126 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Every state, especially with a forest interest approachiDg that of Michi-^ 

 gan, should have a forest commission, whose usefulness should consist 

 largely in educating and advising the people. Such a commission should 

 aid in securing and enforcing laws pertaining to forests. The laws might 

 refer to timber thieves or to the management of stump lands, or the 

 reserve wood lots. Such a commission might see that forestry is dis- 

 cussed in conventions, in schools and colleges. It might be the means of 

 contriving in some way the best methods of securing seeds and young 

 trees for planting. It could secure good essays for the press or for bulle- 

 tins by offering suitable prizes; it could collect statistics, answer ques- 

 tions, hold public meetings. 



Much has been accomplished in Europe, but our peculiar customs and 

 the difference in climate will make it necessary for us to experiment and 

 devise means suited to our peculiar wants. For some years an active 

 organization has existed in Pennsylvania, and one of the means of dis- 

 seminating information among its members and securing the aid of news- 

 papers has been a little journal called Forest Leaves. Let me read a few 

 extracts from one of its pages : 



The legislative bodies, recognizing this general apathy, and feeling that they had no 

 popular support, declined to recommend any measures which appeared to have the 

 active support only of the pronounced few friends of forestry. Then, too, there was a 

 wholly erroneous idea prevalent that, in some way, it was proposed by the friends of 

 the forestry movement to place legal restriction on the vast lumbering interests of the 

 state, when, on the contrary, the sole object of the agitation was to perpetuate them. 



In this condition of affairs, the public press of the state, as if by general consent, 

 began to urge the importance of legislative action. Immediately a change was per- 

 ceptible; it could not be otherwise, for the newspapers entered every household, and 

 their solicitations for forestry laws were so direct, frequent, and forcible that an altera- 

 tion in the thought of the general public was inevitable. It deserves to be recorded, 

 that during the past winter there were hundreds of editorials and brief mentions of the 

 forest interests in the newspapers of the state, and that out of these there were not 

 half a score that were not urgently in favor of forestry legislation. It would be impos- 

 sible to mention any one paper, when all were so active, but it should be stated that 

 the newspapers of Philadelphia, without exception, were prominent in bringing about 

 this revolution in public sentiment, and the forestry commission appointed by the gov- 

 ernor of the state (who is heartily in sympathy with the forest cause) is now receiv- 

 ing the most cordial support of the newspapers. In a word, every chance is being 

 given to show what is to be done, and how it is proposed to do it. 



It would be unjust to omit mention of the fact that the agricultural organizations of 

 the state have long recognized the need of forestry legislation, and have, to a greater 

 or less degree, been influential in maturing sound views on this subject in different 

 sections of the state. The state board of agriculture has, since its organization, made 

 forestry a special feature of its work. Its reports were the first to contain any adequate 

 expressions of the present conditions and future needs of the state. The service the 

 state board of agriculture rendered the public generally has not been fully realized. 



We may now speak in a more modest way of our own association. It was the first 

 organization to make the preservation of our forests its single aim, and well illustrated 

 the force of persistent, quiet effort. For years it appeared as if nothing was being 

 accomplished, and at times its members were almost in despair of securing an apprecia- 

 tion of its work. It is now clear that results were produced which were of wider scope 

 than at first supposed, and that the ideas inculcated were already securing public 

 attention and gaining public support. 



It is well to remember that all that was asked for was received, and that the associa- 

 tion to a certain extent be credited or discredited by the results of this forestry bill. 

 There never was an hour in which the association had so golden an opportunity as the 

 present to shape the sentiment of a willing public in the best and most productive 

 direction. The field is still one of a missionary character, hence we must raise the 

 funds required to fully occupy it. Forestry literature must be freely scattered over 

 the state. Every prominent citizen, every official, especially the judges, the members 

 of the legislature, the county superintendents of public schools, must be directly or 

 indirectly informed as to the work of the association. 



