

Coates, George M., 1817 De Lancey
Place, Philadelphia.

Converse, John H., 500 N. Broad St.,

Philadelphia.

Cope, Francis R., No. 1 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia.

Coxe, Mrs. Brinton, 1519 Spruce St.,
Philadelphia.

Coxe, Mrs. Eckley B., Drifton,
Luzerne County.

Elwyn, Rev. A. L., 1422 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia.

Esté, Charles, 20th St. above York,
Philadelphia.

Fisher, Dr. Henry M., 317 S. 12th
St., Philadelphia.

Fisher, George H., 308 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia.

Fisher, Mrs. George H., 308 Walnut
St., Philadelphia.

Fisher, Miss Anna, 308 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia.

Haines, Francis C., Haines and Chew
Sts., Germantown, Philadelphia.

* Haydon, James C., Jeanesville.

Haseltine, Frank, 1825 Walnut St.,
Philadelphia.

PENNSYLVANIA— Continued.

Heston, Mrs. George T., Newtown,
Bucks County.

Hutchinson, Pemberton §., 112 Chest-
nut St., Philadelphia.

James, H. F.. Franklin.

Landreth, Burnet, Bristol.

*Lea, H. C., 2000 Walnut St., Phila-
delphia.

Lundy, Mrs. Mary L., 245S. 18th St.,
Philadelphia.

Montgomery, Dr. E. E., 1818 Arch
St., Philadelphia.

Morris, Elliston P., 4782 Main St.,
Germantown, Philadelphia.

Paul, J. Rodman, 505 Chestnut St.,

Philadelphia.

* Peabody, Chas. B., 1415 Spruce St.,
Philadelphia.

Rothrock, Dr. J. T., 1012 Wainut St.,
Philadelphia.

Sellers, Wm., 1600 Hamilton St.,
Philadelphia.

Stewardson, Thomas, Chestnut Hill,
Philadelphia.

Vaux, J. Wain, 505 Chestnut St.,
Philadelphia.

Walker, Wm., 45 Third St., Alle-
gheny.

Welsh. Herbert, 1305 Arch St., Phila-
delphia.

Wilmsen, Bernhard, 413 Commerce
St., Philadelphia.

Wolfe, Dr. Samuel, 1624 Diamond
St., Philadelphia.

Wood, Stuart, 400 Chestnut St.,
Philadelphia.
RxHopE IsLanp.
Emmons, Arthur, Newport.
Mason, Miss Ida M., R. I. Avenue,

Newport.
Russell, H. 8., E. Greenwich.
SourH CAROLINA.
Green, Prof. H. A., Chester.
Hemphill, James, Chester.
Love, Col. R. A., Chester.
McKie, Dr. Thos. J., Woodlawn.

South Daxora.
Keffer, Prof. Chas. A., Brookings.
Williams, Prof. Thomas A., Brook-
ings.
TENNESSEE.

Callender, Dr. J. H., Central Hospital
for Insane, near Nashville.

LO

TENNESSEE—Continued.
Goulding, B. L., Chamber of Com-
merce, Chattanooga.
Roberts, Hon. Albert, Nashville.
Wright, Col. Thomas T., Nashville.

TEXAS.
Jones, W. Goodrich, Temple National
Bank, Temple.
Moore, J. E., Temple.
Nunnelly, J. B., temple.

VERMONT.
Battell, Joseph, Middlebury.
Edmunds, Hon. G. F., Burlington.
Fuller, Goy. Levi K., Brattleboro.
Grout, Hon. William W., St. Johns-
bury East.
Proctor, Hon. Redfield, Proctor.

WEsT VIRGINIA.
Hopkins, 4. D., W. Va. Agricultural
Experimental Station, Morgantown.
WASHINGTON.
Meany, Edmund §., Seattle.

| Wisconsin.

Putnam, H. C., Chippewa Valiey
Bank, Eau Claire.

Swift, Elijah, Eau Claire.

Upham, W. H., Marshfield.

Weyerhauser, Frederick, Mississippi
Logging Co., Chippewa Falls.

CANADA.

Allan, Hon. G. W., Toronto, Ontario.

Boyd, M. M., Bobcageon, Ontario.

Campbell, Archibald, Quebec.

Craig, John, Dominion Experiment
Farm, Ottawa, Ontario.

Crown Lands Department, Quebec.

Crown Lands Department, Treasury
Department, Toronto, Ontario.

*Denton, Jno. M., London, Ontario.

*Drummond, A. T., Montreal.

*Joly, Hon. H. G., Le Clereville,
Quebec.

Little, Wm., Montreal.

Perley, George H., Ottawa, Ontario.

Price, Herbert N., Quebec.

Robitaille, Hon. L. A., Box 542, Que-
bec.

Ross, Hon. David A., Quebec.

*Russell, A. J., Ottawa.

Saunders, Win., Central Experimental
Farm, Ottawa.

*Shanley, Walter, Montreal.

Turner, Richard, Quebec.

CONSTITUTION

OF THE

AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION,

ARTICLE 1. This association shall be known as the American Forestry
Association.

ARTICLE 2. The objects of this association shall be the discussion of subjects
relating to tree-planting, the conservation, management, and renewal of forests,
and the climatic and other influences that affect their welfare; the collection
of forest statistics; and the advancement of educational, legislative, or other
measures tending to the promotion of these objects. It shall especially
endeavor to centralize the work done, and diffuse the knowledge gained.

ARTICLE 3, Any person may become a member of this association, subject to
approval by the executive committee, by the payment of the annual dues.
The annual dues shall be two dollars. Any member may become, by the pay-
ment of fifty dollars at one time, a life member, and shall not be liable there-
after to annual dues. Any person contributing one hundred dollars to the
permanent fund of the association shall be a Patron.

ARTICLE 4. The officers of this association, to be elected at the annual meet-
ing, shall be a president, one vice-president for each state, territory, and
province represented in the association, a treasurer, a recording secretary, a
corresponding secretary, and six other persons to serve on the executive com-
mittee. The executive committee shall consist of the president, the vice-
president for the District of Columbia, the treasurer, the two secretaries
together with the six persons above designated. Three of this committee
shall constitute a quorum. This committee shall choose its own chairman.

ArticLte 5. The president shall preside at all meetings of the association
in general session, and in his absence a vice-president shall preside.

ARTICLE 6, The recording secretary shall keep a record of the proceedings
of the association, and shall be custodian of all documents, books, and collec-
tions ordered to be preserved.

ARTICLE 7. The corresponding secretary shall conduct the correspondence

of the association.

12

ArticLe 8. The treasurer shall have charge of all funds, and pay out the
same on the direction of the executive committee.

ARTICLE 9. The association at any regular meeting, or its executive com-
mittee in the intervals between its meetings, may appoint such local or special
committees as may be deemed proper, and shall define their duties.

ArTIcLE 10. The annual meeting of the association shall be in the months
of August, September, or October, or at such times and places as shall be
determined by a vote in general session or by the executive committee.
Special meetings may be called by the executive committee.

ARTICLE 11. At each annual meeting there shall be an election of officers
for the ensuing year, and they shall remain in office until others are chosen.
In cases of vacancies occurring in the intervals between the annual meetings,
they may be filled by the executive committee until others are selected. Incase
of absence of an officer at a regular meeting his place may be deemed vacant.

ArTIcLE 12. The officers of states, territories, provinces, or local forestry
associations, or their delegates, or the delegates of any Government, may
participate in the proceedings of the association as honorary members.

ARTICLE 13. This constitution may be amended by a two-thirds vote of the

members present at any annual meeting.

BY-LAWS.

1. Papers or abstracts of papers to be read must be sent two weeks before

any meeting, for classification, to the corresponding secretary.

2. The following classification of subjects is adopted for the reading of
papers :

Section A. Forest planting, forest management, forestry proper, preserva-
tion of forests.

Section B. Forest economy, technology and statistics.

Section C. Applied science and climatology, general topics.

3. Contributors who are present shall have the preference in reading their
papers.

4. Any member shall be entitled to the privilege of using any books or
documents, not of record, at the discretion of the recording secretary.

—_—-

——s

Tenth Annual Meeting.
1891.

The tenth annual meeting of the association was held at Wash-
ington, D. C., December 29, 1891. In the absence of President
Alvord, Hon. Edwin Willits, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture and
one of the vice-presidents, took the chair as presiding officer and
called the association to order.

After the reading of the minutes of the last meeting by the re-
cording secretary, the corresponding secretary read his report.
From this it appeared that three members of the association had
died during the last year and that 43 new members had been added
to the roll of membership. The report also announced a very
marked and encouraging degree of interest in forestry in several of
the Western States.

The report of the treasurer showed the receipt of $589.53 dur-
ing the year, applicable to current expenses, and a payment of
$409.69, leaving a balance in the treasury of $179.84 for current
expenses. The permanent fund was also increased by $250, mak-
ing the fund now $812.87.

The report of the committee on Arbor Day showed evidence of a
growing interest in the observance of this day all over the country.
It is established now in distant Oregon and North Dakota. In
New York, which has been tardy in establishing Arbor Day, it has
been adopted with great enthusiasm, and important results are
already manifest in connection with the public schools. It has be-
come an important co-efficient in village improvement. The observ-
ance of the day has become a patriotic feature, especially in those
Southern States which have fixed its date on Washington’s birth-
day. The custom of planting memorial trees in honor of Washing-
ton, Lincoln, Grant, and other patriots has become general.

The results of Arbor-Day tree-planting in an economic point of
view are even marvellous. In the twenty years since the origin of
the day in Nebraska it is reported on good authority that more
than 35,000,000,000 trees have been planted in that State.

The executive committee reported that its attention had been
principally directed during the year to securing a liberal applica-

14

tion of the law of March 3, 1891, which, in section 24, authorizes the
President of the United States to reserve woodlands, and also
makes other provisions of the highest importance to the future of
the public timber lands.

The law provides that the President may, by proclamation, from
time to time, set aside any portions of the public woodlands as
public reservations. At the same time, cutting off timber on the .
public timber lands is permitted in several of the States and Terri-
tories, if for use within the same by residents thereof, the regula-
tion of such cutting being under the direction of the Secretary of
the Interior; but the pleading that the cutting of the timber had
been for domestic, mining, or manufacturing purposes shall be a
defence in cases of trespass. The natural effect of this permission
will be to stimulate the cutting of timber on the public lands thus
thrown open to every one, with the probability that roving and
irresponsible lumbermen will cut the best and deprive the perma-
nent and law-abiding citizens of their just share in the forest re-
sources.

Nothing can prevent this result but a wise and just system of
management of the public lands, scrupulously protecting the rights
of all and rigorously and impartially enforced. The proclamation
of reserves by the President will be of little public benefit without
such a system of management accompanying it. The Secretary of
the Interior, with gratifying forethought, has endeavored to place
an administrative check upon the wrongful appropriation of the
public timber, by requiring a permit for cutting to be obtained
from the General Land Office at Washington; but it is to be feared
that this will be inadequate to prevent the evil results anticipated,
especially as no local supervision can be provided for under exist-
ing appropriations.

Your committee, then, wishes to express emphatically its position
regarding the proposed reservations and their management.

(1) Reservations in detached localities, while perhaps preferable
to none, will not satisfy the needs of forest protection unless their
number is sufficiently large to embrace practically all remaining
public woodlands.

(2) The all-important problem is that of the management of these
reservations made, or to be made. This should be solved at once
and simultaneously with the making of the reservation.

(3) The principles upon which such management must proceed
are laid down in a draft of suggestions for a bill, submitted here-

15
with by the committee, in which safeguards are provided to protect
prior rights; the return of agricultural lands to entry; licenses to
prospect for minerals, to camp, hunt, fish, and otherwise use the
reservations legitimately ; licenses to cut timber under regulations
adapted to the necessities of the locality; protection against fire
and theft, and such organization as will secure, with the co-opera-
tion of State authorities, the objects of the reservations, and at the
same time offer as little friction as possible to existing conditions.

Interesting reports were then made by members and delegates in
regard to the forest interests in their respective States, and the
usual committees were appointed.

The afternoon session was devoted to the discussion of the sub-
ject presented by the report of the executive committee, and the
consideration of the draft of a public bill designed to carry out the
suggestions of the committee.

The Hon. J. W. Noble, Secretary of the Interior, addressed the
association at length, expressing hearty sympathy with its aims,
his readiness to receive suggestions in regard to the management of
the timber lands, and his willingness to do all in his power to aid
the association in its work.

The thanks of the association were given to Secretary Noble for
his encouraging words.

The address of Secretary Noble was followed by a paper prepared
by the Hon. Thos. H. Carter, Commissioner of the General Land
Office. The object of the paper was to set forth the present atti-
tude of the Government towards the objects of the association.

The association was next addressed by the Hon. Senator H. L.
Dawes, who spoke at considerable length and in hearty commenda-
tion of the objects and work of the association. He spoke of the
difficulties attendant upon the enforcement of law as being not less
than those to be met in securing its enactment, and said that the
ingenuity of the law-maker had never yet been equal to the inge-
nuity of the spoliator. He spoke of the power of public sentiment,
and said: “You must get behind Congress and make Congressmen
feel that behind them is a public sentiment that will demand that
the spoliators shall not only take their hands off, but that the Gov-
ernment shall, so far as it is in its power, restore what has been
lost.”

The remainder of the session was occupied with the discussion
of a series of questions, prepared by the executive committee, in
regard to the establishment and management of the proposed

16

reservations. The first questions presented were, “ What should
be the extent or number of reservations, and what their char-
acter?” “What methods should be adopted for the purpose
of avoiding interference with other interests and opposition to the
establishment of the reservations?” ‘ Shall the reserved lands be
ceded as such to the individual States or remain, at least for the
present, in possession of the General Government ?”

In regard to these questions the views of the executive com-
mittee were given briefly, concluding with the statement that the
wisest and most desirable result would be to have all the remaining
public timber lands reserved. In the discussion that followed
there was a general agreement of opinion that it would not be wise
to cede the timber lands to the States, but that they should remain
under the management of the General Government.

The next question presented for discussion was, “Shall the
management of the public timber lands be carried on as a part of
the business of the General Land Office, by a separate bureau of
the Department of the Interior, by a bureau of the Department
of Agriculture, or by an independent bureau?” The conclusion
of the executive committee was stated to be, after much study of
the subject, that the best course would be to place the manage-
ment of the reservations under the control of a new division of the
Department of the Interior. The association seemed to acquiesce
in this opinion, and passed on to consider the question, ‘‘ What
regulations are necessary and desirable, jirst, to prevent fire;
second, to regulate occupancy; third, to regulate the cutting of
timber, and, fourth, for general administration?” The entire after-
noon having been spent in this discussion, other questions, as to
the qualification of officers for the administration of the reserves, _
and the methods to be adopted for securing State co-operation,
were left without consideration, and the association adjourned to
Wednesday, at the office of the Experiment Stations, Department.
of Agriculture.

Wepxespay, DecemBer 30, 1891.

The association met at 10 o’clock, vice-president Northrop in
the chair.

The committee on nominations and resolutions reported. They
nominated for election the officers of last year, with a few excep-
tions only, viz: Mr. J. O. Barrett, of Minneapolis, as vice-president
for Minnesota; Hon. Warren Higley, for New York; Hon. Albert |

17
Roberts, of Nashville, for Tennessee, and Hon. George F. Edmunds,
of Burlington, for Vermont; adding to the list of vice-presidents
Hon. W. W. Barrett, of North Dakota.

Prof. Cleveland Abbe, of Washington, was proposed as a member
of the executive committee in place of C. C. Binney, and J. Grant
Wilson, of New York, as an additional member.

It was recommended that the duties of publication be transferred
to the executive committee, and that this committee have the
power of filling vacancies.

The report was accepted, the recommendations contained therein
were adopted, and the officers nominated were duly elected.

The committee on finance and permanent secretary reported
that it was desirable that an effort be made immediately to raise
fhe sum of two thousand dollars for the purpose of employing a
salaried secretary or agent, and suggested a method by which to
secure this sum. The report was adopted.

Mr. Bowers read a memorial which had been prepared by the
executive committee for presentation to President Harrison. It
was accepted and ordered tobe signed by the executive committee
on behalf of the association.

The association then adjourned for the purpose of meeting the
President and to reconvene at 2 o'clock at the National Museum.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

The association met according to adjournment, vice-president
Willits in the chair.
The committee on resolutions offered its report as follows:

RESOLUTIONS.

Resolved, 1. That the thanks of the American Forestry Associa-
tion be extended to the Secretary of the Interior, Hon. John W.
Noble, for his presence at our meeting of December 29, and for the
earnest expression of a desire to co-operate with the objects of our
association.

2. This association expresses its opinion that the opposition to
the establishment of public timber reservations arises either from
misconception as to their objects and the manner of their manage-
ment, or as the result of the effort of individuals for their private
gain without regard to public welfare.

3. The association respectfully submits to the Secretary of the

18

Interior that he use the authority granted to him by law, and that
he withdraw from settlement and entry temporarily, during exami-_
nation, all tracts of land recommended for reservations by this
association.

4, This association urges upon the superintendents of the public
schools in the several States to require that the high schools shall
make forestry, in connection with botany, a subject of instruction.

5. Wuerzas, This association holds that the interests of agricul-
ture are ultimately dependent upon a proper forest condition; and

Wuereas, The Government of the United States has recently
made large additional appropriations to the agricultural colleges
and experiment stations :

Resolved, That this association earnestly recommends that
forestry be made a part in the curriculum of all agricultural col-
leges and of the experimental work by the various stations where
this is not already done.

The resolutions were unanimously adopted.

The association then took up the regular order of business, the
hearing and discussion of papers prepared for the occasion by the
arrangement of the executive committee.

The first paper read was by Mr. Gifford Pinchot, on “The De-
velopment of a Protective Forest Policy in Europe.”

The second paper was by Mr. J. D. W. French, on “ The Forestry
Movement in the United States.”

This was followed by a paper from President C. K. Adams, of
Cornell University, on “The needs of Forestry Education in the
United States.”

The reading of these papers was followed by remarks fr om Judge
Higley, of New York; Rev. J. P. Lundy, of Philadelphia; Ex-Gov-
ernor Hoyt, of Wyoming, and others.

The last paper read was by Mr. B. E. Fernow, on “The Proper
Adminstration of Forest Reserves.” The reading of these papers
and the accompanying addresses occupied the entire afternoon.

Owing to the lateness of the hour, the usual reading of minutes
was dispensed with. The publication of the proceedings was re-
ferred to the executive committee, and at 5 o'clock the association
adjourned sine die.

N. H. Eeesron,
Secretary.

UG) .

The association having been prevented from presenting its
memorial] in behalf of forest reservations to the President on Wed-
nesday, those members of the association who had not left the city
assembled at the Executive Mansion, on Thursday, at 10 o’clock.
They were individually presented to the President, and Judge Hig-
ley explained the objects of the memorial and expressed the grate-
ful feelings of the association for the interest already manifested
by the President in its work. The President received the members
very kindly and assured them of his sympathy with their efforts and
his disposition to do all in his power to favor and co-operate with
their endeavors.

Eleventh Annual Meeting.
1892.

The association met at the Department of Agriculture, in Wash-
ington, D. C., at 10 o’clock, December 20, 1892. ;

Hon. Edwin Willits, one of the vice-presidents, took the chair in
the absence of president Alvord.

The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved.

The reports of the secretaries and of the treasurer were read and
accepted. From the latter it appeared that there was a balance on
hand to the credit of the current expense fund of $362.13, and a
balance to the credit of the permanent fund of $933.36.

The report of the Arbor Day committee was read and accepted.
The report stated that in no previous year had so many schools
been engaged in the observance of Arbor Day. Among the most
cheering signs of progress was the recent action of the American
Educational Association, recommending the universal observance of
the day, and the establishment of village and district improvement
associations, and the planting of memorial trees.

Discussion followed, and the committee was urged to present at
the next annual meeting a list of trees most suitable for street plant-
ing, with the proper method of planting and trimming the same.

The report of the executive committee was read and accepted,
and after the discussion of the subjects presented by it, they were
referred to the executive committee for further consideration and
such action as might be deemed advisable.

Arrangements having been made with the Secretary of the In-
terior for a conference in regard to making additional reservations
of the public timber lands, and with the Public Lands Committee
of the House of Representatives, Messrs. Little, French, Fernow,
Bowers, Pellew, Jones, and Egleston were appointed a committee
for this purpose.

At the afternoon session the committee on nominations reported
a list of officers for the ensuing year. The report was accepted
and the persons nominated were appointed. Nine new members
of the association were elected at the same time.

21

A minute in regard to the death of Dr. J. P. Lundy, one of the
most devoted members of the association, was adopted, and the
secretary was directed to transmit a copy of it to Mrs. Lundy as
an expression of sympathy.

The publication of proceedings and reports, the legal incorpora-
tion of the association, and all other business matters were re-
ferred to the executive committee, and the association then
adjourned sine die.

N. H. Eatxston,
Secretary.

Special Meeting at Chicago.
1893.

A special meeting of the Association was held at Chicago on the
18th and 19th of October, 1893, in connection with the World’s
Fair Congress Auxiliary.

In the absence of the president, Hon. J. Sterling Morton, Mr.
Fernow called the meeting to order and occupied the time which
had been assigned for the president’s opening address by reading
a paper on the “ Conditions and Problems of the Forestry Movement
in the United States.” This paper was followed by an address by
Hon. John W. Noble, late Secretary of the Interior, on “ Our
National Parks and Timber Reservations—their Importance and
proper Administration.”

Mr. Noble was followed by Prof. William Saunders, of Ontario,
Director of the Experimental Farms of Canada, who read a paper
on “ Forest Conditions on the Plains and Prairies of Canada.”

Mr. Aubrey White, Commissioner of Crown Lands in the Proy-
ince of Canada, then addressed the association in regard to “The
Forest Resources of Canada and the Management of the Govern-
ment Timber Lands.”

At the conclusion of Mr. White’s address, Mr. Henry L. de Vil-
morin, of France, was introduced, who spoke of the selection of
seeds for forestry purposes.

At the afternoon session of Wednesday, Mr. J. S. Hobbs, of
Maine, read a paper on the forest condition of that State.

Col. Wm. F. Fox, State Superintendent of Forests, read a paper
on the forestry conditions of New York.

The next paper read was by Prof. J. T. Rothrock, Forest Com-
missioner, on the forestry problem in Pennsylvania.

Mr. C. H. Putnam, of Wisconsin, read a paper on the forest con-
dition of the northwestern lumber States.

Mr. W. N. Byers made a brief statement in regard to forest con-
ditions in Colorado.

At the close of the Wednesday session a committee on resolu-
tions was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Hobbs, French, Fox,
Bowers, and Ensign.

23

Puvrspay, Ocroser 19, 1893.

At the opening of the session a paper was read by Dr. Gustave
Niederlein, Argentine Commissioner to the World’s Fair, on the
forests of the Argentine Republic.

Mr. William Little, of Montreal, next made an address on the
forest resources of Canada. He was followed by Mr. E. F.
Hobart, Surveyor-General of New Mexico, who read a paper on the
forest conditions and needs of the Southwestern Territories.

Mr. W. R. Dobbin then made a report on the work of the Minne-
sota Forestry Association and the importance of a forest reserva-
tion in that State. Mr. J. O. Barrett, State Forest Commissioner,
also spoke briefly on the same subject.

Mr. M. L. Saley, editor of the Northwestern Lumberman, then
presented a paper on “The relation of Forestry to the Lumbering
Industry.”

A paper on “The relation of Forestry to Lumbering and the
Woodworking Industries” was then read by Mr. J. E. Defebaugh,
editor of the 7imberman.

Mr. Gifford Pinchot then made a brief address on the mutual in-
terests of the lumberman and the forester.

Mr. Fernow occupied the remainder of the morning session with
a paper on “ Timber as a Crop.”

Tuurspay AFTERNOON.

The first part of the afternoon session was devoted to matters of
business. The selection of the time and place of the next annual
meeting was referred to the executive committee.

The committee on resolutions, to whom was referred the reso-
lution of Mr. Hobbs in regard to the exemption of timber lands
from taxation, reported the same favorably. After full discussion
and some amendments, the resolution was adopted as follows:

Resolved, That the governors of the States of this Union be
respectfully requested to recommend legislation in accordance with
the following propositions :

First. That the increased value of land arising from the planting
of trees, where none were growing, may be exempt from taxation
until some profit shall be realized from the plantation.

Secondly. That land covered with tree-growth reserved for farm
uses and connected with a farm shall, for the purposes of taxation,
be taken at no higher value than if it were without such growth.

24

The first paper read at this session was by Hon. Warren Higley,
on the “Aims and Accomplishments of the American Forestry
Association.”

Mr. B. 8. Hoxie gave an account of the forestry condition of
Wisconsin.

Hon. B. G. Northrop read a brief paper on Arbor Day.

The last paper read was by Col. E. T. Ensign, on the “ Forest
Reserves of the Western Mountain Region.” |

The committee on resolutions reported the following, which,
after some remarks by Mr. Edw. A. Bowers, was unanimously
adopted:

Resolved, That it is the sense of this Congress that the policy
inaugurated by the United States government of establishing
forest reservations on the public domain should be maintained and
extended, and that a proper administration of the same, looking to
their rational use and protection, is an urgent necessity.

After further remarks by Mr. Bowers, setting forth the legislative
action which has been taken in regard to the public timber lands,
and what further action was, in his opinion, necessary, the body
adjourned sine die.

A large numker of papers which had been prepared were not
read, for want of time. Among them were the following: Forestry
in New South Wales, by Robert Hudson, General Superintendent
of the New South Wales Exhibit at the World’s Centennial Expo-
sition; Condition of Forestry in California, by Abbot Kinney ;
Forest Administration, State or Federal, by George H. Par-
sons, of Colorado; Forest Conditions and Forest Problems of
Venezuela, by A. Ernst; How May Forestry Interests be Advanced,
by Herbert Welsh; Relation of the State to its Forestry, by Hon.
J. B. Walker, of New Hampshire; Duty of the Government to
Establish Timber Reserves in the Pacific Coast Forests, by E. W.
Hammond, of Oregon; Relation of Forest Cover to Waterflow, by
Prof. M. C. Read, of Ohio; Relation of Railroads to Forestry, by
Howard Miller, Esq.; Forestry Legislation of the States and Ter-
ritories, by C. C. Closson, Jr., of Massachusetts; Forest Interests
and the American Mind, by J. B. Harrison, of New Hampshire;
Forest Conditions in the Gulf States, by Charles Mohr, of Ala-
bama; Forest Legislation in Europe, by J. D. Jones, District of
Columbia ; Forests and Health, by Prof. Cleveland Abbe.

N. H. Eaeston,
Secretary.

Twelfth Annual Meeting.
1893. :

The twelfth annual meeting of the Association was held at Wash-
ington, December 15, 1893. In the absence of president Morton,
vice-president Willits presided.

The minutes of the last annual meeting and those of the special
meeting at Chicago, held in connection with the World’s Fair Aux-
iliary, were read and approved.

A partial report of the Arbor Day Committee was made by Mr.
Egleston, and it was voted that the committee be continued in office,
and that the subject referred to it last year be recommitted to be
reported upon at the next annual meeting.

The report of the executive committee was presented by Mr.
Fernow. It was accepted and laid upon the table temporarily, with
the view of subsequently discussing the matters suggested for con-
sideration by the report.

The secretary made a brief verbal report and referred to the re-
port of the executive committee as embodying his views and show-
ing his work for the past year.

Messrs. Bowers, Stiles, Binney, Newell, and Abbe were appointed
as a committee for the nomination of officers and the consideration
of amendments to the constitution.

Letters from absent members regretting their inability to attend
the meeting were read.

The report of the executive committee being taken up for con-
sideration, the recommendation of the committee that a special
meeting of the association, on the invitation of the State Forest
Commission of New York, be held at Albany was discussed.

Messrs. Weed, Fox, and Tweedy, officers of the commission, were
present, and offered considerations showing the importance of such
a meeting to the forestry interests of New York as an aid in secur-
ing desirable legislation for the establishment and management of
the Adirondack Park.

The recommendation of the executive committee was adopted,
and the committee was empowered to make arrangements for the
proposed special meeting.

26

The recommendation of the committee for the publication of the
papers read at the special Chicago meeting, or a selection from
them, was adopted, and it was voted to appoint a special committee
of publication for this purpose.

Mr. Bowers reported his action in regard to the incorporation of
the association, and it was voted to take steps as soon as possible
to secure such incorporation.

The treasurer’s report was read and referred to Messrs. Jones,
Elwin, and Fox as an auditing committee. This committee subse-
quently reported that the accounts of the treasurer were in a satis-
factory condition, and was discharged.

The treasurer was authorized, after writing to members delin-
quent in the payment of their annual dues for the space of two
years, to drop them from the list of members.

At the afternoon session papers from Messrs. H. C. Putnam,
Abbot Kinney, and others were read. The papers and the subjects
involved were referred to the executive committee for their dis-
posal.

Messrs. Fernow, Bowers, and Fox were appointed a committee
on resolutions.

The following persons were proposed for membership and were
elected :

Messrs. Wm. R. Weed, of Potsdam, N. Y.; C. O. McCreedy,
Ballston Spa, N. Y.; Geo. H. Moses, Concord, N. H.; Hon. Wm. EK.
Chandler, Concord, N. H.; Hon. Redfield Proctor, Proctor, Ver-
mont; Hon. Chas. W. Dabney, Jr., Assistant Secretary of Agricul-
ture; H. S. Russell, E. Greenwich, R. I.; Philip Codman, Brook-
line, Mass.; C. C. Closson, Lawrence, Mass. ;

The committee on nomination of officers made a report, and the
persons nominated to the respective offices were chosen.

Mr. French expressing his inability to serve as secretary another
year, he was, notwithstanding, chosen secretary pro tem., and the
executive committee was empowered to elect a permanent secretary,
as it should seem desirable and practicable.

An amendment of the constitution was adopted making the ex-
ecutive committee to consist of the president, the vice-president,
from the District of Columbia, the secretaries, the treasurer, and
six other members of the association.

It was voted to hold the next annual meeting at Washington.

In view of some misrepresentations of the forestry bill—known
as the McRae bill, now before Congress, the association referred
the subject of its endorsement to the committee on resolutions.

ee

27

The association sanctioned and approved the action of the ex-
ecutive committee during the last year.

The importance of having a paid secretary who could devote his
whole time to the service of the association was considered, and,
after discussion, was referred to the executive commnittee.

A vote of thanks was given to the chairman for his interest in the
work of the association and his kindness in presiding at our meet-
ings, after which the association adjourned sine die.

N. H. Eeeston,
Secretary.

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MEETING

Held in Chicago, Illinois, October 18 and 19, 1893,

IN CONNECTION WITH

The World’s Congress Auxiliary of the World’s Columbian
Exposition.

Wepnespay, Octroser 18, 1893.

The Forestry Congress assembled in room 22 of the Art Institute
at 10 o’clock in the morning, Mr. B. E. Fernow, chairman of the
committee of arrangements, in the absence of the president of
the association, presiding.

After a few introductory remarks on the history, objects, and
scope of the present meeting, the chairman read the following
paper as an introduction to the subject, which he said would occupy
the largest share of the attention of this Congress.

FOREST CONDITIONS AND FORESTRY PROB-
LEMS IN THE UNITED STATES.

By B. E. Ferrnow.

The United States in historic times were not as well wooded as
many other countries. Forest growth never covered as much as
60 per cent. of the vast areas stretching across the continent from
the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean; and yet the impression of an
inexhaustible forest wealth has been always prevalent. This is
readily explained by the distribution of the forest area. The dense
and continuous forest which covered the Atlantic side of the conti-
nent and the immense forest growth that skirts the Pacific Ocean
hardly suggested that nearly half the area of the Union in the
interior, with the exception of the mountain slopes and along the
river courses, was forestless if not treeless, and that the population
which was to settle these fertile acres would have to rely upon the
better wooded parts for material to build their houses and barns
and their railroads.

30

During the 400 years since the advent of the Europeans on this
continent this 60 per cent. or less of woodland has been reduced to
below 25 per cent., not only by clearing for farm purposes, but also
by most wasteful cutting and by careless use of fire, turning into
useless brush or waste land what might have been an ever-produc-
ing resource.

No other people of the earth have consumed virgin forests as
lavishly as have the people of the United States. With a present
consumption of 380 cubic feet of wood per capita, of which over
50 cubic feet is lumber, they excel the consumption of Germany
nearly nine times, that of France nearly 12 times, and that of Great
Britain more than 20 times. And since, even for fire-wood, only
sizeable timber is used, we may reasonably calculate that to furnish
the total present consumption of 24 billion cubic feet or more con-
tinuously not less than one billion acres would have to be kept in
good productive condition, while at present less than half that forest
area exists, and is culled and cut without any regard to reproduc-
tion or future condition.

To be sure, there are still enormous quantities of virgin timber

available, and although some valuable kinds, like the white pine, —

tulip popular, ash, and walnut, are or are soon to become practically
exhausted, large stores of other timbers remain to supply us for
many years.

Yet, even so, serious concern may well be caused with reference
to our future supplies by the reflection that large areas of wood-
land which to the casual and uninitiated observer appear well
wooded are so severely culled of the better kinds of- timber that
for supplies of material useful in the arts they must be counted as
unavailable, the very fact that the inferior kinds were left being a
serious detriment; reforestation with better kinds by natural re-
production being made thereby impossible, and by artificial planting
being made too expensive.

While the rough estimates of our consumption and the condi-
tion of our resources are not reassuring of the future, the student
of political economy may also figure out the loss to the national
commonwealth by depreciation in productive and taxable power of
the devastated thousands of square miles which are found where-
ever the lumberman has finished his work. Furthermore, the effects
of improvident clearing or devastation of mountain forests have
long become apparent in unfavorable water conditions and agricul-
tural productiveness, just as experienced in other countries, like
France, Italy, Austria, etc.

SS Se - e

31

While the loss of material by fires, the scourge of all pioneer
countries, in comparison with bona side consumption is but a small
matter, perhaps 2 to 3 per cent. of the, consumption, the indirect
loss caused by them can hardly be overestimated. Not only is the
fertility of the soil deteriorated by burning of the mould, but the
water-holding capacity of the forest floor, upon which depends the
effectiveness of forest influence upon waterfiow, is destroyed and,
furthermore, conservative forest management is discouraged; the
constant risk from fires is an incentive to turn into cash as quickly
as possible what is valuable in forest growth, leaving the balance to
its fate.

The bulk of the forest lands is owned by private individuals.
The idea of State ownership of laifs, except for public buildings,
forts, etc., and for eventual disposal, has not been germane to the
spirit of our institutions until a few years ago, when the friends of
forestry succeeded in establishing in some parts a new policy.
School lands, indemnity lands, swamp lands, and other lands which
the General Government has given to the States or which they have
owned otherwise have never been held for an income except by
their sale.

Now, however, has not only the State of New York set aside a
forest reserve of nearly 1,000,000 acres, to be gradually increased,
but the President of the United States has received power to set
aside from the public lands forest reservations, under which power
some 17,000,000 acres of public timber land have so far been re-
served, and at the present writing a bill for the rational manage-
ment of this newly “sanctified” public property is on its passage
through Congress, with a fair chance of becoming a law.

The private ownership of forests may be divided into three
classes: the farmers who own wood lots connected with their farms,
probably now not 30 per cent. being so owned; the speculators,
among whom may be included all those who hold forest property
temporarily for the purpose of selling it to obtain the unearned in-
crement from the third class, namely, those who develop and utilize
the forest resources—lumbermen and manufacturers, in whose
hands finally the bulk of the forest area must fall, and to whom we,
therefore, must look for a forest policy.

In addition to the owners of the natural forest resources we must
not forget the forest-planters of the West. These are mainly far-
mers, and the plantations, mostly small groves, increasing in num-
ber, value, and quality, stand to the farm in the same relation as the

32

wood lot in Eastern States. Although this planted area has for the
markets as yet no significance, furnishing hardly anything beyond
fire-wood and fence material, it is beginning to satisfy the owners
that forest-planting is advantageous in many ways, and the experi-
ences gathered in these first attempts will be of value for forest
management in the future.

Forest management as practised abroad, when timber is treated
like a crop, being systematically harvested and replaced, is utterly
unknown, a few feeble attempts on a small scale only being on
record. Beyond an occasional attempt at protecting forest
property from fire no attention is paid to it except when the wood
is to be cut. Usually it is culled of its best timber and then left
to its fate. In many cases, by injudicious use of the axe, followed
by fire, it is turned into useless brush or waste land, with which
many square miles are covered, or it is at least deteriorated in its
composition. Thus a large proportion of what appears still well
wooded is really of no account as far as supplies are concerned.

Such are the forest conditions of the United States.

The forestry problems are the same as those existing in all highly
developed countries. There is no country in which they are fully
solved; the difference is only in degree—some being nearer, others
less near, to solution.

Broadly stated, the forestry problem of the world—and the same
applies to the United States in particular—is, how to reconcile
private interest in forest property with communal interests; how
to secure the needs of the present without impairing the require-
ments of the future; how to utilize the forest material and at the
same time preserve the forest conditions which are favorable to
climate and waterflow.

Private interest, we must never forget, is resolved into the one
word profit ; and mostly only direct and immediate profit, express-
able in dollars and cents, appeals to the private individual.

There is generally but little appreciation of indirect profits or of
distant promises of revenue, and still less regard for neighbors or
future generations in the conduct of private business.

These last considerations concern, however, the community.
While the forest-owner may be satisfied to fill his pocket-book by
wastefully cutting and marketing the best of his timber, leaving
the balance to deteriorate, the community has an interest in seeing
the resources not only fully utilized but continued in productive
capacity ; the community has an interest in maintaining supplies.

33
.
If the private owner does not care whether his forest property,
after he has culled the marketable timber, falls a prey to the fire
and becomes a waste, the community is certainly concerned in such
a result, were it only to preserve the taxing value of its territory.

If by the reckless treatment of the mountain forest the waterflow
is disturbed, this may not concern the forest-owner, but it does
concern the community, whose duty it is to protect its members
against damage by the inconsiderateness of others, to restrict such
use of private property as is detrimental to neighbors or to other
distant interests. Whatever may be thought of other private prop-
erty, the forest, experience, experiment, and sound reasoning have
shown, bears such a close relation to other cultural and to water
conditions that the unrestricted exercise of property rights is apt
to lead to conditions detrimental to the interests of the community
and of coming generations. How and how far restriction may be
applied, or how private forest-owners may be made to consider the
interests of the community in the use of their property, or whether
and where the community had best take possession of the forest
property, that is the general forestry problem.

As far as the Federal Government is concerned, the solution of
the problem has been fairly begun. If the present Administration
be wise, it will reserve from sale all the remaining public timber
lands—somewhat between 50 and 70 million acres only, mostly on
the Western mountain slopes—and organize a management of this
important property, by which its stores are used conservatively with-
out impairing its reproductive capacity. Such management, crude
and simple though it may be at first, consisting of protective meas-
ures mainly, may gradually develop into a rational system of for-
estry.

If the General Government fulfils this duty well, and im addition
supports liberally the bureau of information known as the Forestry
Division, it will have done all that may be expected of it ; not that
other aids and encouragements might not be given, such as the estab-
lishment of a chair of forestry at West Point, where officers may
find instruction in the principles of forestry, fitting them to act in-
telhigently as guardians of the public forest property ; or the national-
ization of an Arbor Day, to arouse more general attention to the
subject; or by legislation regarding tariff on forest products, although
at present it is questionable whether the retention or abolishment
of the existing tariff may have any effect upon forest conservancy,
except, as Mr. Little contends, to remove from the trade papers the

34

consideration of this subject and to substitute the discussion of
forestry problems pure and simple.

But the main reliance for a conservative forest policy, as far as
Government action is concerned, lies with the individual States.
A beginning has been made in New York by establishing a State
Forest Reserve, a feebler beginning in New Hampshire by continu-
ing a Commission of Inquiry; a rational move is to be recorded
from Maine in organizing a protection against fire, and a most
systematic proceeding from Pennsylvania, consisting in a thorough
investigation of the forest conditions of the State with a view to
further action. In other States, like California and Colorado, politi-
cal decrepitude has occasioned at least temporary setbacks to the
attempts at establishing a rational forest policy, while in a few other
States the movement has not advanced beyond the first stages of
agitation and feeble attempts on the part of the governments to
establish a basis for action or to disseminate information on the
subject.

The first step to be taken by the various State governments, it
seems to me, is to place forest property on an equal footing with
other property and give it more ample protection against fire and
depredation. This is not done by mere paper legislation, but re-
quires provision of an executive machinery, the organization of a
‘service which will be effective in the execution of the law, some-
what like that enacted in Maine and more fully set forth in the
Annual Report of the Forestry Division for 1892.

The next step, still more readily made and requiring no new
powers, is to provide for at least a short course of lectures on
forestry at the agricultural colleges, so that more intelligence re-
garding the subject be instilled into the people. To this may be
added scholarships to be given to students that shall enable them
to study abroad the principles of forestry in application, and thus
prepare them to direct intelligently the forest policy of their State
and of individual forest-owners. A third step, also of ready accom-
plishments is to encourage by legislative enactments, similar to
those of Massachusetts but more comprehensive, an interest in
forest property on the part of villages, towns, and corporations,
offering an incentive to them to own and manage such forest areas
as appear of essential value to the maintenance of favorable con-
ditions in the community.

Lastly, after such careful survey as is now being made of forest
conditions in Pennsylvania, the State should possess itself of such

35 :

forest areas as are essential for the maintenance of favorable water
conditions, if the smaller communities cannot be expected to do so.
These lands, as well as any other forest property of the State,
school lands, indemnity lands, etc., should then be properly ad-
ministered; and while the object of such a State management is not
that of private management, namely, profit, such State forests
would nevertheless not only be indirectly profitable, but in time
become one of the most valuable properties the citizens of the
State could boast of.

With such encouragements on the part of the Government as
indicated, private forest-owners will soon take advantage of the im-
proved state of affairs and apply such conservative methods as do
not curtail their present income too much.

Whatever we may think, theoretically, as to the right and pro-
priety for the State to restrict private owners from exercising their
full property rights when it is evident that such exercise is detri-
mental to the interests of the community, practically we shall not
soon see the day when this evident right and propriety of interfer-
ence will be exercised in this country. Hence, unless the State
become itself owner of the land—which, as long as there is valuable
timber on it, will also not readily be done in our country—only indi-
rect influences can change the methods of individual owners.

These influences are the increased protection extended to forest
property, the opportunity of acquiring the necessary knowledge
needed in forest management, the general interest, and the good
example exhibited by the State in the management of its own tim-
ber lands.

By and by, when it becomes also more evident that the supply of
virgin timber is wanting, and that therefore greater profit is to be ex-
pected from a conservative treatment of the remaining timber lands,
these influences will find their reaction in the methods of the private
owners.

To bring about all these various things which are to help in the
solution of our forestry problems, it is most needful to enlighten
the public as to the true meaning of the problem—to make such
propaganda among all classes of our people, and especially among
those who own forest property, as will secure an expression of the
popular intelligence and will. This is done by associated effort of
those who understand the need and importance of action, and it
must be done with reference to local conditions in each section of
country.

36

Hence the first, most important, and most promising step towards
the solution of our forestry problems is the formation and active
exertion of State Forestry Associations, whose function it must be
to shape and bring to execution a State forest policy.

Such associations should be composed of business men, men who
own and use forest property, lumbermen and manufacturers, who
are broad enough to see the need of adjusting private and com-
munal interests on a rational basis, and that private interest will
not suffer when communal interest is subserved.

5

Mr. Fernow then introduced the next speaker in the following
words :

“T have alluded to the one step which the Government of the
United States has taken towards establishing a new forest policy in
this country—the law permitting the reservation of forest areas.
What a mighty step this is he only can realize who knows how diffi-
cult it is to move a popular government to action. To make this
step has required a great deal of perseverance in our propaganda,
but even after the law has reached the statute-book it may find the
fate of three-fourths of our legislation, becoming inoperative for
lack of an executive officer behind it who recognizes its value and
brings it to execution. We have with us to-day the man to whom
the United States owe more in the establishment of a national forest
policy than to anybody else, for he brought that law finally into ex-
istence by applying it—by setting aside, under the President's au-
thority, the first forest reservations, thus making the United States
own lands for other purposes than for sale. I have the honor of
introducing to you the ex-Secretary of the Interior, Honorable John
W. Noble.”

Mr. Noble spoke as follows on Our National Park and Timber
Reservations ; their Importance and Proper Administration :

OUR NATIONAL PARKS AND TIMBER RESERVA-
TIONS; THEIR IMPORTANCE AND PROPER
ADMINISTRATION,

Mr. CHarrMAN AND GENTLEMEN:

I recognize that my invitation to this important congress is due
rather to my official action, while at the head of the Department of
the Interior, in support of the policy of reserving the forests at the
fountain-heads of our rivers, and the establishment of our great

37 :

national parks, than to any particular qualification on my part now
to contribute anything of importance bearing upon the subjects be-
fore you for discussion. When the opportunity offered I did my
best to aid Congress and the President to inaugurate and advance
the policy of timber reservations. That policy has already set apart,
besides the national parks, more than seventeen million acres of the
public domain, to remain unconverted into private fortunes, and with
their mountains and forests, rocks, ravines, and undergrowth, their
glaciers, snows, and streams, their storms and sunshine, to preserve
and perpetuate timber for the people’s use now and hereafter, and,
together with the equable temperature of the zone we inhabit, the
humidity of the atmosphere and soil, the fulness of the rivers that
are to fertilize many millions of acres of our arid lands, to be-
come no more admired and frequented for their wonders and
grandeur, their fauna and flora, their health-giving freedom and
soul-lifting beauty, than loved for the safety and prosperity they
will continue to confer upon new American homes, communities,
and States. The interest taken in the subject by you men of sci-
ence, and the arguments presented, have rendered it possible to
make such progress that the state has given recognition to the
policy and placed itself upon that high plane of economy and states-
manship that recognizes the riches and beneficence our forests em-
brace, and that, looking to the welfare of the future generations no
less than those of to-day, subjects individual greed to lawful and
politic restraint, and compels the inordinately selfish to bide the
national welfare.

We have thus been brought into relationship with the other ciy-
ilized nations of the world on this subject, together with many
others, for the science and practice of forest culture and preserva-
tion have long been recognized by the nations of Europe as most
important. Those nations are interested in our action, as we should
be in theirs. The woods of all countries, like their other products
and manufactures, have become interchangeable commodities, con-
tributing to the commerce and comfort, wealth and refinement of
the different nations of the globe. Weare thus able at this con-
gress to contemplate our interests in this department, not only as
to our own territory but in relation to those of other people of the
world, and by the interchange of knowledge and opinions prepare
the way for an international association for the promotion of for-
estry science.

It has become a prominent duty of the hour to consider the per-

38

petuation of the blessings we enjoy. The fact that many genera-
tions of men must pass away before a forest can be renewed, and
its unwise destruction can be remedied, adds a gravity to your coun-
cils and an importance to your success for humanity’s sake, unsur-
passed by any other; for how much of religion, science or art, edu-
cation, refinement, and progress can there be in a dominion robbed
of its forests and its homes, to all “ hastening ills a prey”?

I speak within the bounds of experience and upon the authority
of great men who have given this subject their investigation in many
lands, and bestowed upon it the thought and labor of their lives.
Humboldt has written that in felling trees growing on the sides and
summits of mountains men under all climates prepare for subse-
quent generations two calamities at once—a lack of fire-wood anda
want of water. Others have declared that by the fatal connection
of cause and effect, which begins with the destruction of forests
and ends in the miseries of the population, man is doomed to share
the ruin of the soil which he has devastated; that forests given up
to sheep, and forests destroyed, make the mountains devoid alike of
woods and of life; that forests exploited on no settled system, left
open and subject to depredations by the natives, desolated by fre-
quent fires, ruined by the passage of flocks of goats and of sheep
which devour the young twigs and shoots, as witnessed in Algiers,
yield no revenue and are soon annihilated; that forests are similar
to the sea, in their influence reducing the natural difference of tem-
perature in different seasons, while their destruction increases the
divergerence between the extreme heat and the extreme cold, imparts
greater violence to atmospheric currents and to torrential rains and
protracted duration of droughts; that it is not wars which have
brought most evil upon the region of the Mediterranean, but aridity,
brought on and aggravated by the reckless destruction of woods
and by the excessive abuse of pasturing sheep on the mountains ;
that while there can be raised one of the finest vines on the Rhine,
where two thousand years ago no cherry ripened, on the other
hand those lands where the dense population of the Jews was
nourished by a fruitful culture are in the present day half deserts ;
the cultivation of clover, requiring a moist atmosphere, has passed
from Greece to Italy, from thence to Southern Germany, and is
already beginning to fly from the continually drier summers there,
to be confined to the moister north; rivers which formerly scat-
tered blessings with equal fulness throughout the whole year now
leave the dry and thirsty bed to split and gape in summer, while in

a

39
spring they suddenly pour out floods from masses of melting snow,
accumulated in winter, over the dwelling-places of affrighted men.

This epitome expresses but a part of the opinions gathered by
Dr. Brown in his book on Modern Forest Economy, published at
Edinburgh in 1884, and were’ Ia Senator I might read the whole
book as a part of my speech, but, as I am here with the majority, I
refrain. The fact is recognized by all scientific men, that whether
or not the forests cause any increase in the rainfall in the regions
where they flourish, they do retard the flow of the rainfall after
precipitation and maintain a general humidity of the atmosphere
and the soil. One author goes so far as to say that the measure
of attention given to trees indicates the condition of agriculture
and the civilization of a country.

I have read with interest and instruction in the publications of
the American Economic Association for May, 1891, the valuable
papers of Mr. Fernow, Mr. Pinchot, and Mr. Bowers, and I wish
these could be placed in the hands of all our people. These papers,
and others like them, could be made the basis of instruction in our
common schools and colleges. They present the American view of
the question of forest administration in a lucid, convincing way and
entirely overthrow the ignorant assertion of some, that the subject
of forestry is a hobby, or, at best, an entertaining theme for enthu-
siasts or sentimentalists.

It will not be deemed invidious, I am sure, for me to also note
the efforts in this behalf of the American Association of Science,
which, by its president, Professor Mendenhall, its secretary, Mr.
Fernow, and their associate committeemen, Messrs. Hilgard, of
California, Berry, of Nebraska, and Saunders, of Canada, presented
to the President of the United States a memorial on behalf of a
proper forest policy, which the President transmitted, with an ac-
companying message, to Congress on January 20, 1890. This was
seconded by another petition of the American Forestry Association
and those interested in forestry, to have forest reserves made.
This policy was advocated by the administration and has been
generously supported by the one now in charge of the Government.
It has not been touched by politics, and is receiving both national
and local support, with some occasional obstruction by those who
are personally interested in appropriating the earth to themselves,
or who are uninformed as to the proper functions of the State and
the true purpose of its existence.

There had been established already by special acts of Congress

40

the Yellowstone National Park, the Yosemite, the Sequoia, the U.
S. Grant, and the reservation of the Hot Springs of Arkansas.
These are placed under the supervision and protection of army
officers with cavalry troops especially detailed, or a superintendent
especially authorized for the purpose.

Where such magnificent and wonderful natural objects exist as
may be found in either of these preserves, the public has been at
once convinced of the propriety of governmental care. There is,
perhaps, no disinterested person who would desire or consent to
the repeal of either these acts of Congress, or allow they should
be so relaxed as to threaten the serious impairment of the reserva-
tions. It is true, private interests, regardless of the public welfare,
oppose some of them, but this is rather to be attributed to selfish-
ness, regardless of the public welfare, than to a want of appreciation
of the national benefits secured. These assaults have, so far, been
fruitless, and we hope will soon, if they have not already, become
wholly discouraged. These parks are in great measure exponents
of our civilization; our advanced recognition, not only of the won-
ders and benefits bestowed upon our country by nature, but also of
our responsibility to all the world for their preservation for the in-
struction and enjoyment of the present and future generations of
mankind. They are already celebrated among all nations, and lt-
erature and art have made them familiar in all households of intel-
ligence. To the present World’s Fair they have supplied objects
that have gained as much aitention and given as much entertain-
ment and pleasure as any here exhibited. They should and must
be maintained.

They are, moreover, valuable object lessons for the treatment of
those other timber reservations now widely made. Captain Wood,
acting superintendent in the reserve about the Yosemite Valley and
of the reservation about the great trees, who has command there of
a cavalry troop, states in his report for the past year that while two
fires occurred, they were both subdued. One reached the Tuo-
lumme Grove and barely touched one of the Sequoias, without
injuring it. This spread from the fire left by some careless camp-
ing party. The other was extinguished by driving it against the
south fork of the Tuolumme River. This originated outside.
There have been no appropriations to supply means to extinguish
such fires, and the troops had to resort to gunny-sacks, brush brooms,
and other crude devices. Heremarks thatthe fires there do not make
much of a current of air, burn slowly, and can usually be approached

4]

with impunity. He suggests that with iron headed and toothed
rakes advantage could be taken of the open spaces and the com-
bustible matter there so arranged as to back-burn and thus check
the fire effectually. It is to be also mentioned that the captain has
ejected the sheep-herders and their flocks on their every advent,
and that, too, without much ceremony.

Captain Anderson, in charge of the Yellowstone National Park,
and alsoin command there of a troop of cavalry, has reported that
after two years of remarkably good fortune in dealing with fires,
there occurred in July a disastrous one, but all the available men
watched and fought this fire for two weeks, and at last, when the
report was made, it was deemed under control. The report is very
instructive as to the great increase of game and fish in the reserva-
tion, but my purpose is to illustrate, by the references made, how
efficient these forces have been, although almost without means, to
discover and check that greatest enemy of the forest—fire. Cer-
tainly true statesmanship would at once supply both exact laws
and efficient means to defend them from all depredations and
losses inflicted by lawless men or the elements, and these laws and
means should, in like wisdom, be extended to the greater timber
reservations. ;

Of the timber reservations, we now have the following: In
Colorado, that of the White River Plateau, of more than a million
acres; the Pike’s Peak, of nearly two hundred thousand aeres ;
the Plum Creek, of about the same dimensions; the South Platte,
of more than half a million acres; and of the Battlement Mesa, of
over eight hundred thousand acres. In New Mexico, that of the
Pecos River, of over three hundred thousand acres. In Oregon,
that of Bull Run, of nearly two hundred thousand acres; that of
the Cascade Range, of about four million and a half acres; and of
Ashland, embracing nearly nineteen thousand acres. In Wyoming,
the addition to the Yellowstone National Park, of nearly a million
and a quarter acres. In California, the San Gabriel, of over hali a
million acres; that of the Sierra, of over four million acres; of the
San Bernardino, of over seven hundred thousand acres ; and that
of the Trabuco Canyon, of about fifty thousand acres. In Wash-
ington, that of the Pacific, of nearly a million acres. In Arizona,
that of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, of over one million eight ~
hundred thousand acres. In Alaska, that of the Afognak Forest,
and Fish Cullure Reservation, embracing the whole island and cir-
cumjacent rocks and waters. These reservations embrace in all
over seventeen million acres.

42

These reservations are chiefly at the sources of great rivers and
among the mountains, and all in regions almost altogether unsuit-
able for agriculture. No doubt parts of each could sustain a few
farms or ranches or graze a small number of cattle, but in the main
they are as I have designated. They were each carefully inspected
by competent officers, who not only with great labor traversed
these distant and almost inaccessible wilds, but canvassed for the
public opinion of the people around about where they were made,
and gave long and exact notice of the purpose for making these
reservations. They were made with careful preservation of all ex-
isting legal claims by individuals. They are not so reserved as to
be of use only in their natural unimproved condition, but those
interested as a community are allowed to go upon thenffor the
purpose of accumulating and directing the water for the general
use; but not to destroy or individually appropriate to personal
advantage what God and the Government have ordained should be
for all. An illustration or two will show the general purpose.

From the Sierra Range, where are reserved, as we have seen,
the four million acres, run the waters to feed the streams of the
San Joaquin Valley. In these vast solitudes are garnered snows
that im places reach the depth of forty feet, and there are forests
and undergrowth, of great extent, that in their natural condition
protect and preserve the waters, as the snows melt, in such degree
that they supply the rivers for a great part, if not the entire sum-
mer, making the lower lands, under due cultivation, fruitful and the
pride of the State. But already, before the reserve was effected,
the sheep-herder was gradually invading these mountains with his
immense flocks, making hayoe on all sides. These flocks, as we have
already noted, as they have done in other lands, were rapidly de-
nuding the surface of all herbage, and each succeeding year the
herder was increasing in his anxiety that the sun should have early
effect upon the snow, and that the waters should escape that the
grass and flora might the earlier appear and be available for forage.
It was but a duty of good government to stay this vandalism and
assert the national power to secure a nation’s rights.

In the vast aréa around the Yosemite Valley, the sheep had, be-
fore that reservation by Congress, already cut down the under-
growth, so that there was scarcely enough even for the sheep them-
selves, and the goat would soon have had to be substituted, as in
Algiers. This reserve, under the protection of the United States
cavalry from May to November, is once more assuming the condi

ee Se

43

tion of usefulness and beauty that gives assurance of permanent
future prosperity to the neighboring valleys.

Along the Colorado Canyon grow the most extensive forests
of large pine trees, and with these are associated the attractions
and wonders of the canyon itself, explored by and to be ever
associated with the name of one of the best friends of the cause we
adyocate—Major J. W. Powell. These the railroads and the timber
speculator have not yet reached. When they arrive, there will be a
mighty effort of the lobby to undo the reservation and confer upon
individuals and corporate bodies the wealth of the people and the
safety of future generations. It is to be hoped, and indeed it may
now be well expected, that the strength of your associations will
have so increased, and the knowledge of what is at stake so gener-
ally diffused among our citizens everywhere, that all such efforts will
fail, and the legislation in behalf of all these reservations will have
become more elaborate and effective and worthy of our Govern-
ment, so that the great trust Nature and Nature’s God have imposed
upon us will be regarded and enforced.

What should be the detail of that protection there is not time to
specify. But this much is apparent: the forests already reserved
by executive proclamation should be confirmed by statute; they
should be surveyed and plainly marked by lasting monuments.
Around about them and through them at moderate intervals should
be made passage-ways sufficiently wide to form barriers to fires ;
over them should be appointed superintendents, each with a corps
of mounted guards to patrol and protect the woods from fire and
spoliation. Concerning them should be established rules for their
legitimate and needful use by the people, according to the demands
of agriculture and homes, with exact and severe penalties for all
wilful violations of the law and all fraudulent practices; and, be-
hind all, a bureau with schools of instruction to prepare those to
be employed by intelligence and experience for the exact and
efficient performance of their forestry duties. The system should
be extended over the Indian reservations. No better or more rational
instruction could to-day be conferred upon the Indians themselves,
who possess great forests, than instruction in forestry, so that
they should appreciate and economize the wealth they have. The
rules of civil service should be applied to the officers and most of
the employees at the reservation, so they would represent the peo-
ple and not politicians.

If we can thus preserve these vast and valuable domains, the

44

great system of irrigation now so rapidly advancing will grow to
the full extent of redeeming many millions of acres of the arid lands,
and be continued to all coming generations. Nature, aided by
man’s intelligence and industry, will bestow her waters upon the
deserts, and our ever increasing and expanding population will en-
joy a new and unexpected inheritance, now abandoned to the sage-
brush and the cactus. There will arise new fields of fertility and
new avenues of commerce. The products of the labor at the homes
and cities there in agriculture, horticulture, and manufactures will
secure for the inhabitants a prosperity and a civilization that will
vie with, if they do not surpass in variety and splendor, those of our
proudest rain-blessed commonwealths. Instead of such desolation
as that of the lands along the Nile, the Tigris, and Euphrates,
which now characterizes our arid regions, they will create and sus-
tain communities and cities with which Alexandria, Nineveh, and
Babylon in the height of their power cannot be compared; for they
will not. only exceed them in wealth, power and refinements of
life, but they will enjoy a Christian civilization and the blessings
of a free republican government.

45

THE RELATION OF FORESTS TO CLIMATE
AND HEALTH.

By CiLevetAnp ABBE.

[Read at World’s Fair Congress, Oct., 1893. ]

The surface of our globe is about four-fifths water and one-fifth
land. Of this land one-fifth is now or was covered with forests
before man destroyed them. We have therefore to recognize the
fact that only one-twenty-fifth, or four per cent. of the surface of
the globe, is naturally covered by forest areas, and that these can
therefore exert a relatively small and not a preponderating influ-
ence on the general condition of the atmosphere.

On the other hand, the areas that would naturally be covered by
forests are precisely those in which man loves to dwell. The trees
afford him shade, food, and lumber, and their decayed vegetation
has covered the naked, barren clay, gravel, sand, and rock, with a
vegetable mould in which he can raise the plants that he needs for
food and clothing. Undoubtedly, man may be properly considered
an animal adapted to live in groves and forests, and in clearings in
the midst of the forest. He was not originally an arctic animal,
nor an aquatic creature, nor a denizen of the prairie; but from his
natural history we can safely infer the correctness of the Mosaic
record, which asserts that our ancestry began among the trees of
the Garden of Eden. There is an intimate relation between the
forests of the world and the migrations and development of the
human race. Although the forests may not affect the atmosphere
or the average climate of the whole earth to any great extent, and
although their very existence depends upon certain broad climatic
conditions over which they have no control, yet within a certain
limit they produce a local climate of their own which is extremely
favorable to the prosperity of mankind. Barbarian tribes have
always sought the forests as a home, civilized man has destroyed
the forests ; a higher civilization teaches us to restore them.

MerroroLogicaL INFLUENCES oF ForESTS.

The actual difference between the climate in a forest region and
that which would exist were the forest cut away gives us a proper

46

measure of the influence which that forest has exerted by its pres-
ence in modifying the local climate, and it is this local modification
that we are interested in.

1. The temperature of the soil and its drainage water is on the
average much lower within the shade of a forest than in the open
sunshine, and this effect is greater as the forest is denser; the mid-
day temperatures and the mid-summer temperatures of the air
within a forest are reduced much more than the night and winter
temperatures are raised. In general it is even so much warmer
under the forest at night-time that frost cannot occur on the sur-
face of the ground in the early morning hours.

2. In the daytime the mean temperature of the air in the tree-
tops is rather higher than at the same height above ground in the
open fields. The mean temperature below the tree-tops at four
or five feet above the ground is lower in the forest than at the same
height over open fields. Again, the mean temperature at consider-
able heights above the tree-tops is somewhat higher than at the
same total height above ground in an open region. Evidently the
sunshine caught by the leaves and branches of the crown of the
tree warms up not only the crown but the air above it to a less
extent, but very much as if the surface of a meadow had been
raised to the level of the crown of a similar tree. A similar condi-
tion exists when the earth is shielded from sunshine by the clouds
and fog. Just as the surface of the ground is hotter than the soil
beneath or the air above, so the crown of a forest is warmer than
the air below and the air above it. A small fraction of the slightly
higher temperature within a forest may also be due to the heat
given out by the chemical processes involved in the growth of
trees.

3. Humidity.—Within the forests the quantity of moisture
thrown into the air by transpiration from the leaves is far greater
than the evaporation from a water surface that is not exposed to
wind and sunshine; but under the influence of wind and sunshine
the transpiration from the leaves is less than the evaporation from
a water surface. The evaporation from a saturated bare soil in the
cool shades of the forest is about the same as from a water surface
in the same position as to wind and sunshine. The total quantity
of moisture returned into the atmosphere by transpiration from the
trees and by evaporation from the soil of a forest is about 75 per
cent. of the precipitation, whereas the evaporation from the same
soil when away from the forest is scarcely 30 per cent. of the pre-

47

cipitation. Therefore the tendency of a forest is to increase both
the absolute and relative humidity of the atmosphere; forests of
evergreens have two to four times the influence in increasing the
relative humidity than forests of deciduous trees.

4. Rain and Snow.—Some have maintained that at stations
within a forest the rainfall is actually larger than at points beyond
the forest influence; personally I believe that although the quan-
tity of rain caught in the gauges may be larger, yet this excess is
principally due to the absence, at the forest gauges, of such strong
winds as prevail in the open fields: a strong wind diminishes the
catch of the gauge (unless the mouth of the gauge be protected),
but does not diminish the true rainfall itself. On the other hand,
the tendency of the loose soil of the forest is to absorb and retain
much more moisture than is held by the firmer soil of the open
prairie; therefore both the texture and the temperature of the soil
conspire to enable it to retain a large proportion of the rainfall.
Moreover, the snow that is protected by the forest from the sun-
shine and wind is thereby prevented from melting and evaporating
rapidly. The annual evaporation at the surface of the ground is
about 12 per cent. of the rainfall within the forest, but about 40 per
cent. in the open field. We see, therefore, in every respect the ten-
dency of a forest to conserve the rainfall. It not only shields it
from evaporation and uses less of it for the growth of the forest
than would be used in the growth of grasses or herbs, but it con-
serves what is left in the forest soil so as to diminish, or at least
regulate, the drainage into the river basins, thereby diminishing the
danger of destructive floods.

5. What we have said with reference to the temperature and
moisture of the soil and the air within a forest applies to a less ex-
tent to the influence of the forest on the climate of the neighboring
country. Stations located in small clearings or openings, or forest
glades, are of course most influenced by the surrounding trees.
Stations on the windward side are more influenced than those on
the leeward side. Dense forests have a stronger influence than the
lightly forested country. Forests in regions where light winds
prevail have a greater local influence than those in the regions of
strong winds. Forests located on mountain sides and highlands
have an influence on the temperature and moisture of the country
below them. The cool and moist air of the forest, by settling down-
wards in the daytime, although it is warmed dynamically as
well as by isolation, still preserves a lower temperature and a

48

higher humidity thau would have prevailed in the case of no forest.
In the afternoon hours this influence of the forest air may become
so great as to have an appreciable effect in slightly increasing the
intensity and frequency of the local thunder-storms. The so-called
vertical gradient of temperature, or the diminution of temperature
per hundred feet of ascent, must be 0.55 degrees F. or more per
hundred feet when the lower atmosphere is in the condition that is
called stable equilibrium. This condition of stability always pre-
vails within the forest on a horizontal plain, so that storms do not.
originate within it, but the relation of the forests on the mountain
sides to the air of the valley below may easily be such that in the
daytime instability exists and the cool forest air descends, pushing
up the hot air of the lower valley until a cloud and rain or thunder-
storm is formed. On the other hand, at night-time this same
forest keeps its air from whirling rapidly, and therefore will not
send the air down to the cold valley below. Therefore the influence
of forested hilltops is quite the opposite to that of the naked sur-
faces of stony peaks and bare fields of deforested areas, whose
heated surfaces send up hot air by day and send down cold air by
night. Thus the effect of the forest-covered mountains is to dimin-
ish the cold night winds and the hot day breezes in the valleys
below and to favor the formation of local cloud and rain in the
valleys.

As the air that flows down the mountain side during the night.
from a forest has a higher dew-point and a lower temperature than
that which flows down from an unforested surface, therefore a less.
amount of cooling will cause it to form fog; hence the crops in the
valley are more likely to be sheltered by the fog from dangerous
frosts.

During the night-time the air within a forest is warmer than
that above it, and the so-called stable equilibrium slowly rises, while
the cooler air above percolates downwards through the leaves. If
the forest is in a level plain or at the bottom of a valley, then this
interchange is a very slow process, and no sooner does the warmer,
moist air ascend and mix with the cooler air above the tree-tops
than its temperature begins to cool enough to form a fog in the
early morning hours over the forest instead of beneath the forest
as when the latter crowns the mountain-top. By this formation of
fog the forest again shows its ability to favor the retention of its
heat and prevent injurious frost.

On the leeward side of a forest the effect of the circulation or

esd te

49

interchange of the interior and exterior air is appreciable for a
short distance, especially in the summer-time. The most interest-
ing forest influence on the leeward side is that which it exerts by
virtue of its action as a wind-break ; but for this purpose a forest is
scarcely necessary, since the few rows of tall trees or a small wood-
land break up the power of the strong winds of our prairies. It
has, in fact, been customary to plant rows of trees running north
and south so as to break up the cold, dry, west winds without cut-
ting off too much sunshine from the soil. A series of wind-breaks
may be considered as a forest that has been thinned out until it
has become a series of clearings or glades. Within such glades we
have less wind, therefore there is less evaporation from the soil,
therefore the temperature of the soil is higher and its moisture is
greater; similarly, the temperature of the air is higher, and all these
conditions favor the growth of plants. On the other hand, these
same conditions also increase the liability to injurious frosts during
still, clear nights, and more especially because the increased heat of
air and soil in the daytime stimulates the plants to a more rapid
and delicate growth, that is more easily injured by frost; but this
latter danger is again set off by the increasing tendency to form
protective fogs.

The protection that a forest offers as a wind-break to the adjoin-
ing fields on its leeward side is effective not only by diminishing
the force of the wind, but by the consequences that flow from this
latter action. A diminished wind means that the sluggish moving
air shall be warmed up in the daytime by contact with the ground,
much more than would be the swiftly moving air when the wind-
break is absent. This reacts upon the ground itself, so that as a
consequence both soil and air are warmer.

The evaporation from the surface of the soil is also greatly di-
minished, in consequence of which not only does the soil retain
more moisture, but it is also warmer than it would be under the
influence of a strong wind. At the same time, the air above the
soil acquires a higher percentage of relative humidity. For both
these reasons the plant has more water at its disposal stored in the
earth, while the leaves, apparently, are in less need of water and
transpire less. In this manner a wind-break contributes to pre-
serve the plant against droughts. A double row of tall trees 500
feet apart, running north and south, has a sensible effect and will
effectually protect a large area.

Not only is the soil kept slightly warmer, but it is even prevented

50

from freezing, and, in addition to this, the snowfall is distributed
so much more evenly in the lee of the wind-break that, when it
melts, a much more uniform amount of moisture soaks into the
warm, porous, unfrozen soil.

The forests upon a mountain side exert an indirect influence in
increasing the quantity of moisture that eventually reaches the
ground, but one that is only appreciable when the forests are them-
selves involved in the clouds which form high up on the mountain
side. These clouds, which, to a distant observer, seem stationary
and attached to the mountain, are really permeated by strong
winds, and every globule of moisture that helps to make up the
cloud is being rapidly carried by the wind from one side of the
cloud to the other. The little globules become visible on the wind-
ward side of the cloud, they grow a little larger, then begin to
diminish, and by the time they reach the leeward side they have
evaporated and disappeared entirely. Meanwhile many of them
have struck the mountain side; the rocks are everywhere moist
with them ; the leaves and the branches are dripping, and so far as
this drip soaks into the ground it abundantly serves the place of
an ordinary rain, which, by its continuance hour after hour and
day after day, maintains the mountain side in a state of perfect
verdure. This drip of the trees gathered from clouds and fog
goes far to maintain the woodlands of Maine and Maritime prov-
inces of Canada. It supports the rare orchids on Table Mountain
and the lichens on the black rocks of Pungo-Andongo and gives to
the Island of Ascension its beautiful Green Mountain. But this
mechanical action by which the leaves catch the floating globules
of the cloud is, of course, also a very local action ; nevertheless, it is
extremely important, since by this process all the mountains of the
world might be covered with forests without the help of rain. By
this process the presence of forests in the cloud region itself deter-
mines a slight increase of catch of moisture, and this increase is
larger for forests than for the bare rocks and soil, although it is
appreciable even for them. Evidently, the catch depends directly
upon the area of the leaf surface and the velocity of the wind. I
estimate that on the summit of Green Mountain the leaves, against
which the clouds are driven with little intermission, night and day,
catch an equivalent of one inch in depth of rainfall daily; but it must
be remembered that this so-called drip covers but a very small
area of the island and is followed by a very rapid evaporation as
soon as the water has descended a few rods below the dripping

51

trees. This really enormous catch is paralleled by the great growth
of frost work in the winter season on Mount Washington and other
summits. The correspondingly enormous loss by evaporation
within a few minutes after the water is caught makes this form of
precipitation almost useless for agricultural purposes; it is as
though one perpetually washed the leaves without wetting the
roots.

The ability of the forest soil to hold a large quantity of moisture
is peculiarly important when the trees have overgrown the moraines
of boulders and gravel left by recent glacial action. The best
illustration of this is found in the forests from Maine to Labrador.
Here the soil is often only a mass of large boulders, on and be-
tween which lichens and mosses first grew in the days when the
surface of the ground was higher above the sea-level than it now is.
Into this mass of hard rock and fine vegetable mould the roots of
the great forest trees deeply penetrate, and this matrix affords all
the mechanical support and liquid nourishment that is needed.
This matrix covers the land to an average depth of five feet; the
volume of the spongy matter contained therein is equivalent to an
average depth of 14 feet, while the volume of the rock is equivalent
to a depth of 34 feet. The volume of water that can be absorbed
by the spongy soil is fully equivalent to a depth of nine inches.
When a forest fire has consumed this spongy soil and left little
else than naked boulders, a hundred years is needed to even
partially replace this loss, and meanwhile the falling rain-water
drains rapidly away, producing floods in the rivers and leaving the
land exposed to droughts. To preserve our forests is to preserve
this precious water for the use of animals, plants, and men.

Hyaienic INFLUENCES oF ForESTS.

The relations of forests to the biologic and hygienic conditions in
their immediate neighborhood are, I believe, only beginning to be
realized, and I would express my conviction that in hygienic mat-
ters the forests have an influence that extends far beyond their im-
mediate neighborhood, and that is far more subtile and more im-
portant to the human race than are their purely meteorological or
physical influences. The word “ climate ” is used in two very different
senses by the meteorologist and the sanitarian. To the former it
means the characteristic combination of temperature, moisture,
sunshine and rain, wind and pressure; but the sanitarian adds to
all this a very important property of the atmosphere which is not

52

generally considered by the meteorologist—namely, its power to
carry from place to place those minute particles of dust and those
minute living germs of disease which often decide as to the habitabil-
ity of any place and affect the development of the human race as
much as do the meteorological elements.

It seems to have been abundantly demonstrated that mankind
flourishes when the atmospheric conditions are uniform, as also
when the regular diurnal and annual changes, no matter how se-
vere they are, can be clearly foreseen and provided against. It is
the irregular, sudden, or the so-called non-periodic and almost ab-
normal changes, especially of temperature and moisture, that are
injurious to the human race, and the more so in proportion as they
are unforeseen and cannot be suitably provided for. This leads me
to remark that the great development of the modern weather
bureau, with its telegraphic predictions of blizzards, cold waves,
frosts, rains, and storms, which are now so common in every civil-
ized nation throughout the globe, has done quite as much to
ameliorate the hygienic conditions of mankind as it has done to
benefit the agriculturist or to save life and property at sea. The
modern weather bureau is one of the most beneficial applications
of human knowledge. From many points of view every living be-
ing depends upon the atmosphere for his prosperity, and needs to
be forewarned of its occasional irregularities. Therefore, while we
give a few minutes to consider the influence of forests in ameliorat-
ing the hygienic effects of a variable climate, we must also bear in
mind that most of the unpleasant features can now be largely
counteracted by a proper use of the observations and predictions
of the daily weather map.

A sudden fall in temperature—and in the United States we some-
times have a fall of 40 Fah. within an hour—is, of all meteorological
phenomena, the most fatal to human health and life, and especially
when it is accompanied by high wind and a blinding snow or sleet
or rain. Cold waves of this kind sweep over Texas and Florida
and eastward to Maine; similar cold blasts, known as the bora
in Southern Russia and as the buran in Siberia, sweep over these
countries; a corresponding phenomenon is known in China; the
pamperos of South America, although not so cold, belong to the
same class of winds. Inasmuch as a forest growth does slightly
diminish the tendency toward sudden changes of temperature, it
has been said that possibly these extended storms could, by the
forests, be mollified as to their severity or diminished as to their

53

frequency ; but a more thorough study of the mechanics of the
atmosphere and the origin of these winds will, I think, serve to show
that this hope is not likely to be realized, since the forest influence
is too slight and we must look to the weather bureau to forewarn
us of the coming of these cold storms, which, in fact, are able to de-
stroy the forests themselves.

If we except these great atmospheric phenomena, we may say
that our forests do favorably affect the atmosphere in its relations
to human health and life. The prominent hygienic relations be-
tween mankind and forests consist, as I look at the question, in the
following particulars, which I need only to briefly mention in order
that their importance may be recognized :

1. A forest reserve constitutes the best means of collecting and
storing up water for domestic use in cities and for manufacturing
purposes on rivers and small mill-streams. A city whose thousands
depend on a reservoir of water is brought face to face with epi-
demic if it is polluted, or with famine and pollution if drought pre-
vails. The only known remedy for this disaster consists in main-
taining a forest reserve; artesian wells may do for small communi-
ties, but the cool forest alone suffices for the needs of a large pop-
ulation.

2. A forest reserve constitutes the ideal ground for that recrea-
tion that is absolutely essential to health and happiness of the Cau-
casian and Aryan races. The prairie and the ocean must be sup-
plemented by mountains, forests, and lakes if we are to have an
ideal globe. Without forests we go back to the condition of China,
Persia, Asia Minor, and Turkey. A grove or thinly wooded country
gives the natural and the best protection from the too powerful
rays and heat of the sun. There are races that have developed
under the influence of life on the treeless prairie. Such are the
Cossacks, Tartars, and Samoyeds of Russia and Siberia, the natives
of the pampas of South America, the Comanches, Sioux, and Esqui-
maux of North America. There are other tribes that have been
built to stand the freest exposure to the hot sun of the tropics, as
the African negro; but wherever the higher civilization of the Cau-
casian race has penetrated it has been necessary for them to avoid
the action of the midday sun on the brain and nervous system, and
to cultivate thick protection for the head. Our own race, which is
now peopling America, must learn to cultivate the conditions that
favor life and health; it finds that the forest is a necessity; trees
must be planted even in our cities, shade must be provided, and the

54

eye must be relieved of the blinding glare of the full sunshine ; the
skull must be protected by turban or hat. The death of John
Carver, the first governor of the Plymouth colony, in April, 1621,
was a case of cerebral meningitis, following a sunstroke, on the
first hot day of the early spring, and has been followed by so many
similar cases throughout the Atlantic states that the sunstroke is
universally dreaded in this country.

3. There is another class of forests, such as those of the eucalyp-
tus, concerning which it has been maintained that these have re-
markable efficiency in absorbing the excessive water from marshy
soils, thereby drying up the excess of water and diminishing the
intensity of malarial fevers. If this were true, the forests would be
peculiarly welcome from a hygienic point of view, but I will not.
maintain that this proposition has as yet been very satisfactorily
demonstrated. I incline to a slightly different explanation of the
phenomenon, the tenor of which may be gathered from the follow-
ing paragraph:

During the past ten years both sanitarians and biologists have
become convinced of the profound importance of bacteriology in
connection with the health, the disease, and the death of all the
forms of animal and vegetable life. The cholera germs spread over
Asia and Europe from the polluted waters of rivers; the malarial
fever germs in the severe types belong to the marshes and river
bottoms that bake in the sunshine of Africa, India, and other hot
countries; the malaria of milder types comes from the somewhat
cooler climates where the forests have been cut down and the soil
turned up with the plow. The typhoid and the yellow-fever epi-
demics have in some way to do with high temperature and soil and
water, but nowhere have the bacteria that are injurious to man been
found flourishing in the oceans or the forests. We have indeed in
the forests many forms of decomposition going on; moulds and
fungi abound, but these all flourish in diffused light or darkness,
and at low temperatures, and do not spread very rapidly or far ow-
ing to the feeble winds within the forest.

It would seem that the higher forms of bacteria, which alone can
live and do injury at a temperature of 104 Fahr. within the human
body, do not thrive at the low temperatures prevailing in forest soil,
although they may possibly exist there; but when this soil is
washed down to muddy flats and baked in the sunshine, or when
the forest is cut down and the land cultivated by the farmer, who
welcomes the sunshine as his friend, then the hot surface soil be-

55

comes the very nidus that is needed for this form of bacterial
development. Just asa field or a city park strewn with stable
manure too often gives up to the winds the bacteria of diphtheria
and spreads that fearful scourge, so do the ploughed fields of a
fresh clearing in the woods give up the germs of malaria to the
winds, and they are thus carried to the greatest distances. Who
does not know of the sickness that pervades the communities that
live on the leeward side of swamps and river flats?

As I write these lines my eye lights on the following paragraphs
by Stanley in his “Darkest Africa” (Vol. II, p. 31):

“ While we have travelled through the forest region we have
suffered less from African fevers than we did in the open country
between Mataddi and Stanley Pool.

“A long halt in the forest-clearing soon reminds us that we are
not yet so acclimated as to utterly escape the effects of malaria.
But when within the enclosed wood our agues are of a very mild
form, soon extinguished by a timely dose of quinine.

“Tf there is a thick screen of primeval forest between the
dwelling-place and a large clearing or open country, there is only
danger of the local malaria around the dwelling, which might be
rendered harmless by the slightest attention to the system ; but in
the open country neither a house nor a tent is sufficient protec-
tion, since the air enters by the doors of the house, and under the
flaps and through the ventilators, to poison the inmates.

“Hence we may infer that trees, tall shrubbery, a high wall, or
close screen interposed between the dwelling-place and the wind
currents will mitigate their malarial influence, and the inmate will
be subjected only to local exhalations.

“min Pasha informed me that he always took a mosquito-
curtain with him, as he believed that it was an excellent protection
against miasmatic exhalations of the night.”

The relief that we feel when breathing the air within the forest,
as compared with the irritation often experienced outside of the
forest, is undoubtedly due both to the purity of the forest air, to-
gether with its higher relative humidity, in which respects the forest
and the ocean air resemble each other.

A remarkable collection of facts, relative to malarial fevers, is
given by Dr. H. M. Clark, of Amritsar, India, in the last number of
the Scottish Geographical Magazine (Vol. IX, p. 281). Dr. Clark’s
experience in India justifies him in stating that the planting of trees
is a measure of special hygienic importance. Belts of trees judi-

56

ciously planted are of the greatest service; not only do they screen
and shade the soil, thereby keeping it cool and preventing the de-
velopment of the germs, but they intercept the poison and act
mechanically as preventive agents. The tall, stately forest trees
with dense foliage are undoubtedly the best; those having thin
crowns are unsuitable. The shade-bearing trees with dense crowns
are those that effectually screen from malaria-laden winds, intercept
the rainfall, and protect the earth from the sun. In this respect the
Indian fig or banyan, the peepul, the mango, and especially the
plantain or banana trees, are retnarkably efficient. These general
conclusions, especially applicable to India, may well apply also to
the United States.

The forests, therefore, act to diminish malaria:

1. By shading the soil so that its coolness prevents the growth
of malarial bacteria.

2. By diminishing the wind at the level of the soil and thus pre-
venting the spread of bacteria.

3. By sifting the wind through their leaves, the trees catch the
germs or delay their progress and give them time to settle to the
ground, thereby protecting localities to the leeward.

4. Facilitating the formation of fog at night-time, by which the
germs are carried down to the ground and the air purified.

From a hygienic point of view reforestation promises to be of
great importance to the nation. We may, by studying eastern coun-
tries, see at once what we shall come to if we omit or neglect this
process. I suppose that the planting of a forest in a malarial region
does really diminish the tendency to disease, as has been so often
maintained, and, in accordance with what I have just said, I should
explain this efficiency as due, not to drainage nor to the absorptive
powers of the eucalyptus nor to the anti-malarial influence of the
sunflower, but to the fact that the forest covering shades and cools
the soil to such an extent that the cool earth is no longer capable
of developing the injurious forms of protozoa and bacteria. A soil
that is alternately warm and cold, dry and wet, as is the case in the
open fields, presents the best conditions for the development and
dissemination, by the winds, of these microscopic germs. Carried
to great distances by the wind, they settle in the water that we
drink, and the food that we eat; they are inhaled into the lungs;
they alight on every open sore or cut; they slip into the eyes and
into the ears; they besiege us from the time that we are born until
they have brought us low in death. Panting for a breath of fresh

57

air and for respite from their influence, we take a long sea voyage,
or we welcome the great areas of purer cold air that come down to
us from the upper regions as cold waves, or we sniff the fresh air
after a rain or snow storm has washed off the atmosphere, and say,
“ How delightful!” In many ways man shows his innate hatred of
dusty air; he seeks for fresh air by a few days on the mountains
and in the woods; he chooses his dwellings on the windward side
of the city, and, if possible, among the trees; he pays higher prices
for the woodland than for corresponding open fields; he plants
wind-breaks between himself and the winds, or anti-malarial groves
between himself and the marshes. By his acts, if not by his
theories, he recognizes the principle that the forest is essential to
health and happiness.

Man must till the ground; some portion of the forest area must
be cleared and cultivated. The forest soil that was so useful as a
holder of water, the trees that were so graceful for food and
foliage, the forest that was so beautiful to the esthetic man, the
playground that was frequented for recreation, must be demolished ;
but at what a fearful sacrifice, when we thereby stimulate the de-
velopment of injurious bacteria and rob ourselves of pure rain and
water.

A soil once cleared, drained, and cultivated may, after a while,
become innocuous, but experience shows that in less than a hundred
years after the removal of a forest the fertility of the soil has
greatly diminished ; the rains have washed away three-fourths of
its nitrogenous ingredients; the hot sun has dried up and the
storm winds have carried away another portion; the crop that is
cut by the farmer has robbed the land of its small portion, and the
land has become barren unless the most energetic artificial methods
have been used to replace this loss. From this time forth the one
simple and natural remedy is to return that land to its forested
condition as rapidly as possible. Afforestation is an absolutely
necessary sequel to deforestation. There must be a rotation of
these two conditions, century in and century out, just as systemati-
cally as in the annual rotation of the ordinary grain crops. Every
acre that is not needed for agriculture must be immediately planted
and converted into forests if we would manage our territory on the
most economical and rational system.

58

RELATION OF FOREST COVER TO WATER-
FLOW.

By M. C. Reap, Hudson, Ohio.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The peculiarities of climate and the amount of rainfall are the
important factors in determining the character of forest growth.
To what extent the forests react upon the climate and modify its
character is in most respects a disputed question. In this country
it is not yet determined whether the extensive destruction of the
forests has affected the amount of rainfall, but a very slight obser-
vation suffices to show that it has had a very important influence
on the disposition of the rain-water after it has fallen. This influ-
ence can be learned as readily from the study of the character of
the forest cover as it can from the visible effects of its removai.

A typical forest is not a mere aggregation of timber trees, and
such wooded areas have only a moderate influence upon the dispo-
sition of rainfall. The dense undergrowth of shrubs, vines, and
herbaceous plants are of prime importance, as well for the good of
the forests as for its climatic influence. I have, in several instances,
known of farm-forest reservoirs being completely destroyed by
cutting out this undergrowth, regarded as useless, for the purpose
of promoting the growth of the valuable timber, and securing the
growth of grasses, so as to enlarge the pasturing area of the farm.

The forest areas of the northern and eastern States of the Union
were generally of this typical character. In the swamps there was
an almost impenetrable undergrowth of shrubs and herbaceous
plants, and beneath them often a thick carpet of sphagnous moss.
The uplands and hills carried a thick growth of large timber with a
tangle of shrubs and vines and a smaller growth of herbs beneath,
while the mountains were covered with a dense growth of smaller
trees and shrubs pushing their roots into all the crevices of the
rocks, which were too thinly covered with soil for the support of
trees, but were generally covered with mosses, in which the roots
of small shrubs and herbs found a foothold.

In all these areas the falling leaves were retained in the places
where they fell, constituting a thick mulch, and by their gradual
decay adding an annual increment to the soil.

59 :

Under such conditions, except when the ground was frozen, the
heaviest rainfall would not cause a flood. The larger part of the
water was retained in the place where it fell until it sank into the
soil beneath, descending until it reached an impenetrable rock or
clay stratum, along which it flowed until it found an outlet in various
springs at a lower level. These springs were mainly the sources of
the small streams, which, uniting into larger ones, found their way
into the swamps, where their onward flow was checked, where they
were spread out over the large surface of the swamps and the lakes
and ponds usually connected with them, giving time for a large
part of the water to sink into the strata below. The drainage was
largely subterranean. The mass of the water in the streams was
derived from springs from successively lower and lower elevations,
keeping the flow nearly uniform and the water practically clear and
limpid, as there was substantially no erosion or wash of the surface
soil even in the hilly and mountainous regions. The streams were
fed with filtered water. This has now all been changed; much of
the change has been necessary and inevitable ; some of it unneges-
sary and improvident.

The first work in the interest of agriculture was the destruction
of forests. This was generally commenced on the dry land with a
gentle surface drainage, and accomplished by cutting and burning
the underbrush and timber, or on oak land by cutting and burning
the undergrowth, and girdling the oaks, leaving them to die and
gradually go to decay. These modes were not as wasteful as
would now seem, as there was no market for lumber, and there was
a marked advantage in returning to the soil as much as possible
of the forest growth. On this kind of land the removal of the
timber had at first but a slight influence on the surface drainage.
The large amount of vegetable matter made the soil porous and
absorbent, so that it received and retained most of the rainfall.
As the roots decayed they left a net-work of subterranean channels
which carried the water down to the subsoil and away beneath the
surface. After years of cultivation these cavities became obliter-
ated, the soil compacted, and the farmers were surprised to see
land, formerly free from surface water, now so wet as to be almost
valueless for tillage. In this condition the water was retained
upon the surface until the depressions were filled and then largely
flowed off into the neighboring streams, commencing that erosion
of the soil which has given a muddy character to the water. The
only remedy is through underdrainage, by which the capacity of

60

the soil to absorb and retain the rainfall is greatly increased.
Gradually the deforesting was carried to the hills and the slopes
of mountains, where the evil results were still more apparent. De-
prived of the forest cover, these slopes carried off the water as
from the roof of a building, which eroded the surface, washing
away the soil, in places, to such a depth as to render the’ land
worthless and make reforesting impossible.

After this the swamps and the lakes connected with them, the
natural regulators of the streams, were attacked; the swamps were
cleared and ditched; the outlets of the lakes deepened and
straightened, until surface drainage was rendered as complete as
possible. The results are everywhere apparent.

I write particularly in regard to Ohio, with which I am best
acquainted, but extensive observations in other States indicate the
same results. A multitude of springs which were once permanent
have disappeared; others are intermittent and go dry in a drought.
Very many wells have been deepened to secure a constant supply
of water; streams once perennial are now alternately flooded and
dry; those once flowing with clear pure water are now, during all
or most of the year, muddy. One steaming down the muddy Ohio
wonders why the early French explorers called it the beautiful
river; but Mr. Samuel S. Forman, in describing a trip on a flat-
boat down the Ohio and Mississippi in 1789, describes the water as
“clear and limpid,” in graphic contrast with that of the Mississippi.
At that time one of these streams drained a region almost entirely
covered with virgin forests; the other mainly a treeless region; in
one, erosion was at a minimum; in the other, at a maximum.

This carrying away of the rainfall by surface drainage instead of
its being filtered through the soil has another very deleterious in-
fluence, the consequences of which can hardly be overrated. It
robs the soil to a very great extent of its elements of fertility and
dumps them into the ocean.

A full remedy for all of these evils is not easily found; they may
partly be obtained by reforesting the poorer lands among the hills
and mountains, at the heads of the streams, and maintaining them
permanently as forest reserves. This reforesting can in most cases
be secured through natural agencies. If the remaining forests are
secured from the intrusion of domestic animals, and forest fires
prevented, nature will soon clothe large areas, now nearly naked,
with new forests.

In northern Pennsylvania are many thousands of acres which the

61

lumbermen have stripped of valuable timber and abandoned ; much
of this has been or will be forfeited to the State for unpaid taxes ;
much could be bought for a very small price.

In many places where the pine and hemlock have been removed
a dense growth of black cherry has taken its place. In all places
a new growth spontaneously appears which only needs protection
to grow into a new forest. If all these lands were owned and con-
trolled by the State, and made permanent forests, an important
step would be taken in remedial measures.

Another step would be the thorough and systematic underdrainage
of all ordinary farming land. It has been claimed that this increases
the flow of water from the land, but this is certainly a mistake.
While it prevents the saturation of the surface, it greatly increases
the capacity of the soil to absorb and retain the water, and regu-
lates and retards its overflow. After heavy rains the outflow from
the exits of the drains is not immediately resumed, and this outflow
is continued long after the surface flow has ceased. The outflow
from the drains is clear and limpid, having the character of spring
water, and carrying away none of the fertilizing elements of the
soil. Both in wet and dry seasons the productive character of the
soil is much improved.

In the distant future, and before the evil days prophesied by
Malthus are upon us, the surplus rainfall will be largely retained in
reservoirs and in cisterns connected with the draining tile, and used
for irrigation during periodsof drouth. The equivalent of a cistern
6 x 6 X 8 feet for each square rod would have a capacity equal to
one-third of the annual rainfall, on an average, in the whole region
east of the Mississippi. Such cisterns could now be profitably con-
structed on small farms devoted to truck-farming.

If most of the reclaimed swamps were reforested, the gain to
the public would be large. Along the divide in Ohio, which sepa-
rates the waters falling into the Ohio and the lake, are many such
Swamps, which were formerly lakes, and are now generally connected
with a chain of lakes and ponds. Under the present system these
lakes are gradually filling up and will ultimately disappear, and
these natural regulators of the streams be entirely destroyed.

These reclaimed swamps are so valuable for agricultural purposes
that they will be long and perhaps permanently retained for this
use. The abandonment of the culture of our most productive
lands cannot be easily secured ; such abandonment can be secured
only by the substitution of some more profitable use. If these

62

lakes were needed as reservoirs for canals, the abandonment of the
cultivation of the so-claimed swamps would be compelled.

If the experiment was tried of erecting dams at the outlet of any
of these lakes, so enlarging them as to cover the adjacent swamps,
devoting the enlarged lakes to the artificial culture of fish, and this
experiment was found successful and profitable, the experiment
would be repeated and all these lakes and swamps would be ulti-
mately redevoted to their natural uses.

To secure any of these conservative measures the aid of the
Government is almost if not quite indispensable. To secure this
aid appeal must be made to one of the most important functions of
government, which is now scarcely recognized, anywhere, by the
government or the people. It is to require every one to recognize
and obey the admitted maxim of the law “so to use his own as not
to injure others,” and including in the word “ others” all who are to
come after him ; to recognize the fact that the present generation
are only the life-tenants of a magnificent heritage, which they are
required to leave to their descendants with its productiveness un-
impaired. Whenever the present use seriously threatens future
productiveness it is the duty of government to interfere and pre-
vent waste by the life-ttenants. The theory of laissez faire, every
one for himself and his sable majesty take the hindmost, is one of
the doctrines of devils that ought to be quite obsolete. We should
be required to leave at least as much to our posterity as we have
received by inheritance, and government should compel the present
life-tenants to do this. If the undue destruction of forests tends
to interfere with the future value of the state, government should
interfere to prevent it. If reforesting is in any places required to
secure future productiveness, government should in some way
secure it. If to this end the preservation of the forests anywhere
is required, government should compel their preservation.

FORESTRY MATTERS IN NEW YORK.

By Ws. F. Fox, Superintendent of State Forests.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, Oct., 1893. ]

ConDITIONS.
Although New York is the most populous State in the Union, one-
fifth of its area is still covered with woodlands of original growth ;
namely, of its 31,468,800 acres, over 6,000,000 are forest land.

63

These woodlands are not distributed throughout the State, but, a
few small areas excepted, are massed solidly in two large tracts.
The greater one of these, containing about three-fourths of the
whole, is situated in northeastern New York, and contains the far-
famed Adirondack wilderness; the other and smaller one is situated
in the southeastern part of the State, and is known as the Catskill
forest, this latter tract extending, strange as it may seem, to within
an hour’s ride of the metropolis itself. There are no other exten-
sive forests except the scattered patches or belts of woodland which
may be seen in any of the agricultural districts of the Atlantic
States.

A large part of these forests, both in the Catskills and Adiron-
dacks, have undergone a material change through the operations of
the lumbermen. Though densely shaded and heavily timbered, the
experienced observer notes that certain species are missing. Seyv-
enty-five years ago these woods contained a magnificent growth of
white pine, which in clearness, soundness, and quality of timber
was unsurpassed ; but it was removed so completely that compara-
tively few traces of this species remain. Here and there clumps of
tall pines may still be seen, but on examination they prove to be
ring-rotten, or otherwise worthless, and were probably left by the
axemen for that reason. Timber lots with good pine on them are
now very scarce. At that time the lumbermen took the white pine
only, spruce and hemlock having no value then. But the pine was
cut so long ago that few traces are left of that period of lumbering ;
and now it is customary to call a spruce forest a primeval one,
although a careful examination will show that perhaps fifty years
ago the axemen went over this same ground in their quest for white
pine.

So, to-day, the term “ original or virgin forest” means, in the Adiron-
dacks, a tract on which the spruce and hemlock have not been cut.
The hard woods, owing to the fact that they cannot be floated down
the streams, haye been allowed to remain.

The merchantable species of the New York forests, in the order
of their value, and quantity also, are, of the soft woods or conifers,
black spruce, hemlock, balsam, tamarack, and white cedar, the thin-
ning out of the forests and destruction in some cases depending on
the presence and accessibility of these kinds. These conifers are
mixed in varying proportions with the hard woods, but, for the rea-
son already stated, the latter are not cut, except along the border
of the forest, where they are easily accessible and can be hauled in-

64

stead of floated. The dominant species of hard woods in order of
quantity are maple, birch, beech, ash, elm, and cherry, and in the
Catskill forest there is considerable oak. Throughout the State,
however, there are eighty-six species, not including tall shrubs.

The one merchantable tree mostly in demand by the lumbermen,
and consequently the one most closely connected with forest condi-
tions, is the black spruce. Its market value is less than white pine,
but more than hemlock. Fully one-half the Adirondack forest has
been cut over by the lumbermen in obtaining this species; at the
same time, they cut the hemlock and the balsam as they go. These
operations do not necessarily imply denudation, for the hard wood
trees and some of the conifers are left ; but the careless, improvident
methods hitherto in use have, in too many instances, left the woods,
where thus operated on, ina deplorable condition. In some places
the mass of tree-tops, limbs, and brush have furnished material
for furious fires, while in others the thinning out has been so great
that the sun, wind, or rain has completed the work of destruction.

Until a few years ago the lumbermen, when cutting spruce, con-
tented themselves with taking only the larger trees; but with a
growing scarcity of timber and increased demand they cut smaller
and smaller, until eight-inch butts and six-inch tops formed a con-
spicuous proportion of every log drive. This was bad enough ;
but with the advent of the wood-pulp industry they found a ready
market for four-inch timber, and cut accordingly. In this destruc-
tion of young spruces the State is confronted with a most serious.
condition. °

In the forestry outlook for New York it has always been con- :

sidered a happy condition that its forests contained so large a pro-
portion of spruce, a tree so well adapted to reproducing itself ;
that, while other States in their forestry management would have
to deal with hemlock and pine, both of which will each reproduce
only under the most favorable conditions, New York possessed
a merchantable species which, with ordinary care and little expense,
would furnish a perpetual timber supply. Some of the timber
tracts in the Adirondacks, with no forethought or care what-
ever on the part of their owners, have yielded a second and even
a third crop of spruce. But with the unrestricted cutting of
spruce saplings and young trees for pulp-wood, now prevalent on
most all the private timber lands outside the preserves owned by
the clubs, a most serious condition confronts every one interested
in the forests of New York.

tite ae

65

At one time it was a matter of congratulation that the lumber-
men left the balsam (abies balsamea), deeming it unmarketable.
Its symmetrical spires beautified the forest, while its healing odors
gave new life to stricken invalids. But of late years it has been
cut with the spruce, the lumber when sawed, though inferior, being
hardly distinguishable. The white cedar, a tree also valuable for
its terebinthine odors, is being cut with the others, being used for
shingles and fence-posts. The hemlock, valuable on account of its
bark rather than its timber, is being cut to a great extent wherever
it is accessible. Unlike the spruce, this tree does not easily re-
produce itself, observation showing that the nurselings seldom
reach maturity in that region. The tamarack has suffered so ex-
tensively from a wide-spread blight that but little merchantable
timber of this species is left standing. Still, a large number of
young tamaracks are cut in some localities for hop-poles, and where
the larger trees have not died many of them are cut for square
timber or sawed into dimension stuff. In short, there is a demand
for each kind of soft wood, and each kind is being cut.

But little hard wood, comparatively, has been removed. On the
borders of the Adirondack forest about 10,000,000 feet is being
sawed annually, the logs being hauled to the mills. A large amount
of hard wood is also cut in the Catskill forests for the furniture
trade, the manufacture of wood-acid, and various other purposes.

In 1890 the mills along the edge of the Adirondack forest sawed
325,690,634 feet, of which 210,270,932 feet was spruce and 94,145,695
was hemlock. The pulp-mills in 1892 consumed over 100,000,000
feet of timber, all spruce, and mostly small young trees at that. It
is evident that, unless this consumption can be checked or regulated,
the timber supply of New York will be exhausted in twenty-five
years.

Another important condition exists in the continued encroach-
ment through petty agricultural operations. The lands thus cleared
might far better be left under forest cover. The soil is worthless
for any other crop, and it would be acharitable work to prevent the
misguided efforts in this direction. The lands thus cleared never
repay the patient toil laid out upon them. But the objectionable
feature of these operations is not so much the loss of wooded
area as the forest fires which are apt to ensue from the fallow burn-
ings started toclear the land. Fully 450,000 acres of valuable forest
have been destroyed in this State within thirty years from this
cause alone. One cheering feature of the present outlook is that

66

this prolific source of destruction has been substantially eliminated.
At least, there has been but little loss of area from this cause dur-
ing the last six years. As to how far this is due to fortunate cir-
cumstances, or to well-directed efforts on the part of the State
Forestry Bureau, it would be difficult at present to say. Much of
the credit is certainly due to the latter.

The Catskill forests are an unbroken tract of about 2,100,000
acres, situated on the mountain ranges from which they derive their
name. They differ somewhat from the Adirondack forest in this,
that the hard woods predominate to a much greater extent. The
white pine disappeared from the Catskills fifty years ago. Then
the great tanneries which located in that region made a demand for
bark that cut out most of the hemlock. The spruce went for
building purposes. ‘There is some hemlock and spruce left, but of
an inferior quality. It is substantially a hard-wood forest, but with
a greater variety of species than the Adirondack land.

Another condition, and a peculiar one, is due to the railroads which
traverse both forests, and which are responsible for many forest
fires, started by sparks from their locomotives. The Adirondack
wilderness is penetrated by four different roads, and in the last
year a fifth one was completed which runs through the entire forest,
north and south. Along the roads previously built the locomotives:
have started fires which have not only cut a wide swath along the
whole line, but have eaten their way, in some places, a long distance
laterally. The road last completed is carefully watched in this re-
spect, as it is controlled by parties who own immense tracts of tim-
ber land immediately adjoining its line. Still, if it does not inflict
serious injury on the woods along its route, it will be the first one
that has not. The Catskill forest is also intersected with railways,
and the annual reports from the fire wardens in that region teem
with complaints of fires started by sparks from locomotives. While
it is conceded that railroads are a valuable adjunct in marketing
forest products, it is doubtful whether they are a benefit to a com-
munal or State forest unless operated under the forest government
and for forestry purposes mainly.

In discussing here the more important conditions, mention may
be properly made of the State government in its relation to forestry
matters. The State owns 677,220 acres in the Adirondacks and
48,491 acres in the Catskills—a total of 725,711 acres, which have
been set apart by law as a forest preserve. These lands, for the
most part, reverted to the State through the non-payment of taxes,

67

a very small proportion having been obtained through purchase.
Eight years ago the care and management of these lands was vested
in a State bureau styled the Forest Commission, an honorary board
of five members, selected with reference to well-known integrity and
ability, who serve without pay. Under them there is a superintend-
ent of forests, with the necessary corps of assistants, inspectors,
and foresters. Hitherto the administration of the Commission has
necessarily been confined to a police management, looking merely
to the protection of the State forests from fire and timber thieves.
Owing to the scattered condition of the State holdings and inse-
curity of title, no definite system of improved forestry could be pru-
dently undertaken.

Mention should be made, in this connection, of the numerous clubs
which own large tracts of woodland within the line of the Adiron-
dack Park, these corporations, large and small, owning about
550,000 acres. This condition is a highly favorable one, as the ex-
istence of the clubs, their aims and purposes, are dependent on the
preservation of the forests which cover their lands. Three of these
clubs, or associations, own over 100,000 acres each, or a total of
about 390,000, all fine timber land, containing more than the usual
proportion of merchantable species. While holding these as game
. preserves and summer resorts, they sell timber rights in some in-
stances, but under restrictions which prevent any serious injury,
the restrictions specifying the species and size of timber that may
be removed.

PROBLEMS.

After years of careful study of the situation, made on the ground
itself, the conclusion is forced that there are two things for the
State to do. It must acquire substantially the entire territory
within the boundaries of the Adirondack Park, and then inaugurate
an intelligent system of forestry based solely on the question of a
future and perpetual timber supply. All other matters are subor-
dinate, and any discussion of them is merely time lost. If the State
will push steadily along on these two lines, the other questions will
solve themselves without further care.

But why purchase the entire territory? it may be asked. Be-
cause the preservation and future existence of that forest in its
entirety is dependent on communal instead of private interests.
The former is unchangeable in its character; the latter is not. A
communal interest is based on perpetuity of title and on a manage-
ment looking to the future rather than the present. A private

68

interest means successive changes in the title, and a management
based on present needs.

There are large tracts, held by clubs or individuals, whose manage-
ment indicates that their forests will be preserved during the present
ownership. But it is only a question of time when these lands will
pass into other hands and be managed with reference to pecuniary
needs.

Now, if the State acquires the territory, its management, however
lax or open to criticism, will never fail through stress of such a
motive. State ownership will insure forest preservation, even it
fails to secure an improved forest and an increased product. Pri-
vate ownership cannot insure forest preservation, because of its
changing tenure.

The 677,000 acres of State lands within the Adirondack Park were
acquired through tax sales, and consequently are scattered so
widely throughout the private holdings that no improved system of
forestry can be attempted. The remaining forests through which
these lands are interspersed should be bought, or else the whole
forestry project should be abandoned. The movement should be
forward, not backward. Which shall it be? To merely stand still ;
to be contented with holding the lands now owned, and paying taxes
on them, as the State is now obliged to do; to maintain an expensive.
bureau while progress is impossible, is worse than idleness—it is
retrogression.

The State must buy more land to consolidate its present hold-
ings, which are scattered over the map like the squares on a
checker-board. In providing means to purchase additional lands,
a sufficient amount should be appropriated to complete the pur-
chase of the entire forest within the limits of the Adirondack Park.
While the press, people, and State government favor the acquisition
of these forests with a remarkable unanimity, time has been lost by
looking toward futile and evasive measures instead of boldly ap-
proaching the matter in the one, the right, and the only way—by
purchase. Some friends have looked for further acquisitions
through tax sales; but the agitation of the forestry question has
enhanced the value of woodlands in New York until there is no
more reversion of land through defaulted taxes. Some have de-
pended on controlling improvident timber-cutting by offering
exemption from taxes, a law having been passed to that effect ; but
the land-owners reject the offer of tax exemption, preferring to cut
their timber as close as they please.

69

There remains only one thing for the State to do: if it wants
that land, it must do as individuals do when they want land—the
State must buy it.

And there should be no hesitation about buying it. A State that
can afford to put $20,000,000 into one building can afford to vote
one-fourth that amount to preserve its forests. Money paid for
these forests is not an expenditure; it becomes a first-class invest-
ment. The lands can be sold at any time for cost, and in the
meanwhile they will produce a revenue more than sufficient to pay
the interest on the bonds issued for their purchase.

Many advocate the condemnation of these lands; but condemned
lands must be paid for, and the money must be appropriated by
the legislature the same as for purchases. To seize land by right
of eminent domain is a harsh and unpopular measure that should
be held only as a last resort. Moreover, the bulk of the land can
be bought, through the ordinary methods of bargain and sale, at
prices less than the land would bring under appraisal. Appraisers
always give the benefit of a doubt, and justly so, to the man whose
land is condemned.

A large fund for the purchase of land will soon be available
through the operation of the law of 1892, which authorizes the sale
of scattered, outlying tracts, situated so far from the main forest
that they cannot be used in connection with any well-defined plan
of operations. This law directs that such sales shall constitute a
fund which may be used only in the purchase of lands situated
within the Park boundaries. These outlying tracts, owing to their
accessibility, bring high prices, which enables the Commission to
not ouly locate their land to better advantage, but to increase
the acreage.

After the outside lands have been sold and the proceeds invested
within the Park lines, the area yet to be purchased can be definitely
ascertained. The legislature will then be asked to authorize an
issue of bonds to be used in purchasing the remaining area.

This, then, is the one great problem to-day—the further acquisi-
tion of land. Fortunately, the attitude of the State government is
a favorable one, and'the legislature grants annually an ample appro-
priation for the maintenance of the Forestry Department and its
work. The Governor of the State, Hon. Roswell P. Flower, is deeply
interested in the forestry movement, and fully appreciates its im-
portance. He supplements his study of the various questions with
a personal inspection of the forests and extended trips through the

70

wilderness in search of information bearing on the various matters
connected with the subject. He gave his personal attention to the
forestry bill passed last winter, and originated some of the more
important amendments. His sturdy and valuable support is the
most cheering feature of the outlook.

But the legislature, in considering the propositions looking to an
appropriation or issue of bonds, evince a conservatism bordering
on timidity, and are evidently reluctant about passing any bill which
might raise the tax-rate in any noticeable degree. And it is right
here, around this point of the tax-rate, that the whole matter re-
volves.

It may be, however, that with the funds accruing from the sale
of outlying lands and from the sales of matured spruce the
Bureau may be able to make purchases which will consolidate their
present scattered holdings and give them about 1,000,000 acres of
forest, which, though it may not be in one solid tract, will be favor-
ably located and furnish an opportunity for inaugurating a better
era in forest management.

There are other problems which have occasioned considerable
discussion and study; but they are technical ones, and a rehearsal
of them here might not be timely, for lack of space. They involve
the questions of thinning, reforesting, and protection of denuded
hillsides.

Throughout the State preserve there are some tracts which have
been burned over, and which are covered with the aspens* and
bird cherriest which, in the Adirondacks, invariably follow a fire.
These aspens, or poplars, are fast growers, becoming available for
pulp-timber in a few years, and should be sold then, as they are a
very short-lived tree. Problem: how to thin out so as to get the
greatest yield, and, at the same time, promote the advent of the
spruce and other conifers, which always appear before the poplars
die off.

Again, there are areas which have been burned over repeatedly,
until even the poplars fail to appear. Problem: what species can
be planted and grown successfully under such unfavorable con-
ditions ?

Again, there are mountain slopes denuded by fire or cyclones.
Problem: how shall the charred and fallen tree-trunks be best
arranged so as to prevent the loose soil from being washed away,

* Populus tremuloides. t Prunus Pennsylvoanica.

71

and hold it in place until nature can do the work of reforesting?
There is a fine opportunity for an experiment in this line on the
east slope of Whiteface; and as soon as the State purchases this
land the experiment will be undertaken.

But a full statement of the conditions and problems connected
with the New York forests would require a volume. Suffice it to
say here that perplexing and confusing as those conditions and
problems are, that despite errors, disappointments, and delay,
forestry matters in New York are moving, and in the right direc-
tion. It will not be long before results will be attained worthy of
that great State, and satisfactory, it is hoped, to the American
Forestry Association, to whose untiring efforts in arousing public
sentiment the forestry movement in New York owes its inception
and existence.

THE FORESTRY PROBLEM IN PENNSYLVANIA.

By J. T. Rorurocr, State Forestry Commissioner.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, Oct., 1893. ]

The State of Pennsylvania, long one of the most important
lumbering Commonwealfhs of the Atlantic seaboard, may be said
to have passed the zenith of its prosperity in this particular in-
terest. It is true that it still produces considerable white-pine
lumber each year, but it is also true that the increased quantity of
hemlock cut, as compared with white pine, shows clearly to those
familiar with the facts of the case that the original growth of the
latter is almost gone. Over a large portion of what was once the
seat of extensive operations in both white pine and hemlock the
chief—indeed almost the only—lumbering trade now is in jack and
yellow pine, so called by the Pennsylvania woodsman. These
smaller trees are, year after year, being taken to meet the increasing
demand for mine props. Tram roads are extending constantly
into regions which have hitherto been inaccessible, and now branch
railroads are placing a premium upon the removal of timber which
up to this time could not be removed at a profit to the owner.

Much the same may be said of the various hard woods. It is
probably correct to say that if any kind of timber is being repro-
duced within the limits of the State of Pennsylvania as fast as it
is removed, it is chestnut, and that alone.

That this should be the case is unfortunate, but it was unavoid-

72

able, because, first, the timber cut has been expended in legitimate
trade, or it was removed to make room for farms before the present
railroad facilities for travel invited the home-seeker to more pro-
ductive agricultural regions in the remoter west.

Accepting the facts, the important question is: What is the
remedy ?

This question is too broad to answer fully here. It is safe to
say, as a necessary preliminary, that each family must in future be
content with less land for farming purposes, and that the lesser
area must produce better crops under better cultivation, and that
economy, and not extravagance, must dictate the quantity of wood
used hereafter.

Under any conditions, however, a large portion (area yet unde-
termined) of the State can never be used to advantage for any other
purpose than the growth of timber—agriculture being wholly out
of the question. On such parts the care and culture of timber must
be insured by one of two methods, 7. e., State ownership, or by mak-
ing it profitable to individual or corporate enterprise.

Whilst it is true that a certain portion of these lands will almost
inevitably pass under the control of the State, it is equally certain
that the larger portion is likely to remain as private property.
Hence any solution of the problem must be broad enough to meet
both State and private ownership.

At the outset, let it be said that the tendency to reproduction of
timber of all the native kinds by natural methods is very strong in
Pennsylvania. The thrifty groves of young white pine, for exam-
ple, show this most clearly, for it, of all our trees, was regarded as
the one whose continued preservation was in greatest jeopardy.

The one greatest foe to this reproductive tendency is the un-
checked forest fire, whether the land is owned by the State or by
the individual. Hence it goes without saying, that a remedy here
is of the first importance. It is not physically impossible to check
it, though it may be for a certain time, until public opinion is more
matured, impossible to obtain the most effective legislative aid.
Money and legal enactments combined would do itif both could be
obtained to the desired extent. But to press at once for either or
both of these on the basis of the greatest efficiency would be to
arouse hostility, which would long postpone the desired end. * There
must be a wise conservatism, which will carry conviction before each
increasing demand. What may be done in a moderate, practicable
way?

73

1st. Woodlands are often fired to destroy underbrush in order
to furnish pasturage or better browsing for cattle. This part of
the problem could be easily met by the confiscation of all cattle
found on other woodlands than those of the owner, unless they
were there by his permission.

2d. Woodlands are often fired, maliciously, to injure the owner,
or (which is hardly less criminal) to clear underbrush, and thus
lead to production of a larger crop of berries. In such cases there
seems to be no remedy short of the appointment of special State
officers, whose business shall be to ferret out the offender, by indi-
vidual search, or by this combined with a liberal system of rewards
leading to the detection of the criminals, and by punishment of the
guilty parties, by the State. It is hardly safe to leave this toa
local tribunal, and, as the benefits of the forest extend to the State
at large, the State, which suffers, should hold the power of punish-
ment. ;

In this connection it may be said that the plan of calling out aid
to suppress fires, and then paying the laborers, has been fairly
tried in portions of the State, and that the results have not been
satisfactory. Whilst one party was engaged in extinguishing fires,
others were engaged in starting them. The compensation clause,
in other words, has led to producing fires as a means of obtaining
work. It would, however, be premature to say that there is no
legal remedy for this condition of affairs, but that the difficulty is
at present a serious one is beyond dispute.

3d. Among the causes of forest fires in Pennsylvania, railroads
must be counted as most active, as, indeed, they are everywhere.
Where the fire can be clearly traced to a passing train, there is, of
course, a legal compensation. But to fix the fact is seldom easy,
and the sufferer who seeks the assistance of the law is frequently,
if not usually, beaten in the contest. Two remedies appear: oneis
to compel the railroad companies to employ a sufficient fire guard
to protect the forest lands through which their lines pass. This
might lead to greater care in furnishing locomotives with efficient
spark arresters or consumers. The other remedy would be to com-
pel the companies to purchase land for, say, a rod on either side of
the road-bed in wooded areas, and to keep it clear of combustible
material. Whether either of these remedies would prove practi-
cable at present would depend on the relation of the railroads to the
legislature, and here somewhat uncertain elements are introduced.

4th. Debris left after lumbering operations is a most prolific

74

cause of fires of the most damaging character. It is well known
that when this has been consumed subsequent fires are less de-
structive, because so intense a heat is no longer possible. It is
then in order to indicate that those who create this debris should
remove or destroy it by some safe method. But the remedy so
proposed would meet, it is clear, as yet with so sturdy an opposition
that it is probably impracticable. So, too, the maintenance of “fire
lanes” through our timbered areas would involve a cost for which
our legislators are not as yet prepared.

Hence it is of the utmost importance that agitation of the for-
estry problem should yet be continued, to mature public sentiment
in the proper direction.

The second most serious factor in the forestry problem is the
tax upon timber land. There can be no doubt but that the senti-
ment in favor of total abolition of tax on all standing timber is
maturing very fast in our State. There are, however, two difficul-
ties in the way. First, the constitutional clause which demands
equal or proportionate taxes on all property within a certain class.
This might be obviated by making forest lands a class alone.

Then, again, a second difficulty arises when we remember that
certain sparsely populated counties derive their tax income in
great part from forest lands. To remove this tax would be to such
counties a serious loss, if it did not, indeed, actually hinder their
proper development. Take, for example, the maintenance of
proper roads, which now depends largely upon this very tax.
There is, of course, this to be said, that the day is probably not far
distant when these roads will become the care of the State instead
of the township.

The tax aspect of the problem merits a more extended consider-
ation. It can be shown that there are extensive woodland areas in
Pennsylvania on which in the past thirty years more tax has been
paid than the lands could be sold for to-day, and that during this
entire term of years the lands have been wholly unremunerative to
the owners. It is clear that such lands have been practically con-
fiscated by existing laws. Can we wonder that under such cireum-
stances the owner should be driven to remove immature timber in
order to realize what he could, and then, often, to allow the lands
to be sold for a nominal sum to meet the taxes? To be sure, this
may, in some instances, be the gain of the State; but more fre-
quently it is just the reverse. Let us imagine fora moment that
the taxes had been removed. The owners would realize that here,

75

in their timber, they had a property which was growing into value,
however small, without actual outlay to them. Neighbor would
join with neighbor to protect it against the only serious foe—fire.
To guard it would become a concern of the community ; the incen-
diary would speedily find himself placed in a light in which he had
never stood before. To fire a forest would become a thing of as
bad repute as to steal a horse, and protective associations would be
formed to guard against the former, such as already exist to guard
against the latter. The writer is not drawing upon his imagination
in this aspect of the problem, for he has good reason to know that
such associations are already being considered by those who are
most deeply interested.

Let us consider the tax question from another standpoint—that
of equity. We are told the forests are growing into value, and that
the owner will hold them with this object in view. Grant the full
force of this statement; is it not true that every day a forest stands
it is earning its living in the good itis doing the Commonwealth by
retarding freshets and hoarding water? Or even admit in its
baldest form the truth of the statement that they are growing into
value for the owner. Is it not equally true that this is the most
desirable thing possible for the Commonwealth as well? Has it
not become, in certain parts of the world, a maxim of political
economy, that the forests are as necessary to the State as to the in-
dividual? Take our larger cities! Whence comes the best water
which supplies them but from the higher, timber-clad slopes of dis-
tant regions. This indispensable element, this hourly necessity,
they pay actually nothing for the production of until it reaches
their own suburbs. A readjustment of taxes might make it possi-
ble for these cities to furnish under State distribution the means by
which sparsely populated counties could be developed, even if the
tax had been taken from their timber lands.

It has been suggested by some thoughtful persons that, instead
of removing the tax from timber lands as a whole, it would be well
to retain it on all unseated timber lands, but to set apart that tax
for the specific purpose of employing wardens and workmen whose
duty it should be to protect these lands from fires. There is much
in the idea to commend it to a most careful consideration. The
chief obstacle seems here, again, to be the constitutional one of
discriminating taxes within the same class of property.

There can be in this country no genuine, practical forestry de-
veloped until the owner is made to realize that in his trees he hasa

76

paying crop. When this idea has taken possession of him, all the
rest will follow. If he fails then to discover methods by which
this crop may be produced in largest measure and in the least time,
it will be the first instance in which he has been known to fail in
that direction. It is time for us to realize that an analysis of the
elements of the forestry problem will show we do not have every-
thing to learn. That, indeed, in some phases of forestry, we are
already well up, and it is barely possible that we could develop, for
most of the remainder, methods of our own as speedily as we could
adopt those from abroad. I trust I shall not be misunderstood
in this allusion. No man honors more than I do the science of
forestry as exhibited in Europe, but I also insist that it is full time
for us to assert the individuality associated with national life, law,
and with a change of latitude. I am convinced that what we chiefly
have to become proficient in is the mere planting and care of trees
ona large scale. The engineering, the removal of trees, and the care
of lumber are already well known. And be it observed that in
these very points our foreign brethren are often greatly at variance
with each other. With game laws and game preservation we are
not concerned at present, and probably never will be. The relation
of trees in producing fertility of soil, tempering climate, and to
water supply are scientific problems of the greatest interest, but
they are not factors in the practical restoration of forest resources.
It is, however, greatly to be desired that special experts should be
induced to lend their aid in placing these problems on a proper
basis, and that we should contribute our share towards the world’s
stock of knowledge concerning them. But this, I repeat, is an
aspect with which we are not necessarily practically concerned just
now.

There are, however, certain aspects of the forestry question in
which we are immediately and practically interested, and which re-
late specially to our own side of the Atlantic. I mean the rates of
wood production, the time of wood maturity, and especially how
both these, and the quality of the timber as well, are affected by
soil and exposure. I am convinced these are problems which we
must settle here for ourselves. And they bear directly upon the
economic side of the subject. For example, it would be most im-
portant to determine by observation here what is the actual average
yearly wood production per acre. It is quite clear that many whose
opinion seems entitled to respect, and whose opportunities for ob-
servation have been large, place the figures higher than a trans-

(7

atlantic forester would admit as probable. There are also certain
ratios of increase for the individual tree at different periods of its
life, which possibly may be tabulated, and which involve practical
considerations of vast importance.

Among the trees which deserve the special attention of the Penn-
sylvania forester is the white pine. In so far from being a tree of
difficult reproduction, and which, therefore, is tending to extinc-
tion, the exact reverse is the case. Over a large part of the area on
which it once grew it is now growing luxuriantly and spontane-
ously. More than any other important tree of native growth, ex-
cept the chestnut, it grows with an even rapidity. It would be safe
to say that in from sixty to sixty-five years one may expect a tree
whose diameter at two feet above the ground will be from eighteen
to twenty-four inches. There are, of course, notable exceptions.
Some trees, for example, whose history we know, have fully doubled
this rate of growth; others have fallen proportionately as much be-
low it.

A striking exception to the above statement is found in the fact
that out of a large number of matured white pine trees growing
side by side, and apparently of about the same age, some will reach
a diameter of four feet across the stump, and others possibly not
more than half as much. This was well shown in Centre county
(Pennsylvania), where the age of the grove alluded to was about
two hundred years. It should also be mentioned that the growing
white pine of to-day is found, as that of the primeval forest was, in
“patches.” It is not evenly distributed, even on areas where it
grows naturally. This very simple fact, clear to all observers, is of
value chiefly to show that the altered environment has not in any
way disturbed the natural method of reproduction, and that the
essential element in the restoration of this tree is simply what it
always has been—time.

The term “sap pine” as used in connection with the white pine
has almost come to indicate that it is essentially different from the
fine, soft, clean lumber of earlier days. ‘ This error, which is per-
petuating itself, is mischievous, because it encourages the premature
destruction of trees which are actually growing into the most de-
sired condition of white pine.

After years of agitation, forestry legislation of a satisfactory
character was obtained at the last session of the legislature. The
bill as finally passed is here introduced. It will be observed that it
aims at two things: first, to ascertain the real condition of our

78

forest resources, what the possibilities of the future are, and then
with the preliminary data at hand to endeavor to inaugurate a pos-
itive comprehensive forest policy, or something as near to it as our
legislature can be induced to grant.

No. 68.

AN ACT relative toa Forestry Commission and providing for the expenses
thereof.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
Commonwealth of Pennsyloaniain General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted
by the authority of the same, That the Governor be authorized to appoint two
persons as a commission, one of whom is to be a competent engineer, one a
botanist, practically acquainted with the forest trees of the Commonwealth,
whose duty it shall be to examine and report upon the conditions of the slopes
and summits of the important watersheds of the State, for the purpose of de-
termining how far the presence or absence of the forest cover may be influen-
tial in producing high or low water stages in the various river-basins, and to
report how much timber remains standing of such kinds as have special com-
mercial value, how much there is of each kind, as well, also, as to indicate the
part or parts of the State where each grows naturally, and what measures, if
any,are being taken to secure asupply of timber for the future. It shall further
be the duty of said commission to suggest such measures in this connection as
have been found of practical service elsewhere in maintaining a proper timber
supply, and to ascertain, as nearly as is practicable, what proportion of the State
not now recognized as mineral land is unfit for remunerative agriculture and
could with advantage be devoted to the growth of trees.

Srection 2. The said commission shall also ascertain what wild lands, if any,
now belong to the Commonwealth, their extent, character, and location, and
report the same, together with a statement of what part or parts of such lands
would be suitable for a State forest reserve, and further, should the lands be-
’ longing to the Commonwealth be insufficient for such purpose, then to ascer-
tain and report what other suitable lands there may be within the State, their
extent, character, and value. The final report of the said commission shall be
presented to the legislature not later than March fifteenth, one thousand eight
hundred and ninety-five.

Section 3. The said commission shall have power to appoint one competent
person to act as statistician, whose duties shall be to compile the statistics col-
lected by said commission under their direction and supervision, whose salary
shall be one thousand dollars per annum, with necessary expenses to be paid in
the same manner as is hereinafter provided for the payment of the Forestry
Commission.

Section 4. The commissioners appointed hereunder shall be entitled to re-
ceive, by quarterly payments, a compensation as follows: The engineer, twenty-
five hundred dollars ($2,500) per annum; the botanist, twenty-five hundred
dollars ($2,500) per annum, with necessary expenses for each, and the sum of
twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), or so much as is necessary, is hereby appro-

79

priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated to be paid
by warrant drawn by the Auditor-General.
Approved, the 23d day of May, A. D. 1892,
ROBT. E. PATTISON.

The foregoing is a true and correct copy of the act of the general assembly,

No. 68.
SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH.

FOREST CONDITIONS IN THE NORTHWESTERN
LUMBER STATES.

By C. H. Putnam, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Vice-President American
Forestry Association.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

By the Northwestern Lumber States we mean the States of
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, bordering on the great lakes,
which have been the base of supples for pine and hard-wood lum-
ber for the past forty or fifty years, and without which the vast
and rapid settlement of the adjoining prairie States of Illinois,
Southern Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and even Eastern Dakota,
Kansas, and Nebraska, might have been almost impossible, or very
much retarded; so that we may say those three forest States have
made the development of the prairie States possible, and we may
also add that the States:named are interested, in a great measure,
in the perpetuation of said forests, for they are still the base of
timber supples. Another important factor to the prairie States is
that these same forests, if properly cared for and preserved, will
be the guardian angels over floods and water supply on the Mis-
sissippi river and its thousand tributaries, to save the disasters of
spring floods, hold back the snows, and thus secure an even and
timely flow of water through the season.

The writer for the past thirty-seven years has travelled extensively
in the States of Wisconsin and Minnesota, observing the forests,
streams, and watersheds carefully, and can truthfully say that if
the said forest States become disproportionately cleared and bare,
allowing the heavy snow and rainfalls to run off rapidly in the
early spring, cities and towns and farms along the lower river could
not exist where they are now located. I do not think people have

80

given this subject much thought—the preservation of forests at
the heads of our main rivers.

It is a subject, however, that can be very easily studied in some
parts of Europe, and in our own country; on the Potomac
especially, where one can see a water rise of 25 or 30 feet, when
within the memory of old settlers it did not formerly exceed 10
feet. Along its course, while once the old homes were in the valley
and near the river, they are now on the higher land and the hill-
sides; the forests along the river and at its head are largely de-
stroyed, and the waters run off rapidly.

This digression is made, as it throws some light on the problems
regarding the northwestern forests, and calls attention to the fact
that a vast area outside of the forest areas themselves is directly
interested in their permanency.

When the census of 1880 was taken, the timber in said States
(forests) of economic value was estimated by the writer for the
maps which were to show the forest areas. At that time the white
pine (Pinus strobus) was reckoned as the most important timber
and of the most value, and the principal inquiry was directed to
that timber.

There was reported May, 1880, estimated upon the methods of
logging then in vogue, some one hundred and twenty billion (120,-
000,000,000) feet of pine timber was standing and growing in said
three States. Of this amount quite one-half has been cut.

Estimation was also made of the hemlock, cedar, etc., over the
same area, but not so carefully as of the then more valuable tim-
ber—the pine—but enough to know that, considering the enhanced
value, and added information regarding these other forest products,
the forest remaining will be of more value than the white pine that.
has been removed. So that we have even now a vast and valuable
forest remaining. The region, especially in Wisconsin and Minne-
sota, abounds in lakes and streams full of pure, soft water; the soil
is mostly of the drift period—a sandy loam, interspersed with sandy
and rocky areas, fit only for tree growth, the climate most favor-
able to the development of a large number of forest trees; alto-
gether the conditions are such as to permit, at small expense and
care, keeping the forest, wherever desirable, in good and ever im-
proving condition.

When the lumbermen get through with the merchantable pine
timber and move out, this great forest area can rest, recuperate,
and grow, and re-establish some of its primeval conditions. There

sl

is a vast amount of hemlock, cedar, linden, maple, oak, and other
woods in this forest not found in the forests of the southern States,
the rockies, or the Pacific coast, and this hard-wood timber forest
of these three timber States must for all time be the base of sup-
plies for the adjoining prairie States. Judging by the amount of
white pine that is being cut each year from the three States (some
eight or nine billion feet of lumber), and knowing that the white
pine is but a small part or percentage of the timber making up the
forest proper, we can form some idea of the vast extent and value
of the same.

It is a notorious fact that the lumbermen who have had the run
of this forest for the past forty years are not poor men. They have
paid thousands—yes, millions—of men and women laborers good
wages, and the laborers are not poor. A million farmers in their
own and adjoining States have had the product from this forest,
and they are not poor ; even the game that we find is fat, and when
we say that the best of the forest is still there it needs no further
argument to establish its present and prospective value for its
product alone, saying nothing of its protection to water and soil
conditions and climatic sanitary value.

Now, what is best to be done for this valuable property to pre-
serve it in ever-producing condition, to prevent its threatened de-
preciation by fire and improper methods of exploitation, and to
secure the benefits that depend upon its preservation ?

In the State of Wisconsin—my home—we have the northern half
of the State yet in forest, and I will here say the cutting of the
white pine does not destroy the forest, if properly and carefully
done—does not change forest conditions very much ; indeed, in some
places it is a benefit to the small pines and deciduous growths.

Our State school fund has some half million acres in said forest
set aside for schools, universities, ete. Last winter I recommended
to our State officers that they withdraw from sale said tracts, and
advocated the organization of a State forestry association which, in
conjunction with the State officials, should act in its care and pres-
ervation, and also to seek to add to its area in various ways. For in-
stance, the General Government has still unsold in Wisconsin a half
million or more acres of Jand within its forest area. I advised to
procure from the Government this area and to add it to the State
lands. I would also advise lumbermen and land-owners who have
forest lands, to turn over to the State such of their lands as they
could spare, and thus have the State acquire and hold and care for

82

Forest reserves. I may add a State Forestry Association was so or-
ganized in Wisconsin. From these reserves ripe timber could be
sold at a profit and still the forest be kept intact. The writer has
studied carefully in Europe the methods pursued in forest manage-
ment at the head of the Elbe, and in Baden, and in other forests,
which in the main are perfectly practicable in such a State forest
reserve. I would also advise the same plan to be adopted in Mich-
igan, Minnesota, and in fact any State that has forests. Such for-
est lands in the hands of the State would be free from taxation, but
would yield an income from the sale of timber, and they would be,
at the same time, a preserve for game and fish and a resort for our
prairie neighbors.

I have travelled over the forest reserves of the state of Baden, east.
of the Rhine valley, and bordering on Switzerland, and in Southern
Germany, and I know that the lands of Wisconsin, Michigan, and
Minnesota, commonly called “ Cut Pine Lands,” and considered of
but little value now, are quite as good as the “Black Forest” in
general if cared for as that of Baden is. In the forests of that
State, of about 235,000 acres, not larger than one of our big timber
counties “up North,” the management employs 92 men as foresters,
and there is a good revenue above all expenses of nearly $3 per
acre every year, and yet the timber growth is increasing.

I cannot close without alluding to the greatest bane to which the
forests of these States are uselessly and ruthlessly and unnecessarily
subjected every year. The losses of valuable forest and other prop-
erty, and especially the destruction of favorable forest conditions
for the future, which is due to the conflagrations during the last
two months, show most drastically the need of State care and
watchfulness over the same under competent men. The losses this
season alone by fires in the forest could, in many instances, have
been avoided and an amount saved that would have paid all expense
in the care of forests for the next twenty-five years. In this country
so few people seem to realize the difficulty and cost of planting tim-
ber, and the consequent value of standing timber now to be found
in the natural state.

Summing up the foregoing remarks upon the subject, “ Forest
Conditions of the Northwestern Lumbering States,” we recommend
that these States and all other States in the Union that own
forest land—and most of them do—whether light or heavy, swamp,
university, school, or other lands in a wild state, withdraw said
lands from sale, except where needed for: agricultural purposes,

83 :

and make of such lands a forest reserve, added to by donations
from lumbermen, of their lands from which they have cut and re-
moved the white pine, having received from this one item alone
twenty times the first cost of the land, and who-have no use for
the remaining soil or timber and would be willing in many cases,
for a small consideration, to convey titles to the State. To this
might be added -either by purchase at a nominal price, as indeed
the low price of the “ graduated” lands and that of the remaining
unsold Government lands in each State will warrant. These lands
should be placed all under the care of an intelligent forest com-
mission in each State, who, acting with the State authorities, could
estimate and sell the ripe timber, having the same properly cut
and receiving for the same full value, instead of selling, as is done
now, for a set price, without much regard to relative values, land
and timber, which is unbusinesslike and ruinous.

FOREST CONDITIONS AND NEEDS IN THE
SOUTHWESTERN TERRITORIES.

By Epwarp F. Hopart, Santa Fé, New Mexico.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The Southwestern Territories, New Mexico and Arizona, contain
about ten millions of acres of forest lands. The greater part of
this is “pure” forest of yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa). Often,
however, Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga taxifolia) cover the hill-sides
that face the north, some of the species attaining a diameter of
four or five feet. Occasionally, also, a vigorous growth of aspens
(Populus tremuloides) occupies a large area, and smaller patches
of oak (Quercus undulata) are found.

Along the streams are the two species of cottonwood (Populus
monilifera and Populus augustifolia), the box-elder (Acer ne-
gundo) and other deciduous trees. In the southern part of the
Territories the lower growth that accompanies the cottonwood in
the valleys is mainly mesquite (Prosopis juliflora) and torneo
(Prosopis pubescens). Also vast areas of rolling lands in different
parts of the Territories are covered with a thick growth of pinon
(Pinus edulis) and cedar (Juniperus virginiana).

84

The climate of New Mexico and Arizona is not favorable to the
growth of young trees except in the depths of the undisturbed
forest—unless, indeed, they are assisted by irrigation. But not
more than one per cent. of the area now covered by forest can be
irrigated. The average rainfa]l outside of the higher mountains
does not exceed one inch per month. In the mountains it is double
that amount. This small amount of precipitation renders it almost
impossible that the forest if once destroyed shall grow again on
land trampled by stock, as is the open unirrigated area of these
Territories.

Here, then, we have a property immensely valuable—valuable for
the excellent lumber that it furnishes for building and other pur-
poses ; valuable for the luxuriant pasturage in the forest glades;
more than all, valuable for the protection that the mountain forests
give to the sources of the water supply. Water for irrigation is
the life-blood of the Territories. Upon it their growth and pros-
perity mainly depend. The precipitation in the mountains comes
in great part in the form of snow. But the snow scarcely falls on
the mountain peaks before the strong northwest winds that prevail
in winter in those elevated regions hurry it off and it accumulates
in the wooded valleys, often to the depth of fifty or more feet.

There the giant spruces extend over it their protecting arms, and
its melting is thereby so retarded that it feeds the streams the whole
summer through. Also, when the rains of summer fall on the
mountains they are in part absorbed by the forest cover, and that
water is given out slowly to the springs, so that it all becomes
available for the use of the irrigator. Where, on the other hand,
the hillsides have been denuded of timber the water rushes off
quickly, gullying the land and rendering it useless, and floods are
produced which cause injury instead of benefit to the farms below.

Here, then, is a matter of most vital importance. The facts are
plain. Noone who knows the country can doubt them. The Goy-
ernment is directly interested as the owner of the greater part of
the forest. The interests of all those living in that vast region also
make an appeal, that cannot be justly disregarded, for Government
aid, without which nothing can be done. One hundred million of
dollars would not compensate for the loss that would result if those
forests should be destroyed. And they are being destroyed with
great rapidity. Too close cutting, too close pasturing, and forest
fires are doing the work. What is needed is some means on the
ground of guarding against these foes. The authorities at Wash-

85 ’

ington, however anxious they may be to help us, are unable to do
so effectually under the present system. Even in the case of a
devastating fire last summer in the Pecos timber reservation of
300,000 acres, it took two or three weeks’ time before I, who was
then the proper officer of the Interior Department, could secure
authority to extinguish it. I soon thereafter succeeded in putting
the fire out, but not until one-fourth of the park had been burnt
over. While such a fire does not kill the larger pines, it does de-
stroy the young growth, and so almost ruins the prospects for
future years of the section it covers, and it burns up the great
spruces, root and branch. During the first rains after this fire the
streams rising in the park ran black as ink for days from the forest
cover that was destroyed by the fire and which was then washed
away, leaving the ground bare and desolate.

Now, if the Government cannot be brought to care for all its
forests in a businesslike way, a beginning should at least be made
with these timber reservations. :

Let us urge that some legislation in regard to them, similar to
the Paddock bill, be enacted at once, and then we may hope that
the good that will result from such a trial will lead to the exten-
sion of the system to all the wooded public domain.

FOREST CONDITIONS ON THE PLAINS AND
PRAIRIES OF CANADA.

By Wm. Saunpers, Director of the experimental farms of Canada,
Ottawa, Ont.

[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. |

The plains of Canada, which extend from about sixty miles east
of Winnipeg, Manitoba, to Morley, in the Northwest Territories, a
distance of 940 miles, and from the United States boundary to, in
most localities, an undetermined limit in the north, present through-
out very varied conditions which influence the growth of trees.

In traversing the country on the great highway to the Pacific,
the Canadian Pacific railway, wood growth is seen in every stage of
development, from thrifty, well-wooded groves of poplar, box-elder,
ash, elm, oak, and birch, to the comparatively stunted forms seen

86

in the bluffs as the treeless plains are approached. Some portions
of the country east of Winnipeg are fairly well wooded, both in the
valley lands as well as on the occasional limestone ridges which
crop up at several points on the route. On the south side of some
of the larger rivers, such as the Red river and the Assiniboine,
dense woods, chiefly of poplar, sometimes extend for many miles,
while the trees on the northern sides are frequently limited to
small clumps or single specimens, and these confined to the imme-
diate banks of the rivers. In the main, however, the great part of
the country along the line of the Canadian Pacific railway, after
leaving Winnipeg, is almost bare of trees until the first step or rise
on the plains is reached, which is about 100 miles west. Then the
country becomes more bluffy, and tree growth in many places shuts
out the distant view. Here, in addition to poplar, oak, and others,
the hardy form of the white spruce (Abies alba), which has not
been seen along the route for 150 miles or more, appears again and
is found growing thriftily on the light soils which prevail along the
rapidly rising ground at this point. For 200 miles more the scene
is very varying; at one time the whole country is park-like, with
clumps of small trees thickly intervening between limited stretches
of treeless prairie; then, again, trees become scarcer, and soon the
prairie seems boundless and treeless. But beyond Balgonie,
341 miles from Winnipeg, trees along the railway line become a
scarce commodity, and, excepting where a few dwarfed and stunted
specimens fringe the margin of a watercourse, the traveller will
often pass very many miles with no sight of woods or trees as far
as the eye can reach, and this condition prevails for more than 500
miles.

The individual who forms his opinion of that country entirely
from what he can see from the passing train will often reach most
erroneous conclusions. A close examination reveals the fact that
these plains, in many places, are not so continuous as they appear
to be, but that here and there, separated by greater or lesser dis-
tance, are huge rayines or valleys, below the level of the plains,
scooped out in bygone times by the forces of nature, of various depths
and widths, often from 101 to 300 feet deep, and from half a mile
to a mile or more in width, and along the bottom of these there
_ usually runs a small stream of water, often diminished to a series of
disconnected pools during the hottest parts of the summer, and
swollen into a turbulent stream in the spring-time. In these cou-
lees, protected from the sweep of the winds, and benefited by

87 :

the moisture which results from the gradual melting of accumu-
lated snow in the spring and the running water in the bottom, trees
thrive to such a degree as to astonish the beholder, and from many
such localities the settler can obtain logs in abundance wherewith
to construct his first dwelling-place, provide buildings for his stock,
and firewood for his-use during the winter months. Further, by
journeying north of the railway track, across the treeless plains, at
distances varying from 25 to 150 miles, trees in abundance are to be
found everywhere all across the continent. These rarely form con-
tinuous woods for any great distance, but are mostly grouped in
clumps and groves, with stretches of open land between them.

The hot winds which, during the summer months, blow north-
ward from the dry and desert regions in the United States, extend
into the Territories of Canada, exerting their parching influence to
a greater or less degree as they move northward, but constantly
weakening until their force becomes exhausted. This influence dies
out at varying distances, from 100 to 250 miles from the boundary
line, and as the limit is approached changes are seen in the
aspect of the landscape: the grass becomes greener, clumps of
shrubs and trees appear, at first insignificant and stunted, but
shortly they become a prominent feature in the landscape, and
within a few more miles the country becomes well wooded and
watered. This wooded or partly wooded condition continues for a
long distance north. For from 200 to 300 miles it is much the
same as when first entered on, but beyond this the Government
surveys have not yet extended, and our knowledge of the country is
limited to the information obtainable from the Hudson Bay Com-
pany’s officers located at the different trading posts in the interior
and to the published observations of explorers who have, as a rule,
followed mainly the course of the rivers in their travels. Mr. Wm.
Ogilvie, a surveyor and explorer of the Department of the Interior,
a most reliable observer, has, during the past seven years, made
preliminary surveys of the greater part of the vast region north, and
from his reports a few brief extracts will presently be submitted.

The recently constructed railway from Calgary, Alberta, on the
main line of the C. P. R., takes the traveller 200 miles north of
that town, or about 325 miles north of the United States boundary.
By driving over the Athabasca trail 100 miles beyond this, Atha-
basca Landing is reached, the starting point of the system of
inland navigation established by the Hudson Bay Company. From
the Landing to Fort McPherson, at the mouth of the Peel river, a

88

few miles from the shores of the Arctic Ocean, the furthest point
visited by their steamers, is by water travel 1,854 miles, and this
established line is used by all travellers and explorers in that
country as the basis for their work.

Of the valley of the Athabasca river from Athabasca Landing to
Fort McMurray, 282 miles, Mr. Ogilvie says: “In the bottom of
the valley there is much spruce and some poplar that would make
fair lumber. On the uplands, as far as I saw, there were many
places where a similar quality could be obtained. From Fort
McMurray to Fort Smith, on Great Slave Lake (287 miles), there is
much fine merchantable spruce. The same remark applies to the
timber on Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie river (250 to 300 miles
further). The timber in the valley of the Liard, one of the streams
emptying into the Mackenzie, 1,260 miles by water from Athabasca
Landing, deserves special mention, so many of the trees were of
large size. All the way from the Mackenzie up to the forks of the
east branch and Sicannie Chief river, a distance of nearly 450
miles by the streams, there are large extents of large and good
spruce which would make better lumber than any other I have
seen anywhere in the country. The balsam poplar, particularly,
grows very large; on the east branch many trees were seen of that
variety more than three feet in diameter at the ground. At Fort
Nelson, 57 miles from the mouth of the Liard, there is a flat,
thickly grown with spruce and poplar, where I selected a medium
tree of the latter species, cut it down, and found the following
dimensions: Diameter of stump, exclusive of bark, 29 inches;
diameter, exclusive of bark, at first limb, 17} inches; length from
top of stump to first limb, 90 feet ; number of rings of growth, 149.”
This tree was cut at a point 1,371 miles by river navigation north
of Athabasca Landing, while the Landing is about 425 miles north
of the United States boundary. From these brief extracts it will
be seen that some trees attain goodly proportions very far north in
Canada.

The present distribution and growth of trees over the immense
area referred to in the coulees and bluffy ravines on the prairies
and in vast tracts of wooded country in the interior have an im-
portant bearing on the future forest conditions of the plains and
prairies of Canada. A general sentiment prevails among the settlers
on the treeless plains in favor of tree-planting, and a strong desire
is expressed on every hand for such trees as will grow and thrive to
provide shelter for the home and for the stock, and to relieve the

89

monotony which attaches to treeless districts. Nearly all such tree-
planting, to be successful, must begin with the native sorts, and in
the seedling trees and tree seeds obtainable from these hardened
denizens of the north we have the most suitable material for this
work. On the experimental farm at Indian Head, Northwest Ter-
ritories, which is located on the edge of that belt of dry country to
which reference has been made, many useful experiments have been
conducted in tree-planting during the past five years. The land
selected for the experimental farm was a treeless tract of prairie.
At first it was difficult to obtain sufficient quantities of young trees
of native species grown in the country for planting, and large num-
bers were purchased from tree-growers in Northern Michigan, Illi-
nois, and Nebraska, chiefly of box-elder, green ash, and elm; but in
every instance these trees have proved tender and have been injured
by the climate here, whereas trees of the same species transplanted
from the adjacent valleys or grown from seed ripened there have
proved entirely hardy. The idea that young trees having the
greatest degree of hardiness can, as a rule, only be had by growing
them from seed obtained as far north as possible is not new. Mr.
Douglas, of Waukegan, Il., has for many years had agents employed
in collecting the seeds of such conifers as the blue spruce (Picea
pungens), the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasii), and the bull
pine (Pinus ponderosa) as high up in the western mountains as the
seed could be found, where the trees would be exposed to a degree
of cold unknown in the valleys, and it has been abundantly proven
that trees grown from such seed will endure with impunity climatic
conditions which would destroy those grown from seed of the same
species produced in the warmer valleys. It was not, however, as
far as I am aware, generally supposed that this rule, so well known
to apply to conifers which hold their foliage the year round, would
be found to apply with equal force to deciduous trees. This sen-
sitiveness to injury is not confined in its effects to the severest
weather. During the autumn of last year I happened to visit the
Indian Head farm on the way home from the Pacific coast and
arrived there the day following a severe frost. I cannot now
recollect the lowest temperature recorded the previous night, but
it would probably be from 12 to 15 degrees Fahrenheit of frost.
During the day I inspected two belts of box-elder trees from three
to five feet high, one of which had been grown from young trees
obtained from Nebraska and the other from seed collected in the
neighboring valleys. The trees had lost none of their foliage, and

90

the difference in the effect of the frost on these two groups was
quite striking. The Nebraska trees were all scorched, with the
foliage drooping and partly withered, while the trees grown from
Northwest seed remained fresh looking and uninjured. Similar
difference in relative hardiness has been found to obtain in the
elm, green ash, and mossy-cup oak, and I think there is no doubt,
from the experience had, not only on the Northwest plains, but also
in the other climates of Canada, that it is a law, almost universal in
nature, that, to obtain the hardiest trees and shrubs, the seed from
which they are grown must be matured at the northern limit of
their growth, and that where this is done the natural northern
limits of the growth of the species may be gradually extended.
To test these points many thousands of young trees have been
grown both from Eastern and Western seed, and tested at the ex-
perimental farms in Manitoba and the Territories; packages of the
young trees have also been distributed to several thousand settlers
in different parts of the country, and the general experience has
established the correctness of the above conclusions. Acting on
the information thus gained, and with a view to encourage tree-
planting, there has been distributed during the past three years by
the experimental farms more than five tons of tree seeds, all of
which have been collected in the bluffs and valleys in Manitoba and
the Northwest Territories. These have been distributed, free of
cost, by mail to all applicants and have reached fully 10,000 homes.
A large quantity has also been grown on the experimental farms.
The young seedlings thus obtained have given great. satisfaction,
and there are now growing on a large proportion of the homesteads
on the plains and prairies of Canada nursery plots of young trees
from one to three years old, containing hundreds of specimens,
which are being transplanted to permanent locations from year to
year, as required, to form shelter belts for the dwelling and barns,
for the vegetable and small fruit plantations, and to improve the
appearance of the farms. In the course of four or five years more,
many of the trees will bear seed and will thus furnish the material
to enlarge the planting to any extent required, and supply also the
wants of new settlers in the neighborhood.

Several hundred specimens of young trees of the white spruce
of the East have been sent from the nurseries there to the experi-
mental farms on the Canadian plains, but very few of them have
survived, while a large number of young trees of the same species
growing on the open prairie, on the first steppe on the plains, have

sil

been transplanted to the experimental farms during the past
three years, none of which have shown any indication of tender-
ness, and nearly all of them are doing well. Many thousand
young seedling elms have been dug from under the larger native
trees along the river valleys in the northwest, and planted in
nursery plots on the western farms; a quantity has also been grown
at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottaway from Northwest
seed and distributed as seedlings. These have all made satisfactory
growth and are proving to be admirably adapted to the climate.
Young trees of the Banksian pine have been brought down from
Prince Albert, 200 miles north, in the wooded districts, and have
proven quite hardy on, the plains. An assortment of young
trees has also been obtained in the colder districts along the
height of land on the north shore of Lake Superior, includ-
ing the American larch, canoe birch, American mountain ash,
and dwarf birch, and these also are doing well. When work
was begun on the experimental farm in the Northwest, a large
assortment, consisting of many thousand young trees and shrubs
of all the hardiest sorts, were sent there for test and were
planted, without shelter, on the open plains. A large proportion
of these died the first year, and there are now not many sur-
vivors left to represent this first consignment. The most notable
and valuable exceptions to this fatality are several species of strong
growing poplar and willow from Russia, which seem to thrive in
almost every situation, however exposed. The European white birch
has also proven exceedingly hardy. The same may be said of the
Caragana arborescens, or Siberian pea tree, which stands the most
severe tests equally well with the hardiest natives.

As results of the work in tree-planting during the past five years,
we can point to fine groves, shelter belts, and avenues of thrifty
and rapidly growing trees on each of the experimental farms ;
also a large number of hedges of the same material, embracing in
all 50,000 to 75,000 trees at each place. Along the western and
northern sides of these farms shelter belts are planted 100 feet wide
and from amile toa mile and three-quarters long in each case.
The trees in these belts are planted five feet aparteach way. Large
blocks have also been planted on other parts of the farms,
at the same distance apart. In some of these the growth
has already become so dense as to furnish favorable forest
conditions in the way of shade, leaf covering of the soil, and the
conservation of moisture and its accumulation by the collecting of

92

snow in winter, and the growth in future will probably be much
more rapid than in the past. In these closely planted and thrifty
belts, where the shelter is ample, other forest and fruit trees, which
have proven tender on the exposed prairie, are being tried again, with
promising results thus far. A portion of each farm has been en-
closed by hedges made of those trees and shrubs which have proven
hardiest, thus supplying shelter to long, narrow blocks of land for
the growing of small fruits, vegetables, and other products. The
intervening hedges are placed from 66 to 112 feet apart, and
already, although the hedges are quite young, the advantages aris-
ing from shelter are apparent. On the experimental farm at Indian
Head a rapid-growing shrubbery, Artemisia, has been found very
useful in furnishing hedge shelter promptly, owing to its very rapid
growth. This shrub was brought to America first by Prof. J. L.
Budd, of the Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa, and has been dis-
tributed under the name of Artemisia ubrotans var. Tobolskiana,
or Russian Artemisia. Cuttings of this shrub root very promptly,
and, planted in rows in the spring, will usually form a very useful
protective hedge by the end of the first or second seasons.

From a careful examination of the results of the planting of all
the trees and shrubs tested, there are now at both farms, including
the natives, about 100 varieties which have proven hardy and are
useful either for shelter, ornament, or forest cover. This work
of selection and test will go on indefinitely, and it is expected that
within a few years the number of hardy varieties will be doubled.
An arboretum has been established at each farm, where specimen
trees and shrubs will have space to develop their full proportions,
as far as the climate will permit, and by the future study of these
much information will be got as to the best uses and combinations
which can be made of the individual species.

93 :

CONDITIONS OF FORESTRY IN CALIFORNIA.

By Assot Kinney, Lamanda, Cal.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The condition of forestry in California is as good as a bad thing
can be. The Federal Government has at last taken the preliminary
steps looking to a national forestry system by reserving from sale
important districts of mountain forest lands.

These forest reservations in California are large and well selected.
They cover the main sources of water supply for the large irriga-
tion interests of the State, and also those mountains from which
torrents now flow and from which new torrents would originate
were the forest covering removed. There is, however, as yet, no
management of these forest reservations whatever, and no protec-
tion, except in the addition to the Yosemite Park.

This exceptional protection has been effective by means of a troop
of United States cavalry, by which the Yosemite Park has been pa-
trolled.

The success and efficiency of this protection shows what can be
done, and should be extended to the other reservations pending the
establishment of a forestry system.

The necessity of some action of this kind is shown by a recent
report to me from one of the special land agents. This gentleman
states that through one of the entrances to the Sequoia Reserva-
tion some 300,000 head of sheep passed in this summer, and that
the entire forest, as far as he saw it, was like a dusty road from the
effects of this invasion. It is probable that nearly 1,000,000 sheep
have been on this reservation this summer.

Forests and sheep are things incompatible, but, in view of the ex-
tent of the sheep interests, the using of the California mountain pas-
tures should impress upon us the necessity of a careful and con-
servative policy in ending this source of injury to our forests.

The State Board of Forestry has been discontinued and its sta-
tions turned over to the University of California. This is nota
serious loss, for the only effective forest policy is a national one.
The State executive system is not sufficiently concentrated to carry
on effectively a work of this kind, and, besides this, forest interests

94

are not separated by State lines, and no harmonious or efficient
system could be expected from the independent action of the differ-
ent States.

We look forward with much hope to the creation of a practical
forest system for the government of all the national forest lands.

THE FOREST CONDITIONS IN THE GULF
STATES.

By Dr. Cuartzes Mour, Mobile, Ala.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The Gulf region, as considered here, comprises that part of the
Atlantic forest division which extends from the Chattahoochee and
Apalachicola rivers through the States fronting the Gulf of Mexico,
to the treeless plains of Texas. With the exception of the moun-
* tainous part, on its northeastern limits, this region can be regarded
as avast plain with a gentle decline from north to south to the
seashore, originally almost completely covered with forest; pines
and other evergreens predominating in its southern half. Little
less than 50 per cent. of its area is still in woodlands, and by far
the larger proportion in their original condition.

The most prominent feature of the Gulf region is presented by
the great coast pine belt, with its forests of long-leaf pine, which,
east of the Mississippi river, extends from the Atlantic slope to the
bluffs bordering the alluvial region of this river, with an average
width of 125 miles. This eastern coast pine belt covers, roughly
estimated, 38,000 square miles. West of the Mississippi river the
forest of long-leaf pine reappears upon the deposits of sands and
pebbles, of a more recent geological formation, which rise above
the lowlands of the Atlantic coast region and the eastern Gulf coast.
These western forests of long-leaf pine extend but a short distance
below the 31st degree of latitude, and cover an area of between
eleven or twelve thousand square miles, nearly equally divided be-
tween Louisiana and Texas.

East of the Mississippi river, on the coast plain, the low sandy
shores of the Gulf, the headlands and outlying islands above the
tide are chiefly covered by the Cuban pine, this tree following the

95 .

inlets of the sea and the borders of the swamp lining the water-
courses for a distance of almost fifty miles from the seashore. The
broad low clay ridges rismg above the tide-water swamps were
originally heavily timbered with long-leaf pine, associated on their
declivities with the loblolly pine. On the extensive flats with their
sterile and ill-drained soil, the low pine barrens or so-caJled “ pine
meadows,” the long-leaf pine is more scattered and the trees of a
somewhat stunted growth. In the hummock lands which cover the
fertile damp depressions between these ridges the fine live oaks
have, to a great extent, disappeared.

The heavier timber growth of the long-leaf pine in the coast plain
has been removed. On the better class of pine lands in many
localities it has been succeeded by the Cuban pine, yet a second
growth of the longleaf pine is frequently seen to have taken pos-
session of the ground. However promising the second growth ap-
pears, it is frequently found more or less injured by the tramping
of live-stock and searcely escapes destruction by fire. These ridge-
lands, susceptible of much improvement under cultivation, will,
sooner or later, be subjected to the plowshare.

In the flat woods, unsuited for tillage, the renewal of the long-
leaf pine finds a great obstacle on account of the seedlings, which
happen to start in the fall, being killed by the water which covers
these areas for the greater part of the cool season.

The alluvial lands of the rivers and their deltas, subjected to
almost perpetual overflow, are covered with dense forests of black
gum, water oaks, cottonwood, green ash, and, where the alluvial
soil is of greatest depth, tupelo gum and cypress (Zaxodium
distichum) flourish.

In the extensive swamps on the Apalachicola river, among the
dense growth of ogeche lime (Vyssa capitata), cypress of large di-
mensions are found which have circumferences of from 12 to over 18
feet above the buttresses of the trunks forming their base, and
from 60 to 75 feet in height before spreading out their umbrella-
shaped crown. ‘Trees of smaller size are rarely met with and none
of second growth have been observed on the older clearings of
these swamps. The timber when freshly felled is apt to sink in
water; therefore, the trees are deadened by girdling during the
summer, and the dead trees are felled the following year, at the time
of freshets.

The timber is rafted to Apalachicola, where from 10,000,000 to
12,000,000 are cut annually. In the delta of Mobile river and the

36

swamps along the lower Tombigbee and Alabama rivers the best
of the cypress timber has been culled. From the supplies which -
reach the shingle mills at Mobile, with an output of 175,000,000
pieces a year (1891), it is evident that the resources of this section
are far from being exhausted. The cypress forests existing in
other parts of the Gulf region may, in this connection, be spoken of.
In the western Gulf region this tree is found most abundant in the
swamps and shallow lakes of the Mississippi and Yazoo bottom.
In the latter the cypress forms brakes, the gigantic trunks rising
above the dark, placid water, from among the strange, cone-like,
bald excrescences sent up from their roots to a height from 2 to
over 5 feet.

Any attempt to form an estimate of the timber wealth hidden in
these swamps and brakes scattered among the 4,000,000 acres of
dense forest covering this delta region proves futile. Without an
outlet, it has until recently been practically inaccessible. It is only
during the past year or two that it is being made available by the
railroad lines built through this section. The greater part of
Southern Louisiana is covered with cypress swamps; between Lake
Ponchartrain and the waters that find their outlet by the Atchafalago
river about 1,500,000 acres, more or less, are covered with cypress.
Even with the meagre information obtained, it appears that
175,000,000 feet b. m. of cypress lumber and 475,000,000 of
shingles are at the present time annually produced in this alluvial
region. Under the increasing demand for cypress lumber, which
every year is becoming more appreciated, the cypress lands are
speedily passing under the control of capital.

In all probability there will, in the future, be neither room nor
time allotted for reforestation upon these lands, which are unsur-
passed in fertility, if reclaimed and protected from the periodically
recurring floods of the Mississippi river.

In the sphagnous swamps lining the pine-barren streams in the
lower section of the pine belt, the white cedar or juniper (Chame-
cyparis thyoides) forms a conspicuous part of the tree growth, the
timber of which, having a value equal to that of red cedar, is con-
sequently in great demand; the supplies existing in Alabama and
Mississippi are rapidly dwindling away, and the better grades have
been already culled.

In the rolling pine lands or pine hills of the eastern Gulf region,
rising to an elevation from 150 to 250 feet above the coast plain,
the long-leaf pine holds undisputed sway. The wide table-lands,

97 :

between the watercourses, broken into low, rounded hills near the
waterways, are, without interruption, covered with forests exclusively
of long-leaf pine. These forests are open, and almost without any
undergrowth; the lightly shaded ground beneath the tall pines is
covered with a carpet of various grasses and herbs, principally of
the leguminous order and the composite family. According to
official returns obtained at the ports of export, not less than
715,000,000 f. b. m. of hewn and sawn square timber and lumber have
been shipped annually from the ports in Western Florida, Alabama,
and Mississippi and inland by rail during the past few years.
Traversed by numerous streams permitting the rafting of the logs
to the mill sites, offering in its topographical and soil conditions
the best opportunities possible for the construction of tramways
to the highways of communication by rail to inland markets, or by
water to the sea-ports with their fine harbors and safe roadsteads,
this lower section possesses unrivalled advantages, which stamp it
at once as one of the principal centres of the lumbering interests
of the Southern States.

With the appearance of the calcareous rocks and marls of the
older tertiary strata in the upper part of this eastern pine belt the
country becomes more broken. With this change in the topo-
graphical and soil condition, the forest growth also undergoes a
change. Deciduous trees, mostly oaks, hickory, and broad-leaved
evergreens, share the ground with the pines. The short-leaf pine is
found among the upland oaks, post, black and Spanish oak, and pig
and bitternut hickory. The forests of white oak, shellbark and
mockernut hickory, ash, beech, magnolias, red cedar, which covered
the rich black lands, the so-called prairie lands, in this upper sec-
tion, have for the greatest part given place to the cotton-field. The
area of this division is estimated to extend into Alabama and the
adjoining section of Mississippi over 10,000 square miles, and it
can be said that fully one-half of the area is covered with long-leaf
pine. The timber growth in these pine forests is heavy, and in
many localities it has been found to amount to double the quantity
found upon a corresponding area in the forests of the lower section
of the pine belt. The steep ridges and the greater distance from
navigable streams render the transportation of the timber to the
mills more costly than in the forests further south, and the conse-
quence of which is that the forests on these hills have been much
less encroached upon.

The forests of long-leaf pine on the belt of sands and gravels

98

which cross Alabama almost centrally from east to west, from 5 to
25 miles in width, do not differ materially in their conditions from
those of the lower pine belts. In the basin of the Coosa river the
forests of long-leaf pine on the drifted deposits of the valleys fur-
nish timber of excellent quality, and about 25,000,000 feet are
shipped annually from Gadsden. In this region the long-leaf pine
is found to ascend the mountains to a height of almost 1,000 feet
above the sea. The forests on the barren rocky heights of sand-
stone are very open and the timber of inferior size. The same is to
be said of the long-leaf pine on the mountain ranges in the meta-
morphic region of Alabama, where this tree is found thinly scattered
on the highly silicious, rocky soil and considered commercially of
no importance. West of the Mississippi river, in the basin of the
Red River in Louisiana, the rolling uplands are covered with the
forests of the long-leaf pine. Between the broad low hills numerous
streams wind their course to the alluvial region, their fertile bot-
toms timbered with white oak, red oak, black gums, and magnolias.
The pine forests are rather open, finely timbered, and, in their gen-
eral condition, not differmg from the forests on the pine hills in
lower part of the west pine belt east. Before the opening of the
Houston Central & North Arkansas Railway lately, this finely tim-
bered region had remained almost intact. During the past year
(1892) the output of the mills along the railroad reached fully
75,000,000 f. b. m. In the area drained by the Caleasieu and the
Sabine rivers in their lower course, and in Texas by the Neches
river, the forests of long-leaf pine extend, with scarcely any inter-
ruption, over a vast, almost perfectly level plain, becoming some-
what undulating only near the watercourses. Their soil of rather
impervious silt is water-soaked for the greater part of the year.
The timber growth on these “ pine flats” is in general found denser
than on the rolling land, and the trees are taller. By the owners of
these timber lands the merchantable timber standing upon one acre
is assumed to average from 6,000 to 7,000 feet, including all sound
trees between 11 to 12 inches in diameter. In furnishing the tim-
ber supplies for the large mills at Lake Charles, La., Orange and
Beaumont, in Texas, and the numerous smaller mills on the Sabine
and Texas Railroad, logging is carried on with great activity. In
the extensive pine flats steam-equipped tram-roads penetrate the
forest for a distance of 12 to 20 miles; east of the Sabine river lat-
eral tracts are laid through the middle of the sections, which are
almost completely stripped of their tree growth. Quoting the in-

99 .
formation obtained from leading firms engaged in the business, the
output of the mills depending for their timber supply on these flat
woods appears to have been during the year 1891 fully 700,000,000
feet b. m.

Adding to this output the cut on the pine hills north of the Red
River, the amount of lumber produced in the forests of long-leaf
pine west of the Mississippi during the same year falls little short of
800,000,000 f. b. m. .

The forests of the rolling country, rising above the pine flats in
the upper part of Calcasieu parish, according to information ob-
tained, are in about the same condition as those found on the pine
hills north of the Red River. On account of their inaccessibility and
the distance from the Northern markets, they have remained almost
untouched by the lumberman’s axe.

Turpentine orcharding, which caused the devastation of millions
of acres of long-leaf pine forest, is in the Gulf region confined within
its eastern part. It can safely be maintained that the aggregate
production of the 361,320 casks (of 50 gallons each) of spirits of
turpentine for the period of eleven years, including the year 1880
to the close of 1891, reported as received in the Mobile market, has
involved the utter devastation of not less than 2,250,000 acres of
timber land. Under the present system of management the bled
timber from the abandoned turpentine orchards of former years is
speedily disappearing. Conveniently located along the railroad lines
and rivers, they are being rapidly cleared. Of late years turpentine
orcharding is brought in immediate connection with the lumbering
business, and this practice will receive a powerful stimulus, since it
has been demonstrated by the U. 8. timber tests that the timber is
found in no way impaired in its physical qualities by the bleeding.
There can be no doubt that in the near future the forests will inva-
riably be worked for their resinous products immediately before
the timber is to be felled for the saw-mill.

For the spontaneous renewal of the long-leaf pine in the Gulf re-
gion there appears to be no hope under the existing management.
Carried on under the high pressure of large investments of capital
in large manufacturing plants, with a daily output all the way from
60,000 to 100,000 f. b. m., the supplies transferred from the forests
to the mill by costly steam-power and in connection with the mod-
ern dry kiln, permitting the sappy stuff of lower grades to be
turned into a merchantable article, the forests are almost com-
pletely cleared of their tree growth. The scanty remainder, if bled

LOO

for turpentine, is laid low by storms or destroyed by fire, and, even
in districts where it has not been subjected to this infliction,
amounts to little as a factor of future increase. The second growth
of the long-leaf pine on the denuded areas, exposed to the period-
ically returning fires, which, east of the Mississippi, originate in
connection with turpentine orcharding, and elsewhere from acci-
dent, carelessness, or design, is doomed to destruction. Although
the flat woods are less liable to this danger, the renewal of the for-
est by natural seeding is here rarely found to take place, the cold
soil, soaked with water for the greater part of the season, being as
unfavorable to the germination of the seed as it is to the growth of
the seedling. The flat woods, stripped of their timber during the
past twenty-five years, are overgrown with fall broom-sedge grass
(Andropogon virginicus), and present mostly the aspect of savan-
nas, almost, if not entirely, destitute of trees.

In regard to the remaining supplies of merchantable long-leaf pine
timber in the Gulf States, opinions differ widely, and the attempts
to estimate for the 10th Census the quantity still existing have
evoked severe criticism. The discrepancies find their explanation
in the differences of the understanding as to what is considered as
merchantable timber.

There must necessarily appear a wide difference between the
statements based on a standard which considers solely the higher
grades, as was then done, and those made upon the present low
standard, which includes every stick with a diameter as low as 10 to
11 inches.

In 1880, only timber squaring 12 inches at the top, free from sap,
and without blemish, was considered by lumbermen merchantable ;
such quality, first cull, formed about one-fifth to one-fourth of the
timber growth that would at present be used for milling. This
standard of merchantable timber was taken for the basis in the esti-
mates of the merchantable timber standing in 1880, and on a broad
average the estimate of 3,000 feet per acre was arrived at, which at
that time was considered, by those conversant with such matters,
as a fair approximation. If, however, as is the usage at the present
time, the total of the timber standing down to that of the low
dimensions indicated is taken into consideration in the estimate for
the same area, it cannot fail to show widely differing results, namely,
from 50 to 70 per cent. of larger yield. With the introduction of the
steam-equipped tramway, reducing cost of transportation of the
lumber to the mill, and the dry kiln of the present day, low grades

OM: .

of timber can be profitably converted into merchantable stuff which
now find a ready demand in distant markets, while formerly it could
not have been disposed of.

In the Gulf region west of the Mississippi, the short-leaf pine is
widely distributed, and found in great abundance and perfection of
growth. The extensive forests of this species north of the long-leaf
pine belt in Louisiana and Texas, extending west to the prairie re-
gion of the latter State, are, in the vastness and value of their
resources, almost equal to the forests of long-leaf pine adjoining
them on the south. In the wide upland region of Northern Louisi-
ana the forests, purely of short-leaf pine, are confined to the ridges
of a poorer soil, while on the lands of better soil this pine is asso-
ciated with upland oaks and hickory.

For want of proper transportation facilities to distant markets
the forests in this section have been scarcely touched. In the ad-
joining part of Texas, forests almost exclusively of short-leaf pine
cover areas of many hundreds of square miles in extent. Their
timber growth is of fine quality; upland oaks mostly form the
undergrowth. In the extensive forests between Texarkana and the
town of Marshall the lumbering industry is carried on with the
same relentless activity as in the coast pine belt, and the forests
are as closely stripped. In the year 1891 about 300,000,000 f. b. m.
were shipped by rail to the markets of the Northwest.

By the facilities of dissemination inherent to this species, the
spontaneous renewal of the forests is more readily effected than in
the case of the long-leaf pine; it is also still further favored by the
greater rapidity of its growth. From all appearances the second
growth is less liable to destruction by fire on the more retentive
soil of the uplands; particularly in the more populated districts
groves of second growth of varying age are frequently met with,
giving great promise for the future. In the central and the east-
ern section of Northern Mississippi, and in Alabama, the abandoned
fields are soon overgrown with young pines of thrifty growth. It
is evident that this pine is destined to play an important part in
the forestry of the Gulf region in the future.

The hard-wood forests in the region of mixed growth and in the
great agricultural region of Central Alabama, Central and Eastern
Mississippi have for the greatest part disappeared on the fertile up-
lands and arable bottom-lands. At present they are confined to
the hills of a poorer soil, to the remoter valleys, and to the un-
reclaimed alluvial lands. In such situations tracts covered with

102

their original forest growth are existing, with supplies of valuable
timber to meet the wants of a future generation. On the uplands
they consist of white oak, post oak, black and Spanish oak, mock-
ernut and butternut, and hickory, interspersed with short-leaf pine,
and in the lowlands of swamp white oak, overcup oak, red oak,
red gum, ash, shellbark hickory, beech, magnolia, and more
sparingly of tulip trees. From the lower valley of the Tombigbee
river in Alabama, its headwaters in Mississippi, and from the lower
Alabama river and its tributaries considerable quantities of oak, ash,
and gum reach Mobile. North of the central belt in Alabama the
white oak is the most important feature of the hard-wood forests in
the valleys, where the tulip tree is also found frequently asso-
ciated with this tree. The rugged hills of carboniferous slabs
and sandstone are under cover of an inferior growth of up-
land oaks and hickory. These forests, limited as they appear
in the resources of timber of a more valuable kind, are of
no little importance to the rapidly developed mining interests
of this mineral region of the State, which already cause
a heavy draft upon them. In the valleys of the mountain re-
gion further north, forests of swamp white oak and tulip trees,
with all the other valuable kinds of timber characteristic of the
lowlands, are found in quantities to insure large supplies for the
near future. The black walnut, at one time not uncommon, is at
present only found hidden in the most inaccessible recesses. The
6,000 square miles of the elevated table-land of the Warrior coal
basin were a quarter of a century ago an unbroken forest wilder-
ness. The short-leaf pine largely prevails on the thinner soils of
the steeper ridges, with post oak, black oak, Spanish oak, mocker-
nut, hickory, and chestnut, the deciduous trees becoming more
frequent as the soil conditions improve. At an elevation of about
1,000 feet above sea-level the mountain or tan-bark oak (Quercus
prinus) becomes one of the most prominent trees on these uplands.
White oak of fine proportions is not uncommonly found upon the
spots with an accumulation of a deeper, richer soil. In the shal-
low depressions or swales, destitute of drainage, the loblolly pine
arrives at great perfection. In such localities, from 15,000 to 20,-
000 feet of merchantable timber have been estimated to the acre on
smaller areas. The finest forests of hard-wood timber in Alabama
are found in the coves which sweep along the base of the moun-
tain ranges bordering the southern side of the valley of the Ten-
nessee river, and in the secluded valleys enclosed by the detached

103 :

spurs of the Cumberland mountains north of the river. On the
benches of these coves, white oak, Spanish oak, red oak, black oak,
with shellbark hickory, are found in abundance and of most perfect
growth. The swamp white oak, red oak, willow oak, and ash
abound in the broad valley. Considerable quantities of these hard
woods are sawn at Decatur and at the smaller mills located on the
Memphis and Charleston railroad north of the river. It is claimed
that in the remoter valleys in the northeastern part of this river
basin the tulip tree is found in quantities equal to any that is found
in the most favored districts of the southern Appalachian region.
On the outcrops of the mountain limestone, forming the lower
flanks of the mountains north and south of the Tennessee river,
are found glades of red cedar; on the dry and rocky declivities
the timber is knotty, but of late it has become highly prized for
telegraph poles, piling, and posts. Timber of finer qualities is
found in the damp, narrow valleys among the hard-wood timber
growth; red cedar of higher grades, which is eagerly sought for
for the manufacture of lead pencils, hollow ware, and cabinet
work, is becoming scarce. With their impending exhaustion the
cedar glades, formerly frequently damaged by fires, are now being
carefully guarded against such accident. What has been said
about the forests of deciduous-leaved trees in Central Alabama and
in Mississippi applies to the uplands of Northern Louisiana. The
upland forests in the more densely populated districts of these
States, particularly if in close connection with the farms, have
greatly suffered by the heedless devastation of their resources, and
by their use for pasture grounds during the entire year, causing
their speedy deterioration and eventual destruction. The greatest
damage, however, results from the injudicious clearing of the hill-
sides for the sake of raising a few crops, which is sooner or
later found to be unprofitable, and the land is then abandoned.
The subsequent washing away of the soil renders the renewal of
the timber growth of any value an impossibility.

The most extensive body of hard-wood forest in its primeval ’con-
dition on this part of the continent, and unsurpassed in the variety
and quality of its timber wealth, is found in the Mississippi and
Yazoo bottom, extending over 4,000,000 acres in 1880. With its
huge red gums, swamp white oaks, red maples, overcup oak, red and
willow oak, sassafras, honey locust, pecan, mockernuts, and cotton-
wood of gigantic dimensions, its resources appear truly astounding.
Black walnut is not uncommonly found on the higher swells of the

104

ground, and at Indian Bayou in 1880 it was still cut for fencing.
These stupendous resources are now being made available by the
railroads lately constructed in this delta. On the western bank of
the Mississippi river, in East Carroll and Madison parish, in Louis-
iana, the same conditions prevail with the forests rising above the
cypress swamps, the pecan being found more frequently in the
western lowlands; large tracts of forest of similar conditions prevail
in the valley of the Red river through its extent in Eastern Texas.
The hard-wood timber forests west of the eastern timber region of
this State, being generally confined to narrow strips skirting the
streams, are commercially of littleimportance. The bottoms of the
valleys of the upper Trinity, the lower Brazos, Colorado, and of the .
Guadeloupe rivers are, however, finely timbered with red oak, pecan,
the southern pin oak (Quercus durandii) and Texan elm (Ulmus
crassifolia). The bois d’are or Osage orange is, in the Gulf region,
mostly confined to the upper Trinity valley. The red cedar at one
time abundant in the Brazos valley has almost disappeared. The
western cedar (Juniperus occidentalis var. conjugens) is found scat-
tered in numerous clumps over the calcareous highlands around the
headwaters of the Guadeloupe river. These cedar glades have been
much damaged by the conflagrations to which they have been ex-
posed from time to time.

The two narrow belts of open woods, known as the cross-timbers,
which extend from north to south through the bare plains of West-
ern Texas, are covered with black jack, blue jack, or upland wil-
low oak and post oak of inferior size. With the copses of mesquit
(Prosopis julifiora) which in some localities are scattered over the
plain, they are of importance as a source of fuel in the otherwise
treeless region of the far Southwest.

Such are the forest conditions of this part of the country, a rational
exploitation of which with regard to the future is as little or less
to be expected at present as in most other sections of the United
States.

105 1 .

FORESTRY IN NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA.

By Rosert Hupsoy, Esq., General Superintendent of New South
*Wales Exhibits, W. C. E.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, Oct., 1893. |

The sea-coast and rivers of New South Wales abound with
valuable commercial timbers. The most valuable, red cedar, is
principally found on the northern rivers of the Colony, and until
very recently the supply appeared so inexhaustible that little care
was taken of it by the timber men, who cut all before them, pro-
vided it grew near a river where the logs could be rolled from the
bank into the stream and made into a raft, which, when completed,
contained timber enough to completely fill a vessel capable of navi-
gating these rivers. These rafts had in some cases to float long
distances down narrow, tortuous rivers and were towed by a boat or
stern-wheel light-draught steamer. The terrible waste resulting
from the squarer’s axe has at last been stopped, and the stupid
fashion of delivering the logs to the market in a squared state no
longer exists; the consumer now gets the very best of the tree,
which was previously chopped off and burned. It would be difficult
to estimate how many millions of feet of the very primest red cedar
have been thus ruthlessly destroyed.

Our forest trees have a dull green color, as a rule; some of the
brush forests, however, contain trees with deep green and polished
leaves; all trees are evergreens, altering little in appearance, if any-
thing, with the seasons.

It is only within the last twenty-two years that the forests of
New South Wales have been protected by the Government and
timber reserves proclaimed. Indiscriminate felling of trees is pro-
hibited, and only such as are of mature growth and a given girth
are allowed to be cut, and then only by persons holding a license.
Recently a department entirely devoted to forestry has been organ-
ized. In the year 1875 officers were appointed to supervise the re-
serves, which up to that time had been reserves only so far as they
were proclaimed as such. Since that date other reservations have
been made, and in 1881 they numbered four hundred and sixty one,
having an area of three and one-half million acres. The wisdom
of placing the forest lands of settled States under the control of

106

the Government has been fully demonstrated by practical experi-
ence. Since the adoption of this policy, owing to the prevalence of
wanton and indiscriminate denudation of forest lands, and for the
effectual control of the unalienated timber lands of the Colony, it
has been subdivided into twenty-five districts under the supervision
of resident foresters, who are controlled by travelling inspectors.
It is the duty of the officers to see that all timber-cutters have their
proper license, duly dated, which must be produced for examina-
tion and verification when demanded by the inspector, who also
carefully examines the tree stumps or fallen timber to see that no
tree of unauthorized girth has been cut.

There is a printed schedule of hard-wood trees with the girth
measurement affixed to each species, under which these trees must
not be felled; the girth is taken at about 5 feet from the ground;
for example,—

Black bith. 2. aoe ee vet en eee 1 46..6 in.
(Bush “POX; 1. te aise eee ee 6 ft. 6 in
DiTIncy. Dark. ole emeske ose See cece ee 5 ft

Soft woods, such as cedar, pine, beech (Gmelina Leichtlinit),
rosewood, etc., have also their safeguard, in the prescribed girth
measurement, from the woodman’s axe.

At the end of 1891 the Colony had 1,013 forest reserves with an
acreage of nearly 6 millions, well studded with most valuable tim-
bers.

Licenses are issued to cut timber on reserves in class A at a fixed
fee of $30.00 per annum (without royalty); on reserves in class B
the fee amounts to $45.00 per annum; on reserves in class C gen-
eral permits to cut timber for sawmills are issued at $30.00 per
annum, to which is added a royalty differing in accordance with
the value of the trees used, and ranges from 40 cents down to 6
cents per 100 superficial feet.

The license fee for cutting cedar and shipping wattle bark from
river-bank is $30.00 per annum, with the reservation that no cedar
tree of less than 9 feet girth is allowed to be felled.

Permits are granted also for cutting mining props, for thinning
out timber in order to improve the growth of the remaining trees,
and for shipping wattle bark or the bark of other trees for tanning
purposes.

Infringements of any forest regulations are punishable by fine of
$25.00 for the first offence, $50.00 for the second, and $100.00 for the

107 .

third, besides the confiscation of all felled and prepared timber, as
well as having the cost of the injured timber charged against the
offender.

For the year 1891 the revenue from such sources yielded $92,275,
and the expenditure amounted to $119,375; but, although this item
is so much in excess of receipts, a very great deal of useful repro-
ductive and improvement work will result from it; as, for instance,
the extensive operations carried out upon the northern reservations
for the conservation of the valuable red cedar, the extensive wattle
plantations, which are carefully thinned out, and the treatment of
the valuable red-gum saplings on the Murray river reserves, the
returns from which in a few years will fully repay the outlay.

The work carried on by the forestry department included the
planting of 16,450 trees, distributing to schools 75,000 trees, thin-
ning out of 2,000,000 red gum trees on the Murray river reserve,
planting 7,000 red cedar trees on the cedar reserve, 128,000 wattles
thinned out; the total number of trees operated upon exceeded two
and a quarter millions. The forest area of New South Wales is
estimated at 21 million acres.

During the year 1891 over 100,000 trees were supplied to public
schools and corporate bodies to celebrate the Arbor Days lately
introduced and so prolific of good results.

The State nursery consists of about 65 acres, carrying a stock
usually of one and a quarter millions of trees, comprising over 250
varieties. All this work is being vigorously pushed under the de-
partment of forestry.

The forestry department has recently paid some attention to
planting trees along the railway lines within the railway reserves, a
system introduced by the executive commissioner to the W. C. E.,
when he held the office of minister for mines, and this scheme is
likely to be greatly enlarged. On one section of the railway reserve
at Cootamundra, there is a plantation of American Catalpa (Speciosa)
consisting of 2,700 trees, doing remarkably well; also, a quantity
of black walnut. In the cedar reserves there have been over 30,000
trees planted, taken from nurseries where they are raised, in immense
numbers, from seeds.

This, briefly, is the law of forestry and the rules for forest conser-
vation, and only a feeling of regret can be expressed that these laws
and licenses were not in force many years earlier, when millions of
feet of most valuable timber might have been saved and the forest of
to-day would have been worth millions of dollars more than it is at

108

present ; but by judicious planting and thinning, together with jeal-
ous care of the trees still coming to maturity, New South Wales will
stand out as a bright example for other colonies to follow.

FOREST CONDITIONS AND FORESTRY PROB-
LEMS OF VENEZUELA.

By Dr. A. Erxst, Commissioner at World’s Fair for Venezuela.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, Oct., 1893. ]

Following too closely a remark made by Humboldt, most writers
on the physical geography of Venezuela divide the country into
three distinct zones, viz., the agricultural, pastoral, and forest.
The first region comprises the mountains and valleys between the
coast of the Caribbean Sea and the interior range of a rather com-
plicated orographic system which as a prolongation of the eastern
chain of the Colombian Andes runs through the whole Republic
towards its northeast corner opposite the island of Trinidad, being
70 miles wide. The pastoral zone extends from the southern limit
of the former to the Orinoco and Apure rivers, and consists of ex-
tended plains, interspersed here and there with raised table-lands,
called mesas, and watered by numerous streams that in the rainy
season inundate the bordering plains for many miles. The forest
zone, as understood by these writers, stretches from the Orinoco
southward to the frontier of Brazil, and is comparatively an un-
discovered country, traversed by great rivers and covered with
limitless forests, abounding with all kind of tropical birds, beasts,
and reptiles.

This division, however, is but partially exact. It is true that in
the first region are found almost all the agricultural establishments
of the country, and that cattle-raising is the principal industry of
the inhabitants of the second or pastoral region. But the most
important and valuable forest-tracts are by no means situated south
of the Orinoco, and are to be found within the borders of the so-
called agricultural zone. There the forest begins in many places
on the very shore of the sea with an almost impenetrable belt of
mangrove-vegetation, composed of species of Rhizophora, Avi-
cennia, Laguncularia, and Conocurpus, which is followed towards
the land by extensive thickets of the sea-side grape (Coccolobis
Uvifera), Bontia daphnoides, Capparis amygdalina, etc. The

109 :

slopes of the mountains are covered with forest wherever the soil
is favorable and the rainfall sufficient for the development of an
arboreous vegetation, and only on the highest parts, from 10,000
feet upwards, the trees disappear and are replaced by shrubs of a
more or less dwarfish size. .

There are, however, many instances where the mountain slopes
even at lower elevations are covered only by a dense sward of
grasses, amongst which grow some smaller plants of other families,
especially Leguminose and Malvacee. It is extremely difficult to
account for the origin of these savanna-like tracts in the midst of
the forest, as the conditions of soil and climate are the same. But
the grasses once well established, their roots form such a compact
stratum that the seeds blown down from the neighboring trees find,
of course, no place to germinate, and thus the forest cannot
advance.

The luxuriance of vegetation in tropical forests is so well known
that I deem it superfluous to dwell on it. The extraordinary thick-
ness of the layer of vegetable mould which covers the soil is
remarkable. The leaves are, in a great many of our forest trees,
compound in a high degree—a circumstance which allows the light
of the sun to penetrate to the soil beneath, and to contribute thus
to the development of an abundant undergrowth of shrubs and
herbaceous plants.

There is, however, in the forest a remarkable lack of flowers,
which sometimes disappoints the botanical collector very much,
whereas about the edges of the forest, on watercourses or open
savannas, there is an abundance of flowering plants of all descrip-
tions.

Another peculiarity of all tropical forests is the great variety of
species even on a limited spot. There is nothing similar to the
large and uniform oak or pine forests of the northern temperate
zone; the species do not grow gregariously, but are intermixed in
the most confusing manner. This is quite a serious difficulty when
a certain species of timber is needed in a large quantity, as, for
instance, for railway-ties, which, for this reason, are generally so
expensive that the companies prefer to bring steel ties from Europe,
although those made of lignum-vite (Guaiacum arboreum) are
considered to be of superior quality.

Although I have been studying the flora of Venezuela for many
years, I cannot say that all the forest trees of the country are
botanically known to me. Every one who has seen a tropical forest

1407),

will easily understand how very difficult it is to collect in many
cases sufficient material of the large arboreous species for scientific
classification. In my report on the National Exposition at Caracas,
in 1883, I have given a descriptive list of 652 species of trees, which
were representéd on that occasion by 2,070 samples. Not all of
them yield valuable timber, but I am sure not to overstep the limits
of truth in saying that at least one-half of that number deserve to
be classed as such. There is a smaller collection of our most
notable woods exhibited in the Venezuela pavilion in Jackson Park,
which was partly prepared under my personal supervision, and an
alphabetical list of these samples, accompanied by short descrip-
tive remarks, inserted in the catalogue which I prepared of our
exhibit.

The most important species belong to the following families: Lau-
races, Meliaceze, Zygophyllacee, Rutaceze, Euphorbiacee, Legumi-
nose, Myrtaceze, Rhizophoracee, Rubiacez, Sapotaceze, Styracacez,
Bignoniacez, Apocynaceze, Samydacee, and Palme.

Man has done hitherto nothing in Venezuela for the conservation
and improvement of forests; they are in every respect such as
nature has made them. Some grow on lands belonging to the
nation; many are the property of private individuals; but in neither
case have the science and practice of forestry been applied to them.
The cutting of timber is done wherever and whenever the circum-
stances allow it, mostly for the benefit of carpenters and cabinet-
makers in the country, and comparatively small quantities are
shipped to foreign countries, especially from the ports of Maracaibo
and Puerto Cabello. The trade is far from being developed, as the
supply is uncertain and the expenses generally too great. The
wood-cutters, of course, prefer those parts of the forest which are
in the neighborhood of rivers, in order to float the logs down to the
seaboard, whence they are shipped to either of the ports mentioned.
Splendid timber, however, grows on almost inaccessible places, and
the cost of transporting it would be much greater than its commer-
cial value. In some cases the logs are sawn in the forest into
boards and square pieces; the former generally half an inch (foeros)
or one inch thick, and the latter (called cuartones) measuring about
four inches each way. The work is mostly done by hand. Saw-
mills are as yet rather uncommon, though they might be established
almost everywhere without difficulty, water-power being generally
within easy reach.

The amount of lumber brought to market is, however, not quite

et .

sufficient for the requirements of the artisans. A considerable
quantity of pitch-pine is imported from the United States, princi-
pally for flooring. A large sawmill in Caracas receives likewise
much square timber (pine) from this country and cuts it into boards.
It is very singular that among all our many species of woods not one
has been found suitable for the making of matches, so that the two
jarge manufactories of this article at Caracas import pine wood
even from Norway.

In some parts of the country the forests are recklessly destroyed
by charcoal-burners. This happens, of course, especially in the
neighborhood of the larger towns and cities, where charcoal has a
ready sale at comparatively high prices. The public authorities
have been obliged to interfere on several occasions; for instance, in
Caracas, in order to prevent a decrease in the quantity of water
that the rivers which have their feeders in the mountain forests
carry down to meet the constantly increasing requirements of the
capital. This is the only case, as far as I remember, that any pro-
vision has been made by authority of the law in reference to a forestry
problem. The time, however, I hope is not far distant when the Goy-
ernment of Venezuela will pay a more than transitory attention to
the many questions connected with our forests, and adopt a system
of judicious supervision which, whilst putting a stop to all reckless
destruction of forests where the water supply of any of our towns
might be endangered, or irrigation in agricultural districts inter-
fered with, will regulate at the same time the cutting of useful
timber, even on lands belonging to private individuals or corpora-
tions.

THE GREAT COAST FOREST OF THE PACIFIC
SLOPE: ITS RESERVATION A NATIONAL
DULY.

By E. W. Hammonp, Wimer, Jackson County, Oregon, Vice-President
American Forestry Association.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The object of the present paper is the advocacy of the reservation,
by the General Government, of the great coastal forest of the Pacific
slope, this being a matter of prime importance in any comprehen-
sive plan for an intelligent administration of the public forests.

112

This great coast forest is one of the four principal divisions into
which Prof. Sargent, in “Trees of North America,” divides the
woods of the Pacific region.

It extends southerly along the coast in a narrow strip from the
sixtieth to the fiftieth parallel, where it widens, embracing the shores
of Puget Sound, and, following the abundant rainfall of the region,
extends eastward over the high mountain ranges north and south of
the boundary line, covering Northern Washington, Idaho, and por-
tions of Western Montana. South of the fiftieth degree of latitude
the coast forest occupies the region between the ocean and the
eastern slopes of the Cascade range. In California the summit of
the Sierra Nevada marks the eastern limit of the coast forest, which
gradually disappears south of the thirty-fifth parallel, although still
carried by the high ridges of the coast range nearly to the southern
boundary of the United States. Owing to the infiuence of favora-
ble climatic conditions, this region is one of the great forest centres
of the continent, where, with unusual density of growth, is produced
timber of the grandest proportions, not surpassed within the tem-
perate zones.

When the fact is realized that, at the present time, as shown by
the Chief of the Forestry Division in an address before the Real
Estate Congress at Nashville, Tenn., in 1892, we are cutting from
our forests each year an amount of timber equal to twice the an-
nual reproduction ; and when it is known that we are cutting tim-
ber at a rate which will exhaust the entire forest capital of the
country within a period of from 60 to 70 years at the most, allow-
ing for increased consumption due to increased settlement and de-
velopment of the country, it is evident that the establishing of
great forest reserves at the present time is only a matter of com-
mon prudence and foresight.

From a comparison of the estimates of timber consumption and
reproduction it is evident that the time has arrived when it is essen-
tial to take thought concerning the future of the timber supplies.
More than this, there is cause for alarm at the prospective injuries
threatening the country from changed conditions, disturbing the
waters and impoverishing the soils—results of the present irrational
treatment of the great forest property of the nation.

It now appears, from a study of past developments, that a not
inconsiderable portion of the arid regions of the far west and
southwest will yield to the progress of agriculture, and that the
next great movement in the settlement of the American continent

113 :

will be the more complete occupation of the Pacific slope and the
utilization of those portions of the vast arid interior which may be
secured to agriculture by the employment, through irrigation, of
the waters now largely running to waste.

After the occupation of this great region by a population such as
now generally anticipated, the forests of this area will not long
sustain the attacks made upon them unless the General Govern-
ment comes quickly to their rescue and devises some plan for their
rational management. There are some large and valuable bodies
of timber upon the western slopes of the northern Rocky Moun-
tains and on the high plateaus and mountain ranges of Arizona and
New Mexico, which, with any rational management, will afford a
sufficient supply of fuel and lumber for the local needs for a long
time. The remaining woodland of this region consists mainly of
scattered and stunted growth, of little value except for fuel,
fencing, and for mine-props.

Aside from the great timbered areas and this scattered growth,
the whole western arid region is practically treeless. The only
exceptions are the forests upon the Blue Mountains of eastern Ore-
gon, and upon the sparsely-timbered ridges of central Nevada. But
the forest growth upon these has only a local value, and in Nevada
is apparently doomed to early extinction. The once magnificent
forests of the eastern portion of the United States are being rapidly
depleted of their commercial timbers to meet the demands for lum-
ber of a great and growing country, partly through the habits of
our people in the extravagant use of the wood, and even more
largely by the annually recurring forest fires—the results of wilful-
ness, carelessness, ignorance, or greed.

It is evident that the future population of the treeless interior
region must look for the necessary supplies of timber to the moun-
tain ranges upon the extreme western border of the continent. The
magnificent tracts of pine and fir which clothe the sides of the Sierra
Nevada and the great redwood forests of the California coast may
yet be preserved in part. But the vast primeval forests of the
northwest coast, and especially the great coniferous areas of Oregon
and of Washington, which lie within the limits of the great coast
forest, as above described, must be the chief reliance in this respect.
Here the climatic conditions are such as to render the maintenance
of forest conditions a matter of comparative ease.

The purely local considerations immediately concerning the com-
munities in which the proposed forest reserves are situated, it is not

114

the purpose of the present paper to discuss. It may be said, how-
ever, that it is the positive duty of the Government to insure the
perpetuation of sanitary conditions dependent upon the maintenance
of an abundance of pure and wholesome water in springs and
streams. It also may justly be considered as within the duty of the
Government to foster and encourage all legitimate industries of the
country in so far as this may be done by a wise and conservative
management of the natural resources upon which these several
industries depend. This is especially the case when these resources
are of such a character that the Government alone has the control-
ling power.

The opinion largely prevails among those not properly informed
that the purpose of the forest reserves is to withhold from present
use large bodies of valuable timber, thus retarding the development
of the region. This is not the case. The purpose is mainly that
these forest properties shall be so managed that their productive
capacity shall not be seriously impaired. Besides being retained as
regulators of our water supplies and perpetuators of sanitary con-
ditions, they should be made to produce indefinitely, under a wise
management, a succession of valuable crops of timber.

These lands, covered by these forests, being unsuited for general
agriculture, should thus be kept in useful occupation. Their value
to the nation as perpetual producers of an important natural re-
source should be recognized by their being dedicated by the nation
to this useful purpose. As permanent timber reserves, all danger
from changed conditions of water supply, in so far as dependent on
forest conditions, would, of course, be averted. ;

Of the many reasons for placing the great forests of the north-
west coast under Government control as timber reserves, a most
important one is that, notwithstanding the abundant annual precip-
itation of this region, the rains are distributed so unequally as to
leave these forests for a good portion of the year exposed to the
risks of fire. During the summer and fall, the whole country be-
comes little better than a vast tinder-box, and in the absence of any
care extensive forest fires prevail every year.

It appears to be a favorite theory in certain quarters that these
annual fires are mainly the result of the carelessness of campers.
But, from a long residence on this coast, and an intimate acquaint-
ance with the people here, the writer is convinced that in many
eases these fires are set purposely by ignorant and irresponsible
persons, unconscious of the injury or indifferent to results. As

115
a result of the recent wide discussion of forestry matters by the
press of the country, and the information sent out by the forestry
division at Washington, a more general appreciation of the value
and importance of the forest has begun to prevail. But nothing
short of the presence of a paid fire patrol, intelligent, energetic,
and alert, would be in the least effective in restraining the reckless
and ignorant who are to be found in every community.

The forests, if left to nature, would doubtless, under the in-
fluence of the abundant rainfall of the region, recuperate them-
selves in time, although every stick of merchantable should be cut
from them—with this important difference: under our present
irrational methods of lumbering, ordinarily all the finest trees are
among those felled, and only worthless specimens are left to seed the
ground. Under such circumstances the usefulness of the forest as
a timber-producer in time becomes seriously impaired, which it is
not the part of wisdom for the Government to permit. The nation
must have due regard for the interests of the future community as
well as for those of the present. Hence, it cannot wisely permit
wanton destruction. With the rational methods of lumbering
under Governmental control of the forests, as in the proposed
timber reserves, a succession of equally good, or even better, crops
could be secured, since the composition of the forest as to desirable
kinds would be in a measure under control.

As to the location of the boundary lines of the proposed timber
reserves, these should be designated only after a full investigation
and study of the region by a body of competent scientific men. In
determining the extent of the proposed forest reserves the preser-
vation of the streams should be of first consideration. This is
a matter of such great importance that further inroads upon these
forests should not be permitted until this matter has been fully con-
sidered ; and this can only be intelligently done after a complete
survey and examination. In my opinion, this matter of the preser-
vation of the streams is of such paramount importance that nothing
should be allowed to stand in the way. Next to this the local needs
as to timber supplies—both as to the present and the future—
should be carefully considered. Lastly should be taken into the
account the demands which commerce is likely to make in the future
upon these forests.

This preliminary investigation and study of the forests and of
the needs of the country should be most thorough. In the mean-
time, whatever power the act of March 3, 1891, has conferred upon

116

the President in the way of establishing timber reserves it is to be
hoped will be employed by him in the selection of proper sites for
such reservations wherever, as in the case of the great forestal region
under consideration, these can be shown to be of sufficient national
importance.

FOREST RESERVES OF THE WESTERN MOUN-
TAIN REGION.

By Epear T. Ensiex, Colorado Springs, Col.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

In the Congressional act of 1876 providing for a forestry investi-
gation, and, subsequently, the formation of a forestry division in the
Department of Agriculture, the Federal Government took the first
decisive steps toward conserving the forest wealth of the nation and
averting the evils consequent upon the indiscriminate destruction
of forest growth. In the admirable work since performed by the
forestry division, there is found ample justification for its creation
and continued existence.

In March, 1891, another decided advance was made in forestry
legislation. Congress then incorporated in the revised land law the
following provision :

“ Section 24. That the President of the United States may from
time to time set apart and reserve, in any State or Territory having
public land bearing forests, in any part of the public lands wholly
or in part covered with timber or undergrowth, whether of commer-
cial value or not, as public reservations, and the President shall, by
public proclamation, declare the establishment of such reservations
and the limits thereof.”

This law is the result of long and persistent advocacy of the reser-
vation and classification of all public timber lands. During the
brief period of its existence, no less than sixteen large forest reserves
have been established, most of them in response to local require-
ment. Except in one instance, they are situated in the States and
Territories of the western mountain region, usually upon the high
ranges, at the sources of streams. In extent they vary greatly, the
largest one embracing some 6,400 square miles, nearly twice the
area of Delaware and Rhode Island. The aggregate extent of the

Tale
reservations is about 22,000 square miles, or something more than
the total area of Massachusetts and Maryland. It should be noted,
however, that the areas given are the estimated areas lying within
the exterior boundaries of the reservations. The lands actually
reserved are only the vacant, unappropriated public lands within
the established boundaries.

The distinction between national parks—created by earlier legis-
lation—and forest reservations should not be overlooked. The
former—as, for example, the Yellowstone National Park and the
Yosemite—were established by special acts of Congress ; individual
titles, if any, within their borders were extinguished, and in their gov-
ernment the principle of excluding private interests prevails. Forest
reserves, as we haye seen, are established under a general act; no
private holdings therein, whether perfected or not, are disturbed ;
and itis the declared policy of the Government to provide, under
proper safeguards, for the necessary use of timber upon the reser-
vations, and the development of their natural resources.

It should be noted, however, that somewhat anomalous conditions
now exist within the territory of the reserves. In the case of my
own State, Colorado, the formation of forest reservations has been
effected at the instance of the resident population, but with the un-
derstanding that, with respect to the territory reserved, permits would
be granted for the necessary use of timber, prospecting, mining,
development of coal, stone, marble, and other deposits, construction
of irrigation works, etc. Practically, however, under the terms of
the proclamation, all rights of user or entry upon the lands are de-
nied ; and the Government authorities state that these prohibitions
will continue until Congress provides a system of administration for
the reserves.

Existing public forest reserves may be divided into two general
classes : :

1. Those created principally for the conservation of forest growth,
in view of its effect upon the volume and flow of streams.

2. Those established mainly for the preservation of natural scenery,
or for other reasons, without special regard to the conservation of
water.

To the first class belong the reserves in California, Wyoming,
Colorado, and New Mexico, and many others that have been pro-
posed. To the second class may be assigned the reserves in Wash-
ington, Oregon, and the Grand Cafion reservein Arizona. And with
the latter should be named the Yellowstone, Yosemite, General

118

Grant, and Sequoia national parks, were these under consideration.
The several forest reservations are herewith given, noting briefly
not only those that have been established, but certain other pro-
posed or desirable ones.

Wasurneron.—In this State is the Pacific Forest Reserve, sit-
uated on the Cascade range, overlooking the southern waters of
Puget Sound. It is quadrangular in form, and has an estimated
area of 1,512 square miles. Mount Tacoma, with its snow-covered
summit and wonderful glacial system, is the central feature. The
tract also includes Paradise Valley, the Nesqually Palisades, the
Cascades of Lost River, and numerous hot springs. West of the
summit the Cascade range is covered with the heaviest continuous
belt of forest growth in the United States, this extending over the
slopes of the Coast range also. Additional forest reserves will
doubtless be established in this State.

Orxcon.—In June, 1892, was issued the proclamation establishing
the Bull Run Timber Land Reserve, in the northwestern part of
the State. This reservation is also on the Cascade range; it is
irregular in form, and has an estimated area of 222 square miles.
It includes Mount Hood, and is bordered on the north by the
Columbia river. Later a far greater reservation was made, in-
cluding a large part of the heavy forests of the Northern Pacific
region. These follow the Cascade and Coast ranges, and extend
through Western Oregon, from the Columbia river southward, some
200 miles. This belt is 50 to 100 miles wide, and large portions of
it lie at an altitude of 7,500 feet and upwards above the sea. Upon
the summits of the high ranges snow and ice remain continuously ;
and here, also, many glaciers are formed. Upon the continued ex-
istence of these forests, from which flow powerful streams, depend
the irrigation privileges of a country the approximate area of which
is 20,000 square miles.

Catrrornia.—The Sierra Forest Reserve, the most notable, extends
for a distance of nearly 180 miles. It adjoins the Yosemite Na-
tional Park on the south, and the Sequoia and General Grant Na-
tional Parks on the west. The mountain crests in this reserve vary
in height from 2,000 to 12,000 feet. The San Bernardino Forest
Reserve, still further southward, has an estimated area of 1,152
square miles, the greater portion consisting of coniferous forests.

Immediately west of the last-named reserve lies the San Gabriel
Timber Land Reserve, similar in character, and having an estimated
area of 868 square miles. Southward, upon the Santa Ana Moun-

E19 :

tains, is the 7rabuco Caiion Forest Reserve, having an estimated area
of 78 square miles.

All of the California reserves cover the sources of important
streams, the waters of which serve to irrigate some of the richest
portions of the State.

The heavy forests of California are confined to the Coast range,
the eastern and western slopes of the Sierra Nevada, and the group
of mountains joining these ranges in the northern part of the State.
Although the forest reserves already established include about 8,500
square miles, other reservations are likely to be formed in the heavily
timbered districts of the northern Sierra Nevada and Coast ranges.
In fact, for the highest development of the region all of its native
forests should be carefully conserved.

Arizona.—In Northwestern Arizona has been formed the Grand
Cafion Forest Reserve. It is quadrangular in shape, and has an
estimated area of 2,893 square miles. The Colorado river flows
through it, entering at the northeast. It embraces the most strik-
ing features of the Grand and Marble Cafions, also a considerable
portion of the Kaibab Plateau, and on inits southern portion the Coco-
nino Forest. The region has already become famous for its gigantic
and impressive scenery. It will take high rank among our great
natural parks. The heavy forests of pine and fir which cover the
sources of streams, important to the irrigation interests of the Ter-
ritory, should be protected.

Uran.—The Wasatch and the Uintah mountains, as well as por-
tions of the great Colorado Plateau, bear at high elevations conifer-
ous forests of considerable extent. The western flanks of the
Wasatch range have been nearly stripped of good timber for the
supply of the valley settlements, and there is need of early and ade-
quate provision for the conservation of the forests and streams.

Ipano.— Upon the western slopes of the mountain ranges separat-
ing Idaho from Montana and Wyoming are found the principal
forests of the first-named State. No forest reserves have, as yet,
been established in the State. One has been proposed, adjoining
the Yellowstone National Park on the west, and including some
timbered lands in Montana. Besides this is the proposed Meadow
Creek Forest Reserve, in Northwestern Idaho. An important timber
belt is one covering the high divide between the Salmon river on the
north and the Weiser, Payette, Boise, and Wood rivers on the south.
To denude this region of its timber would be exceedingly disastrous
to the agricultural interests of Southern Idaho. Doubtless a num-

120

ber of forest reserves, in addition to those named above, should be
established in the State.

Monrtana.—In this State the most dense and continuous bodies of
timber are found on the western flanks of the main range, and on
the Cabinet, Ceeur d’Alene and Bitter Root mountains, which are
contiguous to it. These forests, which extend to Eastern and North-
ern Idaho, are among the most extensive and valuable of any in the
Rocky Mountain region. A number of proposed forest reservations
in this State are in various stages of progress; none, as yet, being
established.

Wyomrine.—It is quite generally known that the Yellowstone Na-
tional Park is mostly situated in Wyoming. It covers an area of
nearly 4,000 square miles, at the northwest corner of the State.
One of the new forest reserves, called the Yellowstone Park
Timber Land Reserve, immediately adjoins the tract on the east
and south, being substantially an addition to the park. Its
estimated area is 1,936 square miles. It possesses remarkable
natural features, bearing a general resemblance to those of the
park itself. In addition to the Yellowstone reservation, two or
three others have been suggested, and are in course of investiga-
tion.

Cotorapo.—Colorado was among the first of the Western moun-
tain States to agitate the question of forest reform. She has
already secured a number of important reservations, and other

roposed reserves are in the preliminary stages.

The White River Timber Land Reserve, proclaimed in October,
1891, was the first of the forest reservations established under the
new law. It is situated in the northwestern part of the State, on
an elevated, wooded plateau, and has an estimated area of 1,872
square miles. Southwestward of this, and quite near, is the Battle-
ment Mesa Forest Reserve, which embraces within its boundaries
two large, timbered plateaus, known respectively as the Grand and
Battlement Mesas. The estimated area of this reserve is 1,341
square miles.

The South Platte Forest Reserve, in Central Colorado, has an
area of about 1,068 square miles. It occupies the high ranges im-
mediately surrounding South Park, and nourishes many of the
tributaries of the South Platte river. Lost Park, a favorite haunt
for wild game, and affording refuge for a small band of buffalo,
forms a portion of this reserve. The city of Denver, and adjacent
farming country, are largely dependent upon the streams of this

121 ;

region for their water supplies. Immediately east of this is the
Plum Creek Forest Reserve, a triangular tract of wooded, mountain
country, proclaimed as a reservation in June, 1892, and having an
estimated area of 280 square miles.

The Pike's Peak Forest Reserve lies adjacent to and south of the
one named above. It embraces the greater portion of the Pike’s
Peak range, including the mountain of that name. Its area is
about 288 square miles. The streams fiowing from it afford water
supplies for Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Colorado City, and
other smaller towns, and also furnish irrigating waters for the ad-
jacent agricultural valleys.

The Colorado State Forestry Association has memorialized the
President, asking for the reservation of all public timber lands in
the State, situated upon the high ranges. Many prominent citizens
and officials also joined in the request. So far as known, no official
action has been taken thereon.

New Mexico.—The Pecos River Forest Reserve is in Northern-
Central New Mexico, covering a portion of the rugged mountains
known locally as the Taos range, and lying in the vicinity of and
northeastward of Santa Fe. Its estimated area is 486 square miles.
It includes the sources of the Pecos and Canadian rivers. The pro-
posed White Oaks Forest Reserve, in the south-central part of the
Territory, is under investigation. Another proposed reservation
covers the Sacramento mountains, a range situated near the southern
boundary of the Territory. The desirability of forming a large
reservation upon the Mogollon and Tularosa ranges, near the west-
ern border, has also been suggested.

The limits of this paper do not permit me to dwell upon the
peculiar characteristics and attractions of the several forest reserves.
While some of them embrace most remarkable natural features,
they all, without exception, include woodland and mountain scenery
of great interest. They abound in running streams, waterfalls,
and deep, clear lakes. Their rugged heights afford striking contrast
to adjacent sheltered valleys and natural parks. Within their deeper
recesses are the habitat of native wild game and fish, which, as well
as the forests, need the protecting care of the Government.

Now that so many extensive forestreserves have been established,
and others likely to be formed soon, the question of immediate im-
portance is, What provision shall be made for their due administra-
tion ?

The public lands, including these reservations, are under the con-

122

trol of the Secretary of the Interior. That officer, doubtless, has suf-
ficient authority to formulate regulations for the government of the
forest reserves. Unfortunately, the means at his command for the
enforcement of such provisions are inadequate, and Congress alone
can afford relief. Various measures in this behalf have been pro-
posed. Many advocate the use of the mounted troops of the regu-
lar army for the protection of these reserves. This plan has already
worked well—at least in the one or two instances where it has been
tried. The small cavalry command at the Yellowstone Park and
reservation renders excellent service in the prevention of forest fires
and of depredations.

LIST OF NATIONAL FOREST RESERVATIONS AND NATIONAL PARKS OF THE

‘ UNITED STATES.
F Estimated
No. | | Established. cae
|
} Acres.
1 | Yellowstone National Park timberland reserve (Wyoming)...| Sept. 10, 1891 1, 239,040
2 | White River Plateau timberland reserve (Colorado)........... Oct. 16, 1891 1,198,080
3 | Pecos River forest reserve (New Mexico)...............-2000- Jan. 11, 1892 311,040
4,)| Sierra forest reserve (CalifoOrmia): 2). occ 200in0 cle co o(c/ols sce’) sie Feb. 14, 1893 4,096, 000
5 | Pacific forest reserve (Washington) .............2cessece+eee- Feb. 20, 1893 967, 680
6 | Pike’s Peak timberland reserve (Colorado)..................+- Mar. 18, 1892 184,320
7 | Bull Run timberland reserve (Oregon).............++-0+00205 June 17, 1892 142, 080
8 | Plum Creek timberland reserve (Colorado)..............++-«- June 23, 1892 179, 200
9 | South Platte forest reserve (Colorado)...............--...00-- Dec. 9, 1892 683,520
10 | San Gabriel timberland reserve (California)............se0.. Dec. 29, 1892 555,520
11 | Battlement Mesa forest reserve (Colorado)............-..+.-+ Dec. 24, 1892 858, 240
12 Afognak Forest and Fish Culture reserve (Alaska) ........... Dec, 24,1892 | Unknown.
13 | Grand Canyon forest reserve (ATiZONA).............0-2e eee ee Feb. 20, 1893 1, 851, 520
14 | Trabuco Canyon forest reserve (California)...............+24. Feb. 25, 1893 49,920
15 San Bernardino forest reserve (California) . 25, 1893 737, 280
16 | Ashland forest reserve (Oregon)...............sseceeces mis . 28, 1893 18,560
17 | Cascade Range forest reserve (Oregon) . 28, 1893 4,492,800
| Total acreage of forest TEBErVES. ... 2-2. coco cece ce cecs|ecereccrece «...| 17,564,800
NATIONAL PARKS.
AS a VeLlOWSLONe National Park << ecicisjei\eieisiiersieaoinioieicloinisiv sie slelale Mar, 1, 1872 2,142,720
HOM evosemite National Park)... oncicsiseeiisnaicesl (asislcisiene! cline slo! Oct. 1, 1890 967, 680
D0 NequolamNationalePark. 2 .)-ic/- cisiseeleeiee bis eleleteleleleieleieielaninloe’=1> = Oct. 1, 1890 161, 280
21 | General Grant National Park,.............2cccecccccsccees- ce Oct. 1, 1890 2,560

*Tt must be understood that the lands actually reserved are only the public lands that were
vacant and unappropriated at the date the reservations took effect—something less than the areas
above given—they being the estimated aggregate areas within the boundaries of the reservations.
Title to portions of the lands within the reserves has passed out of the United States, and still
other tracts are occupied by bona jide settlers, who located before the creation of the reserva-
tions, and who are not interfered with as long as they comply with the law, and who can com-
plete titles upon showing their compliance with the law.

123 :

FOREST ADMINISTRATION—FEDERAL OR
STATE ?

By Gzorcze H. Parsons, Colorado Springs, Col., Vice-President
American Forestry Association.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

“Trees are the best friends of man, and forests of nations.”
The single tree may be pruned and cultivated and brought to its
full perfection of beauty and usefulness by the individual; but
the great forests which cover the surface of the earth, the growth
of centuries and far-reaching in their influences, can be effectually
protected and preserved only by the community itself, which alone is
able to combine the interests of all. But the question may well be
asked, What is the nation? The foundation of the United States
of America is shown by its motto, and where there is one nation
made from many nations, the question arises, Which nation shall
control the forests—the one or the many, the central government
or the State governments ?

In the early days of the existence of this Government the public
lands were held by the States alone, and all action relating to the
forests was necessarily at that time undertaken by the States within
whose borders the forests were. But as new territory was added
a large amount of land came into the possession of the Federal
Government, which is estimated at nearly three million square
miles. A great portion of this has been sold, but there still re-
mains an immense area, including about 50,000,000 acres of forest.
This is a large tract to watch and guard properly, and the question
for us now is, How shall it be done? Shall we follow the ten-
dency of our country toward centralization? Can the Federal
Government do this work, or must it be divided among the States?
This is one of the problems of the age, and the sooner it is seriously
considered the better, for upon its prompt solution depends a large
and most important area of forests, with the welfare of a great
country.

The best teacher is experience, and the results of past efforts are
the only sure guides for future enterprises. We will, therefore, in
connection with the question before us, briefly examine the work
for forestry from the earliest settlement of this country, and, by

124

comparing the enactments of State legislatures with the achieve-
ments of the Federal Government, draw our conclusions for the
solution of this problem.

In the settlement of the country the forest was an impediment
to the progress of civilization. It covered the land, and must be
subdued by axe and fire before food could be had for the people.
In its dark recesses lurked a thousand dangers, so that antipathy
was aroused against it, which descended from father to son for
many generations. Still there were some wise men in that far-away
time who knew the beneficial influences of the forest, and lifted
their voices in protest against its destruction. Probably the earli-
est colonial action relating to forests was in Massachusetts, where
certain regulations concerning damages from forest fires were
placed on the records in the year 1631. Towns, as well as the gen-
eral court, took action for the protection of the forests. Before the
end of the seventeenth century the cutting of timber, except under
certain conditions, was forbidden in Connecticut, New York, or New
Netherlands as it was then called, and Pennsylvania. In the lat-
ter community was the wise provision of the governor, William
Penn, “that in clearing the ground care be taken to leave one
acre of trees for every five acres cleared.” In the early part of the
next century Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Dela-
ware adopted laws to prevent fires and the general cutting of trees.
The province of New Hampshire had, in 1708, 2 surveyor-general of
forests appointed by royal authority.

After the formal organization of the Government of the United
States we find that the laws of colonial times to prevent forest fires
were continued everywhere, and now each State and Territory has
some law providing more or less severe punishment to any person
setting fire to woodland or prairie. There is a great similarity in
all legislation of this nature, but as it is very difficult to find the
offender, or to convict him afterwards, laws of this class are oper-
ative, if at all, by their threat rather than by their execution. With
few exceptions, this law has become a dead letter. The forests are
consumed now as frequently and extensively as ever. The census
of 1880 shows that 10,000,000 acres of forests, valued at $25,000,000,
were destroyed by fire in the United States in that one year. This
may be considered as below the average, for an estimate by the
Forestry Division last year showed that more than 12,000,000 acres
of woodland were burned over during 1891. This loss does not
take into consideration the very great damage done to property

bo

125 :

other than the forest. The only States said to be comparatively
free from forest fires are Maine and Massachusetts, and especially
New York, whose forest commissioner reports that they are now a
thing of the past.

Another law, adopted very generally, is one to encourage the
planting and growing of timber and shade trees. This is found on
the statutes of twenty-two States and Territories, or about half the
total number. It generally provides for a bounty to be paid for a
certain number of growing trees, or for a rebate in the tax on land
so planted.. These may be planted in clumps, or along the roadsides,
and land so cultivated shall not be assessed for improvements.
Penalties are also laid upon any one convicted of injuring any tree.
This law has been adopted more generally in the prairie States,
where trees were lacking to so great an extent that the settlers be-
came tree-planters almost from necessity. It has been the means
of covering with trees thousands of acres, and has driven the prairies
many miles westward. Kansas is credited with the largest area
planted with forest trees, nearly 120,000 acres, and Nebraska comes
next with 78,000 acres. This law has done much good, but, after all,
tree-planting along roadsides and in small, isolated clumps is not
forestry, and legislation of this kind, though indirectly aiding the
cause in an educational way, does not preserve nor create forests.

In the same direction of education is the appointment of Arbor
Day, which has now become a legal holiday in thirty States and
Territories. It is celebrated in the public schools, and is thus
made a most important factor in creating an interest in trees and a
knowledge of vegetable life among people at their most impression-
able age.

A legislative action of late years, which was thought would result
in great good to the forests, was the appointment of regular forest
commissioners or commissions. The duties of these officers are
principally to prevent and extinguish forest fires, bringing the
guilty ones to punishment, to report regularly to the governor all
things pertaining to the forests in the State, and in every way to
preserve the forests and represent their interests. These were
first created in 1885 in four States—California, Colorado, New York,
and Ohio. Kansas and Michigan followed in 1887, Dakota in 1890,
Maine in 1891, and Pennsylvania in 1893. Massachusetts has
directed its State board of agriculture to act as a board of
forestry. The commissioners began work actively and enthusi-
astically, but at the present time it is a question whether they are

126

able to do much good. One of the most efficient at first, that of
California, which established several experimental stations and ac-
quired considerable property, has failed to accomplish what was
expected. It became a political machine, under the control of
“practical politicians,” who used it as a means of partisan reward,
and gave no attention to forestry. The outcome was the abolition
of the commission, the turning of its property over to the Uni-
versity of California, and the transferring back to the United
States of the Yosemite Park, because the State was incompetent to
manage it. The forest commissioner of Colorado no longer exists,
the legislature having failed to appropriate money for his expenses.
The New York forest commission is the only one which has really
accomplished anything. This is owing to the large State owner-
ship of forest lands and the large annual appropriation. It has set
aside as a forest reserve an area of nearly a million acres in the
Adirondack region and Catskill mountains, and a bill is now before
the legislature for the issuing of bonds for $750,000 for the pur-
chase of more land for this purpose. But in this large tract no
real forest management exists, although the protection is quite
complete.

As long ago as 1888, Prof. C. S. Sargent wrote in the Garden and
Forest, “The field of usefulness of these commissions is limited,
and the work must be advisory and educational. They must become,
if they are to justify their existence, the teachers of the people in all
that relates to the forest.” The Ohio forestry bureau, in its report
for 1888, frankly accepts the position of Prof. Sargent, and plainly
states that “the great object of its promoters has been to furnish
the people of this great State the much-needed information in mat-
ters pertaining to forestry.” Education may be now accepted as
the only work which can be accomplished by the State forest com-
missioners or commissions.

What is the result of the legislative action of the States in rela-
tion to the forests? Fires still burn as before, and devour annually
many times as much lumber as is cut by the saw-mills. The en-
couragement of tree-planting by bounties and tax-exemption has in
no way increased the area of forest land, and the forest commis-
sions have become mere boards of education. As far as any prac-
tical benefit is concerned all the laws now on the State statute-books
relating to forests might as well never have been enacted.

And now let us turn to the Federal action in relation to forests.
The first movement of the General Government to preserve the

127 ‘

timber was for the building of a navy. In 1799 Congress appro-
priated $200,000 for “the purchase of growing or other timber, or
of lands on which timber is growing, suitable for the navy, and for
its preservation for future use.” Under this act two small islands
on the coast of Georgia, containing together about 2,000 acres, were
purchased. Nothing more was done until 1817, when an act was
passed directing the reservation of such public lands, producing
live oak or red cedar, as might be selected by the President. Under
this act about 19,000 acres were reserved in Louisiana, and ten years
later 11,000 acres were acquired by purchase. By additional acts
of 1820 and 1827 the President was authorized to take proper
measures to preserve the live-oak timber growing on the lands of
the United States, and to reserve such lands in sufficient quantities
as to render them yaluable for naval purposes. Under these vari-
ous acts nearly 250,000 acres were reserved in Alabama, Florida,
Louisiana, and Mississippi. In 1822 an act was passed authorizing
the President to employ the land and naval forces to prevent the
destruction of timber in Florida, and to take such other measures
as might be advisable for the preservation of the timber there. By
an act of 1831 provision was made for the punishment of persons
cutting or destroying any trees growing on the land of the United
States. Under this act, up to the present time, all the pro-
tection they have had has been secured for the public forests.
Until 1855 this protection was carried on under the Treasury De-
partment. But in that year it was transferred to the Land Depart-
ment, where it has been somewhat effective for the prevention of
trespassers upon the public lands.

After the action above named, which was’more on account of the
navy than of any recognition of the beneficial influences of the
forest, nothing more was done by Congress for its forests until
1876, although many bills were introduced more or less connected
with timber lands. In this year the timber-culture act was passed,
by which a person planting and maintaining 40 acres of timber
trees on Government land was entitled to 160 acres at the expiration
of ten years. This was changed twice, and finally amended in 1878
so as to reduce to 10 the number of acres planted. In this form it
remained until 1891, when it was repealed for the reason that, owing
to its crude provisions and the lack of proper supervision, it had
been abused, and had given rise to much fraud. It is estimated
that about two million of acres were planted with groves under this
law. They will prove of benefit to the districts in which they he,

128

but it is a question whether this benefit will compensate for the
fraudulent acquisition of a large amount of land from the Govern-
ment.

So far, we have seen that the action of the Federal Government
had done little good for forests. But the time was at hand when
the voices of those crying in the wilderness would be heard. It
has been truly said that the interest in the preservation and con-
servative use of our natural forest areas was first systematically
aroused when Mr. G. B. Emerson and Dr. F. B. Hough, in 1873,
engaged the attention of the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science in the subject, and a memorial from that associa-
tion to Congress led to the enactment of a law, in our centennial
year of 1876, directing the Commissioner of Agriculture to appoint
a competent person to make inquiries and investigations into the
destruction of our forests, and into the measures necessary for the
preservation of our timber. Dr. Hough was at once appointed,
and made two reports. This action led to the formation, in 1882,
of a Forestry Division of the Department of Agriculture, with Dr.
Hough as its first chief, followed by Mr. N. H. Egleston. In 1886
Congress made this Division an integral part of the Department,
when the present most able and efficient exponent of forestry, Mr.
B. E. Fernow, took charge of it. With the organization of this
Division the interest of the Federal Government in the preser-
vation and growth of forests may be said to have begun. Its policy
has been to establish a regular system for gathering and dissemi-
nating information regarding the forests of the United States.
Special agents were appointed to investigate the needs of different
portions cf the country, and a large amount of material has been
published. Considering the brief period this Division has been at
work, great progress has been made. It may be said, without hesi-
tation, that nowhere else, within an equal compass, is there to be
found in the English language such an amount of information in
regard to the subject of forestry. Necessarily its work at first had
to be chiefly historical, statistical, and educational. The Forestry
Division has carried on the theoretical branch with great success,
and prepared the way for the practical, which is now at hand.

If the interests of the Federal Government in forests was first
shown by the organization of the Forestry Division, its first practi-
cal movement for their care and preservation may be considered to
have been the act of Congress of March 3, 1891, by which the Presi-
dent was authorized to set apart and reserve any portion of the

129 .

public lands, wholly or in part covered with timber or undergrowth,
as public reservations. This action isa mostimportant step towards
a proper forest policy on the part of the Government, and marks a
new era for this country. The law was followed up actively by the
administration, and fourteen reservations have been proclaimed by
the President, aggregating 13,000,000 acres,* and lying in Arizona,
California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Wyom-
ing. A number of locations have been temporarily withdrawn from
the market and are now subject to examination prior to their final
permanent reservation. Other reservations have also been made by
special enactment and not under the law of 1891. The first of these
was the Yellowstone National Park, created in 1872. Then followed
the Yosemite, the Sequoia, and the General Grant National Parks
in California, the Hot Springs Reservation in Arkansas, and the
Chickamauga National Park in Tennessee. These comprise about
3,500,000 acres. There is every expectation that this work, so well
begun, will continue until all the forest lands of the United States
are permanently reserved from sale. With such a large area some
provision becomes necessary for their protection and administra-
tion. And thus we come back to the question we started with, a
solution of which we are earnestly ‘seeking.

Our examination of history has shown that all the State forest
legislation since colonial times has been ineffectual, except, perhaps,
in New York, where peculiar conditions exist. It has shown that
little of the national legislation has been available for good, and a
century of ignorance passed before the first effective enactment by
Congress was secured. We have learned from the experience of the
past that for some reason the State government is not as yet capa-
ble of grasping the needs of this problem, and providing for it an
adequate solution. It may be that the local requirements, the indi-
vidual interests, and the grasping nature of monopolies, with the
tendency to drift into the control of unscrupulous politicians, form
a barrier against the preservation of the forest by the State. On
the contrary, the legislative and executive branches of the National
Government are able to take a broader view of the requirements of
the case, are not so trammelled by local interests, and, having a more
thorough organization than the State, may command and obtain
more efficient aid. Certainly no one will deny that from the results
of over a hundred years the Federal Government has shown itself

* Now 16 reservations, with over 17 million acres.

130

better able to work out this problem and apply its solution than the
governments of the States.

There are other reasons for the administration of the forests by
the National Government which will occur to many, but I will now
present but two. One of the most important of the many beneficial
influences of the forest is the protection it affords to the springs
and brooks, thus maintaining a regular and steady supply for the
large rivers which flow through the length and breadth of our land.
These rivers cross several States, and it will be very difficult for
those in one State to legislate to preserve in their full efficiency the
fountain-heads of a river which lie in another State. Truly, any
work involving the welfare of two or more States must of necessity
be carried on by the General Government, for no one State can be
depended on to legislate for the benefit of another.

But the most important argument in my mind for the national
control of the forest is that in the military department they have
an organization ready to undertake, with little extra expense, the
immediate and most effective management of not only the reserves
and parks already made, but of all the forest area. Something
must be done at once. Over ten millions of acres of forest are de-
stroyed by fire each year. It is criminal to stand idle while this
great loss is going on. We cannot afford to wait for the slow
educational methods by which alone we are able to secure the
necessary action of legislature and Congress for a thorough forest
administration. By a brief resolution Congress may authorize the
Secretary of the Interior to call upon the military department to
aid him in the preservation of the forest. It is not an impracti-
cable plan, and two years ago was approved by Thos. H. Carter,
Commissioner of the General Land Office, who has had long experi-
ence in the prosecution of timber thieves. It also receives the
approbation of many officers of the army.

The Chief of the Forestry Division lays down the following prin-
ciples for forest management: “ (1) proper organization of an
efficient service ; (2) protection against theft, fire, or other damage
of property; (3) regulation of the occupancy and the use of the
reservations by citizens; (4) a system for cutting the crop and mar-
keting it according to the needs of the population; (5) reproduc-
tion of the crops and maintenance of proper forest conditions.”
Surely these principles may be applied effectively by the army, and
there is abundant precedent for this action. The Yellowstone Park
has been fora long time under the admirable care of a troop of

131 :

cavalry, and so has the Yosemite Park. In British India, when the
forest department was first created, the officers were taken from the
army, and this custom has prevailed in certain countries of Europe.
Under this plan the forest would be regularly patrolled by a mounted
body of active, disciplined men, accustomed to hard riding and quick
action in all emergencies, and fully under the control of officers
whose rule in life is full performance of duty, no matter what the
consequences.

Nor would the benefit be to the forest alone. The army would
thus have an object for its existence in times of peace, and would
render some return for the great expense of its maintenance. The
long marches through the wild mountain regions of the forests would
accustom the men to the hardships of campaigning, and a school
would be provided which would prepare them for war far better
than any drill of camp or field. As shown in our last great war,
where military operations were almost invariably carried on in
wooded countries, an intimate knowledge of forest operations and
forest life is of great advantage to all troops. The best soldiers
have always been those born and bred in mountain forests. Lieuten-
ant Wood, in command of the Yosemite guard, says “ that the work
makes better soldiers and better men of his command, and the men
and animals are infinitely better prepared for any real military work
than they could be by any garrison duty.” He speaks also of the
improved moral tone of the men. Mr. Carter, the former Land
Commissioner, states “that the army, both officers and men, have
been not only prompt, but enthusiastic in aiding to preserve the
parks, and all that makes them beautiful and instructive.” Colonel
Merriam, in charge of the military post at Denver, Colorado,
strongly favors the use of the army to guard the Government for-
ests. But he does not wish to see the army degenerate into a mere
police force. It is obvious that, although at first this would be their
chief duty, it would not be the final result. Very soon would arise
the work of developing the many resources of the forest, and if it
remain under the charge of the army, there would soon be a chair
of forestry at West Point, and officers regularly drilled in the
various operations of true forest administration.

From the study given this problem, it has been found that the
only solution is for the Federal Government to continue the creation
of forest reserves, so well begun, and turn them over to the care
of the army. In this way the terrible destruction of the forest
will be at once checked, and gradually a complete and thorough

132

system of forestry will be developed fully adapted by experience
to the peculiar customs and needs of this country. Let us hope
that the beginning of a new century will see the Government of
the United States fully committed to a sound forestry policy, and
actively engaged in a thorough and effective administration of. our
magnificent forests.

TIMBER AND WOOD CONSUMPTION IN THE
COMSTOCK MINES.

By Witu1am Atvorp, San Francisco, California, former president of
the American Forestry Association.

The successful operation of the mines of the Comstock lode
requires vast quantities of timber, lumber, and wood, for the walls
and ore bodies are notable for want of firmness and tenacity. The
friable nature of the ore, which renders its mining comparatively
easy without blasting, except to fracture large masses, has a counter
disadvantage in requiring an expensive system of timbering in order
to make extraction safe. Some of the mines are not only exceed-
ingly deep (over three thousand feet), but also of great width. On
the 1,550 level of the Consolidated Virginia mine a vein three hun-
dred and thirty feet wide has been worked out. In this and vari-
ous other mines of the lode veins ranging from sixty-five to two
hundred feet in width and consisting of high-grade ore have been
completely extracted. The ore of the vein in the Consolidated Vir-
ginia, above referred to, furnished an average yield of one hundred
and twenty-six dollars of silver and gold to the ton. Such ore is
too valuable to be utilized for chamber walls or as principal sup-
ports, as is done in most of the mines of the world.

The enormous pressure resulting from the weight of the overlying
formation is sustained by an elaborate net-work of costly timbering,
which has been admired for its completeness and strength by many
skilful mining engineers. Without vast quantities of massive tim-
bers to keep the walls in place, with correspondingly great quanti-
ties of wood to generate power for pumping, hoisting, and reduc-
tion of ores, the great bulk of the precious metals which the Com-
stock mines have poured forth would never have been obtainable.
To rifle the mineral kingdom of its glittering treasures, man had

133 ;

first to levy upon the resources of the vegetable kingdom. With-
out the aid of the forests the wealth of the Comstock would have
been as far beyond human reach as the fabulous secrets of the
alchemists. These constant drafts of the Comstock mines upon
the mountain forests have led to the christening of the lode as “ The
tomb of the Sierras.”

When the mines of the Comstock lode were discovered the sur-
rounding mountains were sparsely covered with a growth of scrubby
pines (Pinus Hdulus), commonly known as pifion or nut-pine, in-
terspersed with a stunted variety of juniper (Juniperis Virginiana),
generally called cedar. These woods were the most valuable of all
for fuel, being hard, resinous, and fine-grained, but were worthless
for timbers and lumber, being too small. They supplied the wants
of the mines during the prospecting and surface-mining eras and as
long as fuel only was wanted. As soon as any considerable depth
was reached, the supply was exhausted and the forests of the east-
ern slope of the Sierra Nevadas, where accessible, were encroached
upon. The forest-line of these mountains has receded westward
before the woodman’s axe until now it is west of the eastern crest of
the Sierra range and almost on a line paralleling the western shore
of Lake Tahoe, fairly within the limits of the State of California.

Timbers, lumber, and wood are now principally supplied to the
Comstock mines from the southern portion of the Lake Tahoe
basin, on the California side of the State line, by the Carson and
Tahoe Lumber and Flume Company, a corporation entirely inde-
pendent of the mines. The wood and logs are first transported
about twelve miles over the company’s railroad to the lake shore at
Bijou, the railroad extending, over piles seventeen hundred feet out
into the lake, to a depth of water where the steamers and barges
can moor alongside of the track. The wood is unloaded from the
cars on barges haying a carrying capacity of from seventy-five to
one hundred and forty cords each. The logs are dumped from the
cars into the lake and enclosed in boom timbers forming immense
rafts.

The company has two powerful steamers engaged in towing these
barges and log rafts to Glenbrook, on the eastern shore of the lake.
At this point the logs are sawed into timbers and lumber which,
with the wood, are reloaded on cars and transported up a long incline
to the summit, over another railroad, about ten miles long, belong-
ing to the company. At the summit these are unloaded and con-
veyed througha flume for about twelve miles, to the wood and lum-

-

134

_ber yards at Carson City, Nevada, and from there taken by the
Virginia and Truckee R.R. gwenty miles to the mines, making a
total distance of sixty-five miles from the forest, over two rugged
mountain chains. From the forest to the mines the timber, lumber,
and wood are necessarily handled thirteen times.

In the operation of its system the Carson and Tahoe Lumber and
Fluming Company owns and uses thirty miles of railroad track and
switches, two locomotives, forty cars, two steamboats, six barges,
and twenty-five miles of flume. This flume is in form of a V, and
is provided with all of the improvements which the experience of
twenty years in flume transportation have suggested. It has thirty-
two to thirty-four-inch sides, a top width of from forty-five to forty-
eight inches, and has a diamond in the bottom of from five to seven
inches. It was constructed in 1870, has been in use ever since, and
has a reliable supply of water from springs and creeks in the high
Sierras. It has a carrying capacity of six hundred cords of wood a
day, and will transport the heaviest mining timbers as well as lum-
ber and cord-wood.

About fifteen thousand cords of wood are annually supplied from
the forests surrounding the headwaters of the Carson river in Alpine
county, California, these being floated down the river in drives dur-
ing the early summer stages of water. About eight thousand cords
a year are consumed in the mills along the Carson river, and the
remainder is shipped by rail to the Comstock mines.

At present, 120,000 acres of the Sierra Nevada’s choicest forests
around Lake Tahoe and 75,000 acres around the headwaters of the
Carson river have been denuded to operate the mines. When it is
considered that this area equals an expanse of land three hundred
and five miles long by one mile wide, it will be apprehended that
there is good reason for calling the Comstock “The tomb of the
Sierras.”

Not more than 10,000 acres of timber land and 35,000 acres of
woodland are now available to supply the mines. Upon the
exhaustion of these it will be necessary to develop the timber
regions north of the Truckee river in order to obtain an adequate
supply of timbers and wood. This will remove the base of supplies
more than one hundred miles from the mines, and will require a
heavy expenditure to construct lines of transportation.

None of the Comstock mining companies have ever owned or con-
trolled their timber supplies, but have relied on independent com-
panies or individuals for the same.

135 ;

From January 1, 1880, to January 1, 1891, in all, 249,756,000
feet of timbers and lumber were shipped to and used in and about
the Comstock mines. During the same period 100,776,440 cubic
feet of wood were consumed, and to the latter amount should be
added 11,264,000 cubic feet consumed by the Carson River mills,
auxiliary to the mines, making a total of 875,316 cords. These fig-
ures are taken principally from the books of the Virginia and Truckee
R.R. Co., and may be relied upon. For the decade commencing
January 1, 1870, and ending January 1, 1880, which includes
the period of development and working cf the bonanzas in the Crown
Point, Belcher, Consolidated Virginia, and California mines, the tim-
ber, lumber, and wood used cannot be ascertained with exactitude,
but a conservative estimate by men most familiar with the facts and
with sufficient data upon which to base a nearly correct estimate
fixes the figures at 425,000,000 feet of timber and lumber and 268,-
800,000 cubic feet of wood, to which should be added 10,240,000
cubic feet used in and about the Carson River mills.

In 1870 the timber and lumber sold for $35 per thousand feet at
the mines, and wood at $13 per cord, but the prices have gradually
fallen since that time, until now timber and lumber are sold at the
mines for $22 per thousand feet, and wood for $9 per cord. A
conservative and probably underestimate of the average price paid
at the mines for timber and lumber since 1870 is $23 per thousand
feet, and for wood $10 per cord.

Summarizing the above statistics, the Comstock mines since 1870
have used 674,756,000 feet of timbers and lumber, and have paid
therefor, at $23 per thousand feet, $15,519,388.

During the same time the mines and mills have used 391,070,488
cubic feet of wood, costing, at $10 per cord, the sum of $30,553,160 ;
making a grand total cost of $46,072,548. The pumping machinery
of the mines was partially stopped in 1882 and entirely shut down
in 1884, which accounts for the much smaller quantity of wood used
in the last eleven years than was required for the ten years previous
thereto.

The consumption of forest products by the mines for the period
embraced between the discovery of the Comstock lode and 1870
can hardly be approximated, as there are no data for that time
obtainable, but an estimate that the entire cost of timbers, lumber,
and wood used in and about the Comstock mines, from the date of
their discovery until the present time, is $55,000,000, could hardly
exceed the true amount.

136

With the exception of the shafts and bulkheads, the prevailing
system of timbering in the Comstock mines is that devised by Mr.
Philip Deidesheimer in 1860 and commonly known as the “ Deide-
sheimer system.” It consists of timbers so framed that when a post
is set up there is a place on its top for the ends of four caps, and
when these are placed in position a mortise is formed into which the
end of the next post fits. The same connections are made with each
of the four posts, forming a hollow cube, and there is always a place
for the caps of the sets to be fitted on any side.

These sets form cribs of timber six feet square, strengthened by
timbers connecting opposite corners in the manner of diagonals of
squares. These cribs, when completed, make convenient places in
which to stow away waste rock, and make the whole almost as firm
as the original material. These sets are as compact as the cells of
a honeycomb, to which they bear a striking resemblance except in
figure, and by repetition may be extended in all directions to any
distance that may be required. This system of timbering exempli-
fies the truth of the old adage that “ Necessity is the mother of in-
vention,” for without it the Comstock miners could do nothing, but
with it, the mines can be safely worked to any depth, width, or length.

The seemingly endless labyrinths of timbers in the Comstock
mines when ignited and beyond control make a subterranean fire
which burns and smolders for years. Many lives have been lost
in the mines by reason of these fires, but none have been recorded
as having been lost because of any inherent defect in the timbers or
system of timbering.

A large proportion of the timber and lumber used in these mines
has been in the constructing of shafts and bulkheads. Many of
these shafts are from two thousand to more than three thousand
feet deep, and are completely encased in timbers. In the Consoli-
dated Virginia mine there is one bulkhead three hundred feet long,
two hundred feet high, and eighty feet wide, containing 57,650,000
feet of timbers. Another bulkhead in the same mine is one hun-
dred and fifty feet long, one hundred feet high, and fifty feet wide,
and contains 9,000,000 feet of timbers. There are other bulkheads
of smaller dimensions, but containing in the aggregate vast amounts
of heavy timbers.

The sizes of the timbers used in these mines vary from the huge
pieces sixteen inches square and twenty-four feet long to the
smaller pieces eight inches square, used in cribbing.

The species used consist of yellow pine (Pinus poderosa), fir,

137 .

(Picea magnifica), and cedar (Thuya gigantea), of which the lat-
ter is found in such small quantities as to be hardly worth consid-
ering. Fully two-thirds used is yellow pine, about one-third fir, and
less than one per cent. is cedar.

In a comparison of these woods, in point of durability, red fir
would rank at one hundred per cent., yellow pine at ninety per
cent., and white fir at sixty-five per cent. Ina comparison in point
of strength, red fir would rank at one hundred per cent., yellow
pine at ninety per cent., and white fir at about ninety per cent. In
the generation of heat, they would rank in the order of yellow pine,
red fir, and white fir. Yellow pine is a favorite timber with mine
carpenters on account of its exactitude in joining. Cedar is infe-
rior to no known timber, not even excepting red wood, for its last-
ing qualities under ground. Yellow pine has been taken from the
lower levels of these mines so compacted by the enormous pressure
it has withstood as to have a density and weight exceeding lignam
vite, and has been made into handsome paper weights and other
ornaments.

None of the timbers in the Comstock mines have yet badly de-
cayed and their life there cannot be accurately determined. The
heat and the vapors of the mines, surcharged with mineral matter,
appear to have a decidedly preservative effect upon the timbers.

Nearly or quite all of the timber cut for these mines is felled
during the winter and spring months; it is flumed during the sum-
mer and autumn months, but the timber and lumber are in the
water only during their passage through the flume—not more than
an hour and fifteen minutes. Upon being discharged at the mouth
of the flume in the yards, the timber is at once piled up in such a
way as to prevent warping and cracking and so that the air can cir-
culate freely between each piece. The wood remains until shipped
as it is discharged by the flume. As it is built up almost to a level
with the flume, the latter is extended so that the wood is piled up
by the water in long pyramidal masses about thirty feet wide at the
bottom, ten feet wide at the top, and about twenty feet high; being
thoroughly wet when discharged by the flume and drenched as piled,
it remains more or less wet for several months and sometimes par-
tially sours. For this reason, flume wood will not generate quite as
much heat as will wood which has never been in the water. The
effect of the water on timbers and lumber, when handled as herein
described, is hardly appreciable.

The area upon which the forest has been cut off to supply the

138

mines is now growing up, principally in pine, but the reproductive
growth is so slow that it will require more than a century for the
trees to attain a size sufficient to furnish the timbers required by
the mines. The new growth is very thick, but as it becomes large
the economy of nature, “the survival of the fittest,” will kill out the
weaklings and leave the stronger young trees at a proper distance
apart. On some of the lower slopes of the mountains where the
new growth is over twenty years old there are few trees ten inches
in diameter, and the average diameter will not exceed six inches.
In the Tahoe Basin, which has been cut over principally within the
last ten years, the reproductive growth is about five feet high and
will average about four inches in diameter. It is especially notice-
able that in the Sierra Nevadas fir predominates on the north slopes
where the snow remains the longest and the sun shines the least.
On the other slopes pine largely predominates. This indicates that
the Sierra fir thrives in a colder climate than is congenial to pine. °
A further fact is noticeable, that the reproductive growth contains a
much larger percentage of pine and a less percentage of fir than the
original growth contained. This is satisfactorily accounted for by
reason of the sun reaching the ground after the primeval forest is
cut off. As the new growth becomes larger and the ground is
shaded a larger number of young pines than firs die, but a careful
observation leads to the conclusion that when the trees become large
enough for use the percentage of pine will exceed and that of the
fir be less than in the primeval forest.

The present condition of the mines seems to indicate that the tim-
ber ayailable will be adequate to their demands, but if extensive ore
bodies should be discovered in the lode, or additional lodes within
fifty miles of the Comstock, an enormous expenditure must be in-
curred to supply necessary forest products.

THE EFFECTIVE METHOD OF ADVANCING FOR-
ESTRY INTERESTS.

By Herzsert Wetss, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893.]

The swiftness of the development of our country, owing to the
vastness of its resources and to the enormous influx of foreigners,
the stimulus that our free institutions give to every department of
our life, result in confronting us with a multitude of problems—
moral, social, economic, political—which, for their solution, tax the

139 :

thought and resources of the individual citizen to a greater degree
than is the case in any other country. The privileges of our unusual
advantages as a people entail a correspondingly weighty obligation.
Tf the vast resources of the republic are to be preserved unimpaired
for the future it will not be by laudations of the past, or by present
devotion to the acquisition of individual riches, but by continuous
patriotic gifts of thought, time, and effort to the best development
by each citizen. The fundamental principle of advance under popu-
lar government is the responsibility of the individual for the good
of the whole. Such considerations as these are necessary in the
solution of our forestry question.

A small group of experts for years have been warning us of the
danger of the situation—of the economic loss should the waste of
our forest resources be unchecked. If wise legislation does not
step in to protect the forests which supply the lumber market,
conserve the streams and arable soils, an impoverishment of one of
the greatest sources of wealth of the nation will ensue. It isa
situation calling for prompt action by the Federal Government and
by the individual States, but such action cannot be hoped for until
the laborious preliminary work of popular agitation has been ac-
complished.

It must not be forgotten that the best legislation does not origi-
nate with legislators, but is born of popular demands. But how
can the popular mind be aroused to demand a reform of this char-
acter? It is only through the systematic reiteration of the facts in
the ears of the legislator by the tongues of his constituents. But
this can only be accomplished through permanent organization, for
it takes numberless blows to set swinging the pendulum of a pop-
war demand for reform. The experiences of the Pennsylvania
Forestry Association will illustrate this thought, and may be of
service to forestry workers elsewhere.

The work of this organization began in the heads and hearts of
a very few intelligent and public-spirited women, who were helped
and stimulated to persevere by the encouraging advice of a devoted
forestry worker, Mr. J. B. Harrison. Then came into the field an
added number of men and women of the class most necessary to
such movements—men and women who, while not pretending to
exact scientific knowledge of the subject, have a fair understanding
of it, are profoundly impressed with its importance, and are willing
to lend a helping hand. Then came naturally the organization of
a forestry association, to be followed by much faithful individual
and associated work. This included a very considerable use of the

140

press, the publication of “Forest Leaves,” the printing of many
leaflets, the holding of public meetings in various parts of the
State, especially in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and ineffect-
ual attempts to secure the passage of a bill thr ough the State legis-
lature creating a forestry commission.

Good preliminary work was done by the association, but much
better work was needed. It was necessary to arouse the people
representing the various interests in the State to the real necessity
for action, before the legislature could be moved to pass the bill.
What was needed was a general secretary of full experience and
the best attainments—a man armed with both the knowledge and
skill that would enable him to represent the cause with convincing
force to the people of the State. This want was finally relieved by
the appointment of Dr. J. T. Rothrock, the well-known botanist, as
secretary, with the understanding that he would devote his entire
time to the work. No more fortunate appointment could have been
made or policy decided upon. Dr. Rothrock brought the best pos-
sible equipment to the work, and devoted himself to it with skill
and assiduity. During the winter months he visited most of the
counties of the State, giving illustrated public lectures, speaking
before county societies, talking with numerous constituents and
their legislators in so convincing a manner that before the close of
the session the forestry bill had become a law. Not only that, but
as a convincing proof of the sincerity of the governor’s desire for
the success of the work of the commission, Dr. Rothrock was ap-
pointed its botanist, and has spent the summer in the ee actively
prosecuting its work.

The forestry cause is one of far-reaching and profound impor-
tance to the country. A clear statement of its facts and arguments
cannot be brought effectively to the popular mind without popular
organizations in the various States—organizations which shall not
be content with desultory work, but will be satisfied with nothing
less than putting into the field a man of large calibre who shall give
his entire time to the prosecution of the work, and whose efforts
shall be supported morally and financially by the association which
he represents. Experience teaches that there is no way so effective
for prosecuting reform work as that of making strong the hands of
an efficient man. It is an expensive method, but the only one. In
no way can money be better spent by public-spirited men and
women who long for the increase of national wisdom and labor for
the promotion of the general welfare.

Ke € 3
x aX o AuaustT 1, 1895.

OF THE

PROCEEDINGS

4 American Forestry Association

AT THE

Tenth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Annual Meetings,
Washington, December, 1891, 1892, and 1893,

AND AT THE

World’s Fair Congress, Chicago, October 18 and 19, 1893.

VOLUME X,
BPs V4I-1983:

a WASHINGTON, D. C.:
1895.

eee.

~,

NOTICE.

comprising pages 141 to 183.

~er™Phis is the fourth and last fascicle of Vol. X of Proceedings,

For non-members, the price for each fascicle will be 25 cents;
the whole volume, $1.00. Copies can be had by addressing For-
estry Division, U. 8. Department of Agriculture, which has under-
taken to act as distributing agency for these publications.

OFFICERS FOR 1895.
ELECTED DECEMBER 28, 1894.

J. STERLING MORTON, Washington, D. C.

H. G. JOLY, Quebec, Canada,
EDWIN WILLITS,

N. H. EGLESTON, Washington, PECs

HENRY M. FISHER, M. D., , Philadelphia, Pa.,

EXECUTIVE

4 President.
” 1st Vice-President.

é 4 Vice-President for the District of Columbia.
FREDERICK H. NEWELL, Washington, D. C.,

Corresponding Secretary.
poactbact| Secretary.
Treasurer.

COMMITTEE. .

The executive committee consists of the president, vice-president for the
District of Columbia, the secretaries, the treasurer, and the following members :

B. E, Fernow, Chairman. Epw. A. Bowers. C. A. Kerrer.
CLEVELAND ABBE. Rozert B. WaRDER. CuHaruss C. BINNEY.
VICE-PRESIDENTS.

H. G. Joly, Pointe Platon, Quebec.
Charles Mohr, Mobile, Ala.

D. M. Riordan, Flagstaff, Ariz.
Abbot Kinney, Lamanda Park, Cal.
George H. Parsons, Colo. Sp’gs, Col.
B. G. Northrop, Clinton, Conn.

A. V. Clubbs, Pensacola, Fla.

C. R. Pringle, Sandersville, Ga.
George W. Minier, Minier, Il.
James Troop, Lafayette, Ind.

C. L. Watrous, Des Moines, Iowa.
E. A. Popenoe, Manhattan, Kan.

A. M. Brown, Elizabethtown, Ky.
John E. Hobbs, North Berwick, Me.
F. H. Appleton, Boston, Mass.

W. J. Beal, Lansing, Mich.

J. O. Barrett, Minneapolis, Minn.
William Trelease, St. Louis, Mo.

Members Elected since Publication

Robert W. Furnas, Brownville, Neb.
Wim. E. Chandler, Concord, N. H.
W. A. Stiles, Deckertown, N. J.
Warren Higley, New York, N. Y.

W. W. Barrett, Church’s Ferry, N. D.
W. R. Lazenby, Columbus, O.

E. W. Hammond, Wimer, Ore.

J. T. Rothrock, Westchester, Pa.

H. G. Russell, E. Greenwich, R. I.
H. A. Green, Chester, S. C.

L. McLouth, Brookings, 8S. D.
Albert Roberts, Nashville, Tenn.

W. Goodrich Jones, Temple, Texas.
Redfield Proctor, Proctor, Vt.

H. C. Putnam, Eau Claire, Wis.
Edwin Willits, Washington, D. C.
G. W. Allan, Toronto, Ont.

Wm. Little, Montreal, Quebec.

of List on second and third pages of

cover of third fascicle.

Aberdeen, Earl of, Government House,
Ottawa, Canada.

Albright, J. J., Buffalo, N. Y.

Alexander, J. J., Box 241, Baltimore,
Md.

Alexander, Robert C.,
press, New York, N. Y.

Atkinson, C. F., 46 Mason Building,
Boston, Mass.

Barber, Amzi Lorenzo, 66 Broadway,
New York, N. Y.

Bemis, Albert Farwell, Box 1891, Bos-
ton, Mass.

Bemis, J. M., 26 Central St.,
Mass.

Birkinbine, John, 25 N. Juniper St.,
Phila, Pa,

Mail and Ex-

Boston,

Borland, Mrs. J. M., The Charlesgate,
Beacon St., Boston, Mass.

Brown, C. G., Minnewaukon, N. Dak.

Brown, George 1 48 W. 59th St. , New
York, N. Y.

Brush, Chas. B., 1 Newark St., Ho-
boken, N. J.

Byington, Miss Alice, Stockbridge,
Mass.

Cannon, Geo. Q., Box B, Salt Lake
City, Utah.

Cannon, Le G. B., Burlington, Vt.

Carey. Mrs. Julia M., Ridgefield, Conn.

Carney, Miss Alice, Williams, Ala.

Carrick, G. M., Minto. N. D.

Chase, Howard A., 1430. S. Penn. Sq.,
Phila., Pa.

:

ee ae

oo

SS ee

141

THE FOREST RESOURCES OF THE ARGENTINE
REPUBLIC.

By Gustavo NriepERLEIN, Commissioner of the Argentine Govern-
ment to the Columbian Exposition.

[Read at the World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893.]

Mr. Niederlein presented a very elaborate paper on the forest
geography, forest botany, and useful woods of the Argentine Re-
public, which is to be printed in full from the Philadelphia museums
where Mr. Niederlein’s collections of Argentine woods have been
placed.

We can here only briefly state the principal points made in the
paper.

The forest zone of the Republic lies in the northern half of the
country, growing richer in species as it approaches the tropics,
The area of woodland is estimated at 200,000 square miles, or less
than 18% of total area. Of the 500 species belonging to 200 dif-
ferent genera and over 60 orders, about one-eighth are Leguminosz
(like our Black Locust), and in numbers these latter form the pre-
dominant feature. Only 38 species reach a height of 80 to 120 feet.
No pines are known, the Pino (Araucaria) being the only conifer.
The Argentine woods are mostly heavy woods and excel by their
color, varying through all shades.

One of the heaviest (spec. gr. 1.3-1.4) is the Quebracho colorado,
which is perhaps also the most useful, yielding large quantities of
tan extract, largely exported, the wood containing from 18 to 25%
of tannic acid.

The absence of conifers is felt as far as materials for construction
is concerned, although some 50 species adapt themselves to such
use; but for manufactures the selection is very varied ; outside of
the Cedro (Cedrela), known as Argentine Mahogany, there is, how-
ever, little exported, except to the neighboring forestless countries.
The entire commerce in indigenous woods, amounting to about
$15,000,000, coming especially from the Gran Chaco and Misiones
territory, the northern part of Santa Fe, Santiago del Estero, Tu-
cuman, Cordoba, Corrientes, and Entre Rios.

The woodworking industries are mainly confined to the capital,

142

Buenos Ayres, with 1,178 establishments, employing over 12,000
workmen, and altogether some 50,000 men are connected in some
way with the wood industries.

So far the exploitation is only limited, but naturally wasteful,
since the country is sparsely settled and transportation insufficient ;
the scattered occurrence of the different species adding another
element in retarding wholesale forest destruction.

TIMBER AS A CROP.

By B. E. Frrnow, Chief of Forestry Division, Department of Agri-
culture.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The object of our forestry movement is twofold, namely, to
preserve favorable forest conditions where they are necessary, and
to see our forest resources treated as a crop rather than as a mine
or quarry from which we take what is useful and then abandon it
as a waste, unproductive spot useless to man.

The idea of a crop involves sowing and planting, cultivation and
harvest, and when the crop is reaped we expect that it be repro-
duced and the soil bring forth another crop, as good or better than
the first.

Just as agriculture uses the soil systematically and under intelli-
gent direction for the production and reproduction of agricultural
crops, so does forestry use the soil systematically and under intelli-
gent direction for the production and reproduction of wood crops.

It is not the intention in this paper to give any technical advice
as to how a timber crop may be grown, but to discuss briefly some
economic considerations that present themselves to him who would
engage in timber-growing. A wood crop differs from an agricul-
tural crop in that it takes the accumulation of the growth of many
years or annual accretions before the crop is useful; it is not an
annual crop. Hence the financial calculation of cost of production
and profit in the harvest depends on uncertain factors of the future.
Another important difference from a financial point of view is that
the harvest is not determined by any natural period, like the ripen-
ing of the fruit or the end of the season of vegetation. It lies with
the manager of the crop when he will harvest it, his determination

143

depending largely on questions of financial import, the quality of
material which he can market, or the use to which he proposes to
put the crop, and sometimes the methods by which he proposes to
reproduce it. For example, if he be a consumer of wood for char-
coal-iron manufacture, he would cut his hard-wood crop when it has
attained the age of twenty or twenty-five years, expecting its re-
production from the stump again and again—a coppice system with
20 years rotation.

If, however, he were to grow timber for the general market, he
would have to wait until his crop had attained such size as will
furnish marketable material, andif he expect to reproduce the crop
by natural seeding he would have to allow his crop to grow until a
plentiful repeated seed production is assured; he would manage
his crop as a timber forest with, say, 70 to 100 year rotation; or, if
he had a market for box-boards, he might cut his white pine at
thirty years, instead of waiting for its full development.

Technically as well as financially the most important distinction
between grain or root crops and forest crops, and one which we
must impress most strenuously upon our forest-owners, is that a
timber crop may be reproduced in acceptable form by the mere
manner of harvesting the old crop. If cut under intelligent direc-
tion and with proper precautions, the old crop will reproduce itself
by the seed from the trees that occupied the ground, and the new
crop will start with hardly any effort on the part of the man except
a judicious removal of the oldcrop. All cultivation of the new crop
to bring it to more rapid and better development and to improve
its quality will then be done also by the judicious use of the
axe. The axe, paradoxical as it may sound, is the preserver and
cultivator of the forest—not in the hands of the lumbermen, but
when judiciously directed by the forester.

If we were to engage in the business of timber-growing we could
start from three different positions: either we have a soil without
encumbrances, or nearly so, ready for cropping, or we have a well-
stocked virgin forest ready for harvesting, or else we have a piece
of woodland from which all the good timber has been culled and
the poor kinds and poor timber left. Financially I should pre-
fer the second position every time, provided the class of timber
composing the forest is of desirable kinds, for with such conditions
it is a question of but short time when the forest can be brought
into systematic, regularly producing and reproducing condition,
yielding at once interest on capital and expenditures for improve-

144

ments invested. But our friends in the United States—the few
that venture into this business—as a rule seem to prefer the other
two positions; they choose a poor culled piece of woodland to
practise forestry on, as if by the magic of that misused word the
cream that has been skimmed from the virgin forest would rise
again; or else they plant on new ground, when one would think the
expense of the planting, together with the patient waiting for many
years ere the crop becomes marketable, would deter them from the
attempt, unless other considerations prevail, such as present them-
selves in the forestless prairie and plains country.

That the more rational method would be to take the crop ready
made by nature and apply systematic forest management to that,
has seemingly not occurred to those who would try their hand at
raising timber crops as a business.

The technical difficulties, to be sure, with such management are
greater, and more expert application of forestry knowledge needed,
than in planting on new ground, but the returns would not be
waited for as long. The curtailment of the present revenue, which
is necessary in order to secure not only a continuous revenue but
also a property more valuable than it came from the hand of nature,
would soon be recompensed, if the conditions are not entirely un-
favorable.

Favorable conditions are a forest composed of timbers that are
mostly merchantable, and of which one at least, occurring in not too
small proportion, is a staple which commands a ready and unlimited
market, nearness to a market, and not too great difficulties in ob-
taining transportation within and without the forest.

Instead of doing as the lumberman would do, culling out all the
good timber, usually one kind, 2. ¢., the best, bringing it over tem-
porary roads—as much as would promise good returns—to the mill
and abandoning the property when the cream is taken, because it
is not worth paying taxes—this is the way in which the State of
New York has become owner of nearly a million acres of Adiron-
dack forest—instead of thus skimming the forest, we would pre-
pare to hold and improve the property for permanent investment.
This would require, first, the knowledge of what kind and quanti-
ties of timber our forest contains and the needs and requirements
of the various timbers for their growth and reproduction; then a
plan of management would have to be made, in connection with
which, after mapping the tract, a system of permanent roads should
be laid out. They need not be built at once, but as needed, with a

se
view to constant use. Next should be studied how the inferior, less
marketable timbers could best be utilized. These then should be
cut first, judiciously, with a view of reducing them in proportion
to the better kinds and of preparing a better chance for reproduc-
tion of these. ;

No profits may come from these manipulations, but these im-
provement cuttings, and preparations for continuous forest man-
agement, even if they cost, are improvements that repay themselves
in the end.

When we have provided means for ready transportation, brought
the forest into acceptable composition and condition, and have
prepared the way for a satisfactory reproduction of the best timbers,
then we begin to cut the latter, always carrying on operations
with caution and with a view to the needs of each species, so as to
secure a new crop, reseeded from the old, before the latter is entirely
removed.

You see that forestry does not consist in leaving trees, but, on
the contrary, in cutting every one; but when the old crop is all cut,
a new one, more valuable than the old, is growing. The lumber-
man’s cutting is usually the very opposite; he does not, as a rule,
take everything, but culls the best, leaving the undesirable, and
thereby he prevents desirable reforestation, so that he leaves the
forest in worse condition than it was before. We admitted that
part of the harvest is perhaps not profitable, but the loss must be
charged to the improvement and greater value in which we find our
property after the operation.

You will also observe that nothing has been said about cutting
annually only a certain amount of timber. It is a mistaken notion
that therein consists the keynote to European forest management.
To take only that which grows annually—the interest on the capital,
as it were—is proper financial management but has nothing to do
with forestry. The amount to be cut, as far as forestry is con-
cerned, is only dependent upon the needs of the aftergrowth.
Hence it is unlike from year to year rather than like, and the very
difficulty of the manager is to reconcile the financial and the forestal
requirements. The same ditticulty arises when the need of thin-
ning the new crop, in order to bring it to more rapid development,
is recognized, but the impossibility of marketing the inferior ma-
terial forbids the operation from a financial point of view.

The question whether timber-growing is a profitable business
cannot, of course, be answered asa general proposition; it can only

146

be answered under special given conditions ; but I submit that if it
can be made profitable at all in the United States at the present
time, it is more readily made profitable in the manner indicated than
in any other. If itis not possible to make timber-cropping profit-
able by buying as a start a well-stocked virgin forest, accessible to
large markets, for $5.00 to $10.00 per acre, land and timber, con-
taining a full-grown crop of at least 509% of valuable forest, what
should we expect from timber-planting, which can certainly not be
done at less than $10.00 to $15.00 per acre in addition to the value
of the land, and must wait for returns until the crop is ripe for the
axe, compounding the expense all the way from 30 to 100 years, as
the case may be?

It is to be hoped that some of our lumbermen and capitalists in
whose hands the fate of the forest property of the nation lies may
study the possibilities of managing it profitably for continuous
timber crops. Iam convinced that the time has arrived in many
instances when this can be done without detriment to the pocket of
the investor, and perhaps with an increased profit, even, during his
lifetime.

In this connection I wish to call attention to some important
considerations regarding the profit calculations in such a business.
Not only is there no safer and, for the large capitalist, more agree-
able investment to be found than timber lands; not only can he
regularly and at will draw his interest, and, if he chooses, anticipate
the same, taking advantage of favorable market conditions, but he
will have an investment that is capable of increasing its yield partly
by increased material product under management and partly by in-
creased price for the same. In Germany the price for wood has in-
creased during the last 30 to 40 years at the rate of 1.5 to nearly 3%
per annum. In Prussia the price nearly doubled in the years from
1830 to 1865, while in the 40 years from 1850 to 1891 it rose 59%,
or from 3 cents to nearly 5 cents per cubic foot of wood of all kinds
and sizes. And while the cost of management increased also, yet
during the years 1830-79 the net yield of the Prussian State forests
increased at the rate of 1.36% per year, in Saxony from 1850-79
at the rate of 4.02%, and in the Bavarian forests at the rate of
3.14% per year.

These experiences, which are bound to repeat themselves in our
country—in fact, have already been had here and there—teach us
that, in calculating profits on such investments, we are justified to
apply a lower rate of interest than is usual. Interest charges, as

147

.

we have grown richer as a nation, have begun to decline, and if
Government bonds, on account of their safety and the ease with
which the interest is collected, bring only 4% and less, the com-
pounding of interest charges on forest property, which is as safe,
and increasing in value, may be done at even a lower figure without .
involving financial miscalculation.

In conclusion, while, as we have said, the usefulness of a timber
crop arrives many years from its start, it nevertheless has a value at
any time, just as the colt has a value derived from the promise of
its future as a mare, and as surely as virgin forest supplies are being
consumed at a rate which exceeds twice the capacity of the existing
area to produce, as surely will thrifty growing timber increase in
value.

Now is the time for the long-headed lumberman to begin to treat
his timber as a crop!

RELATION OF FORESTRY TO THE LUMBERING
INDUSTRY.

By Mer. L. Satzy, Editor North Western Lumberman, Chicago, Ill.
[Read at the World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The “ Relation of Forestry to the Lumbering Industry” is practi-
cally, so far, very meagre. In the hard-wood districts, when a mill
man hunts up and buys trees which will produce exactly the kind of
stuff he desires, cuts, hauls them to his mill and saws them, he is
following the teachings of forestry, though nine times in ten un-
wittingly. So, in the yellow-pine fields, when a saw-mill man has
an order for timber, and selects the trees from which the sticks may
be sawed to the best advantage, he is carrying out some of the ideas
of the forester. Forestry, in the sense above designated, as I un-
derstand it, means the handling of timber to the best possible ad-
vantage, due attention being paid to the matter of selection, the
prevention of waste, and the preservation of young trees. Any
one acquainted with American lumbering methods knows they are
not hampered with any such conditions.

Between the great bulk of lumbering business and forestry there
is at present no actual relation, and it may be readily seen why
there is none. There is no more rushing, pushing business than

148

the manufacture of lumber. Great bodies of timber are cut as
rapidly as possible and fed to the saws. It is a sweeping whole-
sale business, and the lumberman in pursuing his work has an eye as
single to the job before him as has the big Western farmer when
_ Superintending his harvesters, intent on gathering his thousands of
acres of wheat. The saws are run strictly on business principles and
for the purpose of putting the last dollar possible into the pockets of
the men who operate them. Connected with forestry, as so far
conceived by many of its friends in this country, there is sentiment,
but there is little of that article touching his occupation harbored
by the lumberman. He is not in the business for a lifetime, much
less for the benefit of future generations. Ask the majority of
manufacturers, and they will say that in five, eight, ten, or a dozen
years, as the case may be, their timber will be exhausted and they
will then retire. It is easy to understand, it appears to me, why a
man doing this rushing business for the purpose of gaining a com-
petency in a few years should not seriously consider the question
of forestry or any other question, especially when the working of it
out would tend to block his operations. Interest is the great
motive that controls all of us, and in forestry the lumberman feels
no direct and immediate interest, the present only being considered.

City people, to whom forests are poetry and a comfort, are quite
unable to understand the subject from the standpoint of the lum-
berman. Those people read in the press thrilling accounts of dis-
astrous forest fires—as a rule more disastrous in print than in reality,
for which let us be thankful—and rightly regard them as calamities,
as frightful cancers which eat away and blacken sections of the fair
face of nature. They little know, however, that this great sin
against forestry—forest fires—is condoned by the lumberman. Few
things affect his interest more directly, one would think, yet appar-
ently it is a matter of supreme indifference to him whether forest
fires rage or not. When he has seen them coming full headway
for his mill, or the town in which he lives, he has been frantic in an
attempt to assemble his neighbors for the purpose of trying to
extinguish the flames. But what pains have been taken to prevent
these fires? In the white-pine territory, where they are most destruc-
tive, not only to timber but to settlements and human life, I have
never known but one operator to burn his debris under supervision,
and thus protect his own property and that of his neighbors. Often
any kind of protection would be of no value to the operator who
has laid the train which, sooner or later, will be fired. He has cut

149
every stick of valuable timber of his own, and the timber standing
next to his leavings belongs to his neighbors.

Here comes in the legal aspect of the case, and it is most surpris-
ing that the courts have not been asked to give their opinion regard-
ing it. In common law, if a man desires to pile, without protection,
combustible material on his lot adjoining one on which stands a
neighbor's house he may do so, but he will be held accountable, in
case of damage, for such loss as might naturally result from his neg-
ligence. If an operator permits the leavings of a logging job to
collect and dry alongside of the timber of another man, there is
little question but in law the operator would be held responsible if
the timber was damaged as a result of the fire originating in the
powdery brush-heaps. Yet so universally is it held in logging circles
that forest fires are a natural consequence that never, to my knowl-
edge, has a suit been brought for damage as a result of one. If
there is the slightest suspicion that sparks from a locomotive or
steam-tug set the lumber in a yard on fire, litigation is sure to fol-
low ; but if a man permits his inflammable refuse to accumulate, and
as a result there is asweeping conflagration that does more damage
than half of the lumber-yards in the State are worth, not even blame
attaches to him. This utter disregard of this phase of forestry—
the prevention of forest fires—is as deplorable as it is unaccountable.
The plea of the operators is that it would not be possible to so care
for their debris that the great danger of forest fires would be ma-
terially lessened. They really mean, when they say this, that the ex-
pense of such care would be greater than they would like to bear.

It is not surprising that little thought was given to the preserva-
tion of timber by the men whose names are prominently recorded
in lumber literature. Few can see beyond the horizon, and these
men knew not where the great stretch of forest ended. The re-
ports of the Government surveyors were not in. The land looker
who has since compassed the timber world had not won his laurels.
More now is known of the timber supply. There is timber in large
quantities—in the South, on the Pacific coast, and even as yet in the
white-pine States—but reflect how insignificant the amount when
the demand is considered, and when we are aware that the present «
enormous consumption, on the basis that population increases
1,000,000 a year, will increase at the rate of 500,000,000 feet annually.
There is enough timber for us during our remaining years, but with
each of us it should be a sacred wish that this great nation, of which
we are a part, may live on and on for centuries and prosper; and

150

how much it would add to that prosperity could it all along have at
hand the great and rich timber resources which it has been able to
command since its life began. But those resources it will not have.
At the present rate of the manufacture of lumber, allowing 6,000
feet of timber to the acre, an area is stripped yearly equal to that
of Vermont, New Hampshire, or Massachusetts. This is for lumber
and shingles alone, and does not include the output of timber for
fuel, mining, or railway track purposes. We have children who will
see the great forests of the United States, excepting perhaps those
of the extreme west, practically cut away. What then? You an-
swer, and see if you can derive consolation from any answer you
may frame.

Regarding this brittle and almost imperceptible thread that at
present unites forestry and the lumber industry, we should bear
in mind that forestry in this country is a comparatively unknown
subject. Possibly, were lumbermen to know more about its advan-
tages and possibilities, they would at times profit by it to a greater
extent than they do.

In the future there will be a decidedly intimate relation between
forestry and the lumbering industry, but it will be when the hum
and clatter of the great commercial mills will have nearly died away,
as then there will be but few great bodies of timber from which
such mills may be fed. As men now plant corn and wheat for food,
so by and by they will plant trees for the needs of their children
and their grand- and great-grand-children. How to cultivate trees
will be taught in our colleges and universities, and the true relation
between forestry to the lumbering industry—the one providing
the crop which the other utilizes—will be established.

RELATION OF FORESTRY TO LUMBERING AND
THE WOOD-WORKING INDUSTRIES.

By J. E. Derrzavas, Editor The Timberman, Chicago, Ill.
[Read before the World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

As the purpose of this congress is to develop a complete and
comprehensive view of the subject of forestry in its two correlated
departments of forest preservation and forest culture, through the
presentation of various phases of the subject by men of practical

151

knowledge and experience in them, I have been asked, not as a
practical lumberman, but as editor of a newspaper of the lumber
trade in touch with all its branches, to treat of this peculiarly
practical and matter-of-fact topic, “The Relation of Forestry to
Lumbering and the Wood-working Industries.”

What I shall have to say must be in the nature of an explanation
and partially of anapology. The individual lumbermen and wood-
workers as such have no interest in the subject of forest preserva-
tion and culture. As citizens, and therefore interested in all move-
ments looking toward the good of future generations, they may
give attention to the considerations you would urge, and assist in
the furtherance of your objects, but as business men you cannot
appeal to them. This being the fact, as I shall show later, why
then consider the relation of forestry to them? Why not at once
drop this branch of the subject? Simply because the reasons why
lumbermen are not directly interested are economic and financial
ones on which hinge the possibility of accomplishing your purposes,
and a brief statement of them may more clearly set before forestry
specialists the practical difficulties with which they will have to
contend in this country, and therefore more fully arm them in
advance for the battle which must be waged for more than one
generation before their laudable objects shall be fully accomplished.

Much invective has been wasted in denunciations of the attitude
of lumbermen towards the forestry problem. To those who attend
forestry congresses or read the literature concerning the subject,
which of late has occupied so conspicuous a place in the public
press, no phrase is more familiar than this, “ the ruthless destruc-
tion of our forests.” That word “ruthless” seems to define the
mental and moral attitude of the lumberman towards the subject
under consideration. So violent and unreasonable, in many cases,
have been the charges against him that the lumberman has often
been forced to an attitude of apparent hostility, that misrepresents
his real feeling, which is one of entire indifference. The invective
is misdirected and wasted, because the lumberman, as such, is not
any more responsible for the bad results of his business than is the
banker, the grocer, or the farmer. He is but part of a commercial
and industrial system the blame for which must be divided among
the fifteen millions of our voting population, and comes even to
them as an inheritance.

The time was when a great part of the territory of the United
States was under control of the Government—that is to say, of the

152

people as distinguished from individuals. Then was the time when
great bodies of timber-bearing lands might have been forever set
aside to public uses, or transferred to private hands with a reserva-
tion as to the use that should be made of them. But no such policy
was adopted, the public domain became private property, and the
very basis of our political and social organization is the basis of
these property rights, which cannot be disturbed without a revolu-
tion in the accepted order of things, which will not be effected in
this generation, if ever. Private property must be taken if adequate
timber reservations are to be secured.

I do not forget the timber reservations which the General Govern-
ment and States have established, but they are so small in comparison
to the whole area of the country and to the great results to be sub-
served by forest preservation and reforestation that in this discus-
sion they can be ignored. It is gratifying that in California and
other States great reservations have been made which will prove of
inestimable advantage to the people; but the forests covering the
head waters of the great rivers of the East and of the interior are
already in private hands. The most vital points present the greatest
difficulties to those who would preserve the forest cover. It is, ac-
cording to forestry theories, of the utmost importance that the head
waters of such rivers as the Mississippi and Ohio, with their chief
tributaries, should not be denuded of their shade, and yet it is just
these birthplaces of the rivers that are most completely under con-
trol of operating lumbermen or investors, and which it is least
practicable to bring again under the control of the Government on ac-
count of the cost.

I lay down this proposition: that it is not within the power
of the General Government to preserve any such portion of the
virgin forests as would result in any substantial benefit, for the
simple reason that even the resources of this rich Government
would fail in an effort to purchase the timber cover of the head
waters of these streams, and the Government is restrained by its
very nature from taking possession of them without due remuner-
ation to their present holders. The question may be asked if the
Government cannot consider timber holders who produce by the
use of their property a condition of things damaging to the best
interests of the whole people and of future generations as having
no right to such possessions, and to practically confiscate them.

Let us look at the situation from the lumberman’s standpoint.
The Government, which was formerly the owner of the immense

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e

forests of the central and western portions of this country, in which
lumbering operations are now most actively carried on, put these
timber lands upon the market at an inviting price. Immigrants
were wanted, settlers were wanted, and all facilities were put in the
way of those who would develop the natural resources of the
country. Therefore, the man whose education or inherited apti-
tude made him a lumberman purchased these lands, proposing to
utilize them, or is now in possession of them after they have passed
through many hands since the original purchase, at a price due to
the years of accrued value. The present holder has thousands,
possibly millions, of dollars invested in lands, in timber, in appli-
ances for bringing his timber to a point of manufacture, in mills and
all the other paraphernalia for the conduct of what is knownas the
lumber business, for the production and sale of a merchantable
commodity which is demanded by the people of the country. He
has been encouraged by the nation, by the business customs of the
community, and by the demand of the people at large; for the lumber-
man is the home builder, and with the railroad and the frontier settler
has been, and is, the pioneer of our American civilization. His oper-
ations have made the settlement of our prairies possible. The
history, law, customs of the country, all justify his ownership and
secure him in it.

It is unfortunate that the amount of standing timber in the
United States is not and cannot be known, but to illustrate the
magnitude of the task which the Government would undertake, in
establishing the forest reservations at the head waters in the white-
pine country of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, of such mag-
nitude as to really accomplish the results at which forestry advo-
cates aim, let us assume that there is only 50,000,000,000 feet of
standing pine timber still left in those three States. There is un-
doubtedly a much larger amount than that, but if that were all,
and if it were valued on the average at only $3 per thousand feet,
board measure, it would make the total value $150,000,000. It is
the common belief, largely justified by the facts, that the white
pine is almost gone, and in truth it is only a fragment of the orig-
inal forest which still stands. So small is even this great amount
that much more land than this would be necessary to give a proper
amount of forest cover to the head waters of the Mississippi and
the streams that supply the great lakes, and that is only one of
many important sections where the same work is to be done.

If we admit that absolute ownership by the Government is im-

154

possible, what shall we say as to the practicability of establishing
such regulations for the use of timber as would preserve the forests
still standing, allowing their owners to only cut mature timber, and
by careful treatment to preserve the life and usefulness of the
forests perpetually? It is a question if such a measure as this
comes within the province of the Government of the United States;
but, on the ground of eminent domain, right might be established
either in the general or State governments. The lumbermen would
have no objection to such supervision if they could be assured that
their competitors in all sections of the country would be treated
alike, and provided, also, that they were reimbursed for the loss of
value which would be occasioned thereby. But here, again, there
are many factors to be taken into consideration. Take the indi-
vidual operator and consider the circumstances under which he is
doing his business. He is in the lumber business to make money
out of it if possible.

In the white-pine region of the Northwest the cost of timber toa
man who is now operating has been so great that it is only by the
utmost economy of operation, the most careful manipulation of the
product in the mill and on the market, that he is able to make a
reasonable profit. These conditions lead to methods of operation
which under ideal circumstances would not obtain. In order to get
his logs from the forest to the mill in the most economical fashion,
and to fully utilize his investment in standing timber, he must cut
his land clean as he goes. Everything that will pay for transporta-
tion and manufacture must go through the mill, for the fixed charges
of a small logging operation are almost as great as a large one, and
it costs but little more to take all the timber above eight inches in
diameter on a tract of land than to take merely the matured trees.
Moreover, the lumberman is threatened constantly by multiplied
dangers. He is more keenly alive to the ravages of forest fires than
is any forestry enthusiast, for he not only has a sentimental interest
in them, but a practical one, as they may wipe out a property which
represents years of active business life.

The lumberman, as an individual operator, cannot afford to clean
up his lands after him. To gather the debris from his logging
operations together and burn it safely would cost so much as to
put him out of competition with hisneighbor. Moreover, if he were
to adopt such policy, the danger is not much lessened, for he is
surrounded by other operators who may be less careful than him-
self. Further, the forest is honeycombed with the clearings of set-

155

tlers, who are more anxious to put their land in shape for tillage
than they are to preserve the timber holdings of their neighbors.
The timber-owner is threatened not only with this danger of fire,
but other perils which are entirely natural and exist in any primeval
forest, and with others which necessarily accompany lumbering
operations however carefully they may be conducted, and the set-
tling of the country by agriculturists. A clearing made will deaden
the timber for some distance around it ; rot and insect pests accom-
pany the settler as well as the lumberman. Under the present cir-
cumstances, therefore, the lumberman in the majority of cases could
not, if he would, conserve his possessions, but must transfer his
forest holdings as rapidly as possible into commercial products,
which in turn can be transformed into some other form of wealth.
It is evident that little can be expected from the lumberman or
timber-owner who depends upon that business for his livelihood in
the direction of conserving the forests, simply because it does not
pay him.

If, for instance, a tract of 100,000 acres virgin timber land in
Wisconsin, with 7,000 feet, board measure, of pine per acre—a stand
above the average—were bought for $5.00 per thousand feet, the
capital thus invested would be $3,500,000.

The cost of conducting the lumber business from the tree to the
market may be estimated at $7.50 per thousand feet. Assuming
the high average price of the product at $15.00 per thousand feet,
the profit would be $7.50, which could be realized as quickly as the
market will allow. But if the tract is to be kept in perpetual pro-
duction, the cut is limited to, say, 20,000,000 feet per year, and the
expense of improved methods and care increases so that we can only
assume a profit of $6.00, the total net profit of $120,000 would rep-
resent less than 34 per cent. interest on the investment.

The conclusion, so far as the lumberman is concerned, seems to be
plain and inevitable—that it is not, under present conditions, within
his power to carry out any policy of forest preservation or culture;
and that whatever is to be done must be by the people as a whole,
with due regard to the property rights of the individual.

A word as to the relation of the wood-worker to this question.
Directly he has nothing to do with it, for he purchases his mate-
rials in the open market, and if such forestry measures were adopted
as would raise the price of them, his competitors would be equally
affected and his comparative position remain unchanged. But here
enters a consideration that from a politico-economic view should

156

not be ignored. What would be the effect of a considerable in-
crease in the value of our forest products on the multifarious form
of enterprise into which they enter? What would be the result to
the already heavily burdened farmer of the West if his houses and
barns, and his agricultural implements, and the wagons and railway
cars in which his products are transported were made more costly? ~
What to our furniture exporters, if a substantial increase were made
in their chief material? What to our oil export trade, if cases and
barrels advanced in price? What to the paper trade, if wood-pulp
were difficult to obtain? But the list is endless.

Here I wish to state what seems to me an axiom. I do not ven-
ture to claim originality for it, and yet I do not remember to have
seen it in this form. It is this: No nation can husband a chief re-
source. IfIam right in calling this an axiom it should not need
explanation or amplification, but Iam tempted to illustrate it. A
chief natural resource must be comparatively plentiful and cheap.
It is that in respect to which one country is superior to another. If
its comparative cheapness should be artificially done away with—or,
in other words, if the natural effect of its plentifulness should not
be allowed to occur—then it would at once cease to be a chief re-
source. The United States is an exporter of wheat because of its
vast area of natural wheat lands, valued at a low price, on which
wheat can be cheaply raised. If the wheat-raisers were required to
maintain the strength of the soil by artificial means the advantage
would be lost. Similarly with the cattle trade. If the ranchman
of the plains were required to breed and care for his cattle after the
English fashion, we would no longer be able to supply Europe with
cheap meats. So with forest products. If the lumbermen were
obliged to adopt German methods of forestry we could not longer
occupy the superior place we do in the markets of the world.

Conversely, where wheat lands are scarce, fertilization is profit-
able; where grazing lands are limited, the quality of the products
can make amends for the small quantity; where the forest area is
small in proportion to population, forest culture is feasible.

Where men and not materials are the chief resource of a country,
there men are cheap; where natural resources are abundant in pro-
portion to population, there these resources are cheap and men are
dear.

The difficulties in the way of an adequate forestry policy in this
country are thus seen to be financial and political, and are expressed
very clearly in the relation that forestry bears to the lumber and
wood-working industries.

157

It would be somewhat ungracious, as well as unfair, to close this
paper, so occupied with arguments against the practicability at any
early day of putting into effect an adequate forestry system, with-
out mentioning some directions along which effort might have more
chance of success.

In the first place, the illustration chosen of operations in Wis-
consin is an extreme one, and yet justified by the fact that the most
important head waters of the Mississippi lie in that State and in
Minnesota. In some other sections conditions as to value of tim-
ber and methods of conducting the lumber business are very differ-
ent. The whole Southern lumber industry is conducted on a
much lower valuation of timber, and in hard-wood regions, like
that great cradle of rivers, the mountain section of Kentucky,
Tennessee, West Virginia, and the eastern parts of Virginia and
North Carolina, operations are now conducted in some respects
after the method which would prevail under supervision of a Goy-
ernment forestry department. There is no such clearing of land
as prevails in the white-pine country. The timber is largely treated
as individual trees instead of in masses, and is often purchased
separate from the land. |

In the particular section referred to, it would be comparatively
easy for the Government to obtain sufficient control of the forests to
accomplish direct results in preserving the forest cover. The chief
difficulty would be with the small farmers and mountaineers, who
have but little regard for property rightsin standing timber, whether
those rights are exercised by Government or by individuals.

Opportunities to establish timber reservations in the white-pine
region of the Northwest at a non-prohibitory expense arise as the
lumberman finishes his timber-cutting operations. There is then
left but little that is, under present conditions, of value. In multi-
tudes of cases the lumberman abandons his denuded land, which
eventually is sold for taxes. Millions of acres of one-time pine
lands can now be bought in Michigan and Wisconsin at not to ex-
ceed $2 per acre, and in many cases the State could secure them on
remittance of taxes. There is much of this land that is either
worthless for agricultural purposes or of so little value that the
population of the country must be much more dense than it is now
to encourage its use.

On these abandoned and barren tracts a grand experiment might
be attempted in the culture of white pine (Pinus strobus), a tree
whose superior in general utility does not exist, and which, under

158

present conditions, is fast disappearing. It is a firmly held belief
among lumbermen that the white pine cannot be reproduced on the
soil it once occupied in great forests. But I believe that scientific
methods would avail to reforest the plains and hills of the Northwest
with this noble wood, and prepare for our children’s children a vast
storehouse of forest wealth that would remain for all time.

THE RELATION OF RAILROADS TO FORESTRY.

By Howarp Mirizr, Gen. Agent Union Pacific Railway.

[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The successful agriculturist is one who raises a crop and has in
mind not only its immediate disposition, but the continuation and
improvement of the conditions that rendered its production possi-
ble. There is no more elementary fact in the hornbook of the
husbandman than that he may not take from the earth without cor-
responding return of measure and kind. Robbery of the earth en-
tails certain beggary not only upon him who takes, but upon the
earth itself. He may overdraw on Nature’s bank, but sooner or
later his drafts are protested. We speak of inexhaustible fertility,
but there is no such thing in nature. Like unlimited credit, it is
only a phrase embodying a later day of reckoning.

The centuries have taught the most illiterate that if he would
reap he must sow; that there can be no succession of harvests
without previous seed-times. As palpable as this fact is, as far as
the individual is concerned, it is all the more remarkable that the
State is just beginning to recognize it as equally applicable to the
higher forms of vegetation. No man listens to the whir of the
reaper without a knowledge of the drill that preceded it, and which
must follow to ensure the next crop. Yet most men will hear the
echoing thud of the woodman’s axe, the crash of falling timber,
and view the busy mill scene without a thought of the restoration
nature will exact if want is to be kept from posterity.

It argues ill for our intelligence that we view with regret the
barren field that has been cropped to sterility, and look with com-
placency on the denuded forest where once, within our recollection,
were Gothic arch and “God’s first temples.” The man with the

axe lays low the gift of a century, and usually has thoughts abou

it differing as little from those of his prehistoric ancestor as their
tools of destruction vary in form. No border clan ever returned
from successful foray and left behind such a blank array of material
destruction as the logging camp on the edge of the stream leaves the
next generation.

The existence of the industries that live directly and indirectly
through this slaughter is not deprecated. On the contrary, they
are the necessary concomitants of civilization and progress, but it
is in the thoughtlessness for the future that not only the scientist
but the political economist finds food for grave reflection. The end
of the forests of this country is in sight. Whatever bears on their
destruction is of equal importance with the facts relating to their
perpetuation and preservation. Of all the destructive and insati-
able agents contributing to the depletion of forests, perhaps none
are more voracious than railroads. Before a wheel can turn a tree
must die. Every railroad in the United States represents the
death of a forest, the extent of which is not apparent on first
thought.

In round numbers, the railroads of the United States represent
about 225,000 miles, with the annual addition of about 5,000 to
6,000 miles of new road. These roads require not less than 2,500
ties to the mile. A good tie is not less than 8 feet in length, and
a tree 1 foot in diameter and 25 feet from the ground to the first limb
would cut from its trunk 3 ties. This estimate is lower all around
than the facts in practice. The totals are sufficiently appalling at
these modest figures. A forest of 800 trees would probably fur-
nish ties for one mile of railroad, and at this rate the railroads of
the United States would require 180,000,000 forest trees of the
most valuable kinds for ties alone.

The life of a tie varies, but may safely be placed, at the very out-
side, at 10 years, when, owing to increased mileage of track, more
than 180,000,000 trees of the dimensions named will again be re-
quired to relay the roads. Of course, this renewal every 10 years
is not literal, yet each year sees not less than 10% of the ties re-
placed, and at the end of the period not less than 180,000,000 forest
trees find their graves under the iron highway. These enormous
amounts confuse the reader, and to summarize in such a way as to
render intelligible the results, it may be said that the railroad con-
struction of the United States has used up one-fifth of the forest
area of the country.

160

A U.S. Government report of 1887, on a basis of 187,500 miles
of track, much too low for the present year, estimates the amount
of timber used by the roads, for ties alone, and at present under-
going decay, at 1,485,000,000 cubic feet, and for the same mileage
of track 375,000,000 cubic feet for bridge and trestle timber,
making a total of 1,860,000,000 cubic feet. Add the telegraph
poles and other timber used by railroads, and the forest necessary
to furnish the annual consumption by its annual accretion would
measure 100,000,000 acres. (See Bulletin No. 1, Forestry Division,
United States Department of Agriculture.)

It would appear on first consideration that the supply of ties at
the present would be so diminished as to be a source of alarm.
On the contrary, the supply is equal to the demand, and the prices
are not much higher, if any, than heretofore. This does not mean
an increase of forest area. It results from the division of the land
into smaller holdings and the incident clearing of timber land by
the purchaser and the consequent offering of ties to the nearest
railroad. Then the south, with its vast forest areg, and cheap land,
and cheaper labor, furnishes great numbers of ties at prices which
fairly compete with the northern-grown product. Of course, the
end of all this is clearly in sight.

Recognizing the eventual commercial value of a substitute for
wooden ties when they are no longer available, the inventive genius
of this country has produced 516 patents of metallic ties and
stringers. They have not met with general favor from cor-
porations because of their great initial cost and their imperfections
compared with the perfect wooden tie which holds the alignment
of the road, and possesses the elasticity and noiselessness sought.
That this is the case now does not imply that in the future the
iron or steel tie may not supersede the wooden one. In fact, it is
not generally known that there are over 30,000 miles of railroad
operated on metallic ties. Experiments have been made on the
New York Central Railroad where, for three years, 800 ties have
been used on the main track with great satisfaction in every respect.
The 800 cost $25.00 for maintenance in 1892. This road has 18,000
metal ties which it expects to place in the main track this season
between the Grand Central Station and Harlem river.

The solution of the timber question as related to railroads clearly
lies in the substitution of metal for wood, and, when the economic
conditions compel attention, metallic ties will doubtless come to the
front as the proper and natural material to take the place of wood.

161

Nothing better illustrates the field open to practical statesman-
ship than a picture of actual conditions that may be seen any year
in the United States. In the eastern portion of the country, in a
forest that sheltered the red man, the rugged oak and the sentinel
pine crash to the earth with shattered limbs and broken heart at
the stroke of the axe in the hands of the woodsman. From the
fallen trunk are shaped the railroad ties that feed the insatiable
juggernaut of the vegetable world. The limbs and debris of the
woeful ruin are heaped in piles, and when the night is calm the
skies are red lit with the burning brush in the clearing.

A thousand miles westward a man sits by his door unsheltered
by vine or tree. Soil of unequalled fertility is about him in every
direction. The iron highway stretches away in the distance across
the prairie, bearing its burden from ocean to ocean, but for a hun-
dred miles not a tree is in sight. Earth and blue sky join hands in
the horizon, but the shadows on the buffalo grass are those the
clouds make. In his stove and on his hearth blazes the yellow corn,
for there is nothing else to burn. The man in the eastern forest
strove with his axe that he might fill the meal barrel in his home.
The man on the plains strove with his plow that he might harvest
the yellow corn, and now he burns it for lack of wood that the rail-
road tie-maker destroyed in an hour. Between the two the iron
highway leads. It is a necessity to both. It is indispensable, yet
there exists between the two sections a disparity of resource that
may well awaken thought and suggestion of remedy.

If it were possible for the average railroad corporation to engage
in the culture of timber for its own uses, there are sections of the
United States where such a course is practically impossible. It is
not likely that any railroad corporation will engage in the culture of
timber, it being cheaper to buy from those who have to sell than to
engage in production. If such a period does eventually arrive it is
not yet in sight. In fact, with some roads the practice on the pur-
chase or acquirement of a piece of woodland is to give the timber
to those who will cut it down and take it away.

Laying aside all diplomatic verbiage and setting forth the facts
with photographic accuracy, it may be broadly stated that railroad
managers, as a rule, do not care for the future of forestry as much
as for the returns of to-day. A railroad corporation is not a chari-
table organization, nor is it in the field for philanthropic purposes.
It is organized upon the basis of money contributed in large and
small amounts, in the hope of profitable and immediate returns

162

upon the investment. The management is in the hands of men
deemed peculiarly fit to produce the results sought. Their tenure
of office is dependent on reduction of expense and expansion of in-
come. The writer believes that any railroad management in the
United States, acting for a moneyed constituency, which would set
aside any considerable portion of the company’s funds for the pur-
chase of land and the culture of timber with the consequent ex-
pense and waiting for years for even partial realization, would find
itself promptly set aside for men who would create dividends to-day
for the present living stockholders and leave the next generation to
take care of itself. The situation is neither defended nor deplored.
It is stated for the fact that it is.

In the prosecution of any great public good, the roots of which lie
in present inconvenience, there must be back of it one of two things,
either the understanding and good-will of people affected thereby to
the extent of co-operation, or some very drastic compulsory legisla-
tion, and before any really active work can be expected from cor-
porations in the line of timber culture, a vast deal of missionary
work lies between the idea and its consummation. This fact does
not arise from any lack of intelligence on the part of corporate
management, but is caused by the refusal of that sensitive entity
known as capital to surrender any present certainties for future
benefits to people yet unborn. The situation may be, and, undoubt-
edly is, a sad commentary on civilization, but it is the hard fact
against which the tree man, working pro bono publico, must con-
tend.

THE RELATIONS OF THE STATE TO FORESTS.
By Josep B. Waker, Concord, New Hampshire.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

The forests are among the most important resources of most of
the States, and each is in duty bound to protect these as well asany
other destructible property. One of the greatest dangers to which
these are exposed is fire.

In 1880, forest fires swept over 10,274,089 acres in the United
States, causing a loss of $25,462,250. That these occur to a greater
or less extent every year is due to the fact that no sufficient means
are instituted to prevent them. The individual owner may be ever

163
so careful, yet, if his woods are exposed to the dangerous practices
of careless neighbors, hunters, campers, and others who do as they
like, he is helpless and liable to suffer serious loss at any moment.

Prevention of fire is to be found in the enactment and enforce-
ment of wise laws upon the subject by State authorities. If such,
where they already exist, are found ineffective, it is quite often due
to the insufficiency of the penalties which they provide and toa
public indifference to the injury or destruction of wooded property
by fire. This indifference will prove surprising to any one who will
give to italittle attention. He will find that, while the burning ofan
isolated structure worth five hundred dollars, or even less, will draw
together a large collection of people, the conflagration of a timber
lot worth five thousand dollars, or much more, on the confines of
that town will be of but little interest to any one but its owner or
to the proprietors of adjoining lots endangered thereby.

A recent experience of the writer illustrates this general apathy.
A fire which broke out on the edge of a wood lot belonging to him
endangered a small cottage and barn near by. An alarm was given,
and one or two fire companies responded. When they had extin-
guished all fire near the buildings, and so wet the ground as to
avert further danger, they considered that they had done all re-
quired of them, and made preparations to leave the scene, although
the fire was still raging in the woods close at hand, and liable, if
not extinguished, to run over a thousand adjoining acres. When
remonstrance was made and a detail asked to aid in the fire’s’arrest,
the foreman replied that he was unaware that he was authorized to
fight a fire in the woods. An explicit demand for help, on the
ground that the property then burning was taxed towards the sup-
port of the department which he represented, was required to
secure the aid asked for. But this foreman could hardly be blamed,
inasmuch as he faithfully reflected the prevailing indifference of the
public opinion around him. Since this occurrence, however, the
attention of the general court of New Hampshire has been called
to the subject and a statute enacted in which provision is made for
the better protection of forest property.

If it be objected that the wooded sections of a State are generally
sparsely populated, and that efficient protection may prove difficult,
it can be said, in answer, that the egis of a State is commensurate
with its utmost limits, and that it is no more difficult for a fire
warden to discharge his duties in such localities than it is for a
county commissioner or deputy sheriff to execute his.

164

Thus far there has been no such thing as forestry in this country.
Until recently the need of it has been but little felt. Statistics
show that our primeval timber supplies have not yet been ex-
hausted. Nature, too, has been and is reforesting many sections
formerly denuded, wholly or in part. But the time is not distant
when a more rational treatment of our forests will be absolutely
essential to a home supply of wood and timber.

The States should be the first to see this fact and to provide
means to secure it. One or more schools of forestry like those
abroad should be instituted by each, or special courses for the
teaching of its principles and practice established in existing insti-
tutions. This would result in a speedy improvement of the man-
agement of wooded property, and in season, perhaps, to save the
country from the timber famine which it is sure to experience if
the present reckless system of forest destruction is continued for
another generation. Our woods are yielding under nature’s tute-
lage but a fraction of what they might produce under skilful cul-
ture. It is as idle to trust for a satisfactory crop of timber to
nature’s capricious sowing of the necessary seeds as it would be if
one sought in that way a crop of maize or wheat. God's primal
curse of the ground evidently meant that it should thereafter yield
its higest returns only in response to man’s wise control of its
potencies.

We do not hesitate to urge the acquisition by States of tracts of
forest to be held for the conservation of their water power, the
amelioration of their climate, the preservation of their scenery, and
for the instruction, largely by object-lessons, in good forestry of
their people. Aside from the benefit thus derived, these may be
made to yield a fair return upon their cost and maintenance.

Some three years ago a bill passed the New Hampshire senate,
but failed in the house, directing the Forestry Commission to con-
sider and make a report to the legislature at a subsequent session
upon the advisability of devoting to a State park that part of the
White Mountain region known as the Presidential Range, in which
are situated Mount Washington, Mount Jefferson, Mount Adams,
and Mount Monroe, with their foot-hills and intermediate valleys,
occupying an area of some thirty square miles. While to many the
proposition may have seemed chimerical, its realization at a date
not distant should not be surprising to such as are cognizant of
the fact that ten millions of people, and more, live within a twelve
hours’ ride or less of this locality.

eee

165

Were all the scenic attractions of this region made accessible to
view by additional paths and roads, the present large number of
visitors would be greatly increased. Were the principles of an
enlightened forestry applied to the management of the great forests
concealed in its recesses, they would yield fair pecuniary returns
and continue to serve the other offices which they now render.

In each State suitable forest reserves in which well-kept roads
and paths render accessible fine views and streams, quiet valleys
and mountain summits, as well as dense forests kept perpetually
attractive by intelligent care, might be made very largely, and per-
haps entirely, self-sustaining, and would furnish a blessed sanitarium
to the thousands who would be sure to frequent them. But such
must, in most cases, be established and maintained by the par-
ticular States within whose limits they are situated, and as State
possessions.

Every State should have a well-digested code of forest law.
Until such has been provided, the treatment of its wood and timber
lands will be irregular, and very often adverse to the interest not
only of the public but to that of the private owner as well. But
such a code cannot be devised and enacted at once. It must em-
body the suggestions of local experience and grow to perfection by
degrees, just as the irrigation codes of southern Europe and the
railroad codes of this country have done.

The devise of such a code is the more difficult inasmuch as our
forests are generally the property of private owners, and to a small
extent only belong to the State. The State of New Hampshire does
not own a single forest acre. When, therefore, individual owners
see fit to pursue a course of management which may be detrimen-
tal to the other great interests of the State, and its protection is
invoked, intricate questions will be likely to arise, to the temporary
perplexity, perhaps, of its courts. And just here it may be said
that this Association will confer an inestimable benefit upon the
forestry interests of this country by preparing and scattering
broadcast a digest of the forest laws of the several States so far as
such exist to-day. Imperfect as these may be, they are American
and suggestive. Side by side with those of older countries, they
would aid greatly in the construction of a system for general use
with us. It would be unwise to copy without careful examination
laws that haye grown out of the experiences of peoples living under
different traditions and differently ruled. Ours must be American
and answer the demands of the new environments of a new people.

166

THE BEARING OF ARBOR DAY AND VILLAGE
IMPROVEMENTS ON FORESTRY PROBLEMS.

By B. G. Norrurop, Clinton, Conn.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

Arbor Day and Village Improvements are wisely grouped together
in our program, for both alike aim to benefit the school, the home,
the town, and the State. The former was started in Nebraska in
1872 by Hon. J. Sterling Morton, whose able advocacy resulted in
marvellous success from the first. The settler who now does not
plant trees is the exception. The Nebraskans are justly proud of
their great achievement in this line and are determined to maintain
their pre-eminence.

Arbor Day in school is a child of the American Forestry Associa-
tion, which eleven years ago adopted a resolution in favor of such
an observance in all our schools, and appointed a committee to push
that work. Its first efforts were not assuring. The indifference of
governors and State school superintendents, who, at the outset,
deemed Arbor Day an obtrusive innovation, was expected and oc-
casioned no discouragement. Many State officials who at first were
apathetic have on fuller information worked heartily for the success
of Arbor Day. The progress of this movement has been remark-
able. Arbor Day is now observed in forty States and Territories
of the United States, and also in the Provinces of the Dominion of
Canada, in certain districts of England, Australia, Japan, and South
Africa. It has already become the most widely observed and useful
of school holidays. Popular interest in this work has been greatly
stimulated by the annual proclamations of governors and the cir-
culars of school superintendents sent to every school in the State.

Arbor Day has fostered love of country, and has become a patri-
otic observance in those Southern States which have fixed its date
on Washington’s birthday. The custom of planting memorial trees
in honor of Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Garfield, and other patriots
and also of celebrated authors and philanthropists, has become
general. Now that the national flag with its forty-four stars floats
over all the school-houses in so many States, patriotism is effectively
combined with the Arbor Day addresses, recitations, and songs.
Who can estimate the educational influences, especially in regard to
the beauty, utility, and growing value of trees and forests, exerted

167

upon the millions of youth who annually participate in these exer-
cises? The public appreciation of trees and forests has been greatly
increased by the many productions in prose and verse which the
most eminent authors of America, like Holmes and Whittier, have
written expressly for use on Arbor Day. What growth of mind
and heart has come to myriads of our youth as they have pondered
and recited or sung these rich gems of our literature, and, still
better, applied them by planting and caring for trees.

Trees and tree culture are now the subjects of object-lessons in
our best schools. Such lessons lead youth to study and admire our
noble trees and realize that they are the grandest product of nature.

One of the educating forces of Arbor Day begins where children
start little nurseries at home, plant tree seeds, acorns, nuts, and
pits, and observe the wonderful miracles which the tree life is work-
ing out before them, transforming soil and inert matter into living
forms of surpassing beauty and fragrance. The trees which chil-
dren plant around the homestead and watch from seed will be in-
creasingly prized as they grow into living memorials of happy youth-
ful days.

Much as Arbor Day has done on limited school grounds, far
greater improvements have been made on the homesteads and the
roadsides. The work already accomplished will make thousands of
roads attractive by trees. In many countries of Europe the road
is lined with trees for hundreds of miles on a stretch. Growing on
lands otherwise running to waste, such wayside trees yield satis-
factory returns. The shade and beauty, grateful to every traveller,
are doubly so to the planter, as thousands of farmers can testify.
In tree-planting, the economic and ornamental touch at many points.

Will it pay the average farmer to plant trees? Certainly not, if
early profits are essential. Future profit can be realized by plant-
ing trees in waste places on hillsides and in ravines too steep and
rocky for cultivation, along the brook, and by the river-bank. Worn-
out and exhausted plains have often been thus rendered of value.

In New England, and all the Atlantic States, there are large areas
of barrens, worthless for field crops, that may be profitably devoted
to wood-growing. Our Atlantic sand plains that were once covered
with woods can be reforested. Over ten thousand acres on Cape
Cod which thirty years ago were barren sand plains are now cov-
ered with planted forests. Hon. Joseph S. Fay’s two hundred
acres of fine forest at Woods Holl, Mass., and the three hundred
acres of planted trees of H. G. Russell, of East Greenwich, R. L.,

168

both formerly barren sand plains, are genuine object-lessons for the
Atlantic States. Attention should be called to the celebrated forest
of Fontainebleau, in France, which covers an area of sixty-four
square miles. The soil is composed almost entirely of sand. Jules
Clare, an eminent student of forestry, says, “the sand here forming
ninety-eight per cent. of the earth, it would be a drifting desert
but for the trees growing and artificially propagated upon it.”

The village-improvement movement was started nearly thirty
years ago, and has spread across the continent. The chief object
of the improvement societies is to make the environment of the
home and the town healthfulgand attractive. The homes of our
workingmen far surpass in comfort and taste those of the same
classes in any other land. Improvement societies are helping in
this grand result. Their influence has not been limited to the towns
or counties where they have been organized, for the discussions they
have prompted have benefited many towns where no improvement
societies have yet been formed. The frequent editorials of the New
York Zribune have been especially influential. Nearly twenty
thousand copies of its village-improvement pamphlets have been
circulated in response to orders received every week since its pub-
lication, less than three years ago.

These improvement societies often serve the same purposes as
boards of trade in large cities, favoring good-fellowship and co-
operation and the adoption of a non-partisan policy in local affairs.
They foster a local pride and public spirit which invite liberal
thoughts and generous gifts. They put to every citizen the
question, “ What do I owe to my town? What is my duty, or
rather my privilege, to do for it?” Under such appeals, large gifts
are made, not only by citizens but by natives now non-residents.
Already many large gifts for parks, libraries, fountains, memorials
—halls, schools, and other institutions—and prizes for the planting
of roadside trees have come from them, often as pleasant surprises.

169

THE NECESSITY FOR STATE FORESTRY
ASSOCIATIONS.

By B. S. Hoxiz, Evansville, Wisconsin.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

It is now twelve years since the American Forestry Congress was
called into existence—not for personal gain or aggrandizement, but
out of purely benevolent motives. The men who conceived the idea
of this association were persons of experience, men who had watched
the onward march of civilization and the wanton destruction of
most of our primeval forests. Many of them well knew that how to
get rid of the timber and to fit the land for agricultural purposes
was formerly the great desideratum. Indeed, within the memory
of persons now present “logging bees” were scenes of no unusual
occurrence. ‘ Boys, we must clear the farm,” was the stirring cry.
The heavily timbered country and the slow increase of our popula-
tion in the early days made this the only method to subdue the
earth. Except for the wants of settlers in limited areas, there was
then no market for timber.

Lumbering forty and fifty years ago began to be an important
industry in the Eastern and in the New England States. Maine,
New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania were then the scenes of the
greatest activity. But westward, ho! Later, Michigan, Wisconsin,
and Minnesota, with their vast forests of pine, began to yield the
wealth of timber. The older States have already ceased to yield a
profitable supply of lumber to large companies. The rapid increase
of our population, remote from the supply of building material,
has made the lumber business one of our most important industries,
until now it is estimated that the annual product of wood material
of all sorts consumed in the United States may be valued in round
numbers at $1,000,000,000, representing about 25,000,000,000
cubic feet of wood, or the annual increase of the wood growth of
500,000,000 acres of forest. The products of our mines, the value
of our wheat and other crops, are of minor importance compared to
our timber resources. There are some who assert that in our coun-
try there never will be a lack of wood or timber, and by way of
argument cite the rapid growth of young timber. It can be shown,

170

however, by carefully collected facts, that this supply is rapidly and
constantly decreasing.

There is a misconception in the minds of many as to the work and
aim of the Forestry Congress, or rather of the American Forestry
Association, and in telling what its aims and objects are I will dwell
upon the necessity for a State Forestry Association in each State in
the Union. Its aim is to promote a more rational and conservative
treatment of the forest resources of this continent and the extension
of forest growth wherever for climatic or other reasons such seems
desirable. It therefore invites owners of timber and wood lands
especially to join its ranks for their own benefit. The Association
has no desire to prevent the legitimate use of forest growth, but de-
sires that it be so managed as to improve and increase its value.

The wanton destruction of woods and of forest material called
this society into existence. Its founders considered that a sufficient
supply of home-grown wood material was desirable in the house-
hold of a nation; that the forest cover on hillsides and mountain
slopes had an important relation to water flow and to favorable soil
conditions. It recognized the fact that climatic conditions were
ameliorated by timber belts. Its members have shown that vast
tracts of land otherwise worthless can be made sources of income
to the State under forest culture.

Besides the American Forestry Congress there are in Pennsy]-
vania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, and other States local forestry
associations, all having similar aims. Through organized efforts
several States have lately passed laws having for their object the
preservation of the timber of the public domain. Inducements have
been given to private owners of timber lands to co-operate and
act in harmony in reforesting waste and unproductive lands. Some
of the owners of the largest tracts of timber lands in the State of
Maine several years ago saw the necessity of preserving the forest
growth. Stringent laws were passed by the legislature regarding
fires, and the lumbermen and land-owners interested themselves in
the enforcement of these laws. Some of these lands thus protected
for twenty years or more are now yielding fair returns to the lum-
bermen. This is not, however, like the original growth of white
pine, which took two hundred years to produce; for in many in-
stances a hard-wood growth has taken the place of the pine of the
primeval forest. There are, however, thousands of acres of second-
growth pine in that State which is producing timber of good, fair
quality for packing cases, and their manufacture is now quite an im-

wal
portant industry in that State. This is an example of one of the
results of organized effort.

The increase of the consumption of timber is out of proportion
to the increase of its growth, but this need not be the case if by
agitation by associations proper laws are enacted and enforced
with regard to forest conservation; except perhaps in certain kinds
of wood. Indiana, once heavily wooded, is now, like Ohio, largely
denuded. It has taken less than fifty years to reduce the wood-
land area below twenty per cent. in that State. The valuable hard
woods of Indiana, especially its oaks, hickories, and walnuts, were
unequalled in quantity and size and have given rise to wood-working
industries in the State which, in 1886, produced more than
$30,000,000 worth of manufactures. At present the walnut and
poplar are practically gone; white oak is rapidly diminishing and
growing poorer in quality, and the virgin growth is everywhere
culled of its best timber. Over a half million acres of this are
wasted lands only fit to grow timber.

It is a well-known fact that timber trees of the common white
pine, which are at their best in our State, Wisconsin, are from 150
to 200 years old, and that this quality of timber is fast receding
before the woodman’s axe. The three great lumber States are now
eating up their forests at a rate which will soon kill the goose that
lays the golden eggs. Black walnut, so common twenty years ago,
has become so scarce that the use of it has had to be discarded
almost entirely for commercial purposes. The poplar or white
wood is going the same way, and this, too, will soon become extinct,
as it is found only in small areas of our country. It was only a few
years ago that the lumbering interests of our State drew its supply
from the vicinity of Green Bay and the middle portion of our State,
but it is now mainly cut in the northern counties and at much
greater expense than formerly.

The cutting down of the forests is not the worst feature, it is
the utter neglect to preserve the forest floor so that other growths
may take its place. Fires destroy the young growths and burn up
the forest floor—the accumulation of ages—in many instances
down to the sand or gravel bed, leaving the land bald and sterile
for years before vegetation of any kind can exist. The facts men-
tioned for Wisconsin are true, in part, of every State. They form
one great argument for the necessity of forestry associations. By
such organizations the enlightenment of the public can be made
possible. Trees planted in Nebraska, Kansas, and in Southern

172

Dakota ten and fifteen years ago, even as small farm plantations,
are now yielding wood and small timber fit for domestic purposes,
besides affording wind-breaks around farm buildings. Every farm
in my own State or in any State where trees can grow should have
a few acres of timber.

The public timber lands remaining ought not to be sold or other-
wise disposed of, but should be placed under competent forest man-
agement. The community can afford to forego profit from such
management in the present for the sake of insuring the future.
State governments may secure and reserve for forest purposes such
woodlands as exist or lapse for non-payment of taxes into their
hands, and thus make a beginning for the future. Counties, towns,
and smaller communities may for their self-protection reserve, as
some land-owners in Massachusetts have begun to do, tracts of for-
est lands which eventually may also become immensely valuable in
timber production. Such forest reserves will form the nucleus and
beginning for the education of foresters and establishment of object-
lessons in forestry.

Most urgent is the protection of forest property against fire.
Aside from the indirect interest which the community has in main-
taining desirable forest conditions, it is its fundamental duty to
protect property, a duty that it unquestionably owes to the owners.
Immediate action by associations of the people should bring such
matters of public interest to the attention of the law-making power.
One great aid at present is the interest awakened by Arbor Day
exercises in our public schools. The children are learning to know
about trees and forests and their value. With this lever in our
hands, our State Forestry Association will work in harmony with
other societies and the superintendent of schools to bring not only
sentiment but facts to aid in the work of saving God’s first
temples.

THE AMERICAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION—ITS
AIMS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS.

By Hon. Warren Hiaxey, of New York, N. Y.
[Read at World’s Fair Congress, October, 1893. ]

In popular governments great reforms can be wrought only
through public sentiment. Agitation is the leaven, and combined

173
action the force, which, in a just cause, conquer error with truth,
and firmly establish beneficent principles among mankind. In the
realms of economics, no less than in the fields of philanthropy, vic-
tories are won through the devotion of a few enthusiastic and per-
sistent leaders, with whom discouraging environments count for
naught.

The annual utilized product of the forests of the United States
is second only in value to that of agriculture. It exceeds, by a con-
servative estimate, one billion dollars; and this enormous consump-
tion, increasing largely from year to year, far exceeds the forest
increment. Therefore, the capital upon which this product de-
pends is gradually disappearing, and under existing conditions must
be swept away in the not very distant future.

When we consider, in this connection, the beneficent influences of
forests upon civilization, the grounds for alarm are increased many-
fold, and the warnings of the agitator have added significance.
But widespread, counteracting influences have been actively at work
the last two decades, educating the people and inspiring Congresses
and legislatures toward forest protection and the establishment of
systems of forest management adapted to the conditions and needs
of our diversified country.

The American Forestry Association, organized and for seven years
continued under the name of the American Forestry Congress, has
accomplished more in the direction of arousing public interest and
securing legislative enactments for the preservation and conserva-
tion of our forests than any other instrumentality. Its origin is
unique, and forcibly illustrates how great reforms are instituted and
afterwards carried on through the efforts of a few earnest workers.

Among the guests invited by the Government of the United
States to participate in the centennial anniversary, in the autumn
of 1881, of the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Va., were
Baron Richard Von Steuben, a distinguished Prussian forest official,
and six officers of the Prussian Army, bearing the name of Von
Steuben, representing the family of General Von Steuben of the
American Revolution. After the celebration at Yorktown the Von
Steubens were given a public reception at Cincinnati, Ohio, in
which many of the prominent citizens of that place took part.

In a conversation between the forest official and Judge Warren
Higley, one of the reception committee, and others, a discussion
arose as to the rapidity with which our American forests were dis-
appearing, and the prevailing lethargy of the people on the subject

174

of forestry, and a comparison was drawn with the systems of for-
estry practiced in Europe. The seed thus sown took root, and a
conference, held at Judge Higley’s office about the first of January
following, at which Col. Wiliam L. DeBeck, a prominent newspaper
correspondent, was present, resulted in the determination to hold a
convention in that city for the promotion of forestry in America.

Under a call through the papers, a meeting was soon after held
at the Gibson House, in which many prominent citizens took an
active part, and organization was effected for the preliminary
work of the proposed convention, with the following officers:
President, Hon. John Simpkinson; Vice-Presidents, Hon. Wm. S.
Groesbeck, Judge Alphonso Taft, Reuben R. Springer, Esq., Murat
Halstead, Esq., Richard Smith, Esq., Ex-Governor J. D. Cox, Hon.
Fred. Hassanrek, and Rev. Dr. I. W. Wiley, Bishop of the M. E.
Church ; Secretary, Col. Wm. L. DeBeck; Advisory Board, Judge
Warren Higley, Judge J. W. Fitzgerald, Prof. John B. Peaslee,
Supt. Public Schools; Ex-Governor E. F. Noyes, and the Rev. Dr.
Max Lilienthal.

The Scientific Branch Committee consisted of: Chairman, Judge
Warren Higley; Secretary, Alfred A. Springer, M. D.; Members,
Dr. John A. Warder, Prof. F. W. Clarke, Prof. Adolph Leue, Prof.
John B. Peaslee, and Rev. Dr. Max Lilienthal.

Weekly meetings were held through the winter, the proceedings
of which were extensively published in the daily press. Under the
impulse thus given, a county association was formed, which resulted
in the adornment of private grounds and public highways in the
yarious townships of the county by the planting of trees, and a wide-
spread interest was aroused throughout the State and the country
by the publication of these proceedings and articles pertinent to the
subject of forestry.

A National Forestry Convention was appointed to be held at Cin-
cinnati, to begin April 25, 1882, and continue five days. Invitations
were sent out to persons interested in the subject of forestry
throughout the United States and Canada, urging their attendance
and co-operation; and the Governor of Ohio, being duly authorized
by the legislature, appointed the 27th day of April, 1882, as Arbor
Day, and recommended its observance throughout the State.

Pursuant to the previous arrangements of the local committee,
the first session of the American Forestry Congress met in Springer
Hall on the morning of the 25th of April, 1882. Distinguished rep-
resentatives from the different States and the Canadas were present.

175

Ex-Governor E. F. Noyes was chosen temporary chairman, and
the following gentlemen were appointed a committee on permanent
organization: Dr. Franklin B. Hough, Dr. John A. Warder, Dr. Geo.
B. Loring, Gen. C. C. Andrews, John H. McMacken, Esq., Hon.
Warren Higley, Dr. John M. Walden, Prof. Wm. Saunders, Gen.
Durbin Ward, and Dr. A. A. Springer.

A general meeting of the Congress was held in the evening, at
which Gen. Durbin Ward, in the absence of the mayor of the city,
welcomed the delegates and other strangers, and cordially extended
the hospitalities of Cincinnati. He was followed by Gov. Charles
Foster in an eloquent address of welcome on behalf of the State of
Ohio. Other speeches followed. The committee on permanent
organization reported a constitution, which was adopted, and the
following officers were elected to serve during the ensuing year:
President, George B. Loring, Salem, Mass.; Vice-Presidents, one
from each State and Territory, and each province of Canada; Re-
cording Secretary, W. L. DeBeck, Cincinnati, Ohio; Corresponding
Secretary, D. D. Thompson, Cincinnati, Ohio; Treasurer, John A.
Gano, Cincinnati, Ohio.

President Loring then delivered a carefully prepared and eloquent
address, and this closed the first session. Thus was the American
Forestry Congress organized and launched on its useful career.
There were eighty-seven papers presented during the remaining
four days of the Congress, the most important of which were pub-
lished in the daily local papers and extensively copied throughout
the country. Many of them were afterwards published in reports
of Agricultural Societies, and especially by the Government of Can-
ada in its horticultural report for the following year.

Arbor Day.

An important feature of this first meeting of the Congress was
the celebration of Arbor Day, under the direction of the committee
of arrangements. It had been decided to plant memorial trees in
the principal parks of the city, with appropriate ceremonies. The
principal celebration, however, was made in the new Eden Park,
where had been previously located, under the direction of the noted
landscape gardener, Adolph Strauch, the various groves to be
planted, which were named and dedicated, “‘ Pioneer’s Grove,” “ Cit-
izen’s Memorial Grove,” “ Author’s Grove,” “ President’s Grove,”
etc.

Trees had been selected from various parts of the country and

176

from Europe and planted in the groves for which they were in-
tended. “Author’s Grove” embraced six acres, and was set apart
for the planting of groups of memorial trees by the pupils of the
public schools in honor of distinguished authors.

On the morning of April 27 the military, under command of Col.
S. A. Whitfield, the school children, formed in companies of For-
estry Cadets with their teachers, and a large number of citizens
marched to Eden Park for the dedicatory ceremonies. Banners
bearing in green the device of an oak leaf and the words “ Welcome
Foresters” were displayed by thousand—50,000 citizens covered
the grassy slopes and crowning ridges to witness the novel scene.
At the firing of the signal gun the various groves were planted and
dedicated with loving hands and appropriate ceremonies. Then
the multitude assembled around the grandstand and listened to
speeches from ex-Governor E. I’. Noyes, Hon. Cassius M. Clay, Gen.
Durbin Ward, and Dr. Loring, then U. 8. Commissioner of Agri-
culture.

I have dwelt thus fully upon this celebration of Ohio’s first Arbor
Day because this was the first public planting of memorial groves
in America, if not in the world, in honor of statesmen, authors, sol-
diers, and distinguished citizens, and because from it a wide-spread
infiuence and powerful sentiment went forth in favor of planting
and caring for trees.

MonrreaL Meerina.

On the last day of the session it was agreed that the Congress
should meet at the city of Montreal, Canada. Accordingly, on the
21st and 22d days of August, 1882, the second meeting of the
American Forestry Congress was held at Montreal, Canada, and
was eminently successful both as to the number in attendance and
the work that was accomplished. These very desirable results were
due to the energy and zeal of Mr. Wm. Little, Vice-President of
the Congress for Canada.

It was there deemed advisable to amend the constitution, and
Mr. B. E. Fernow, the present efficient Chief of the Forestry Divi-
sion of the Department of Agriculture, as chairmen of the commit-
tee, reported the amended constitution, which was adopted, and
which in Article II defines the objects of the Association as follows:

“The objects of this Congress shall be the discussion of
subjects relating to tree planting, to the conservation, manage-
ment, and renewal of forests; the climatic and other influences

177
that affect their welfare; the collection of forest statistics, and the
advancement of educational, legislative, or other measures tending
to the promotion of these objects. It shall especially endeavor to
centralize the work done and diffuse the knowledge gained.”

Wuat HAS THE AssocIATION ACCOMPLISHED 2

Recognizing the great educational force exerted through the ob-
servance of Arbor Day by the public schools and citizens of the coun-
try, the Association has labored persistently through its Arbor Day
committee, of which the Hon. B. G. Northrup has been the chair-
man from the first, to secure its permanent adoption by the several
States and Territories. The zeal with which the committee has
pursued this object is evidenced by the fact that Arbor Day is now
celebrated in 45 States.

Up to the time the American Forestry Congress was organized,
tree planting had been encouraged only by the authorities pf some
of the prairie States for economic purposes. The legislatures
of Minnesota, 1871, and Illinois, 1874, offered a bounty ; Iowa, 1872,
exemption from taxes; Dakota, 1877, bounty and exemption from
tax ; Nebraska, in 1872, through its State Board of Agriculture, in-
spired the planting of millions of forest trees on the appointed day.
This action was taken at the instance of Lieut. Governor J. Sterling
Morton, and was following a patriotic proclamation of the then
Governor R. W. Furnas, the first Arbor Day proclamation issued by
the governor ofa State. The impetus thus given has continued, until
to-day many hundreds of thousands of acres in Nebraska are
covered with waving forests. Other prairie States followed the ex-
ample of Nebraska with similar results. Immediate necessity was
the moving cause, and the benefits to those States are incalculable.

The Cincinnati plan introduced the celebration of Arbor Day into
the schools, and inculcated a widespread sentiment through the
planting of memorial trees and groves, which has led to the educa-:
tion of the people in the subject of forestry, given increased inter-
est in tree growth and forest preservation, and prompted legislators
to consider and, in some instances, to enact laws in the interest of
forestry. There are now twenty-eight States and Territories in the
United States that have a legally-established Arbor Day, and in six
of these the day is a legal holiday. The time, we trust, is not far
distant when it shall be a national holiday.

The Association has endeayored from the first, and in a large

178

measure succeeded, in interesting in its work representative men
and women. Many of the legislatures of the States and the Goy-
ernment of Canada have sent delegates of their most distinguished
citizens to attend its annual meetings and take part in the deliber-
ations, and the Agricultural Department of the United States has
taken a very active interest in the work of the Congress from the very
beginning. It was recognized as the popular sustaining force for
the promotion of the work in the Forestry Division—the avenue
through which legislation could best be secured.

For several years the particular subjects for discussion were
chosen with a view to most benefit the section of country within
which the annual meeting was held. The results generally proved
most gratifying. By way of illustration I refer to the annual meet-
ing of the Congress held at Boston, September 22d, 23d, and 24th,
1885, under the auspices of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.
Its work was planned and programs arranged with special refer-
ence to the forest conditions and needs of New England.

California and Nebraska, as well as the Canadas and the nearer
States, sent delegates of their most distinguished citizens to this
meeting. The General Government was represented by the Com-
missioner of Agriculture. The papers, discussions, and proceed-
ings of the sessions were published generally in the leading papers
of New England, and afterwards many of them were published in
the agricultural journals of that section, as well as in a special vol-
ume of Proceedings.

The following committee was appointed on New England Forest
Policy: Gen. Chas. Hamlin and John E. Hobbs, of Maine; Wm. S.
Ladd and Geo. B. Walker, of New Hampshire; Francis H. Apple-
ton and Wm. C. Strong, of Massachusetts; Henry G. Russell and
Chas. W. Smith, of Rhode Island; T. S. Gold and B. G. Northrup,
of Connecticut; Redfield Proctor and Hiram Cutting, of Vermont.

New England was awakened as she had never been before to the
importance of protecting and conserving her forests. Within two
years her six States established, and have ever since celebrated, Arbor
Day after the Cincinnati plan. Other valuable and pertinent legis-
lation in the interest of forestry may be claimed as directly or in-
directly the result of the interest incited by this meeting at Boston.

In no direction, however, has the work of the Association been
pursued with more directness and persistence than in trying to
influence the National Congress to pass laws deemed necessary to
the protection and management of the national forest domain.

179
Petitions and resolutions were presented to both branches of our
National Legislature, and laws were formulated and pressed for pas-
sage by the committee on legislation year after year without any
decided success, and yet not without encouragement from Senators
and Congressmen.

Soon after the meeting of the Forestry Congress at Atlanta, Ga.,
in the early winter of 1889, a committee, appointed for the pur-
pose, waited upon President Harrison and presented a memorial
urging the adoption of an efficient Government policy for the pres-
ervation and protection of the public forests, and urging the Pres-
ident to call the attention of Congress to the subject with fav-
orable recommendations. The President graciously complied with
this request. In October following, at the annual meeting of the
Forestry Congress, held at Philadelphia, a petition to Congress was
adopted, urging the enactment of a law withdrawing from sale all
forest lands belonging to the nation, and committing them to the
custody of the army, until a commission should determine what
portions of them ought to be kept permanently in forests for the
public welfare. The following year, 1890, Congress passed a law
empowering the President to establish by public proclamation such
reservations of forest domainas, upon recommendation by the Sec-
retary of the Interior, he might deem necessary to the public wel-
fare. The area of the permanent forest reservations, proclaimed
under this law by President Harrison, aggregated nearly 13,000,000
acres, and lately President Cleveland added to them nearly 5,000,000
acres more.

There is a bill now pending before Congress which the American
Forestry Association suggested and has strongly advocated pro-
viding for a practical system of forest management for these Goy-
ernment Forest Reservations and it is confidently hoped that Con-
gress will, in the near future, give adequate legislation putting into
effect a sound, practical, forest policy for the wise management of
all our national forest domain, now estimated at about 50,000,000
acres. To this end has the Forestry Association long been striving,
and we feel that we can now look forward with confidence to its
accomplishment in the not very distant future.

Prof. B. E. Fernow, Chief of the Forestry Division, U. 8S. De-
partment of Agriculture, in his report for 1892, says: “We may,
then, before the end of the century, expect to see the first phase of
the history of forestry development in the United States ended, by
having the Government fully committed to a sound forest policy.

180

Such a policy will induce imitation on the part of smaller commu-
nities, and finally of private landlords, especially as with the settle-_
ment of the country greater stability will lead to permanent invest-
ments and induce conservative management, when also with the
rapid destruction of virgin supplies the profitableness of forest
management will have become more apparent.”

The influence of the American Forestry Congress (changed to
“Association” in 1889) is also apparent in the forestry legislation of
many of the States, in the direction of establishing great forest
preserves or parks, of such portions of their domain as are deemed
necessary to the water supply and climatic conditions, and placing
them under the management of State Forest Commissions.

New York has outlined a State Park in the Adirondack mount-
ains which embraces about three million acres. Of this the State
owns about 600,000 acres, and purposes to own or control the
balance, to the end that this vast area shall be forever devoted to
forest preservation. The State owns also about 400,000 acres in
other parts of the State, including the Catskill Forest Reserve,
which have been under the care and protection of the State Forest
Commission. The first steps have thus been taken toward the
establishment of a practical system of forest management, on a
large scale, which shall not only preserve the forest covering over
the great watersheds of New York, but will yield a generous sup-
ply of wood product for the economic uses of the people, through
all time. Other States are preparing to follow the example of New
York, notably among these are New Hampshire and Pennsylvania.
This work will probably go on until every State in the Union shall
have its Forest Reserves under practical forest management. Pri-
vate interests also have been stimulated and local forestry associations
formed throughout the country, while the parent association has
grown in strength and influence, and in this centennial year promises
to enter upon a still more successful career.

INDEX TO TITLES AND AUTHORS.

Abbe, Cleveland: The Relation of Forests to Climate and
Health, .

Alvord, William : Aaaiee and Wood Gonsumption’ in fhe Gon!
stock Mines,

American Forestry er ooinion ite Dae and Aeeompcale
ments. Hon. Warren Higley,

Arbor Day: Bearing of, on Forestry Erapicines

Argentine Republic: Forests of,

Bearing of Arbor Day and Village Impr phartente on For ontty y
Problems. B. G. Northrup,

California: Conditions of Forestry in, .

Canada: Forest Conditions in,

Climate: Relations of Forests to, ;

Comstock Mines: Timber and Wood Gonsumenone in,

Conditions of Forestry in California. Abbot Kinney, .

Constitution and By-Laws,

Defebaugh, J. E.: Relation of For ee to Tiuapene aad
the Wood-working Industries,

Ensign, Edgar T.: Forest Resources of the ‘Weatorn oust
tain Region,

Ernst, Dr. A.: Forest onditone ava Woreuiry Pople of
Venezuela, ‘

Fernow, B. E.: Forest Gbnaruons and Woreste y Eeoplome’s in
the United States,

: Timber as a Crop, : : y :

Forest Aanenisee ation— Federal or State? 2 Geo. H. Parsons,

Forest Conditions and Forestry Problems in the United
States. B. E. Fernow, : :

Forest Conditions and Forestry Pr able of Venbaalin, Dr.
A. Ernst, :

Forest Conditions and Needs in the Southwestern Porter ies.
Edward F. Hobart, : : ; :

Forest Conditions in the Gulf Bates Dr. Charles Mohr,

Forest Conditions in the Northwestern Lumber States. C.
H. Putnam,

PAGE,

45
132
172
166
141
166

93

85

45
132

93

ist
150
116
108

29
142
123

29
108

83
94

79

182

Forest Conditions on the Plains and Prairies of Canada. Wm.
Saunders, : : :

Forest Resources of ie Ar Boneae Reneblie Dr. Gustavo
Niederlein,

Forest Resources of the ester Mientee Reign: Edgar
T. Ensign, : ;

Forestry in New South Walon. Auabeaba: Robert Hudson,

Forestry Interests: Effective Method of Advancing,

Forestry Matters in New York. W. F. Fox,

Forestry Problems in Pennsylvania. J.T. Rothrock,

Fox, W. F.: Forestry Matters in New York,

Gulf States: Forest Conditions in, :

Hammond, E. W.: The Great Coast ee of ite Paeibe
Slope—Its Reservation a National Duty,

Health: Relation of Forests to, ;

Higley, Hon. Warren: The American Boeeeire demneaoee
Its Aims and Accomplishments,

Hobart, Edward F.: Forest Conditions and Nasa in the
Southwestern Territories, ;

Hoxie, B. §.: The Necessity for State Roncnt Aedopiiann: ,

Hudson, Robert: Forestry in New South Wales, Australia,

Kinney, Abbot: Conditions of Foresty in California,

Lumber Industry: Relation of, to Forestry,

Members, List of,

Miller, Howard: Relation of Ruilr oe us For eat

Mohr, Dr. Charles: Forest Conditions in the Gulf States,

National Parks and Timber Reservations : Their Importance
and Proper Administration. Hon. John W. Noble,

Necessity for State Forestry Associations. B.S. Hoxie,

New South Wales: Forestry in, : 3 ;

New York: Forestry Matters in,

Niederlein, Dr. Gustavo: The Forestry ipeaeineee of the ee
gentine Republic, ;

Noble, Hon. John W.: Our Nationnl Parks sand Manor Rae.
ervations— Their Importance and Proper Administration,

Northrup, B. G.: The Bearing of Arbor Day and Mi, Im-
provements on Forestry Problems, :

Northwestern States: Forest Conditions in,

Officers for 1893-1894, : 2 ;

Pacific Slope Forests : Reservation a National Duty,

PAGE.

85
141
116

105
138

ent

183

Parsons, Geo. H.: Forest Administration—Federal or State?

Pennsylvania: Forestry Problems in,

Proceedings, Eleventh Annual Meeting, 1892,

Proceedings, Special Meeting, Chicago, 1893,

Proceedings, Tenth Annual Meeting, 1891,

Proceedings, Twelfth Annual Meeting, 1893,

Proceedings, World’s Fair Auxiliary Meeting, 1893,

Publications of the American Forestry Association,

Putnam, C. H.: Forest Conditions in the Northwestern mee
ber States,

Railroads—Relation of, es For ae y>

Read, M. C.: Relation of Forest Cover to Water Flow,

Relation of Forests to Climate and Health. Cleveland Abbe,

Relation of Forest Cover to Water Flow. M. C. Read,

Relation of Forestry to Lumbering and the Wood-working
Industries. J. E. Defebaugh, ; ;

Relation of Forestry to the Lumber Industry. Met. L. Saley,

Relation of Railroads to Forestry. Howard Miller, :

Relation of the State to Forests. Joseph B. Walker, .

Rothrock, J. T.: The Forestry Problem in Pennsylvania,

Saley, Met. L.: Relation of Forestry to the Lumber Industry,

Saunders, Wm.: Forest Conditions on the Plains and Prairies
of Canada,

State—Relation to Foreaté, :

The Effective Method of Advancing For ee Inter ets. “Hee
bert Welsh, ; .

The Great Coast Forest of the Pacific sinné: ae eer vation
a National Duty. E. W. Hammond,

Timber and Wood Consumption in the Comstock Mined:
Wn. Alvord,

Timber as a Crop. B. E. Hemions

United States: Forest Conditions and For Sites Pr abIshe in,

Venezuela: Forest Conditions and Forestry Problems of,

Walker, Joseph B.: Relation of the State to Forests,

Water Flow: Relation of Forest Cover to, :

Welsh, Herbert: The Effective Method of Advancing Wor
estry Interests,

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Chrisman, Edw. R., U. 8. A., Box 942,
Moscow, Idaho.

Clarke, Prof. F. W., Washington, D. C.

Cline, Prof. I. M., Galveston, Texas,

Collier, M. F., Paragould, Ark.

Cutler, Augustus W., 24 Washington
St., Morristown, N. J.

Dana, C. A., 25 E. 60th St., New York,
TAPING

Denison, John H., Williamstown, Mass.

Dieterich, C. F., 45 Broadway, New
Mork wa ¥.

Dort, O. G., Keene, N. H.

Ehrhart, Thos. J., Centreville, Colo.

Estabrook, John D., 699 Lincoln Ave.,
St. Paul, Minn.

Fairbanks, Mrs. Horace, St. Johnsbury,
Vt.

Fairchild, Charles S., 76 Clinton Place,
New York City, N. Y.

Fiske, William P., Concord, N. H.

Foster, Remus F., General Land Office,
Washington, D. C.

French, J. Clement, 328 Belleville Ave.,
Newark, N. J.

Gallaher, Frank M., Santa Barbara, Cal.

Gannett, Henry, Washington, D. C.

Gerhard. Wm. Paul, 36 Union Square,
New York, N. Y.

Gibbens, Frederick H., 125 W. 74th St.,
New York, N. Y.

Gilman, J. G., Exeter, N. H.

Hale, Hon. Eugene, Ellsworth, Me.

Hall, Prof. C. W., Uniy. of Minnesota,
Minneapolis, Minn.

Hayes, R. Somers, 32 Nassau St., New
York, N. Y.

Hays, P. W. M., St. Anthony Park,
Minn.

Hoe, Mrs. Richard M., 11 E. 71st St.,
New York, N. Y.

Hofferberth, C. Frederick, 132 18th St.,
New York, N. Y.

Hough, Romeyn B., Lowville, N. Y.

Howell, Geo. W., Morristown, N. J.

Huntington, Geo. P., Hanover, N. H.

Tasigi, Mrs. Oscar, Stockbridge, Mass.

Jacques, W. H., No.1 Broadway, New
York, N. Y.

Jenkins, M. C., Bayonne City, N. Y.

Johnson, Frank E., Parkville, N. Y.

Jones, Caroline Ogden, 293 Madison
Ave., New York, N. Y.

Kitching, Frank W., 55 Dey St., New
York, N. Y.

Koppel, Mrs. J., 24th St. and Broadway,
Galveston, Texas.

Lawrence, Rey. Arthur, Stockbridge,
Mass.

Lawton, 8. E., M. D., Brattleboro, Vt.

Lombard, Josiah L., 100 Washington
St., Chicago, Il.

Long, Ernest M., 64 Lake Place, New
Haven, Conn.

Longyear, J. M., Marquette, Mich.

Lukens, T. P., Pasadena, Calif.

MacNaughton, James, 248 State St.,
Albany, N. Y.

Mather, Wm. G., Cleveland, Ohio.

*Life Members.

giv

Maurice, C.§., Athens, Pa.

McCune, A. J., Grand Junction, Colo.

MeMillan, Prof. Conway, Minneapolis,
Minn.

MeNitt, Randolph, Red Cloud, Neb.

Metcalf, Dr. V. M., Hopkinsville, Ky.

* Mills, A. G., 38 Park Row, New York,
NAY:

Montgomery, R. E., Fort Worth, Texas.

Murkland, Chas. §8., Durham, N. H.

Nourse, Prof. D. O., Blacksburg, Va.

Park, Prof. John R., Salt Lake City,
Utah.

Parker, Augustus, 218 Seaver St., Rox-
bury, Mass.

Paul, Prof. J. H., Logan, Utah.

Pearson, Wm. E., Jersey City, N. J.

Redfern, Samuel, Negaunee, Mich.

Rogers, Mrs. W. B., 117 Marlborough
St., Boston, Mass.

Ryman, Theodore F., Wilkes Barre, Pa.

Satterlee, Mrs. Ciarence, 102 E. 31st St.,
New York, N. Y.

Schenck, C. Alwin, Biltmore, N. C.

Schinke, M. G., Milwaukee, Wis.

Sedgwick, Henry D., Stockbridge, Mass.

Sheffield, E. S., Santa Barbara, Calif.

Simonds, O. C., Station X, Chicago, Ill.

Simpson, J. B., No. 5 E. 14th St., New
York, N. Y.

Smythe, C. H., Jr., Clinton, N. Y.

Snyder, Geo. D., Williamsport, Penna.

Snyder, Harry, St. Anthony Park, Minn.

Spencer, Samuel, 80 Broadway, N. Y.

Sprague, Churles F., 23 Court St., Bos-
ton, Mass.

Stoddard, S. R., Glens Falls, N. Y.

Strong, John R., 58 Shepard St., Cam-
bridge, Mass.

Thompson, Sydney de C., 1 Broadway,
New York, N. Y. ‘

Titcomb, Jno. W., St. Johnsbury, Vt.

Tuckerman, Miss, 1600 I St., Washing-
ton, D. C.

Tuckerman, Mrs., 1600 I St., Washing-
ton, D. C.

Vail, Hugh D., Santa Barbara, Cal.

Wadsworth, W. A., Geneseo, N. Y.

Walker, Alfred, 143 Liberty St., New
York, N. Y.

Wallace, W. S., Grand Junction, Colo.

Ward, C. E., Belvidere, Nebr.

Ward, Samuel B., M. D., Albany, N. Y.

Watrous, George D., 153 Church St.,
New Haven, Conn.

Wedge, Clarence, Albert Lea, Minn.

* Wetmore, Geo. Peabody, Newport,
Bei

Wetmore, Jacob 8., Englewood, N. J.

Widmann, Otto, Old Orchard, Mo.

Wilkins, Charles A., Fairplay, Colo.

Wills, Henry Le B., Colorado Springs,
Colo.

Wright, Elias, Atlantic City, N. J.

Woolsey, Theodore S., New Haven,
Conn.

Zimmerman, M. W.,M.D., 117 So. 17th
St., Phila.; Pa.

The attention of members of the Association is called ine

following desirable publications, of special value in bringing ~

the scientific aspects of Forestry to the attention of their
friends :

_Forest Leaves, edited by Mr. John Birkinbine, 25 N. Juniper Street, Phila-
_ delphia. Official organ of the American Forestry Association. $1.00 per
year. Bi-monthly.

The Forester, edited by Mr. John Gifford, May’s Landing, N. J. Organ
of the New Jersey Forestry Association. Devoted especially to the
forestry interests of the Northeastern States. $1.00 per year. Bi-
monthly.

Garden and Forest, edited by Prof. C. 8. Sargent, Harvard University
Publication office, Tribune Building, New York. The leading journal of
its class in America. $4.00 per year. Weekly.

Sechlich’s Manualof Forestry. 2vols. Bradbury, Agnew& Co, 1889.
Nisbet’s Studies in Forestry. Oxford, 1894. Sg

These two works are technical in character, devoted to sylviculture. The
authors are both recognized authorities.

Apgar, Trees of the Northern United States. American Book Co.
New York, 1892. $1.00. A manual for determining the names of trees.

Houston’s Outlines of Forestry. J. B. Lippincott & Co. Philadel-
phia, 1893. $1.00. A popular statement of general questions.

« What is Forestry?’’ Bulletin 5 of the Division of Forestry, U. S. De-
partment of Agriculture. Outlines the principles underlying forest man-
agement.

“Forest Influences.” Bulletin 7 of the Division of Forestry, U. S.
Department of Agriculture. A complete hand-book on the influence of
forests on climate and water-flow.

Forestry for Farmers. Extract from Yearbook of the Department of
Agriculture for 1894. Brief chapters on How trees grow ; How to treat the
wood lot; How to grow a wood crop; How to improve the crop.

Annual Reports of the Chief of the Forestry Division for 1892
and 1893. These reports contain brief summaries of the condition of the
forests and the forestry movement in the United States; also a condensed
statement of German forestry methods.

The last three publications can be obtained by application to the Division of
Forestry, U. S. Department of Agriculture.

Proceedings of the American Forestry Association :—
Vol. VII. Meeting held at Atlanta, 1888.
Vol. VIII. Meeting held at Quebec, 1890.
Some copies of these proceedings, containing valuable papers, are still to be
had at $1.00 per volume. Apply to Secretary.

SD American Forestry Gonreress
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